We use cookies and other tracking technologies to enhance your browsing experience. If you continue to use our site, you agree to the use of such cookies. For more info, see our privacy policy.
Skip to main content

Hi. We love you. Be our Life Partner.

Support the show to get ad-free listening, bonus content, and our new Greatest Hits Archive.

Learn more
This American Life Partners logo
00:00
00:00
  • Transcript
  • Share
This American Life
  • Life Partners
  • How to Listen
  • Episodes
  • Recommended
  • About
    • Overview
    • Staff
    • Announcements
    • Fellowships
    • Jobs
    • Music
    • Make Radio
    • On The Road
    • FAQ
    • Submissions
    • Merch
    • Contact Us
    • Our Other Shows
  • Merch
  • Follow Us
  • Life Partners
Full episode
289: Go Ask Your Father
Act Two

My Favorite Martian

  • Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe in Apple Podcasts
  • Transcript

Paul Tough’s father was a mild-mannered professor—until he suddenly left the family to pursue a lifelong quest: making contact with extraterrestrial life. For the first time, Paul joins him and asks the questions he’s long kept to himself about his father’s alien pursuits. (18 minutes)

Paul Tough is one of the original contributing editors to This American Life. His father's website is ieti.org.

By

Paul Tough

More in Fathers

View all
854: Ten Things I Don't Want to Hate About You
Feb. 21, 2025

Part One

Zach and his father enter into an agreement that could change their entire relationship. (9 minutes)
838: Letters! Actual Letters!
Aug. 16, 2024

Act Five: Dear Zoe

Producer Zoe Chace compares the letters a person gets and the letters they wish they got.
838: Letters! Actual Letters!
Aug. 16, 2024

Act One: Dear Alice

Writing a letter decades after an event that shaped her life was the only way that Nicole Piasecki could make some sense of it.

More by Paul Tough

View all
734: The Campus Tour Has Been Cancelled
Mar. 19, 2021

Act One

Reporter Paul Tough and Host Ira Glass look at the biggest change in admissions this year: colleges no longer requiring the SATs.
734: The Campus Tour Has Been Cancelled
Mar. 19, 2021

Act Two: A World Without The Need For Number Two Pencils 

Paul Tough turns to UT Austin to see what happens if you admit students with great grades, who didn’t perform well on the SAT, into your college.
364: Going Big
Sept. 26, 2008

Act One: Harlem Renaissance

Paul Tough reports on the Harlem Children's Zone, and its CEO and president, Geoffrey Canada.
This American Life

This American Life is produced in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago and delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange.

  • How to Listen
  • Episodes
  • Recommended
  • About
    • Overview
    • Staff
    • Announcements
    • Fellowships
    • Jobs
    • Music
    • Make Radio
    • On The Road
    • FAQ
    • Submissions
    • Merch
    • Contact Us
    • Our Other Shows
  • Merch
  • Contact
  • Life Partners
  • Serial
  • S-Town
© 1995 - 2025 This American Life Privacy Policy | Terms of Use

Share

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

Subscribe

  • on Spotify
  • in Apple Podcasts

Share

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email