Episodes - This American Life

Ten different states had abortion rights measures on their ballots this election.

Sept. 13, 2024

Act One: There Will Be Blood

Producer Aviva DeKornfeld heads to the Calgary Stampede to watch as men try out a machine designed to simulate menstrual cramps. (15 minutes)

Act Two: Face Your Demons

A man can’t seem to see anyone in his life for who they really are, plunging his life into chaos. (18 minutes)

826: Unprepared for What Has Already Happened

Mar. 15, 2024

Act Four: What’d I Miss?

Producer Tobin Low finds a group of people with a special relationship with the idea of catching up. (10 minutes)Visit KLS Foundation for more on Klein-Levine Syndrome.

817: The Cavalry Is Not Coming

Dec. 1, 2023

Act One: Serious as a Heart Attack

Tim Reeves runs a hospital in rural Pennsylvania, and he’s trying to do something that is so hard to do and that he knows is completely up to him.

812: The Bear at the End of the Tunnel

Oct. 20, 2023

Act 2: The Devil Is in the Details. And There Are So Many Details.

Miki Meek reports on the situation for pregnant women in Idaho under the state’s new, post-Roe abortion laws, which are some of the most restrictive in the country. OB-GYNs say the state is in a crisis.

808: The Rest of the Story

Aug. 18, 2023

Act One: Burning Down The Couch

Psychiatry used to be all talk. Then came a patient named Ray Osheroff.

805: The Florida Experiment

July 14, 2023

Act One: Prescription for Freedom

Among the big items in DeSantis's run for president is medical freedom. Producer Zoe Chace wanted to understand its appeal and its growing popularity.

804: The Retrievals

June 30, 2023

Act One

Susan Burton introduces some of the many women who went to a Yale fertility clinic for IVF treatment, and charts their experience from hopeful beginning to excruciatingly painful egg retrieval.

792: When to Leave

Mar. 3, 2023

Act One: First, Do No Harm

Dr. Amelia Huntsberger loves everything about her rural town in northern Idaho.

790: You're It

Jan. 27, 2023

Prologue

What happens when an emergency room nurse has an emergency? Kelsay Irby did something that landed her in the headlines. (9 minutes)

774: The Pink House at the Center of the World

July 1, 2022

Act One: The Pink House

Documentarian Maisie Crow has been following the fight to stay open by the Jackson Women’s Health Clinic, for ten years. Now the Supreme Court decision is forcing their doors shut for good.

Act Two: Welcome to Illinois—Abortion Oasis

Our producer Zoe Chace goes to Fairview Heights, Illinois, where Planned Parenthood has opened a massive new abortion clinic just across the river from Missouri. Abortion is banned in Missouri and lots of the surrounding states now that Roe has been overturned.

757: The Ghost in the Machine

Dec. 31, 2021

Act Two: Father of Invention

There’s a machine lots of us encounter as a big impersonal, mechanical apparatus, that has a ghost in it. But it’s a ghost that appears to just a small handful of people. Jean Hannah Edelstein tells the story to Ira.

742: The Thing I'm Getting Over

July 23, 2021

Prologue

Chase Friedman was in an accident that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down. Ira Glass talks to him about the unusual goal he set for his recovery.

Act 1: Naked Lunch

Susan Burton is a couple years into recovery from the eating disorder she’s had for decades.

735: Bloody Feelings

Apr. 9, 2021

Prologue

Host Ira Glass talks to writer Mitchell S.

Act One: Started From Phle-Bottom, Now We’re Here

When Adele wrote into our show last summer, she described herself as “the worst phlebotomist in the whole hospital.” Producer Diane Wu couldn’t resist calling her up to find out exactly what she meant by that.

Act Four: There’s No ‘Us’ in Uterus. Oh, Wait...

When Neena Pathak found out she had a fibroid, it didn’t seem so bad. But then it got bigger, more uncomfortable, bloodier… and she had to decide if she was going to have to get surgery to get it removed.

Act Five: Un-Break My Heart

Producer Sean Cole scrubs in to observe heart surgeon Dr. John Elefteriades, or Dr.

732: Secrets

Feb. 19, 2021

Act One: My Own Very Serious Comedy About Women and Food

Susan Burton talks to women about why it’s so hard to talk about eating disorders.

Act Three: Bad Cell Service

Pavan Bivigou writes about having sickle-cell anemia.

729: Making the Cut

Jan. 8, 2021

Act One: God Committee

People given the difficult task of deciding who lives and who dies.

719: Trust Me I’m a Doctor

Oct. 2, 2020

Act One: Clinical Trial

Law professor Rebecca Allensworth has been studying another realm of civic-minded individuals charged with helping society function: medical licensing boards. They’re mostly doctors deciding whether other doctors should be allowed to keep practicing medicine.

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Act Four: I’ve Done an Unbelievable Job on the Abortion Question

Act One: There Will Be Blood

Act Two: Face Your Demons

Act Four: What’d I Miss?

Act One: Serious as a Heart Attack

Act 2: The Devil Is in the Details. And There Are So Many Details.

Act One: Burning Down The Couch

Act One: Prescription for Freedom

Act One

Act One: First, Do No Harm

Prologue

Act One: The Pink House

Act Two: Welcome to Illinois—Abortion Oasis

Act Two: Father of Invention

Prologue

Act 1: Naked Lunch

Prologue

Act One: Started From Phle-Bottom, Now We’re Here

Act Four: There’s No ‘Us’ in Uterus. Oh, Wait...

Act Five: Un-Break My Heart

Act One: My Own Very Serious Comedy About Women and Food

Act Three: Bad Cell Service

Act One: God Committee

Act One: Clinical Trial

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