[{
  "number": 0,
  "why": "so that array[1] will return episode 1, array[2] returns episode 2, etc"
},{
  "number": 1,
  "date": "1995-11-17",
  "title": "New Beginnings",
  "description": "Our program's very first broadcast.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0001.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0001.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0001",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/1"
},{
  "number": 2,
  "date": "1995-11-24",
  "title": "Small Scale Sin",
  "description": "Small-scale stories on the nature of small-scale sin.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0002.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0002.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0002",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/2"
},{
  "number": 3,
  "date": "1995-12-01",
  "title": "Poultry Slam 1995",
  "description": "Stories decrying the wonders of turkeys, chickens, and other fowl.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0003.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0003.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0003",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/3"
},{
  "number": 4,
  "date": "1995-12-08",
  "title": "Vacations",
  "description": "Stories about vacations gone awry—or perhaps vacations that never should have happened.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0004.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0004.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0004",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/4"
},{
  "number": 5,
  "date": "1995-12-15",
  "title": "Anger and Forgiveness",
  "description": "Stories that reveal the societal \"trend\" toward anger and away from genuine forgiveness.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0005.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0005.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0005",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/5"
},{
  "number": 6,
  "date": "1995-12-22",
  "title": "Christmas",
  "description": "[no description]",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0006.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0006.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0006",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/6"
},{
  "number": 7,
  "date": "1995-12-29",
  "title": "Quitting",
  "description": "Stories of people who quit everything in their lives that they hated—and what happened to them afterwards.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0007.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0007.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0007",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/7"
},{
  "number": 8,
  "date": "1996-01-03",
  "title": "New Year",
  "description": "Stories that reflect back on 1995.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0008.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0008.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0008",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/8"
},{
  "number": 9,
  "date": "1996-01-10",
  "title": "Julia Sweeney",
  "description": "When comedienne Julia Sweeney and her brother both got cancer, she decided to tell the story the best way she knew how: in a comedy club. It might seem like a strange choice, but what resulted is halfway between standup comedy and true-life diary entries.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0009.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0009.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0009",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/9"
},{
  "number": 10,
  "date": "1996-01-17",
  "title": "Double Lives",
  "description": "People living their lives, just like the rest of us. Plus an extra life.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0010.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0010.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0010",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/10"
},{
  "number": 11,
  "date": "1996-01-24",
  "title": "Enemies",
  "description": "A story of a friendship between two adolescent boys that was destroyed through the manipulative acts of one of them.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0011.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0011.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0011",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/11"
},{
  "number": 12,
  "date": "1996-01-31",
  "title": "Animals",
  "description": "Stories about the animalness of animals, the irreducible ways in which they are not human.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0012.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0012.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0012",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/12"
},{
  "number": 13,
  "date": "1996-02-07",
  "title": "Love",
  "description": "Explorations of the dream of true love ... and the difficulties with achieving and maintaining that dream.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0013.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0013.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0013",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/13"
},{
  "number": 14,
  "date": "1996-02-21",
  "title": "Accidental Documentaries",
  "description": "What unites these stories on the surface is that they're all made from old tapes, recordings found in attics and thrift stores. What unites them under that surface — and not far under it — is that they all end up being stories about fathers and the legacies that fathers leave their children.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0014.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0014.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0014",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/14"
},{
  "number": 15,
  "date": "1996-02-28",
  "title": "Dawn",
  "description": "Writer Jack Hitt goes on a search for a mysterious neighbor from his childhood in Charleston, South Carolina, and stumbles onto an epic story of the Old South, the New South, gender confusion, Chihuahuas, and changing values in American journalism.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0015.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0015.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0015",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/15"
},{
  "number": 16,
  "date": "1996-03-14",
  "title": "Economy",
  "description": "Stories of politics, the economy, and the big picture.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0016.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0016.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0016",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/16"
},{
  "number": 17,
  "date": "1996-03-21",
  "title": "Name Change / No Theme",
  "description": "Our first show as This American Life.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0017.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0017.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0017",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/17"
},{
  "number": 18,
  "date": "1996-03-28",
  "title": "Liars",
  "description": "April first is the one day of the year when we're allowed to enjoy deceiving others. But April Fools' Day is for amateur deceivers. The real pros are the people who can't control their lying, who lie without even knowing what the truth is.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0018.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0018.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0018",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/18"
},{
  "number": 19,
  "date": "1996-04-12",
  "title": "Rich Guys",
  "description": "Men who had comfortable, decent lives, yet decided to do something wild and eccentric with their lives instead.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0019.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0019.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0019",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/19"
},{
  "number": 20,
  "date": "1996-04-19",
  "title": "From A Distance",
  "description": "Stories of hero worship, of people admiring someone from afar, and trying to get closer to them.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0020.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0020.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0020",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/20"
},{
  "number": 21,
  "date": "1996-04-26",
  "title": "Factions",
  "description": "A show about something most people have gone through. Friends get together to start a business, start a church, do political action together. And after a while, they start fighting and split up. We hear three true stories.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0021.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0021.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0021",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/21"
},{
  "number": 22,
  "date": "1996-05-03",
  "title": "Adult Children",
  "description": "Stories of the difficult relationships between parents and their grown children, including two long stories from Sandra Tsing Loh about her father.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0022.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0022.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0022",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/22"
},{
  "number": 23,
  "date": "1996-05-10",
  "title": "Drama Bug",
  "description": "Stories of the people who fall for a life in the theater.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0023.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0023.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0023",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/23"
},{
  "number": 24,
  "date": "1996-05-24",
  "title": "Teenaged Girls",
  "description": "Stories of girls who have to figure out how they're going to act when the ground rules are constantly shifting.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0024.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0024.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0024",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/24"
},{
  "number": 25,
  "date": "1996-06-07",
  "title": "Basketball",
  "description": "A set of documentary stories, radio essays and monologues about basketball, the Chicago Bulls, and their grip on Chicagoans' hearts and lives during the NBA Playoffs.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0025.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0025.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0025",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/25"
},{
  "number": 26,
  "date": "1996-06-14",
  "title": "Father's Day '96",
  "description": "Ira's own father Barry Glass co-hosts this special father's day edition of the show.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0026.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0026.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0026",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/26"
},{
  "number": 27,
  "date": "1996-06-21",
  "title": "The Cruelty of Children",
  "description": "Stories about kids being mean to each other... including a mysterious handbook for bullies, a surprising experiment conducted by a teacher who wants to make kids be nice, and a story of youthful backstabbing told by David Sedaris.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0027.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0027.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0027",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/27"
},{
  "number": 28,
  "date": "1996-07-12",
  "title": "Detectives",
  "description": "Writer David Sedaris recalls the days when his mother and sister played armchair detective — until a very odd crime wave hit within their own home. Plus, host Ira Glass goes out on surveillance with a real-life private eye.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0028.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0028.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0028",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/28"
},{
  "number": 29,
  "date": "1996-07-19",
  "title": "Bob Dole",
  "description": "Unusual perspectives on the presumptive Republican nominee.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0029.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0029.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0029",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/29"
},{
  "number": 30,
  "date": "1996-07-26",
  "title": "Obsession",
  "description": "Stories of obsession and compulsion. What happens when a little idea starts to control you. Co-hosted by Paul Tough.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0030.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0030.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0030",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/30"
},{
  "number": 31,
  "date": "1996-08-09",
  "title": "When You Talk About Music",
  "description": "Stories of people whose lives are transformed by music.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0031.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0031.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0031",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/31"
},{
  "number": 32,
  "date": "1996-08-16",
  "title": "Republican Convention",
  "description": "Unusual stories about day-to-day life at the Republican Convention.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0032.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0032.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0032",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/32"
},{
  "number": 33,
  "date": "1996-08-23",
  "title": "A Night at the Wiener Circle",
  "description": "Host Ira Glass spent a Saturday night — from 9:00 p.m. until dawn the next morning — at one of the most frenetic, joyous, efficient, angry, boisterous hot dog stands in the nation: Chicago's own Wiener Circle.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0033.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0033.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0033",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/33"
},{
  "number": 34,
  "date": "1996-08-30",
  "title": "Democratic Convention",
  "description": "Unusual stories from the 1996 Democratic Convention in Chicago, with scenes and moments not documented elsewhere.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0034.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0034.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0034",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/34"
},{
  "number": 35,
  "date": "1996-09-06",
  "title": "Fall Clearance Sale",
  "description": "Evocative, funny, emotional stories collected over the last few months that haven't fit into any of our regular \"theme\" shows.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0035.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0035.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0035",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/35"
},{
  "number": 36,
  "date": "1996-09-20",
  "title": "Letters",
  "description": "Host Ira Glass and playwright David Hauptschein took out advertisements in Chicago inviting people to come to a small theater with letters they've received, sent or found.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0036.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0036.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0036",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/36"
},{
  "number": 37,
  "date": "1996-09-27",
  "title": "The Job That Takes Over Your Life",
  "description": "Radio producer Scott Carrier quit his job at a low moment in his life. His wife left him and took the kids. And he got a job interviewing schizophrenics for some medical researchers. After doing it a while, he began to wonder if he was a schizophrenic himself. And more stories.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0037.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0037.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0037",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/37"
},{
  "number": 38,
  "date": "1996-10-11",
  "title": "Simulated Worlds",
  "description": "Simulated worlds, Civil war reenactments, wax museums, simulated coal mines, fake ethnic restaurants, an ersatz Medieval castle and other re-created worlds that thrive all across America. (4 minutes)",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0038.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0038.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0038",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/38"
},{
  "number": 39,
  "date": "1996-10-25",
  "title": "Halloween",
  "description": "This week: A show for Halloween. Stories of things that are supposed to be scary, but aren't.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0039.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0039.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0039",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/39"
},{
  "number": 40,
  "date": "1996-11-01",
  "title": "Lessons",
  "description": "Stories from acclaimed storyteller Spalding Gray and others.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0040.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0040.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0040",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/40"
},{
  "number": 41,
  "date": "1996-11-08",
  "title": "Politics",
  "description": "More stories of the election you can't hear anywhere else.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0041.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0041.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0041",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/41"
},{
  "number": 42,
  "date": "1996-11-15",
  "title": "Get Over It!",
  "description": "Three stories of people trying to forget the past and move on.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0042.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0042.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0042",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/42"
},{
  "number": 43,
  "date": "1996-11-22",
  "title": "Faustian Bargains",
  "description": "Inspired by a spate of new Chicago stage adaptations of the Faust story, This American Life brings you stories of people who made a deal with the devil.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0043.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0043.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0043",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/43"
},{
  "number": 44,
  "date": "1996-11-29",
  "title": "Poultry Slam 1996",
  "description": "In the midst of the five biggest poultry-consumption weeks of the year—the five weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, when Americans consume one-fourth of all the turkey they eat in a year—This American Life presents stories about turkeys, chickens, ducks, and fowl of all kinds.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0044.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0044.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0044",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/44"
},{
  "number": 45,
  "date": "1996-12-06",
  "title": "Media Fringe",
  "description": "Four stories about people struggling at the fringes of our nation's media/music/infotainment industry.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0045.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0045.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0045",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/45"
},{
  "number": 46,
  "date": "1996-12-13",
  "title": "Sissies",
  "description": "Though being gay no longer has much of a stigma in some parts of the country, being a sissy still does — even among gay men. In this show we have a number of surprising and unusual stories of sissies, their families, and why people still get so upset about them.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0046.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0046.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0046",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/46"
},{
  "number": 47,
  "date": "1996-12-20",
  "title": "Christmas and Commerce",
  "description": "Stories about the intersection of Christmas and retail, including David Sedaris's story \"Santaland Diaries,\" which was first broadcast on NPR's Morning Edition many years ago in a much shorter version.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0047.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0047.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0047",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/47"
},{
  "number": 48,
  "date": "1997-01-03",
  "title": "Justice",
  "description": "Kitty Felde shows a side of the Yugoslav War Crimes Trials that hasn't been discussed anywhere: a portrait of Americans at the International Tribunal. And other stories.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0048.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0048.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0048",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/48"
},{
  "number": 49,
  "date": "1997-01-10",
  "title": "Animals",
  "description": "Stories about the animalness of animals, the irreducible ways in which they are not human.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0049.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0049.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0049",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/49"
},{
  "number": 50,
  "date": "1997-01-17",
  "title": "Shoulda Been Dead",
  "description": "Kevin Kelly was in Jerusalem. For reasons too complicated to go into here, he ended up sleeping on the spot where Jesus was supposedly crucified. After Kevin awoke, the thought came into his head: Live as if you'll die in six months. So he did.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0050.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0050.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0050",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/50"
},{
  "number": 51,
  "date": "1997-01-24",
  "title": "Animals Die, People Ponder",
  "description": "Stories of people who handle dead animals. Don't worry — it's not as gross as it sounds. In fact, not disgusting at all. A story by George Saunders about an animal control man who falls in unrequited love. A woman who studies illuminated manuscripts, whose pages look like paper but are in fact animals. And other stories.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0051.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0051.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0051",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/51"
},{
  "number": 52,
  "date": "1997-01-31",
  "title": "Edge of Sanity",
  "description": "Stories about the border between mental health and mental illness.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0052.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0052.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0052",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/52"
},{
  "number": 53,
  "date": "1997-02-07",
  "title": "Valentine's Day '97",
  "description": "For Valentine's Day, stories about our parents falling in love. And troubles with their love. From Hilton Als, Scott Carrier, Julie Showalter, a magazine column called Men My Mother Dated and others. The idea for this show was inspired by Delmore Schwartz's classic 1937 work of American fiction about his parents' courtship: In Dreams Begin Responsibilities and Other Stories.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0053.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0053.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0053",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/53"
},{
  "number": 54,
  "date": "1997-02-21",
  "title": "Sinatra",
  "description": "Stories, tributes, and attempts to understand the Chairman of the Board.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0054.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0054.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0054",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/54"
