There is an act in an episode where a man who lives in NYC has religiously walked 10,000 steps every single day for years. He takes a flight to Australia and misses a day and loses his streak of years of hitting 10,000 steps and has to start over. He talked about how he would just swing his arms in his airplane seat to try and add steps when traveling. I cannot find this story anywhere!!! Please help.

We're digging through the archives! This week's episode is #108 Truth and Lies at Age Ten (98-08-07) (Download)

Description: A woman who'd been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis talks about the lies she told herself as a child.

There is an episode of This American Life that I haven’t been able to find for months after I listened to it. I believe it’s a very old episode where Ira Glass talks about his break up with an ex and he’s in their apartment doing her laundry and when they talk on the phone she’s out with her friends having a good time and they both knew it was already over. When I try to search for it, the episode that keeps coming up is “Get Over It!”, which isn’t the episode. I also don’t think it’s a bunch of other ones that came up either. When I search the archives back to the beginning I couldn’t find it either. Does anyone know which episode this is as I’m itching to listen to it again?

Hi there – I'm trying to find examples of a one-off, standalone audio documentary (not a series) that is done well.

This could be:

• a long-form radio special, 20 mins to 1 hour, that aired on NPR or a member station

• a self-contained, standalone story that dropped as an episode of a podcast, like This American Life

• something else that amounts to one long, self-contained audio story done well

Some examples that come to mind for me:

Counted: An Oakland Story (1:03:41) – Snap Judgment, 2018

The View from Room 205 (57:00) – WBEZ, 2017

If you have any examples, please share them! Thanks a lot.

Was anyone else flabbergasted when it was mentioned that the poor kid (I believe Michael?) who was down on his luck died, just a few months following the original airing of that act??

Edit: Rest in Peace, Will Rubio.

Asking about a specific episode and now I’m curious about it. In the episode, a mom says “I tried my best” (defending her past parenting choices) and the (now adult) son retorts, “well, your best wasn’t very good.”

We're digging through the archives! This week's episode is #025 Basketball (96-06-07) (Download)

Description: The Chicago Bulls and their grip on Chicagoans' hearts and lives during the NBA playoffs.

Wow, this was so well done. A compelling and hilarious story with likeable protagonists. Story told in an engaging way with a big aha! surprise moment. Very well done, David Segal

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/281/my-big-break/act-one-9

I really wanted to know the name of the song that plays right after the intro story. Starts playing at 12:13. I searched online and couldn't find it but today I heard it on Pandora so I thought I would share it here in case anyone else was looking for it.

"Rain God by Hermanos Gutiérrez"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6STh3SW9ORY

https://open.spotify.com/track/2iWV074jB4FrpIOZ2LDQU1?si=9cf9624610974636

It's a great one, cheers!

We're digging through the archives! This week's episode is #153 Dolls (00-03-03) (Download)

Description: The story of the book The Lonely Doll and its author, and how the author's life came to resemble something from her book.

I seem to remember an episode about a guy who worked for one of the major beer companies. His main job was to show up at parties and basically be the life of the party? I can’t remember if these were corporate parties for the beer company or parties for other companies and the guy was representing the beer company.

I might be totally fuzzy on some of those details but I remember him living on an island owned by the company, and basically his only purpose was to drink and party but that was his job?? Does anybody have any idea what I’m talking about? I also might be conflating two separate stories.

My friend just interviewed for a beer company and I want to send him this segment. I would greatly appreciate your help if this jogs your memory at all!

Hello fellow TAL enjoyers - I am trying to recall an episode that features an interview with a man about how he feels his 50 hour/week job isn't enough because his father worked 60 hours/week. The man shares that his father felt the same about his 60 hour/week job because HIS father (interviewee's grandfather) worked 80 hours/week. It's basically about hidden assumptions/expectations being passed from generation to generation.

TBH there's also a chance it was from another NPR syndicated podcast but TAL is most likely.

