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Full episode
159: Mother’s Day
Act One

She Said, She Said

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Producer Alex Blumberg conducts an investigation, perhaps the first ever, into this American subspecies: People who compulsively imitate their mother's voices in everyday conversation, well into adulthood. (19 minutes)

By

Alex Blumberg

Song:

“Your Mother's Here to Stay” by Allan Sherman

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860: Suddenly: A Mirror!
May 23, 2025

Act Three: There Will Be Questions

Comedian Mike Birbiglia talks about the questions his daughter asks him and how trying to answer them showed him surprising reflections of himself.  (15 minutes) This is an excerpt from Mike Birbiglia’s special, “The Good Life.”
839: Meet Me at the Fair
Sept. 6, 2024

Act Two: How Bad is Your Bunny? 

What life lessons can kids learn at the 4-H rabbit competition? A lot. (11 minutes)
821: Embrace the Suck
Jan. 19, 2024

Act Two: The Dream Police

When producer Ike Sriskandarajah tries to sleep-train his baby, a neighbor decides to call the police.

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714: Day at the Beach
Aug. 14, 2020

Act Two: Beach Doctor

Alex Blumberg talks to Shane Dubow about a time decades ago, when Shane went sea kayaking and camping with his friends on the beach in Baja California, Mexico.
605: Kid Logic
Dec. 16, 2016

Act Four: When Small Thoughts Meet Big Brains

Alex Blumberg investigates a little-studied phenomenon: Children who get a mistaken idea in their heads about how something works or what something means, and then don't figure out until well into adulthood that they were wrong.
527: 180 Degrees
June 13, 2014

Act One: Seeing the Forrest For the Little Trees

Alex Blumberg takes us to an American classroom where students are reading a classic, The Education of Little Tree, by Forrest Carter.
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This American Life is produced in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago and delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange.

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