},{
  "number": 55,
  "date": "1997-02-28",
  "title": "Three Women and the Sex Industry",
  "description": "A few months ago, radio producer Sandy Tolan was supposed to do a documentary about strippers with an aspiring writer — and stripper — named Susan. A few days before they were to begin working together, Susan disappeared, presumed dead.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0055.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0055.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0055",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/55"
},{
  "number": 56,
  "date": "1997-03-07",
  "title": "Name Change",
  "description": "Stories of people changing their name — some to create a new identity, some to con people. Name changes are particularly American stories: they're the dream of starting over with a clean slate. They're Ellis Island and 12-step programs, the move westward and self help, Marilyn Monroe and Malcolm X and the Artist Formerly Known as Prince, all rolled up in one.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0056.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0056.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0056",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/56"
},{
  "number": 57,
  "date": "1997-03-14",
  "title": "Delivery",
  "description": "Stories about the delivery business and the people in it. UPS men, bike messengers, FedEx dispatchers. NOTE: This episode originally included a story by reporter Stephen Glass, which we have removed because of questions about its truthfulness. This story is included in the transcript only for reference.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0057.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0057.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0057",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/57"
},{
  "number": 58,
  "date": "1997-04-04",
  "title": "Small Towns",
  "description": "Stories of small town life: the claustrophobia and freedom people feel in small towns, the yearning people feel in small towns. And three teenagers in one of the harshest urban environments explain how the public housing projects are like a small town.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0058.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0058.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0058",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/58"
},{
  "number": 59,
  "date": "1997-04-11",
  "title": "Fire",
  "description": "Stories about people who are not afraid of fire, though perhaps they should be.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0059.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0059.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0059",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/59"
},{
  "number": 60,
  "date": "1997-04-18",
  "title": "Business of Death",
  "description": "Usually we talk about death as a tragedy, a mystery, a hard-to-comprehend fact of life. But in addition to all that, for all sorts of people it's also ... a job.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0060.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0060.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0060",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/60"
},{
  "number": 61,
  "date": "1997-04-25",
  "title": "Fiasco!",
  "description": "Stories of when things go wrong. Really wrong. When you leave the normal realm of human error, fumble, mishap, and mistake and enter the territory of really huge breakdowns. Fiascos. Things go so awry that normal social order collapses. This week's show is a philosophical inquiry in the nature of fiascos — perhaps the first ever.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0061.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0061.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0061",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/61"
},{
  "number": 62,
  "date": "1997-05-02",
  "title": "Something for Nothing",
  "description": "Stories of people trying to get rich quick or otherwise make something for nothing. As everyone knows, there's no such thing as something for nothing. You always pay a price.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0062.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0062.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0062",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/62"
},{
  "number": 63,
  "date": "1997-05-09",
  "title": "One Thing",
  "description": "People whose lives are organized around one thing.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0063.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0063.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0063",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/63"
},{
  "number": 64,
  "date": "1997-05-23",
  "title": "Summer",
  "description": "Stories for the start of summer. We want summer to be this wonderful break, but so often it fails to deliver. We hear Ron Carlson's short story about a summer job delivering tanks of oxygen to the infirm, Scott Carrier takes a river vacation, and more.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0064.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0064.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0064",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/64"
},{
  "number": 65,
  "date": "1997-05-30",
  "title": "Who's Canadian?",
  "description": "Notes and stories about the Canadians among us. Are they in fact any different from red-blooded Americans? They claim they're not. Skeptical Americans put their position to the test.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0065.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0065.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0065",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/65"
},{
  "number": 66,
  "date": "1997-06-06",
  "title": "Tales from the Net",
  "description": "Are people having experiences on the Internet they wouldn't have anywhere else? Several weeks ago, This American Life invited listeners to help answer that question.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0066.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0066.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0066",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/66"
},{
  "number": 67,
  "date": "1997-06-27",
  "title": "Your Dream, My Nightmare",
  "description": "Could it be more obvious? Stories in which someone's dream is someone else's nightmare. All of us get into these situations with strangers, with the people we love most, with our own parents, with our children.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0067.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0067.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0067",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/67"
},{
  "number": 68,
  "date": "1997-07-04",
  "title": "Lincoln's Second Inaugural",
  "description": "A show for July 4th weekend. We begin with perhaps the most moving, poetic inaugural speech in American history, and look at its legacy today. In his second inaugural address, Lincoln wondered aloud why God saw fit to send the slaughter of the Civil War to the United States. His conclusion: that slavery was a kind of original sin for the United States, for both North and South, and all Americans had to do penance for it.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0068.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0068.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0068",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/68"
},{
  "number": 69,
  "date": "1997-07-18",
  "title": "Dream House",
  "description": "How many of our parents move to some place — some dream house — with some vision of a new life in the new place, and move the family with them, hoping it works out for the kids. Three stories on this theme.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0069.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0069.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0069",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/69"
},{
  "number": 70,
  "date": "1997-07-25",
  "title": "Other People's Mail",
  "description": "When you read other people's mail, you can't help but try to fill in between the lines. You try to decipher the stories of the people who wrote the letters. We hear four stories of people who read other people's mail, and what happens to them once they get caught up in these other lives.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0070.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0070.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0070",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/70"
},{
  "number": 71,
  "date": "1997-08-01",
  "title": "Defying Sickness",
  "description": "Stories of people trying to do exactly what the doctors say they can't — or shouldn't.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0071.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0071.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0071",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/71"
},{
  "number": 72,
  "date": "1997-08-08",
  "title": "Trek",
  "description": "An idiosyncratic first-person travelogue about race relations and tourism from radio producer Rich Robinson and television producer Josh Seftel. Their radio story is about a trip they took to the new South Africa. Rich Robinson is black. Josh Seftel is white. The interracial pair travel through the still mostly-segregated society and have very different opinions about what they see, especially when it comes to some distant relatives of Josh's in South Africa.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0072.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0072.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0072",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/72"
},{
  "number": 73,
  "date": "1997-08-22",
  "title": "Blame It on Art",
  "description": "The darker side of the art world: petty jealousies, competitiveness, failure. And also what's so great about art.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0073.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0073.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0073",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/73"
},{
  "number": 74,
  "date": "1997-08-29",
  "title": "Conventions",
  "description": "What happens when people with one common interest gather in monstrous, fluorescent -lit halls for the weekend? Sometimes they drive each other crazy, sometimes they fall in love.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0074.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0074.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0074",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/74"
},{
  "number": 75,
  "date": "1997-09-12",
  "title": "Kindness of Strangers",
  "description": "Stories of the kindness of strangers and where it leads. Also, the unkindness of strangers and where that can lead. All of today's stories take place in the city most people think of as the least kind city in America: New York.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0075.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0075.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0075",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/75"
},{
  "number": 76,
  "date": "1997-09-19",
  "title": "Mob",
  "description": "The mob as portrayed in movies, and as it is in real life. And its hold over us.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0076.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0076.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0076",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/76"
},{
  "number": 77,
  "date": "1997-09-26",
  "title": "Pray",
  "description": "Can the secular world and the religious world understand each other?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0077.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0077.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0077",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/77"
},{
  "number": 78,
  "date": "1997-10-03",
  "title": "How Bad Is Bad?",
  "description": "How bad is bad enough to count? To go to hell?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0078.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0078.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0078",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/78"
},{
  "number": 79,
  "date": "1997-10-10",
  "title": "Stuck in the Wrong Decade",
  "description": "People stuck in the wrong decade — or simply carrying a lot of the props from another decade. NOTE: This episode originally included a story by reporter Stephen Glass (no relation to Ira), which we have removed because of questions about its truthfulness. This story is included in the transcript only for reference.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0079.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0079.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0079",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/79"
},{
  "number": 80,
  "date": "1997-10-17",
  "title": "Running After Antelope",
  "description": "Stories of people engaged in a battle with nature — a battle they don't stand much chance of winning. Most of the show is Scott Carrier's story of trying for twelve years to chase down and catch an antelope by foot.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0080.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0080.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0080",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/80"
},{
  "number": 81,
  "date": "1997-10-24",
  "title": "Guns",
  "description": "Americans who love their guns...and the Americans who love them.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0081.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0081.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0081",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/81"
},{
  "number": 82,
  "date": "1997-10-31",
  "title": "Haunted",
  "description": "Stories of people who are haunted, not by ghosts or phantoms, but by other people.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0082.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0082.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0082",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/82"
},{
  "number": 83,
  "date": "1997-11-14",
  "title": "One of Us",
  "description": "Stories of outsiders who want to be insiders, and vice versa.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0083.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0083.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0083",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/83"
},{
  "number": 84,
  "date": "1997-11-21",
  "title": "Harold",
  "description": "A parable of politics and race in America. The story of Chicago's first black mayor, Harold Washington, told two decades after his death. Washington died on November 25, 1987.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0084.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0084.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0084",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/84"
},{
  "number": 85,
  "date": "1997-12-05",
  "title": "Poultry Slam 1997",
  "description": "Humans have turned chicken and turkey into what we want them to be. Which means that chickens and turkeys are a mirror of ourselves.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0085.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0085.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0085",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/85"
},{
  "number": 86,
  "date": "1997-12-12",
  "title": "How to Take Money from Strangers",
  "description": "Two stories of how to get money from strangers. In both stories, the money is made by people who make the strangers feel good about themselves and about their nation. NOTE: This episode originally included a story by reporter Stephen Glass, which we have removed because of questions about its truthfulness. This story is included in the transcript only for reference.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0086.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0086.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0086",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/86"
},{
  "number": 87,
  "date": "1997-12-19",
  "title": "A Very Special Sedaris Christmas",
  "description": "Stories from David Sedaris's book of Christmas stories, Holidays on Ice, read onstage by David, Julia Sweeney and actor Matt Malloy.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0087.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0087.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0087",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/87"
},{
  "number": 88,
  "date": "1998-01-02",
  "title": "Numbers",
  "description": "Numbers lie. Numbers cover over complicated feelings and ambiguous situations. In this week's show, stories of people trying to use numbers to describe things that should not be quantified.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0088.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0088.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0088",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/88"
},{
  "number": 89,
  "date": "1998-01-09",
  "title": "Sibling Rivalry",
  "description": "Stories about people who are destined to fight: brothers and sisters.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0089.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0089.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0089",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/89"
},{
  "number": 90,
  "date": "1998-01-16",
  "title": "Telephone",
  "description": "Stories of who we are on the phone, of things we learn on the phone, and of things that happen on the phone that don't happen anywhere else.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0090.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0090.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0090",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/90"
},{
  "number": 91,
  "date": "1998-01-30",
  "title": "Escape the Box",
  "description": "Stories of people trying to escape the box of their own lives, and create new lives.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0091.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0091.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0091",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/91"
},{
  "number": 92,
  "date": "1998-02-06",
  "title": "Leave the Mask On",
  "description": "Stories about those moments when someone tries to tell you a little bit more about themselves than you'd really rather know.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0092.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0092.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0092",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/92"
},{
  "number": 93,
  "date": "1998-02-13",
  "title": "Valentine's Day '98",
  "description": "Stories about couples that all take place decades after that moment their eyes first meet.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0093.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0093.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0093",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/93"
},{
  "number": 94,
  "date": "1998-02-27",
  "title": "How To",
  "description": "What happens during a \"how-to,\" and what our how-to's say about us. Most how-to's promise that you'll not only learn skills, you'll be transformed.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0094.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0094.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0094",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/94"
},{
  "number": 95,
  "date": "1998-03-06",
  "title": "Monogamy",
  "description": "How should we react to people who are in non-monogamous relationships? What should we think of these struggles with monogamy?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0095.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0095.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0095",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/95"
},{
  "number": 96,
  "date": "1998-03-13",
  "title": "Pinned by History",
  "description": "People who left their private lives and were seized by some huge historical moment.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0096.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0096.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0096",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/96"
},{
  "number": 97,
  "date": "1998-03-20",
  "title": "Death to Wacky",
  "description": "An assault on the idea of wackiness. And then, an appreciation of wackiness, and an analysis of wackiness in American culture. Thirteen ways to describe wackiness.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0097.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0097.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0097",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/97"
},{
  "number": 98,
  "date": "1998-03-27",
  "title": "Throwing the First Punch",
  "description": "Stories about what it means to be a person who throws the first punch ... and how hard it is to give up.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0098.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0098.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0098",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/98"
},{
  "number": 99,
  "date": "1998-04-10",
  "title": "I Enjoy Being A Girl, Sort Of",
  "description": "Variations on what it means to be a girl and what it means to be a woman.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0099.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0099.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0099",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/99"
},{
  "number": 100,
  "date": "1998-04-24",
  "title": "Radio",
  "description": "For the 100th episode of This American Life, a radio show about the pleasures of radio. About what makes radio so great ... and what makes it so terrible.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0100.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0100.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0100",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/100"
},{
  "number": 101,
  "date": "1998-05-01",
  "title": "Niagara",
  "description": "During this hour, a special edition of our show: Stories about Niagara Falls, half of them from documentary producer Alix Spiegel, who went to the Falls and interviewed people living there; and half from playwright David Kodeski, who grew up in the town of Niagara Falls.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0101.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0101.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0101",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/101"
},{
  "number": 102,
  "date": "1998-05-22",
  "title": "Road Trip!",
  "description": "With all the American movies and songs and books about the joy of the open road, it's hard for an American to take just a normal road trip without huge expectations.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0102.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0102.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0102",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/102"
},{
  "number": 103,
  "date": "1998-05-29",
  "title": "Scenes from A Transplant",
  "description": "An NPR reporter leaves her three-year-old son and heads to Omaha—for cancer treatment—a last chance to save her life. After years of covering stories about medicine, Rebecca Perl enters the hospital as a patient. She moves from the world of healthy people into the world of sick ones. What she sees and what she learns.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0103.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0103.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0103",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/103"
},{
  "number": 104,
  "date": "1998-06-05",
  "title": "Music Lessons",
