118: What You Lookin' At? 12.18.1998
Stories about seeing and being seen. Taped before a live audience in Town Hall in New York City in December 1998, this was a co-production with WNYC New York, featuring live music by the pop band ...
117: You Gonna Eat That? 12.11.1998
The family table is stage on which many family dramas are played out. We hear three stories...of three families...at three meals.
116: Poultry Slam 1998 11.27.1998
For Thanksgiving, the time of year when poultry consumption is highest, it's our annual program about turkeys, chickens, and fowl of all types.
115: First Day 11.13.1998
Stories of the first day on the job, the first day in a relationship, the first day in school. On the first day, any first day, we're expected to live by the rules and customs of the culture we're ...
114: Last Words 10.23.1998
Stories of people's last words before death. Their one last shot at figuring things out, summing things up. One last moment of asserting the fact of our existence, at the moment of our annihilation.
110: Mapping 09.04.1998
Five ways of mapping the world. One story about people who make maps the traditional way — by drawing things we can see. And other stories about people who map the world using smell, sound, touch, ...
109: Notes on Camp 08.28.1998
Stories of summer camp. People who love camp say that non-camp people simply don't understand what's so amazing about camp. In this program, we attempt to bridge the gap of misunderstanding ...
108: Truth and Lies at Age Ten 08.07.1998
Two stories of children lying to themselves and others. A woman who'd been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis talks about the lies she told herself as a child. And Dan Gediman tells the story of how ...
107: Trail of Tears 07.03.1998
For the July 4th holiday weekend, writer Sarah Vowell and her twin sister re-trace the "Trail of Tears" — the route their Cherokee ancestors took when expelled from their own land by President ...
106: Father's Day '98 06.19.1998
For this Father's Day, stories in which fathers and their kids sit down and try to have an honest moment together. And stories about fathers who aren't close with their kids.
105: Take A Negro Home 06.12.1998
Two stories of people who try to cross the color line — and why it's still so hard. We hear the story of a failed interracial marriage and the story of a teenager from a poor inner city ...
104: Music Lessons 06.05.1998
What's frustrating about music lessons, what's miraculous about them, and what they actually teach us. This show was recorded in front of a live audience at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in ...
103: Scenes from A Transplant 05.29.1998
An NPR reporter leaves her three-year-old son and heads to Omaha—for cancer treatment—a last chance to save her life. After years of covering stories about medicine, Rebecca Perl enters the ...
102: Road Trip! 05.22.1998
With all the American movies and songs and books about the joy of the open road, it's hard for an American to take just a normal road trip without huge expectations.
101: Niagara 05.01.1998
During this hour, a special edition of our show: Stories about Niagara Falls, half of them from documentary producer Alix Spiegel, who went to the Falls and interviewed people living there; and ...
100: Radio 04.24.1998
For the 100th episode of This American Life, a radio show about the pleasures of radio. About what makes radio so great ... and what makes it so terrible.
97: Death to Wacky 03.20.1998
An assault on the idea of wackiness. And then, an appreciation of wackiness, and an analysis of wackiness in American culture. Thirteen ways to describe wackiness.
94: How To 02.27.1998
What happens during a "how-to," and what our how-to's say about us. Most how-to's promise that you'll not only learn skills, you'll be transformed.
92: Leave the Mask On 02.06.1998
Stories about those moments when someone tries to tell you a little bit more about themselves than you'd really rather know.
90: Telephone 01.16.1998
Stories of who we are on the phone, of things we learn on the phone, and of things that happen on the phone that don't happen anywhere else.
88: Numbers 01.02.1998
Numbers lie. Numbers cover over complicated feelings and ambiguous situations. In this week's show, stories of people trying to use numbers to describe things that should not be quantified.
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