This American Life (Unofficial)

How do you count almost 12 million votes if you’re not the government? This week, we bring you the extraordinary story of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who created the only verifiable public record of votes in their presidential election — and other stories of people trying to correct the official record with their own versions.

Keiko was a hugely beloved adventure park attraction. He was also captured in the wild and taken away from his mother when he was just a calf. When Hollywood learned about him, a colossal effort began to un-tame him and send him back to the ocean.

With Donald Trump’s victory this week, many people looked at the election results and thought, yeah, this is the country I thought it was. For some people, that was a hopeful thing. For others, kind of the opposite. This week, we talked with people who helped make it happen and some who are looking to what’s next.

A wee flame, flickering in the dark.

Thirteen parole board members decide whether or not one man should be released from prison.

So much of the fight for the presidency is coming down to battles for small slices of voters who can help throw swing states to one candidate or another. Abbas Alawieh, a leader in the Uncommitted movement, grapples with how to get his voters the thing they want.

Chen Almog-Goldstein was kidnapped by Hamas along with her three youngest children on October 7, 2023. This week, she tells the story of their life as hostages in Gaza.

One kid comes to America as an exchange student and commits herself to the senior year experience.

People trying and struggling to see what another person sees.

Iowa has three million people and a million come to their State Fair, each with their own goals and dreams for the fair. We hang out with some of them, to see if they get what they hoped for.

When the best—and perhaps only—way to say something is to write it down.

In a crisis, when all logic suggests that you get away from the dangerous thing, how will you respond?

People rethinking some of the most important relationships in their lives — with their sister, their political party, and the nominee for president.

Boen Wang has a theory that a lot of the misery in his life can be traced to a single moment that happened years before he was born. So he makes a pilgrimage to see if he’s right.

In Rafah, Yousef is out of options and faces his toughest move yet.

Donald Trump has talked about taking retribution on his enemies since the early days of his 2024 presidential campaign. After his conviction last week in New York, his talk intensified. We try to understand what his retribution might look like by speaking with people who have the most to lose in a second Trump administration: people who believe Trump will be coming for them.

People tethered to one particular other person, whether they want to be or not.

How they organize the chaos of the world, for good and for bad.

The trial for the men accused of orchestrating the September 11 terrorist attacks still hasn’t started yet. Family members of those who died that day are still hoping for some kind of accountability, more than 22 years later. This week, the story of how one victim’s sister is navigating this historic and twisted trial.

For years, Majid believed that if he could testify in court about what happened to him when he was held in a CIA black site, a judge and jury would give him a break. Finally, he got a chance to see if he was right.

People taking it upon themselves to solve the tiny, overlooked crimes of the world.

The things we break and the ones we can't fix.

People waking up to the fact that the world has suddenly changed.

A series of phone calls to a man in Gaza named Yousef Hammash, between early December and now. He talks about what he and his family are experiencing, sometimes as they are experiencing it.

Your mother and I have something we want to talk with you about.

An investigation of when and why people ask loaded questions that are a proxy for something else.

What it means to have words—and to lose them.

People finding themselves in situations that are worse than they thought and deciding to really go with it.

A major political party in a major swing state bets on a new leader: a total political outsider. How does that work out for them?

A series of conversations with a man in Gaza over the course of one week.

In the last year and a half, New York City has scrambled to try and provide shelter and services to over 150,000 migrants. We take a look at how that’s going.

When you realize that help is not on the way, what do you do next?

During the highest turkey consumption period of the year, we bring you a This American Life tradition: stories of turkeys, chickens, geese, ducks, fowl of all kinds—real and imagined—and their mysterious hold over us.

Things our dads taught us, whether they intended to or not.

What happens when you realize the people in charge don’t have the answers.

You've been seeing yourself, getting to know what you look like, your whole life. So why does it often take an outsider to see things about you that are obvious, and set you straight?

People who have a good, long time to think about what they’re doing, look hard at what’s ahead of them, and decide to keep moving forward anyway.

Spots we’re avoiding in our private maps of the world.

Friends and ex-friends finally talk about the one thing between them they've been avoiding.

One call to a very unusual hotline and everything that followed.

Legendary radio broadcaster Paul Harvey had a popular show called “The Rest of the Story.” Today on our show, we do just that. We hear from people who, whether they want to or not, find themselves face-to-face with the rest of their stories.

Nadia's family is split between Russia and Ukraine, which is pretty common. And when Russia invaded Ukraine, it didn’t just start fighting on the battlefield. It sparked family conflict, too. An intimate story of the war from writer Masha Gessen.

People on the verge of a big change, not wanting to let go. And the people who give them the final push.

Governor Ron DeSantis is running for president on the argument that he'll do for America what he's done for Florida. So what's it like in Florida?

At a Yale fertility clinic, dozens of women began their I.V.F. cycles full of expectation and hope. Then a surgical procedure caused them excruciating pain. In the hours that followed, some of the women called the clinic to report their pain — but most of the staff members who fielded the patients’ reports did not know the real reason for the pain, which was that a nurse at the clinic was stealing fentanyl and replacing it with saline. What happened at that clinic? What are the stories we tell about women's pain and what happens when we minimize or dismiss it? The Retrievals, a new five-part series from Serial Productions, is hosted and reported by longtime This American Life producer and editor Susan Burton. We're excited to bring you the first episode today.

Humans encounter non-human intelligences of various kinds and try to make sense of them.

Ira's own father, Barry Glass, co-hosts this special Father's Day show.

The one animal we can’t seem to live without, even when we really, really want to.

Five years after the #MeToo explosion, what’s happened in the lives of the women who stepped forward and went public with their stories? We tell the story of a teenager who spoke out against one of the most powerful people in her state, and what happened next.

Looping thoughts about people you barely know, or don't know at all.