  "description": "What's frustrating about music lessons, what's miraculous about them, and what they actually teach us. This show was recorded in front of a live audience at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, with help from KQED-FM, during the 1998 Public Radio Conference in San Francisco.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0104.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0104.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0104",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/104"
},{
  "number": 105,
  "date": "1998-06-12",
  "title": "Take A Negro Home",
  "description": "Two stories of people who try to cross the color line — and why it's still so hard. We hear the story of a failed interracial marriage and the story of a teenager from a poor inner city neighborhood (Cedric Jennings, pictured) who ends up at an Ivy League University — and how he barely survives there.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0105.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0105.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0105",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/105"
},{
  "number": 106,
  "date": "1998-06-19",
  "title": "Father's Day '98",
  "description": "For this Father's Day, stories in which fathers and their kids sit down and try to have an honest moment together. And stories about fathers who aren't close with their kids.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0106.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0106.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0106",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/106"
},{
  "number": 107,
  "date": "1998-07-03",
  "title": "Trail of Tears",
  "description": "For the July 4th holiday weekend, writer Sarah Vowell and her twin sister re-trace the \"Trail of Tears\" — the route their Cherokee ancestors took when expelled from their own land by President Andrew Jackson.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0107.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0107.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0107",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/107"
},{
  "number": 108,
  "date": "1998-08-07",
  "title": "Truth and Lies at Age Ten",
  "description": "Two stories of children lying to themselves and others. A woman who'd been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis talks about the lies she told herself as a child. And Dan Gediman tells the story of how he was cast in the public TV show Zoom, which aired from 1972 to 1979, at the age of ten. Then he was cut from the cast before the show ever went on the air. So for years, he lied about it. He let friends believe he was on Zoom.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0108.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0108.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0108",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/108"
},{
  "number": 109,
  "date": "1998-08-28",
  "title": "Notes on Camp",
  "description": "Stories of summer camp. People who love camp say that non-camp people simply don't understand what's so amazing about camp. In this program, we attempt to bridge the gap of misunderstanding between camp people and non-camp people.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0109.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0109.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0109",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/109"
},{
  "number": 110,
  "date": "1998-09-04",
  "title": "Mapping",
  "description": "Five ways of mapping the world. One story about people who make maps the traditional way — by drawing things we can see. And other stories about people who map the world using smell, sound, touch, and taste. The world redrawn by the five senses.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0110.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0110.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0110",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/110"
},{
  "number": 111,
  "date": "1998-09-11",
  "title": "Adventures in the Simple Life",
  "description": "I thought this was supposed to be easy. Tales from the simple life.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0111.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0111.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0111",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/111"
},{
  "number": 112,
  "date": "1998-10-02",
  "title": "Ladies and Germs",
  "description": "Germs, and how they make us leave the world of rational thinking.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0112.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0112.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0112",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/112"
},{
  "number": 113,
  "date": "1998-10-16",
  "title": "Windfall",
  "description": "What happens when you suddenly strike it rich. And the power money has over our lives, for good and bad.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0113.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0113.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0113",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/113"
},{
  "number": 114,
  "date": "1998-10-23",
  "title": "Last Words",
  "description": "Stories of people's last words before death. Their one last shot at figuring things out, summing things up. One last moment of asserting the fact of our existence, at the moment of our annihilation.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0114.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0114.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0114",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/114"
},{
  "number": 115,
  "date": "1998-11-13",
  "title": "First Day",
  "description": "Stories of the first day on the job, the first day in a relationship, the first day in school. On the first day, any first day, we're expected to live by the rules and customs of the culture we're entering, but we don't know those rules and customs just yet.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0115.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0115.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0115",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/115"
},{
  "number": 116,
  "date": "1998-11-27",
  "title": "Poultry Slam 1998",
  "description": "For Thanksgiving, the time of year when poultry consumption is highest, it's our annual program about turkeys, chickens, and fowl of all types.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0116.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0116.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0116",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/116"
},{
  "number": 117,
  "date": "1998-12-11",
  "title": "You Gonna Eat That?",
  "description": "The family table is stage on which many family dramas are played out. We hear three stories...of three families...at three meals.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0117.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0117.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0117",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/117"
},{
  "number": 118,
  "date": "1998-12-18",
  "title": "What You Lookin' At?",
  "description": "Stories about seeing and being seen. Taped before a live audience in Town Hall in New York City in December 1998, this was a co-production with WNYC New York, featuring live music by the pop band They Might Be Giants and the This American Life Orchestra.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0118.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0118.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0118",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/118"
},{
  "number": 119,
  "date": "1999-01-08",
  "title": "Lockup",
  "description": "With the number of prisoners in the United States rising rapidly, we present stories of their lives and the lives of their families and children.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0119.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0119.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0119",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/119"
},{
  "number": 120,
  "date": "1999-01-22",
  "title": "Be Careful Who You Pretend to Be",
  "description": "Three stories of people pretending to be something they're not, and what happens to them.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0120.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0120.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0120",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/120"
},{
  "number": 121,
  "date": "1999-01-29",
  "title": "Twentieth Century Man",
  "description": "One thing that makes our country different from most others is this idea that you can re-create yourself as someone you'd prefer to be...sell everything off, head out west, start a new life.  But what happens if you're too good at it?  At throwing everything out and starting over?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0121.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0121.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0121",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/121"
},{
  "number": 122,
  "date": "1999-02-12",
  "title": "Valentine's Day '99",
  "description": "For Valentine's Day, stories of impossible love and heartbreak.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0122.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0122.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0122",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/122"
},{
  "number": 123,
  "date": "1999-02-26",
  "title": "High Cost of Living",
  "description": "Stories of people who choose not to live every moment to the fullest or smell the roses, and instead choose to withdraw from life, to make themselves numb.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0123.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0123.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0123",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/123"
},{
  "number": 124,
  "date": "1999-03-19",
  "title": "Welcome to America",
  "description": "Stories of people moving to this country: what they see and hear about America that those of us who were born here don't necessarily see.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0124.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0124.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0124",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/124"
},{
  "number": 125,
  "date": "1999-04-02",
  "title": "Apocalypse",
  "description": "Stories of the end of the world. More people believe it's more imminent than you probably realize.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0125.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0125.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0125",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/125"
},{
  "number": 126,
  "date": "1999-04-09",
  "title": "Do-Gooders",
  "description": "Stories of people trying to do good: Why they often fail and why they occasionally succeed.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0126.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0126.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0126",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/126"
},{
  "number": 127,
  "date": "1999-04-16",
  "title": "Pimp Anthropology",
  "description": "This entire show is devoted to just one story. A former pimp tells how he and three childhood friends became pimps in the 1970s in Oakland, California. He explains all the elaborate \"rules of the game\" among pimps and prostitutes of that era. He didn't have the stomach for the violence of pimping, and failed as a pimp because of that. Tamar Brott reports.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0127.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0127.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0127",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/127"
},{
  "number": 128,
  "date": "1999-04-30",
  "title": "Four Corners",
  "description": "There's a tourist monument called Four Corners, where Arizona, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico meet. In this episode, we try to tell the story of life in America through portraits of life on four different corners, in four different states across the nation.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0128.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0128.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0128",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/128"
},{
  "number": 129,
  "date": "1999-05-14",
  "title": "Advice",
  "description": "A program taped before live audiences in Seattle (thanks to public radio station KUOW) and at HBO's U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. A taxonomy of different kinds of advice—and stories that illustrate why advice is so rarely taken.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0129.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0129.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0129",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/129"
},{
  "number": 130,
  "date": "1999-05-21",
  "title": "Away From Home",
  "description": "Stories of people going home to places they've never been before.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0130.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0130.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0130",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/130"
},{
  "number": 131,
  "date": "1999-06-04",
  "title": "The Kids Are Alright",
  "description": "Stories in which young people take matters into their own hands: Students who become political activists, students who pull pranks, violent students. Broadcast for the tenth anniversary of the crackdown at Tiananmen Square.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0131.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0131.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0131",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/131"
},{
  "number": 132,
  "date": "1999-06-18",
  "title": "Father's Day '99",
  "description": "For Father's Day, stories about fathers going out of their way to protect their kids, and kids going out of their way to protect their fathers.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0132.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0132.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0132",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/132"
},{
  "number": 133,
  "date": "1999-06-25",
  "title": "Sales",
  "description": "Consider for a moment all the art forms that began in America: jazz, the blues, musical theater, rock n' roll, phonograph recordings, television, motion pictures, video games. But the art form in which America leads the world—more than any other—is the art of selling. In this show: case examples to prove the point.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0133.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0133.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0133",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/133"
},{
  "number": 134,
  "date": "1999-07-09",
  "title": "We Didn't",
  "description": "Stories about what happens when we don't do something. It turns out that not falling in love, not doing our jobs, not spending time with our families is every bit as vivid and complicated an experience as doing something.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0134.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0134.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0134",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/134"
},{
  "number": 135,
  "date": "1999-07-23",
  "title": "Allure of Crime",
  "description": "We think of crime as a kind of monolithic, menacing presence. But there are many kinds of crimes and many kinds of criminals. Through our crimes, we express who we are. Today we hear of three different criminals and three different kinds of crimes.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0135.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0135.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0135",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/135"
},{
  "number": 136,
  "date": "1999-08-06",
  "title": "You Are Here",
  "description": "Three stories, three people, and three sets of maps. Stories of people trying to figure out where they are in the world in the most literal and least literal ways possible. We explore what it's like to be lost—how we all struggle in that moment not to give ourselves over to fear but try to enjoy it.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0136.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0136.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0136",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/136"
},{
  "number": 137,
  "date": "1999-08-20",
  "title": "The Book That Changed Your Life",
  "description": "Stories of people who believe a book changed their life. It's a romantic notion, and one reason we believe it is because we want to believe our lives can be changed by something so simple as an idea — or a set of ideas contained in a book.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0137.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0137.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0137",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/137"
},{
  "number": 138,
  "date": "1999-08-27",
  "title": "The Real Thing",
  "description": "Stories of people drawn to some idea, some picture, some \"thing\" that they just want to be. How some people imitate this \"thing\" innocently, some less innocently, and how easy it is to slip from one to the other.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0138.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0138.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0138",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/138"
},{
  "number": 139,
  "date": "1999-09-03",
  "title": "Ghosts of Elections Past",
  "description": "Stories of political idealists, stories designed to provide some small sense of hope about American politics. Most of these were first broadcast during the 1996 Presidential race.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0139.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0139.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0139",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/139"
},{
  "number": 140,
  "date": "1999-09-24",
  "title": "Family Business",
  "description": "Stories of family businesses, and what happens when the tension of family dynamics collides with the pressure of capitalist market forces.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0140.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0140.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0140",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/140"
},{
  "number": 141,
  "date": "1999-10-01",
  "title": "Invisible Worlds",
  "description": "Stories of people who are trying to make invisible worlds visible, and what happens when you make them visible.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0141.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0141.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0141",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/141"
},{
  "number": 142,
  "date": "1999-10-15",
  "title": "Barbara",
  "description": "We hear the story of one African-American single mother. Barbara Clinkscales recorded her family's life over the course of seven months for This American Life. Her life defies—or makes irrelevant—most of our typical notions of inner-city, black single mothers.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0142.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0142.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0142",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/142"
},{
  "number": 143,
  "date": "1999-10-22",
  "title": "Sentencing",
  "description": "We've all heard occasional news stories about how some of the drug laws enacted in the last 15 years may have gone too far. First time offenders get locked up for decades. Judges—even Republican appointees—say that mandatory minimum sentences prevent them from making fair rulings. But have sentences really gone too far?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0143.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0143.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0143",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/143"
},{
  "number": 144,
  "date": "1999-11-05",
  "title": "Where Words Fail",
  "description": "One reason we tell stories is to explain things to ourselves that cannot, in the end, always be explained. When someone we're close to dies, we struggle for a way to get our minds around the fact of their absence. And often—the stories we invent aren't quite up to the job. In this week's show, people struggle to invent words adequate to cope with death.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0144.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0144.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0144",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/144"
},{
  "number": 145,
  "date": "1999-11-26",
  "title": "Poultry Slam 1999",
  "description": "For Thanksgiving, the time of year when poultry consumption is highest, it's our annual program about turkeys, chickens, fowl of all types, and their mysterious hold over our imaginations. This show includes favorite stories from previous Poultry Shows, and some new stories.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0145.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0145.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0145",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/145"
},{
  "number": 146,
  "date": "1999-12-10",
  "title": "Urban Nature",
  "description": "Stories of nature creeping into man-made environments. Of nature sneaking in places where its very presence is a rebuke to the notion that we as a species have things under control.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0146.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0146.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0146",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/146"
},{
  "number": 147,
  "date": "1999-12-17",
  "title": "A Teenager's Guide to God",
  "description": "Oh faithless and perverse generation? How long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?—Matthew 17.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0147.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0147.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0147",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/147"
},{
  "number": 148,
  "date": "1999-12-24",
  "title": "The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Suit",
  "description": "A special Christmas edition of our show, with stories about Santa Claus—the many many different versions of Santa Claus. It was in America, in New York, that people started believing in the modern idea of Santa—a guy who comes down the chimney with a sack of goodies. But America has invented a few other Santas as well.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0148.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0148.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0148",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/148"
},{
  "number": 149,
  "date": "2000-01-14",
  "title": "Bedside Diplomacy",
  "description": "In the hospital, we give up our normal schedule and sleep patterns; we give up our normal food and clothing; we're in a place that has its own rules and its own language and its own customs.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0149.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0149.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0149",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/149"
},{
  "number": 150,
  "date": "2000-01-21",
  "title": "Kids As Adults",
  "description": "Stories of kids trying to act like adults—some by choice—some because they're forced to.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0150.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0150.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0150",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/150"
},{
  "number": 151,
  "date": "2000-01-28",
  "title": "Primary",