We're digging through the archives! This week's episode is #245 Allure of the Mean Friend (03-09-05) (Download)

Description: They treat us badly, they don't call us back, they cancel plans at the last minute, and yet we come back for more.

I was very excited to see what Elna Baker did after she left TAS.

Her new show is called Pretty Sure I Can Fly and is co hosted by Johnny Knoxville.

The first episode was mostly Elna interviewing Knox. With Knox asking Elna some questions.

It was pretty good for a pilot and showed some promise.

The second episode is not so great. It is an interview with one of Knoxs Nitro Circus buddies. And it wasn't really all that intresting.

The episode bills its self as " explores and celebrates the remarkable and slightly unhinged people who have pushed history forward and redefined the limits of human potential. "

I hope they have some better guests lined up for the rest of the season. Otherwise this is a big step down for Elna, who I have always enjoyed on TAS. This is easily the weakest post TAS project I have listened to. I am really disapointed and loved Elnas work on TAS.

Has anyone else listened to it. What did you think?

Looking for a good podcasts app. RIP Google podcasts - you will be missed.

I just heard the replay of this episode. It has my favorite short story "Break It Down" by Lydia Davis. Anyone else love it as much as me?

Hi all! I'm hoping to inspire a young copywriter at my company with a specific story I remember hearing a 1-2 years ago that talking about stories getting "killed" in the TAL room. (I did a google search before posting this, I promise)

I will also be sending them the Onion writer's room story as that is a great story on being rigorous with your creative work. I appreciate any additional stories you think are helpful on how tough internal processes make a better creative product.

Edit to add: I think I found it! It was “400: stories pitched by our parents” where there was some chatter about what made their stories compelling and they voted on the best one.

The current list.

Hey team! Share the wealth --- let us know what you're listening to!

Use this form to submit the title, url, and genres for your favorite podcasts and I'll update the wiki.

We're digging through the archives! This week's episode is #055 Three Women and the Sex Industry (97-02-28) (Download)

Description: Radio producer Sandy Tolan was supposed to do a documentary about strippers with an aspiring writer—and stripper—named Susan. But then Susan disappeared.

This little intro has been living rent free in my brain for years but I can never find the actual episode, I want to cross post it to /r/STARGIRLpod because i think its so perfectly fits the ethos of that show. Also the way she put it so perfectly speaks to me on a deep level, lol.

Might not have been tarot exactly, pretty sure it was “friggin Johnny Depp” is how she framed the gossip.

Ann Friedman, one of the authors of Big Friendship, mentions a terrible magazine job she had in the Bay Area where her boss was a creepy bully and says that eventually there was a whole TAL episode about his bad behavior. Does anyone know what episode she’s talking about?

There was an excerpt read from a book - it wasn't too long ago. The book is written from the POV of a child. She's riding on the bus with her grandmother, I think. It was lovely, but for the life of me, I can't remember the book or find the episode. Help would be much appreciated

We're digging through the archives! This week's episode is #482 Lights, Camera, Christmas! (2012) (12-12-21) (Download)

Description: A show filled with stories of people going to great lengths to throw a special Christmas for their families.

I heard a song about the Journey song "Don't Stop Believing" and how happening into a random bar when it's on the jukebox. This was before the sopranos took it over. But it might have been one of the spinoff shows with TAL talent.

It was just about how the sg takes everyone to a level above what they're experiencing and makes them all believers in the power of community. Or something. Early 2000s. Just before podcasts.

It was like the story at the end that wraps it all up. A few minutes describing how on some nights people just want to connect with each other and this song puts everyone on the same page.

Anything? I've been looking for this for over a decade. Because it was great. And it had nothing to do with that show's finale. (Sopranos. The last American thug story i could effing take because the right is obsessed with min justice and the dumb have followed them and I'm just done glorifying violence.) this story hit the essence of this song.

Oh I hope someone knows. ...