  "description": "Today's program is made all of stories from the New Hampshire primary. Voters want to find a candidate who inspires them. Candidates want to inspire. So where's the system failing? Why do most of us feel like the system doesn't produce anyone inspiring? We hear stories that answer why. We hear from voters who've found candidates they love. And we hear what those voters are seeing that the rest of us aren't.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0151.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0151.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0151",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/151"
},{
  "number": 152,
  "date": "2000-02-11",
  "title": "Crush",
  "description": "Stories of love in its earliest stage. Crushes: what's terrible about them, what's great about them and how they can overshadow real love for some people.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0152.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0152.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0152",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/152"
},{
  "number": 153,
  "date": "2000-03-03",
  "title": "Dolls",
  "description": "Stories of what people are playing at when they play with dolls.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0153.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0153.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0153",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/153"
},{
  "number": 154,
  "date": "2000-03-10",
  "title": "In Dog We Trust",
  "description": "Stories of dogs and cats and other animals that live in our homes. Exactly how much are they caught up in everyday family dynamics? We answer this question and others.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0154.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0154.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0154",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/154"
},{
  "number": 155,
  "date": "2000-03-17",
  "title": "Hoaxing Yourself",
  "description": "Stories of people who tell a lie and then believe the lie more than anyone else does. In other words: Stories about people pulling hoaxes...on themselves.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0155.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0155.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0155",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/155"
},{
  "number": 156,
  "date": "2000-03-31",
  "title": "What Remains",
  "description": "Usually This American Life brings you stories of people in the middle of big experiences. But sometimes these moments of dramatic change are only half the story. The other half occurs after time passes and they return to revisit what happened, and who they were back when. Today's show is about what they find.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0156.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0156.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0156",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/156"
},{
  "number": 157,
  "date": "2000-04-14",
  "title": "Secret Life of Daytime",
  "description": "All those people you see in the middle of the workday, in coffee shops and bookstores? Who are they? Why aren't they at work?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0157.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0157.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0157",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/157"
},{
  "number": 158,
  "date": "2000-05-05",
  "title": "Mob Mentality",
  "description": "The pleasure of being in a rampaging, angry mob...and the terror of being in a rampaging, angry mob.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0158.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0158.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0158",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/158"
},{
  "number": 159,
  "date": "2000-05-12",
  "title": "Mother's Day",
  "description": "Stories of moms: How they treat us, how we treat them.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0159.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0159.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0159",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/159"
},{
  "number": 160,
  "date": "2000-05-19",
  "title": "Character Assassination",
  "description": "In context of the Presidential contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore, we hear stories of character assassination...political and non-political.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0160.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0160.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0160",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/160"
},{
  "number": 161,
  "date": "2000-06-02",
  "title": "Million Bubbles",
  "description": "Imagine that you could somehow look down from above, onto all the streets and avenues and country roads and highways of this nation...each car below its own tiny subculture on wheels...glass and steel worlds rolling down the street alongside each other. We hear what's going on inside some of these cars.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0161.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0161.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0161",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/161"
},{
  "number": 162,
  "date": "2000-06-23",
  "title": "Moving",
  "description": "Stories of people who did not want to move but circumstance forced their hands, and so they tried to move without really moving.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0162.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0162.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0162",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/162"
},{
  "number": 163,
  "date": "2000-06-30",
  "title": "Can You Fight City Hall…If You Are City Hall?",
  "description": "Stories of a typically American kind of hero: The person who decides to fight city hall, who stands up alone for what's right, and damn the consequences.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0163.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0163.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0163",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/163"
},{
  "number": 164,
  "date": "2000-07-07",
  "title": "Crime Scene",
  "description": "Every crime scene hides a story. In this week's show, we hear about crime scenes and the stories they tell.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0164.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0164.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0164",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/164"
},{
  "number": 165,
  "date": "2000-07-28",
  "title": "Americans In Paris",
  "description": "Many Americans have dreamy and romantic ideas about Paris, notions which probably trace back to the 1920s vision of Paris created by the expatriate Americans there. But what's it actually like in Paris if you're an American, without rose-colored glasses?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0165.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0165.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0165",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/165"
},{
  "number": 166,
  "date": "2000-08-11",
  "title": "Nobody's Family Is Going to Change",
  "description": "Three stories that consider the question: Does anyone's family ever change?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0166.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0166.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0166",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/166"
},{
  "number": 167,
  "date": "2000-09-08",
  "title": "Memo to the People of the Future",
  "description": "Stories of people who are engaged in something that's both difficult and probably futile: Trying to control how they'll be seen by generations to come.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0167.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0167.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0167",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/167"
},{
  "number": 168,
  "date": "2000-09-15",
  "title": "The Fix Is In",
  "description": "There are all sorts of situations in which we suspect the fix is in, but we almost never find out for certain. On today's show, for once, we find out.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0168.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0168.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0168",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/168"
},{
  "number": 169,
  "date": "2000-09-29",
  "title": "Pursuit of Happiness",
  "description": "We as a nation declared our independence based on, among other things, the right to pursue our happiness. But what does it mean, over two centuries later, to grow up in a country with an inalienable right to pursue happiness? Stories of people pursuing happiness, and sometimes, achieving it.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0169.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0169.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0169",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/169"
},{
  "number": 170,
  "date": "2000-10-13",
  "title": "Immigration",
  "description": "We live in a big enough country that there are lots of laws too obscure for most of us to have heard of...but which actually affect tens of thousands of lives in huge ways. This show deals with one of them: A 1996 immigration law that the Immigration Service itself says is unfair.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0170.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0170.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0170",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/170"
},{
  "number": 171,
  "date": "2000-11-03",
  "title": "Election",
  "description": "Stories for the eve of the Presidential election, in which we try to evade, sidestep or look beneath the candidates' soundbites.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0171.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0171.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0171",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/171"
},{
  "number": 172,
  "date": "2000-11-17",
  "title": "24 Hours at the Golden Apple",
  "description": "The This American Life producers document one day in a Chicago diner called The Golden Apple, starting at 5 a.m. and going until 5 a.m. the next morning. We hear from the waitress who has worked the graveyard shift for over two decades, the regular customers who come every day, the couples working out their problems, various assorted drunks, and, of course, cops.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0172.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0172.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0172",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/172"
},{
  "number": 173,
  "date": "2000-12-15",
  "title": "Three Kinds of Deception",
  "description": "A story of self-deception, a story about deceiving others, and a story about accidental deception. And how one type of deception can easily turn into another.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0173.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0173.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0173",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/173"
},{
  "number": 174,
  "date": "2000-12-29",
  "title": "Birthdays, Anniversaries, and Milestones",
  "description": "Birthdays, anniversaries, and milestones of all sorts...and how they mean something whether we want them to or not. A live show taped for our fifth anniversary, back in 2000, when we went on the road to Boston, New York, Chicago, and L.A. Featuring house band OK Go.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0174.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0174.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0174",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/174"
},{
  "number": 175,
  "date": "2001-01-05",
  "title": "Babysitting",
  "description": "Stories of babysitters, and what goes on while mom and dad are away that mom and dad never find out about. Including the story of two teenagers who decide to invent children to babysit, as an excuse to get out of their own house.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0175.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0175.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0175",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/175"
},{
  "number": 176,
  "date": "2001-01-26",
  "title": "Two Nations, One President",
  "description": "In the wake of the 2001 election debacle in Florida, the two political halves of this country seemed angrier at each other than they had in decades. This week we bring you tales of that widening rift. Democrats explain why they're having trouble getting over it, and Republicans explain why this is so infuriating.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0176.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0176.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0176",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/176"
},{
  "number": 177,
  "date": "2001-02-09",
  "title": "American Limbo",
  "description": "Stories of people living completely outside the grid of American life. Americans in Paris. Chinese in America. West Virginians in treehouses. Mexican-Americans in Rochester.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0177.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0177.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0177",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/177"
},{
  "number": 178,
  "date": "2001-02-23",
  "title": "Superpowers",
  "description": "We answer the following questions about superpowers: Can superheroes be real people? (No.) Can real people become superheroes? (Maybe.) And which is better: flight or invisibility? (Depends who you ask.) Chris ware's comic mentioned in the episode is here.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0178.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0178.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0178",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/178"
},{
  "number": 179,
  "date": "2001-03-16",
  "title": "Cicero",
  "description": "The story in a way of a town that time forgot, or more accurately, a town that tried to forget the times. A special broadcast co-hosted by award-winning journalist Alex Kotlowitz, author of the books There Are No Children Here and The Other Side of the River.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0179.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0179.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0179",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/179"
},{
  "number": 180,
  "date": "2001-03-23",
  "title": "Return to Childhood",
  "description": "Stories of people who try to revisit their childhoods. What they find. And what they do not find.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0180.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0180.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0180",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/180"
},{
  "number": 181,
  "date": "2001-04-06",
  "title": "The Friendly Man",
  "description": "A special show, composed entirely of stories from just one This American Life contributor: Scott Carrier, whose strange and compelling stories sound like nothing else on the radio.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0181.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0181.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0181",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/181"
},{
  "number": 182,
  "date": "2001-04-13",
  "title": "Cringe",
  "description": "Stories that make us cringe, and an investigation into just what, exactly, makes some stories capable of forcing this physical reaction out of us when other stories don't. We hear tales of personal humiliation, romance gone wrong, and people who profoundly misjudge how they're perceived by others.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0182.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0182.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0182",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/182"
},{
  "number": 183,
  "date": "2001-04-20",
  "title": "The Missing Parents Bureau",
  "description": "Stories about the legacy of absent parents. We hear four cases from the files of the Missing Parents Bureau.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0183.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0183.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0183",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/183"
},{
  "number": 184,
  "date": "2001-05-11",
  "title": "Neighbors",
  "description": "Stories of people trying to love their neighbors...and failing.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0184.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0184.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0184",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/184"
},{
  "number": 185,
  "date": "2001-05-25",
  "title": "Golden Calf",
  "description": "Stories of people worshiping false idols...and if that's always a bad thing.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0185.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0185.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0185",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/185"
},{
  "number": 186,
  "date": "2001-06-08",
  "title": "Prom",
  "description": "While the seniors danced at Prom Night 2001 in Hoisington, Kansas—a town of about 3,000—a tornado hit the town, destroying about a third of it. When they emerged from the dance, they discovered what had happened, and in the weeks that followed, they tried to explain to themselves why the tornado hit where it did. Plus other stories that happen on Prom Night.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0186.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0186.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0186",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/186"
},{
  "number": 187,
  "date": "2001-06-15",
  "title": "Father's Day '01",
  "description": "For Father's Day, stories of dads who are utterly human in scale.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0187.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0187.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0187",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/187"
},{
  "number": 188,
  "date": "2001-06-22",
  "title": "Kid Logic",
  "description": "Stories of kids using perfectly logical arguments, and arriving at perfectly wrong conclusions.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0188.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0188.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0188",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/188"
},{
  "number": 189,
  "date": "2001-07-13",
  "title": "Hitler's Yacht",
  "description": "Nearly this entire show is devoted to the story of the boat known as \"Hitler's Yacht.\" It's a modern-day fable about what happens when the free market, the media, the World War II buffs, the Neo-Nazis, and the Jews all collide over a huge Nazi tourist trap.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0189.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0189.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0189",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/189"
},{
  "number": 190,
  "date": "2001-08-03",
  "title": "Living the Dream",
  "description": "There's a deep impulse in American culture that says that you can make yourself into anyone. Today, three stories about people who tried to do just that.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0190.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0190.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0190",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/190"
},{
  "number": 191,
  "date": "2001-08-17",
  "title": "I Know What You Did This Summer",
  "description": "Stories for the stultifying, torpor-inducing, hottest heat of summer.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0191.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0191.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0191",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/191"
},{
  "number": 192,
  "date": "2001-08-31",
  "title": "Meet the Pros",
  "description": "The story of one man's journey from obscurity to international professional celebrity—aided only by his own hard work, a sneaker commercial, and mad handles. And other stories of amateurs hurtling themselves at the pros whose jobs they covet.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0192.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0192.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0192",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/192"
},{
  "number": 193,
  "date": "2001-09-14",
  "title": "Stories of Loss",
  "description": "In the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a collection of stories in which people try to make sense of loss.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0193.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0193.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0193",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/193"
},{
  "number": 194,
  "date": "2001-09-21",
  "title": "Before and After",
  "description": "Stories in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0194.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0194.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0194",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/194"
},{
  "number": 195,
  "date": "2001-09-28",
  "title": "War Stories",
  "description": "In September 2001, we tried to sort out what the war in Afghanistan would be like, and what our lives would be like during this war.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0195.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0195.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0195",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/195"
},{
  "number": 196,
  "date": "2001-10-05",
  "title": "Rashomon",
  "description": "In the movie Rashomon, one story is told from four different points of view. The story changes dramatically depending on who's telling it. This week, the events of September 11th, and how their meaning changes depending on who you talk to.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0196.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0196.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0196",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/196"
},{
  "number": 197,
  "date": "2001-10-26",
  "title": "Before It Had A Name",
  "description": "There's the time when you know something is happening, but you're not sure exactly what. The illness before it's diagnosed. The era, before it's been given a title. And something changes when the name is given. Stories of that transformation...between what it is now, and what it was before it had a name.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0197.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0197.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0197",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/197"
},{
  "number": 198,
  "date": "2001-11-02",
  "title": "How to Win Friends and Influence People",
  "description": "Stories of people climbing to be number one. How do they do it? What is the fundamental difference between us and them?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0198.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0198.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0198",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/198"
},{
  "number": 199,
  "date": "2001-11-16",
  "title": "House on Loon Lake",
  "description": "Our entire show this week is one long story, sort of a real-life Hardy Boys mystery. More than most of our shows, this one lends itself to a Hollywood-style tagline. Perhaps: \"You Might Break In...But You'll Never Forget.\" Or \"Dead Letters Tell No Tales.\"",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0199.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0199.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0199",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/199"
},{
  "number": 200,
  "date": "2001-11-30",
  "title": "Hearts and Minds",
  "description": "Of all the wars to win, perhaps the propaganda war is the hardest. In this show, we bring you stories of propaganda wars past and present, by those who fought them and those who survived them.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0200.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0200.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0200",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/200"
},{
  "number": 201,
  "date": "2001-12-07",
  "title": "Them",
  "description": "In a time of war, when we're all feeling a heightened sense of \"us\" and \"them,\" we wanted to take up the problem of \"them.\" Some people need a good \"them.\" Other people tend to see all \"thems\" as more like us. And so we bring you three stories of people misperceiving the them-miness of them.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0201.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0201.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0201",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/201"
},{
  "number": 202,
  "date": "2001-12-21",
  "title": "Faith",
  "description": "Stories of faith: losing it, talking about it, constructing it, and working within it.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0202.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0202.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0202",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/202"
},{
  "number": 203,
  "date": "2002-01-11",
  "title": "Recordings for Someone",
  "description": "All the stories in this week's show center on personal recordings that one person made for just one other person.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0203.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0203.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0203",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/203"
},{
  "number": 204,
  "date": "2002-01-18",
  "title": "81 Words",
  "description": "The story of how the American Psychiatric Association decided in 1973 that homosexuality was no longer a mental illness.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0204.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0204.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0204",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/204"
},{
  "number": 205,
  "date": "2002-02-01",
  "title": "Plan B",
  "description": "There's the thing you plan to do, and then there's the thing you end up doing. Most of us start off our lives with some Plan A which we abandon...switching to a Plan B, which becomes our life.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0205.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0205.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0205",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/205"
},{
  "number": 206,
  "date": "2002-03-01",
  "title": "Somewhere in the Arabian Sea",
  "description": "Life aboard the USS John C. Stennis, an aircraft carrier that was stationed in the Arabian Sea and supported bombing missions over Afghanistan. Only a few dozen people on board actually fly jets. It takes the rest of the crew — over 5,000 people — to keep them in the air. This American Life producers visited the Stennis in 2002, about six weeks into its deployment. The hour is devoted to this one story.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0206.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0206.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0206",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/206"
},{
  "number": 207,
  "date": "2002-03-08",
  "title": "Special Ed",
  "description": "Stories about people who were told that they're different. Some of them were comfortable with it. Some didn't understand it. And some understood, but didn't like it.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0207.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0207.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0207",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/207"
},{
  "number": 208,
  "date": "2002-03-15",
  "title": "Office Politics",
  "description": "Stories of high drama from our nation's workplaces. They turn out to be surprising, emotional places, with all the greed, jealousy, and ambition of real politics.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0208.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0208.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0208",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/208"
},{
  "number": 209,
  "date": "2002-03-29",
  "title": "Didn't Ask to Be Born",
  "description": "Two stories that are worst case scenarios for any parent. In each story, when you take apart what happened and how it happened, it's hard to see how anyone could've prevented things from going bad.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0209.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0209.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0209",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/209"
},{
  "number": 210,
  "date": "2002-04-19",
  "title": "Perfect Evidence",
  "description": "After a decade in which DNA evidence has freed over 100 people nationwide, it's become clear that DNA evidence isn't just proving wrongdoing by criminals, it's proving wrongdoing by police and prosecutors. In this show, we look at what DNA has revealed to us: how police get innocent people to confess to crimes they didn't commit and how they get witnesses to pin crimes on innocent people.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0210.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0210.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0210",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/210"
},{
  "number": 211,
  "date": "2002-05-03",
  "title": "Naming Names",
  "description": "Stories about what happens when you name names. When you turn someone over to the authorities, it can set into motion lots of huge, unintended consequences. A reporter turns over an interviewee to the FBI. A group of teachers turn in their principal. A director turns in his Communist colleagues to the United States Congress.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0211.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0211.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0211",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/211"
},{
  "number": 212,
  "date": "2002-05-10",
  "title": "The Other Man",
  "description": "Stories about what happens when a new guy comes on the scene, and changes the way everyone who was already there relates to each other.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0212.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0212.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0212",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/212"
},{
  "number": 213,
  "date": "2002-05-24",
  "title": "Devil on My Shoulder",
  "description": "Stories of people who are trying to convince you that the Devil is there, whispering in your ear...and stories of people who try to deny he's there, against some very heavy evidence.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0213.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0213.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0213",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/213"
},{
  "number": 214,
  "date": "2002-05-31",
  "title": "Family Physics",
  "description": "We take the stately laws of physics—laws which mathematicians and scientists have spent centuries discovering and verifying—and apply them to the realm of human relationships, to see if they shed useful light on our daily lives.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0214.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0214.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0214",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/214"
},{
  "number": 215,
  "date": "2002-06-14",
  "title": "Ask An Expert",
  "description": "Stories about people who turned to the experts and got horrible advice. One story is about people who went to therapists who made them sicker. Another is about how the hosts of Car Talk inadvertently (or perhaps intentionally) destroyed a car belonging to one of their own employees.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0215.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0215.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0215",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/215"
},{
  "number": 216,
  "date": "2002-07-12",
  "title": "Give the People What They Want",
  "description": "Stories of people who go to great lengths to give people what they want, and how they're rewarded sometimes, misguided other times.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0216.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0216.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0216",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/216"
},{
  "number": 217,
  "date": "2002-08-02",
  "title": "Give It to Them",
  "description": "It's been two years since the Mideast peace process collapsed, two years in which each side has done terrible things to the other side. We wanted to understand what that has done to people living in Israel and the West Bank, and to see if anyone is feeling hope.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0217.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0217.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0217",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/217"
},{
  "number": 218,
  "date": "2002-08-09",
  "title": "Act V",
  "description": "We devote this entire episode to one story: Over the course of six months, reporter and TAL contributor Jack Hitt followed a group of inmates at a high-security prison as they rehearsed and staged a production of the last act—Act V—of Hamlet.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0218.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0218.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0218",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/218"
},{
  "number": 219,
  "date": "2002-08-16",
  "title": "High Speed Chase",
  "description": "Stories of innocent people fleeing from dangerous men in cars who shoot at them. Unlike in the movies, the pursuers aren't foreign agents or rogue CIA agents, but drunk off-duty policemen and small-town teenagers. Real-ife high-speed chases: who gets chased...and who does the chasing.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0219.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0219.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0219",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/219"
},{
  "number": 220,
  "date": "2002-08-30",
  "title": "Testosterone",
  "description": "Stories of people getting more testosterone and coming to regret it. And of people losing it and coming to appreciate life without it. The pros and cons of the hormone of desire.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0220.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0220.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0220",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/220"
},{
  "number": 221,
  "date": "2002-09-20",
  "title": "Fake I.D.",
  "description": "Stories of people traveling under fake papers, false identities, not for power or personal gain, but for their own deeper personal reasons.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0221.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0221.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0221",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/221"
},{
  "number": 222,
  "date": "2002-09-27",
  "title": "Suckers",
  "description": "Some people have a rather dark worldview that divides people into two groups: Suckers and non-suckers. We hear their stories.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0222.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0222.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0222",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/222"
},{
  "number": 223,
  "date": "2002-10-11",
  "title": "Classifieds",
  "description": "In this show we take the classifieds from one Sunday edition of the Chicago Sun-Times and one edition of the local alternative weekly Chicago Reader, and fill a program with stories that come from the ads. Through the jobs offered, the missed connections, the crap that people sell each other and the musicians' ads we get a portrait of a whole city.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0223.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0223.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0223",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/223"
},{
  "number": 224,
  "date": "2002-10-25",
  "title": "Middlemen",
  "description": "In this week's show, we celebrate the oft-beleaguered and misrepresented middleman. \"Cut out the middleman! Death to the middleman!\" the angry hordes cry. Not us. We say, \"Hi, middleman. Here are three splendid acts to toast your subtle virtues.\"",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0224.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0224.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0224",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/224"
},{
  "number": 225,
  "date": "2002-11-08",
  "title": "Home Movies",
  "description": "Home movies are often all the same—kids on the beach, people getting married, birthday parties—so why do we make and watch so many of them? Maybe it's because the story they show and the story they tell are different. In this show, we bring you five stories that all start with a fairly typical home movie but go on to tell a unique story.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0225.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0225.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0225",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/225"
},{
  "number": 226,
  "date": "2002-12-06",
  "title": "Reruns",
  "description": "Stories of people stuck in their own personal reruns—moments or episodes that they revisit over and over again. You can watch an animated version of Robert Krulwich's Jackie O story from this episode.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0226.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0226.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0226",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/226"
},{
  "number": 227,
  "date": "2002-12-20",
  "title": "Why We Fight",
  "description": "Stories about why we should go to war versus stories of why we shouldn't.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0227.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0227.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0227",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/227"
},{
  "number": 228,
  "date": "2003-01-03",
  "title": "You Are So Beautiful…To Me",
  "description": "Two stories about love, and what people mean when they use the word love. Or, looked at differently, two modern-day reinterpretations of the Frog Prince story. One concerns a pretty man falling in love with an unlikely woman. And an unlikely woman falling in love with a pretty bird.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0228.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0228.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0228",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/228"
},{
  "number": 229,
  "date": "2003-01-10",
  "title": "Secret Government",
  "description": "Stories of some of the secrets our government keeps: of imprisonment, deportation, and spying, and how those secrets affect us.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0229.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0229.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0229",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/229"
},{
  "number": 230,
  "date": "2003-01-31",
  "title": "Come Back to Afghanistan",
  "description": "In January 2002, the President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, spoke at Georgetown University. There he urged Afghan-Americans, especially young ones, to move back to Afghanistan.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0230.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0230.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0230",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/230"
},{
  "number": 231,
  "date": "2003-02-07",
  "title": "Time to Save the World",
  "description": "Stories of people trying to save the world one person at a time, and stories of sudden truths delivered by complete strangers.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0231.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0231.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0231",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/231"
},{
  "number": 232,
  "date": "2003-02-14",
  "title": "The Real Story",
  "description": "It's been said that truth is the first casualty of war. In this week's show, we try to get the real stories from three very different wars.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0232.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0232.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0232",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/232"
},{
  "number": 233,
  "date": "2003-03-07",
  "title": "Starting from Scratch",
  "description": "Stories of people starting over, sometimes because they want to, other times because they have to.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0233.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0233.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0233",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/233"
},{
  "number": 234,
  "date": "2003-03-14",
  "title": "Say Anything",
  "description": "Does talking about it really help? Stories where it does, and stories where it doesn't, including Michael Bernard Loggins, who tried to battle his fears by listing them. He ended up with a list 183 items long.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0234.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0234.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0234",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/234"
},{
  "number": 235,
  "date": "2003-03-21",
  "title": "The Balloon Goes Up",
  "description": "Stories from the beginnings of the war in Iraq, and how it compares with wars in our country's past.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0235.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0235.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0235",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/235"
},{
  "number": 236,
  "date": "2003-04-11",
  "title": "My Two Cents",
  "description": "Stories from a contradictory recession. (Audio is from the updated 2004 broadcast)",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0236.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0236.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0236",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/236"
},{
  "number": 237,
  "date": "2003-04-18",
  "title": "Regime Change",
  "description": "Sure, John Kerry got in trouble for using the phrase, but we have no fear. Because we know that regime change, like charity, begins at home.  This week: Stories of regime change in everyday life—people switching jobs, people switching families, businesses dying and new ones starting in their place.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0237.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0237.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0237",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/237"
},{
  "number": 238,
  "date": "2003-05-30",
  "title": "Lost in Translation",
  "description": "Stories of what can and cannot be translated. A short, non-athletic, bespectacled East Asian studies major who couldn't make his high school basketball team finds himself in the NBA as the personal translator for the first-ever Chinese pro basketball superstar, Yao Ming. Plus, a Palestinian man teaches Hebrew classes in the Gaza strip to Palestinians eager to learn news from the other side of the checkpoint.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0238.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0238.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0238",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/238"
},{
  "number": 239,
  "date": "2003-06-06",
  "title": "Lost in America",
  "description": "Stories of people who are lost, histories that are lost, and things that are lost. This show was recorded onstage in front of audiences on a five-city tour in May 2003. The cities: Boston, Washington DC, Portland Oregon, Denver and Chicago. Featuring house band OK Go.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0239.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0239.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0239",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/239"
},{
  "number": 240,
  "date": "2003-06-20",
  "title": "I'm In Charge Now",
  "description": "Stories of people putting themselves in charge in very unlikely, unpromising circumstances.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0240.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0240.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0240",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/240"
},{
  "number": 241,
  "date": "2003-07-11",
  "title": "20 Acts in 60 Minutes",
  "description": "Instead of the usual \"each week we choose a theme, and bring you 3 or 4 stories on that theme\" business, we throw all that away and bring you 20 stories—yes, 20—in 60 minutes.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0241.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0241.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0241",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/241"
},{
  "number": 242,
  "date": "2003-07-18",
  "title": "Enemy Camp",
  "description": "Living behind enemy lines among the enemy, it's sometimes hard to remember why you're fighting in the first place.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0242.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0242.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0242",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/242"
},{
  "number": 243,
  "date": "2003-07-25",
  "title": "Later That Same Day",
  "description": "Stories about what the passage of time can do to someone. When each story starts, the world's aligned one way. Years pass—or sometimes just months—and everything's different.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0243.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0243.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0243",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/243"
},{
  "number": 244,
  "date": "2003-08-15",
  "title": "MacGyver",
  "description": "In real life, we usually never get to invent ingenious solutions, like the guy in the old TV series MacGyver. Today, four real stories in which real people invent amazingly clever solutions to their problems.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0244.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0244.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0244",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/244"
},{
  "number": 245,
  "date": "2003-09-05",
  "title": "Allure of the Mean Friend",
  "description": "What is it about them, our mean friends? They treat us badly, they don't call us back, they cancel plans at the last minute, and yet we come back for more. Popular bullies exist in business, politics, everywhere. How do they stay so popular?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0245.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0245.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0245",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/245"
},{
  "number": 246,
  "date": "2003-09-12",
  "title": "My Pen Pal",
  "description": "Stories of very unusual pen pals, people whose relationship could not exist without the help of the postal service.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0246.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0246.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0246",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/246"
},{
  "number": 247,
  "date": "2003-09-19",
  "title": "What Is This Thing?",
  "description": "What is this thing? This thing called love, that is. For answers, we explore the romance novel industry, a $1.5 billion empire run almost entirely by and for women. Plus, relearning the rules of romance from the other side of the gender line. And Sarah Vowell tells the story of the Greatest Romance of the 20th Century.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0247.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0247.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0247",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/247"
},{
  "number": 248,
  "date": "2003-10-24",
  "title": "Like It or Not",
  "description": "Some stories we make happen, others happen to us. Extremes from the latter category, where people let things happen to them and don't act, even when maybe they should. David Rakoff guest hosts.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0248.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0248.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0248",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/248"
},{
  "number": 249,
  "date": "2003-10-31",
  "title": "Garbage",
  "description": "We make what's usually invisible, visible: the world of trash. We follow the trash from the sanitation men on the street, to the mob guys who controlled the hauling business, to the people who actually live in dumps.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0249.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0249.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0249",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/249"
},{
  "number": 250,
  "date": "2003-11-07",
  "title": "The Annoying Gap Between Theory...and Practice",
  "description": "Why is it always harder than you think it'll be? We explore several case examples of the annoying gap between theory and practice.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0250.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0250.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0250",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/250"
},{
  "number": 251,
  "date": "2003-11-21",
  "title": "Brother's Keeper",
  "description": "Biblical fables ripped from today's headlines. In his ongoing effort to write his own version of the Bible, Jonathan Goldstein retells the story of Cain and Abel. Finally we hear Cain's side of the story.  Plus: neighbors in a small town in Illinois wonder if they could have stepped in—as their neighbors' keepers—to prevent a brutal triple murder.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0251.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0251.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0251",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/251"
},{
  "number": 252,
  "date": "2003-11-28",
  "title": "Poultry Slam 2003",
  "description": "During the period of the year with the highest turkey consumption, we bring you an annual This American Life tradition: Stories of turkeys, chickens, geese, ducks, fowl of all kinds, real and imagined, and their mysterious hold over us.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0252.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0252.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0252",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/252"
},{
  "number": 253,
  "date": "2003-12-05",
  "title": "The Middle of Nowhere",
  "description": "Stories from faraway, hard-to-get-to places, where all rules are off, nefarious things happen because no one's looking, and there's no one to appeal to.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0253.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0253.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0253",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/253"
},{
  "number": 254,
  "date": "2003-12-12",
  "title": "Teenage Embed, Part Two",
  "description": "In early 2003, we brought you a special show about a California teenager, Hyder Akbar, who traveled to Afghanistan, his family's homeland, for the first time.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0254.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0254.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0254",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/254"
},{
  "number": 255,
  "date": "2003-12-19",
  "title": "This American's Life's Holiday Gift-Giving Guide",
  "description": "The vexing difficulty of finding the perfect gift, illustrated in three acts.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0255.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0255.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0255",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/255"
},{
  "number": 256,
  "date": "2004-01-09",
  "title": "Living Without",
  "description": "Stories of people living without. Nubar Alexanian explains what fish can do for him that his own ears cannot. Sarah Vowell explains the cheerful journalism of deprivation. And other stories.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0256.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0256.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0256",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/256"
},{
  "number": 257,
  "date": "2004-01-16",
  "title": "What I Should've Said",
  "description": "People return to the scene of the crime where they should have spoken clearly, plainly, forcefully...to review what the hell went wrong, and in a few cases, to fix it. Jonathan Goldstein tries to stop time. Charles Monroe tries to figure out how to teach a lesson to the President of the United States.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0257.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0257.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0257",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/257"
},{
  "number": 258,
  "date": "2004-01-30",
  "title": "Leaving the Fold",
  "description": "A popular, progressive politician becomes...a talk show host. One you've probably heard of. A group of nuns leave the Catholic Church...only to find themselves essentially, remaining nuns. These and other stories of people leaving the situation they're used to—and striking off for something less familiar.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0258.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0258.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0258",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/258"
},{
  "number": 259,
  "date": "2004-02-20",
  "title": "Promised Land",
  "description": "For millenia, people have tried to reach a spiritual promised land by  fasting. Jesus did it. The Buddha did it. Monks and saints and new age gurus have done it. And now, on the radio, This American Life contributor David Rakoff tries it. He does a 20-day fast, to find out if it brings him any form of enlightenment.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0259.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0259.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0259",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/259"
},{
  "number": 260,
  "date": "2004-03-12",
  "title": "The Facts Don't Matter",
  "description": "There's what happened, and there's the story that gets told about what happened. Sometimes the two things don't match up very well. This week, two case examples—ripped, as they say, from today's headlines—of the story that's told becoming the truth, even though the facts don't back it up.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0260.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0260.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0260",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/260"
},{
  "number": 261,
  "date": "2004-03-26",
  "title": "The Sanctity of Marriage",
  "description": "Stories trying to understand what actually happens in marriages during this time when the definition of marriage is up in the air. Music throughout the hour by a real wedding band, a good one: The Doug Lawrence Orchestra.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0261.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0261.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0261",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/261"
},{
  "number": 262,
  "date": "2004-04-02",
  "title": "Miracle Cures",
  "description": "People looking for miracle cures, some from above, others from abroad. A son tries to help his mom in a faraway place defy the laws of medical science. A daughter tries to help her dad by going to a faraway place to defy the laws of the United States of America.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0262.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0262.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0262",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/262"
},{
  "number": 263,
  "date": "2004-04-16",
  "title": "Desperate Measures",
  "description": "Stories of people stuck in unfixable situations who try desperate measures. Sometimes these are inventive, sometimes they're ingenious, sometimes they even work.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0263.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0263.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0263",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/263"
},{
  "number": 264,
  "date": "2004-05-07",
  "title": "Special Treatment",
  "description": "We love it when we get it, but is it ever really fair? A defense of special treatment, by people who receive it and people who give it.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0264.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0264.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0264",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/264"
},{
  "number": 265,
  "date": "2004-05-21",
  "title": "Fake Science",
  "description": "Stories of people trying to drag science where it doesn't belong.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0265.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0265.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0265",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/265"
},{
  "number": 266,
  "date": "2004-06-04",
  "title": "I'm From the Private Sector and I'm Here to Help",
  "description": "Today's show is devoted to just one story. Contributing editor Nancy Updike went to Iraq to try to figure out what it's like to be a private citizen working in the middle of a war zone.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0266.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0266.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0266",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/266"
},{
  "number": 267,
  "date": "2004-06-11",
  "title": "Propriety",
  "description": "Perhaps there was a time when the rules of polite society were clear. No longer. This week, we bring you stories of people forced to try to figure out how to maintain their dignity—and decency—in some very unsettling situations.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0267.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0267.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0267",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/267"
},{
  "number": 268,
  "date": "2004-06-25",
  "title": "My Experimental Phase",
  "description": "Three stories about people who decide to try out a new life—the kind of life their parents never wanted for them.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0268.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0268.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0268",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/268"
},{
  "number": 269,
  "date": "2004-07-16",
  "title": "Someone to Watch Over Me",
  "description": "Letting someone else take care of you can change everything. Three stories of couples in which one partner is trying to take care of the other, sometimes with more resistance, sometimes with less.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0269.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0269.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0269",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/269"
},{
  "number": 270,
  "date": "2004-08-06",
  "title": "Family Legend",
  "description": "How, one might wonder, could a simple hunk of cheese drive a wedge between an aging aunt and her devoted niece? Sure, every family has its share of grudges, secrets and bad behavior.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0270.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0270.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0270",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/270"
},{
  "number": 271,
  "date": "2004-08-20",
  "title": "Best Interests",
  "description": "[no description]",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0271.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0271.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0271",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/271"
},{
  "number": 272,
  "date": "2004-09-10",
  "title": "Big Tent",
  "description": "Stories of the Republican Party, America's new majority party. Yes, they're still just barely the majority in the Senate...and in the last Presidential race...and in state legislatures around the country, where they hold just one percent more seats than Democrats nationwide.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0272.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0272.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0272",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/272"
},{
  "number": 273,
  "date": "2004-09-24",
  "title": "Put Your Heart In It",
  "description": "Stories about people deciding whether to give it their all. There's one story about a person who hasn't, one story about someone who has—in a situation where success seems very unlikely—and one story about people who just can't help themselves.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0273.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0273.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0273",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/273"
},{
  "number": 274,
  "date": "2004-10-08",
  "title": "Enemy Camp '04",
  "description": "[no description]",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0274.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0274.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0274",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/274"
},{
  "number": 275,
  "date": "2004-10-15",
  "title": "Two Steps Back",
  "description": "Ten years ago, when he was still a reporter for NPR's All Things Considered, host Ira Glass did a year-long series on a Chicago public school where things were getting better. Test scores were rising.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0275.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0275.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0275",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/275"
},{
  "number": 276,
  "date": "2004-10-29",
  "title": "Swing Set",
  "description": "A journey through the minds of undecided voters. For months—through the Swift Boat ads, the convention speeches, the debates—we tracked a few of these voters to find out why they just can't make up their minds. Plus, a story of someone courting undecided voters, and another about people trying to sabotage undecided voters (and everyone else).",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0276.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0276.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0276",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/276"
},{
  "number": 277,
  "date": "2004-11-05",
  "title": "Apology",
  "description": "It's rare that a successful apology happens. One where you apologize to someone, not for selfish reasons, but because you're really sorry and you want them to know that, and when the person you're apologizing to really hears what you're saying. Three stories of people groping toward that moment.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0277.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0277.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0277",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/277"
},{
  "number": 278,
  "date": "2004-11-19",
  "title": "Spies Like Us",
  "description": "Stories about amateur spies—regular people who spy on other regular people, and the consequences of their spying.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0278.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0278.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0278",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/278"
},{
  "number": 279,
  "date": "2004-12-10",
  "title": "Auto Show",
  "description": "Stories about people who love their cars, for better or for worse.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0279.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0279.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0279",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/279"
},{
  "number": 280,
  "date": "2005-01-07",
  "title": "In Country",
  "description": "What life is like for American soldiers in Iraq.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0280.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0280.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0280",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/280"
},{
  "number": 281,
  "date": "2005-01-21",
  "title": "My Big Break",
  "description": "Sometimes, getting your big break isn't all it's cracked up to be. A comedy duo lands the gig that can make them famous—the Ed Sullivan Show at the height of Sullivan's popularity—and they bomb. A third-grader gets his big chance to please his mother and push his drunken father out of the picture. And other stories.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0281.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0281.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0281",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/281"
},{
  "number": 282,
  "date": "2005-02-11",
  "title": "DIY",
  "description": "After four lawyers fail to get an innocent man out of prison, his friend takes on the case himself. He becomes a do-it-yourself investigator. He learns to read court records, he tracks down hard-to-find witnesses, he gets the real murderer to come forward with his story. In the end, he's able to accomplish all sorts of things the police and the professionals can't.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0282.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0282.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0282",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/282"
},{
  "number": 283,
  "date": "2005-02-25",
  "title": "Remember Me",
  "description": "Stories about people who are remembered very differently than they'd wished. The ghost of a kindly, distinguished philanthropist supposedly plays pranks on guests at a Ramada hotel in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. A dying mother makes a tape for her developmentally disabled daughter, hoping she'll watch it someday, knowing she might not.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0283.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0283.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0283",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/283"
},{
  "number": 284,
  "date": "2005-03-11",
  "title": "Should I Stay or Should I Go?",
  "description": "Stories about people teetering on the edge of this question: Should they stay or go? A software writer loses his job, but refuses to go away. He continues to show up at work, sneaking in the door each day and putting in long hours on a project the company canceled. A student from Pakistan finishes four years of college in Philadelphia and has to decide whether to move back home. And other stories.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0284.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0284.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0284",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/284"
},{
  "number": 285,
  "date": "2005-03-25",
  "title": "Know Your Enemy",
  "description": "Stories about trying to understand who's on your side. The defense minister of Israel visits would-be suicide bombers in prison, only to find out that in at least one case, he feels sorry for the terrorist. A prosecutor tries to censor a punk rock star. He takes him to court, but never bothers to listen to his lyrics. During the trial, he begins to think twice about his mission. Plus other stories.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0285.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0285.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0285",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/285"
},{
  "number": 286,
  "date": "2005-04-08",
  "title": "Mind Games",
  "description": "Stories of people who try simple mind games on others, and then find themselves way in over their heads.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0286.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0286.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0286",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/286"
},{
  "number": 287,
  "date": "2005-04-15",
  "title": "Backed Into A Corner",
  "description": "Stories about people who end up making choices they'd rather not make, when their options begin to run out. Sometimes this works out great; sometimes not so great.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0287.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0287.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0287",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/287"
},{
  "number": 288,
  "date": "2005-05-06",
  "title": "Not What I Meant",
  "description": "Stories about how easy it is for communication to go awry, and what the consequences can be after it does.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0288.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0288.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0288",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/288"
},{
  "number": 289,
  "date": "2005-05-13",
  "title": "Go Ask Your Father",
  "description": "In this show, sons and daughters get to find out the one thing they've always wanted to know about their father. The answers aren't always what they hope for.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0289.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0289.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0289",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/289"
},{
  "number": 290,
  "date": "2005-06-03",
  "title": "Godless America",
  "description": "At a time when House Majority Leader Tom Delay calls for enacting a \"Biblical world view\" in government, when Christians are asserting their ideals in the selection of judges, in public school science classes and elsewhere, This American Life spends an hour trying to remember why anyone liked the separation of church and state in the first place.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0290.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0290.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0290",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/290"
},{
  "number": 291,
  "date": "2005-07-01",
  "title": "Reunited (And It Feels So Good)",
  "description": "Stories about getting back together with your spouse, your country, your...Brahman bull. And how it never goes the way you think it's going to.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0291.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0291.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0291",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/291"
},{
  "number": 292,
  "date": "2005-07-08",
  "title": "The Arms Trader",
  "description": "The U.S. government spent two years on a sting operation trapping an Indian man named Hemant Lakhani, whom they suspected of being an illegal arms dealer. It's one of the few cases that has gone to trial in the War on Terror, and one the Justice Department has pointed to as one of their big successes. In the end, they got Lakhani, red-handed, delivering a missile to a terrorist in New Jersey. The only problem was, nothing in the sting was what it appeared to be. Including the missile.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0292.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0292.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0292",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/292"
},{
  "number": 293,
  "date": "2005-07-22",
  "title": "A Little Bit of Knowledge",
  "description": "Stories about the pitfalls of knowing just a little bit too little.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0293.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0293.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0293",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/293"
},{
  "number": 294,
  "date": "2005-08-05",
  "title": "Image Makers",
  "description": "Stories of people and institutions who are worried about what the world thinks of them, and who take action...decisive action.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0294.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0294.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0294",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/294"
},{
  "number": 295,
  "date": "2005-08-26",
  "title": "Not What  I Signed Up For",
  "description": "Stories about being sucked into something against your will. In one story, a 9/11 widow finds herself having to comfort another distraught woman on national TV. And in a story by Nick Hornby, a boy is forced to play soccer to save his nation.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0295.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0295.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0295",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/295"
},{
  "number": 296,
  "date": "2005-09-09",
  "title": "After the Flood",
  "description": "Surprising stories from survivors in New Orleans. We give people who were in the storm more time than daily news coverage can to tell their stories and talk about what they're thinking. This leads to a number of ideas that haven't made it into the regular news coverage.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0296.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0296.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0296",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/296"
},{
  "number": 297,
  "date": "2005-09-16",
  "title": "This Is Not My Beautiful House",
  "description": "It's the largest mass resettlement that America has seen since the Civil War, as over 400,000 people—victims of Hurricane Katrina—try to find a new place to live. From the Houston Astrodome to an abandoned New Orleans street, stories of people looking for home...and finding something else.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0297.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0297.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0297",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/297"
},{
  "number": 298,
  "date": "2005-09-23",
  "title": "Getting and Spending",
  "description": "How far will we go to get money? And once we've got it, what should we spend it on? The first half of this show is on making money, and the second half on spending it.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0298.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0298.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0298",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/298"
},{
  "number": 299,
  "date": "2005-10-07",
  "title": "Back from the Dead",
  "description": "Stories about people and places that have come back to life after everything seemed lost.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0299.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0299.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0299",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/299"
},{
  "number": 300,
  "date": "2005-10-28",
  "title": "What's In A Number?",
  "description": "About a year ago, a study estimated the number of Iraqi casualties since the war began at 100,000 dead—higher than any other estimate. The study was mostly ignored. Alex Blumberg revisits that study to look at the reality behind it.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0300.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0300.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0300",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/300"
},{
  "number": 301,
  "date": "2005-11-11",
  "title": "Settling the Score",
  "description": "Stories about the lengths we go to make things right, and about what money can and cannot fix.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0301.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0301.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0301",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/301"
},{
  "number": 302,
  "date": "2005-11-18",
  "title": "Strangers in a Strange Land",
  "description": "Someone once said, \"If you're not willing to be changed by a place, there's no point in going.\" This week, stories about what happens when you land in a whole new world.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0302.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0302.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0302",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/302"
},{
  "number": 303,
  "date": "2005-12-02",
  "title": "David and Goliath",
  "description": "Variations on an old tale, with very modern consequences. Cambodia is competing with other nations for the business of big clothing companies all over the world...but they've vowed to follow fair labor practices. Other countries end up with the contracts, and the profits.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0303.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0303.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0303",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/303"
},{
  "number": 304,
  "date": "2005-12-16",
  "title": "Heretics",
  "description": "The story of Reverend Carlton Pearson. He was a rising star in the evangelical movement when he cast aside the idea of hell and, with it, everything he'd worked for over his entire life.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0304.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0304.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0304",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/304"
},{
  "number": 305,
  "date": "2005-12-23",
  "title": "The This American Life Holiday Spectacular",
  "description": "A full-throttle, show-stopping, no-holds-barred Christmas Spectacular! Shedding the crusty old Christmas stories of yore, we bring you new holiday classics.  With special musical guest Marah!",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0305.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0305.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0305",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/305"
},{
  "number": 306,
  "date": "2006-01-13",
  "title": "Seemed Like A Good Idea at the Time",
  "description": "A girl signs up for a class. A couple hires an accountant. A group of co-workers decides to pool their money and buy a couple of lottery tickets. In the beginning, they're full of hope and optimism...and then something turns. Stories of good ideas gone bad.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0306.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0306.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0306",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/306"
},{
  "number": 307,
  "date": "2006-02-03",
  "title": "In the Shadow of the City",
  "description": "Stories that take place on the edge of civilization, just out of sight.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0307.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0307.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0307",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/307"
},{
  "number": 308,
  "date": "2006-02-10",
  "title": "Star-Crossed Love",
  "description": "In honor of Valentine's Day, This American Life brings you stories of how love blossoms, even when (perhaps) it shouldn't.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0308.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0308.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0308",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/308"
},{
  "number": 309,
  "date": "2006-02-24",
  "title": "Cat and Mouse",
  "description": "Stories about the kinds of chase games that just never end. From the high California desert to a high-end furniture showroom.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0309.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0309.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0309",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/309"
},{
  "number": 310,
  "date": "2006-03-10",
  "title": "Habeas Schmabeas",
  "description": "Winner of a 2006 Peabody Award. We've also broadcast an updated version of this episode, \"Habeas Schmabeas 2007.\"Listen to a special, uncut version.Download a transcript.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0310.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0310.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0310",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/310"
},{
  "number": 311,
  "date": "2006-04-14",
  "title": "A Better Mousetrap",
  "description": "Stories about people trying to find new solutions to age-old problems—solutions that sometimes cause problems of their own.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0311.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0311.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0311",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/311"
},{
  "number": 312,
  "date": "2006-05-12",
  "title": "How We Talked Back Then",
  "description": "In this show we return to two radio programs originally broadcast in 1996 and 1997. In one show, listeners came onstage with their letters, which they read aloud. In another, listeners from around the country talked about all the brand new sorts of experiences they were having with this new technology that had entered everyone's lives, the Internet. Each show, in its way, is a kind of time capsule.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0312.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0312.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0312",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/312"
},{
  "number": 313,
  "date": "2006-05-19",
  "title": "Parental Guidance Suggested",
  "description": "Stories about kids who actually want their parents looking out for them.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0313.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0313.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0313",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/313"
},{
  "number": 314,
  "date": "2006-06-23",
  "title": "It's Never Over",
  "description": "A grown man tries to get to the bottom of why his schoolmates threw him in a lake 20 years earlier. And a woman buys a house on the cheap, with the understanding that the seller will soon vacate. Ten years later, she's still waiting.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0314.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0314.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0314",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/314"
},{
  "number": 315,
  "date": "2006-07-21",
  "title": "The Parrot and the Potbellied Pig",
  "description": "Original stories from David Sedaris, Jonathan Goldstein, and others, on two animals who don't even seem like they should know each other, much less appear on the same radio show.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0315.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0315.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0315",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/315"
},{
  "number": 316,
  "date": "2006-08-18",
  "title": "The Cat Came Back",
  "description": "True stories that follow the plotline of the old kid's song \"The Cat Came Back.\" It's the simplest plot in the world: Something you thought was gone forever keeps returning, against all odds.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0316.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0316.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0316",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/316"
},{
  "number": 317,
  "date": "2006-09-15",
  "title": "Unconditional Love",
  "description": "Can love be taught? A family uses a controversial therapy to train their son to love them. And other stories about the hard and sometimes painful work of loving other people.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0317.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0317.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0317",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/317"
},{
  "number": 318,
  "date": "2006-10-06",
  "title": "With Great Power",
  "description": "A family wishes for years that they could do something to stop their neighbor's shocking behavior. Suddenly they get the power to decisively change things forever...and they have to decide whether they will. This, and other stories of everyday people who get saddled with great power—and the great sense of responsibility that goes with it.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0318.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0318.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0318",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/318"
},{
  "number": 319,
  "date": "2006-10-27",
  "title": "And the Call Was Coming from the Basement",
  "description": "For Halloween, scary stories that are all true. Kidnappings, zombie raccoons, haunted houses—real haunted houses!—and things that go \"EEEEK!!!\" in the night. Plus, a new story by David Sedaris, in which he walks among the dead.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0319.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0319.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0319",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/319"
},{
  "number": 320,
  "date": "2006-11-03",
  "title": "What's In A Number? — 2006 Edition",
  "description": "Recently, the British medical journal The Lancet published an study which updated their estimate of the number of Iraqis who've died since the U.S. invasion.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0320.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0320.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0320",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/320"
},{
  "number": 321,
  "date": "2006-12-01",
  "title": "Sink or Swim",
  "description": "Stories of people who are in over their heads and trying to stay afloat.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0321.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0321.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0321",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/321"
},{
  "number": 322,
  "date": "2006-12-15",
  "title": "Shouting Across the Divide",
  "description": "A Muslim woman persuades her husband that their family would be happier if they left the West Bank and moved to America. They do, and things are good...until September 11. After that, the elementary school their daughter goes to begins using a textbook that says Muslims want to kill Christians.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0322.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0322.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0322",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/322"
},{
  "number": 323,
  "date": "2007-01-05",
  "title": "The Super",
  "description": "In 1980's New York City, rent is rising: it seems out of control, and residents struggle to keep up. So Jack Hitt helps organize tenants, and threatens a rent strike. This does not go over so well with his building super, who, as it turns out, is a very dangerous man.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0323.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0323.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0323",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/323"
},{
  "number": 324,
  "date": "2007-01-26",
  "title": "My Brilliant Plan",
  "description": "An American reporter in Iraq decides to rent a house in a residential Baghdad neighborhood rather than live in a hotel and be an easy target for insurgents. And an eleven-year-old boy figures out an ingenious way to see his dead father again. Big ideas gone amok.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0324.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0324.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0324",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/324"
},{
  "number": 325,
  "date": "2007-02-02",
  "title": "Houses of Ill Repute",
  "description": "An old man in Brooklyn invites some homeless prostitutes into his house on a cold winter night. They never leave. Plus other stories about houses, such as the United States Congress, where the inhabitants don't always act as they should.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0325.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0325.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0325",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/325"
},{
  "number": 326,
  "date": "2007-02-16",
  "title": "Quiz Show",
  "description": "A man with social anxiety goes through a transformation on a TV game show, a young woman with high ideals has them dashed by a TV game show, and teams compete to solve some of the hardest puzzles in the world, for fun.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0326.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0326.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0326",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/326"
},{
  "number": 327,
  "date": "2007-03-09",
  "title": "By Proxy",
  "description": "Stories of proxy fights, proxy arguments, and proxy situations of all kinds.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0327.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0327.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0327",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/327"
},{
  "number": 328,
  "date": "2007-03-16",
  "title": "What I Learned from Television",
  "description": "Stories recorded during our 2007 live tour. Sarah Vowell, David Rakoff, Dan Savage, and other favorite contributors went on the road with us to New York, Boston, Minneapolis, Chicago, Seattle, and Los Angeles; and performed brand-new stories in front of sold-out audiences.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0328.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0328.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0328",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/328"
},{
  "number": 329,
  "date": "2007-04-06",
  "title": "Nice Work If You Can Get It",
  "description": "Stories of sudden fame, quick riches, and the downside of the dream job.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0329.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0329.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0329",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/329"
},{
  "number": 330,
  "date": "2007-04-13",
  "title": "My Reputation",
  "description": "Stories of people trying to recover from damage to their reputations—sometimes caused by others, sometimes self-inflicted.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0330.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0330.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0330",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/330"
},{
  "number": 331,
  "date": "2007-04-27",
  "title": "Habeas Schmabeas 2007",
  "description": "An updated version of our episode \"Habeas Schmabeas,\" which won a 2006 Peabody Award.Listen to a special, uncut version.Download a transcript.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0331.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0331.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0331",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/331"
},{
  "number": 332,
  "date": "2007-05-04",
  "title": "The Ten Commandments",
  "description": "Stories of people struggling to follow the Ten Commandments from the book of Exodus.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0332.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0332.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0332",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/332"
},{
  "number": 333,
  "date": "2007-05-25",
  "title": "The Center for Lessons Learned",
  "description": "Four years into the Iraq War, what have we learned? Soldiers, civilians, Iraqis, and Americans talk—and sometimes yell—about what they've learned in the last few years...including how to stay alive and why the aftermath of a war can be the trickiest time of all.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0333.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0333.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0333",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/333"
},{
  "number": 334,
  "date": "2007-06-01",
  "title": "Duty Calls",
  "description": "Josh's mother and younger brother were a mess. His mother drank too much. His brother got arrested a lot. Josh hadn't lived with them since he was nine, and they didn't play much of a role in his daily life—until duty called, and they took over his life.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0334.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0334.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0334",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/334"
},{
  "number": 335,
  "date": "2007-06-15",
  "title": "Big Wide World",
  "description": "When he was a teenager, Haider worked in the Iraqi Ministry of Information. He was specially trained to talk to visiting dignitaries and foreign reporters, and he loved his job. It was exciting, and he was treated like a celebrity.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0335.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0335.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0335",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/335"
},{
  "number": 336,
  "date": "2007-07-06",
  "title": "Who Can You Save?",
  "description": "Stories about the pitfalls of trying to do the right thing.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0336.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0336.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0336",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/336"
},{
  "number": 337,
  "date": "2007-07-27",
  "title": "Man vs. History",
  "description": "Stories about people taking history into their own hands. We hear from two men in two different wars. One is trying to make a difference in the current war in Iraq. The other is with the CIA at the very end of the Cold War.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0337.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0337.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0337",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/337"
},{
  "number": 338,
  "date": "2007-08-10",
  "title": "The Spokesman",
  "description": "Attention listeners. In the Internet version of Act One of this show, we have left one curse word un-bleeped at a critical moment.Stories of what can happen when you go from being a private person to a public face.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0338.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0338.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0338",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/338"
},{
  "number": 339,
  "date": "2007-08-24",
  "title": "Break-Up",
  "description": "Writer Starlee Kine on what makes the perfect break-up song and whether really sad music can actually make you feel better. Plus, an eight-year-old author of a book about divorce, and other stories from the heart of heartbreak.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0339.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0339.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0339",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/339"
},{
  "number": 340,
  "date": "2007-09-07",
  "title": "The Devil in Me",
  "description": "Stories of people trying to exorcize their inner demons.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0340.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0340.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0340",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/340"
},{
  "number": 341,
  "date": "2007-10-05",
  "title": "How to Talk to Kids",
  "description": "Stories of adults taking very different approaches to communicating with children.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0341.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0341.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0341",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/341"
},{
  "number": 342,
  "date": "2007-11-02",
  "title": "How to Rest in Peace",
  "description": "There are umpteen TV shows about solving murders, endless whodunits in bookstores. But what happens to the people left behind after the detectives close the case? Three stories about children trying to figure out how to live normally after their parents have died.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0342.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0342.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0342",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/342"
},{
  "number": 343,
  "date": "2007-11-23",
  "title": "Poultry Slam 2007",
  "description": "For Thanksgiving, the time of year when poultry consumption is highest, it's our annual program about turkeys, chickens, and fowl of all types.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0343.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0343.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0343",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/343"
},{
  "number": 344,
  "date": "2007-11-30",
  "title": "The Competition",
  "description": "Stories of the unintended consequences of market forces.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0344.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0344.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0344",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/344"
},{
  "number": 345,
  "date": "2007-12-14",
  "title": "Ties That Bind",
  "description": "A young girl named Sarah receives a heart transplant from a boy her age, and her mother sets off to find out more about the kid who saved her daughter's life. But years later, Sarah's not sure she wants to know.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0345.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0345.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0345",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/345"
},{
  "number": 346,
  "date": "2007-12-21",
  "title": "Home Alone",
  "description": "A 79-year-old woman, Mary Ann, dies in Los Angeles. She's lived alone for decades. No one knows her—or her next of kin. There's a body to be buried, a house full of stuff to get rid of.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0346.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0346.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0346",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/346"
},{
  "number": 347,
  "date": "2008-01-18",
  "title": "Matchmakers",
  "description": "Sabir, a young man in Afghanistan, thought he'd found true love but he couldn't afford a wedding. So two foreign aid workers, friends of his, decide to come to his rescue. They soon find out making a lasting love match isn't as simple as writing a check.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0347.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0347.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0347",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/347"
},{
  "number": 348,
  "date": "2008-02-08",
  "title": "Tough Room",
  "description": "This week we bring you backstage with comedy writers at The Onion. They start with over 600 potential headlines for their fake-news newspaper each week, and over the course of two days, in the very tough room that is their editorial conference room, they select 16 to go in the paper. Plus other people speaking their minds in very tough rooms.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0348.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0348.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0348",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/348"
},{
  "number": 349,
  "date": "2008-02-15",
  "title": "Valentine's Day 2008",
  "description": "Veronica Chater's mother wants to go to a resort in Mexico with a friend. Her father, a former cop with an extravagant sense of security, prepares as if she's headed for a war zone. This, and other stories about couples, that happen decades after the moment their eyes meet.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0349.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0349.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0349",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/349"
},{
  "number": 350,
  "date": "2008-02-29",
  "title": "Human Resources",
  "description": "The true story of little-known rooms in the New York City Board of Education building. Teachers are told to report there instead of their classrooms. No reason is usually given.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0350.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0350.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0350",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/350"
},{
  "number": 351,
  "date": "2008-03-07",
  "title": "Return to Childhood 2008",
  "description": "Seventh-grader Kayla Hernandez likes to reminisce about when she was a child, back in fifth grade. She visits her school, where her fifth grade class met, and looks at her old books, thinks about what happened there.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0351.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0351.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0351",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/351"
},{
  "number": 352,
  "date": "2008-03-14",
  "title": "The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar",
  "description": "In 1912 a four year-old boy named Bobby Dunbar went missing in a swamp in Louisiana. Eight months later, he was found in the hands of a wandering handyman in Mississippi (the picture at left was taken just days later). Reporter Tal McThenia co-authored a book about the Bobby Dunbar story called A Case For Solomon.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0352.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0352.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0352",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/352"
},{
  "number": 353,
  "date": "2008-03-28",
  "title": "The Audacity of Government",
  "description": "Stories of the Bush Administration, its unique style of asserting presidential authority, and its quest to redefine the limits of presidential power.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0353.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0353.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0353",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/353"
},{
  "number": 354,
  "date": "2008-04-18",
  "title": "Mistakes Were Made",
  "description": "It's the late 1960s, and in the new technology of cryonics, a California TV repairman named Bob sees an opportunity to help people cheat death. But freezing dead people so scientists can reanimate them in the future is a lot harder than it sounds. Harder still was admitting to the family members of people Bob had frozen that he'd screwed up. Badly.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0354.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0354.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0354",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/354"
},{
  "number": 355,
  "date": "2008-05-09",
  "title": "The Giant Pool of Money",
  "description": "A special program about the housing crisis produced in a special collaboration with NPR News. We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the turmoil on Wall Street? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0355.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0355.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0355",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/355"
},{
  "number": 356,
  "date": "2008-05-30",
  "title": "The Prosecutor",
  "description": "A lawyer in the Justice Department gets the professional opportunity of a lifetime: To be the lead prosecutor in one of the first high-profile terrorist cases since 9/11. But things go badly for him.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0356.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0356.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0356",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/356"
},{
  "number": 357,
  "date": "2008-06-13",
  "title": "The Truth Will Out",
  "description": "Does the truth always come out? Of course not! Though sometimes it comes out in the most uncomfortable ways imaginable. Stories of concealed truths bubbling to the surface, including a brand-new, unpublished story by fiction writer and filmmaker Etgar Keret.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0357.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0357.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0357",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/357"
},{
  "number": 358,
  "date": "2008-06-27",
  "title": "Social Engineering",
  "description": "Governments are always looking for ways to change behavior—stopping people from driving drunk, or encouraging them to recycle. This week, we have stories of social engineering on a smaller scale.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0358.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0358.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0358",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/358"
},{
  "number": 359,
  "date": "2008-07-18",
  "title": "Life After Death",
  "description": "Stories of people haunted by guilt over their role in others' deaths, even when everyone agrees they're blameless.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0359.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0359.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0359",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/359"
},{
  "number": 360,
  "date": "2008-07-25",
  "title": "Switched At Birth",
  "description": "On a summer day in 1951, two baby girls were born in a hospital in small-town Wisconsin. The infants were accidentally switched, and went home with the wrong families.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0360.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0360.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0360",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/360"
},{
  "number": 361,
  "date": "2008-08-08",
  "title": "Fear of Sleep",
  "description": "Mike Birbiglia got used to strange things happening to him when he slept—until something happened that almost killed him (Mike's story is now a feature film, Sleepwalk With Me). This and other reasons to fear sleep, including bedbugs, \"The Shining,\" and mild-mannered husbands who turn into maniacs while asleep.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0361.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0361.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0361",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/361"
},{
  "number": 362,
  "date": "2008-08-22",
  "title": "Got You Pegged",
  "description": "Shalom Auslander goes on vacation with his family, and suspects the beloved, chatty old man in the room next door is an imposter—and sets out to prove it. This and other stories about the pitfalls of making snap judgments about others.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0362.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0362.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0362",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/362"
},{
  "number": 363,
  "date": "2008-09-12",
  "title": "Enforcers",
  "description": "Stories about people who take the law into their own hands, even when the line between enforcing the rules and breaking them gets kind of hazy.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0363.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0363.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0363",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/363"
},{
  "number": 364,
  "date": "2008-09-26",
  "title": "Going Big",
  "description": "Stories about people who take grand, sweeping approaches to solving problems of all sorts.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0364.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0364.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0364",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/364"
},{
  "number": 365,
  "date": "2008-10-03",
  "title": "Another Frightening Show About the Economy",
  "description": "Alex Blumberg and NPR's Adam Davidson—the two guys who reported our Giant Pool of Money episode—are back, in collaboration with the Planet Money podcast.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0365.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0365.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0365",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/365"
},{
  "number": 366,
  "date": "2008-10-10",
  "title": "A Better Mousetrap 2008",
  "description": "Stories about people trying to find new solutions to age-old problems—solutions that sometimes cause problems of their own. Alex Blumberg returns (in collaboration with the Planet Money podcast) with the latest in the financial crisis.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0366.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0366.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0366",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/366"
},{
  "number": 367,
  "date": "2008-10-24",
  "title": "Ground Game",
  "description": "This American Life goes to Pennsylvania, a battleground within a battleground, to figure out why, and how, John McCain and Barack Obama both think they can win there. And we get to know the ordinary people who've become the candidates' most forceful foot soldiers.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0367.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0367.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0367",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/367"
},{
  "number": 368,
  "date": "2008-11-07",
  "title": "Who Do You Think You Are?",
  "description": "This week we bring you stories of privilege and the lengths some will go to to maintain it. In one story, a woman fights—on tape!—with her city's parking enforcer about playing favorites.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0368.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0368.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0368",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/368"
},{
  "number": 369,
  "date": "2008-11-28",
  "title": "Poultry Slam 2008",
  "description": "A man in Pakistan wants to break his friend out of prison. He buys him an amulet that supposedly has the power to protect anyone from harm. But just to be on the safe side, he decides to test the amulet by trying it out first. On a chicken.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0369.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0369.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0369",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/369"
},{
  "number": 370,
  "date": "2008-12-19",
  "title": "Ruining It for the Rest of Us",
  "description": "Stories of people who ruin things for everyone else...or who are accused of that. Like the San Diego parents who didn't vaccinate their child for measles.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0370.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0370.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0370",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/370"
},{
  "number": 371,
  "date": "2008-12-26",
  "title": "Scenes From a Mall",
  "description": "This American Life spends several days in  a mall in suburban Tennessee, to document life in the mall during the run-up to Christmas. Also, a rift in a national association of professional Santas—the Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas (yes, there is such a group).",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0371.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0371.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0371",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/371"
},{
  "number": 372,
  "date": "2009-01-16",
  "title": "The Inauguration Show",
  "description": "On the eve of Barack Obama's inauguration, we sent reporters out all over the country to talk to people about how they're feeling about this new president. Do they believe things will change? Do they think there'll be changes in their own lives?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0372.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0372.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0372",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/372"
},{
  "number": 373,
  "date": "2009-01-30",
  "title": "The New Boss",
  "description": "Stories about what happens when someone new takes over—someone with a vision of how things ought to be.  Including international economics correspondent Adam Davidson of the Planet Money podcast on how Obama's new stimulus plan might actually be the first ever test of a very, very old theory.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0373.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0373.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0373",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/373"
},{
  "number": 374,
  "date": "2009-02-13",
  "title": "Somewhere Out There",
  "description": "Of all the 6 and a half billion people in the world, what are the odds that any two people are a real match? Stories from people who know they've beat the odds, and the lengths they've gone to do it.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0374.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0374.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0374",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/374"
},{
  "number": 375,
  "date": "2009-02-27",
  "title": "Bad Bank",
  "description": "The collapse of the banking system explained, in just 59 minutes.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0375.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0375.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0375",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/375"
},{
  "number": 376,
  "date": "2009-03-13",
  "title": "Wrong Side of History",
  "description": "Bernie Epton went down in history as the Other Guy: the white opponent who almost defeated the first black mayor of Chicago. But what's the real story of someone who ended up on the wrong side of history? That and other stories of people with wildly popular or unpopular views for one moment in time, and how those views stand up years, decades, even centuries later.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0376.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0376.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0376",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/376"
},{
  "number": 377,
  "date": "2009-03-27",
  "title": "Scenes From a Recession",
  "description": "The economy works in mysterious ways. This week, we highlight the unusual circumstances our economic drought has left us in, and the newly hatched plans being made to survive it.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0377.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0377.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0377",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/377"
},{
  "number": 378,
  "date": "2009-04-17",
  "title": "This I Used to Believe",
  "description": "Stories of people forced to let go of their firmly held beliefs. When the daughter of a pro-choice activist concludes that abortion is murder, her mother goes to extraordinary lengths to persuade her daughter to switch sides. And after a woman loses her faith, a football coach—whom she's never met—tries to restore it.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0378.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0378.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0378",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/378"
},{
  "number": 379,
  "date": "2009-05-01",
  "title": "Return To The Scene Of The Crime",
  "description": "A live episode of the radio program, including stories told on stage by Dan Savage and Mike Birbiglia.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0379.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0379.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0379",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/379"
},{
  "number": 380,
  "date": "2009-05-15",
  "title": "No Map",
  "description": "Stories of people who find themselves in situations far from the beaten path, where there are no guidelines and no useful precedents, including the return of Squirrel Cop.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0380.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0380.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0380",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/380"
},{
  "number": 381,
  "date": "2009-05-22",
  "title": "Turncoat",
  "description": "A well-known activist—an anarchic, revolutionary activist—is accused of spying on other activists for the FBI. The strangest thing about the rumor is, it's true. How Brandon Darby transformed from cop-hater to federal witness. Plus, a story by Etgar Keret, about a boy who betrays his people with a pair of shoes.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0381.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0381.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0381",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/381"
},{
  "number": 382,
  "date": "2009-06-05",
  "title": "The Watchmen",
  "description": "Since Congress hasn't held 1930's-style hearings into the causes of the financial crisis, we stage one of our own.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0382.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0382.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0382",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/382"
},{
  "number": 383,
  "date": "2009-06-19",
  "title": "Origin Story",
  "description": "This week we bring you little-known and surprising stories of how all sorts of institutions—from a controversial legal precedent to a Hollywood teen dance flick—began.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0383.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0383.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0383",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/383"
},{
  "number": 384,
  "date": "2009-06-26",
  "title": "Fall Guy",
  "description": "Sometimes when things go wrong, parsing out who all is to blame and taking them to task is just too complicated and haaaard! What's easy is pinning it all on one person and watching them go down in flames.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0384.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0384.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0384",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/384"
},{
  "number": 385,
  "date": "2009-07-10",
  "title": "Pro Se",
  "description": "It's tempting to act as your own lawyer, to argue your own cause. Who better to defend your position than you? This week, stories of pro se defenses: Some brilliant, some disastrous.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0385.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0385.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0385",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/385"
},{
  "number": 386,
  "date": "2009-07-24",
  "title": "Fine Print",
  "description": "Stories where the fine print changes everything, whether you read it or not.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0386.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0386.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0386",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/386"
},{
  "number": 387,
  "date": "2009-08-07",
  "title": "Arms Trader 2009",
  "description": "The U.S. government spent two years on a sting operation trapping an Indian man named Hemant Lakhani, whom they suspected of being an illegal arms dealer.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0387.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0387.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0387",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/387"
},{
  "number": 388,
  "date": "2009-09-04",
  "title": "Rest Stop",
  "description": "Nine radio producers. Two days. One rest stop on the New York State Thruway. In this show, we'll bring you stories of people who are just passing through, and people who are at the rest stop every day—working. One of them has worked there since 1969. A bunch of others came from Asia and eastern Europe to pour coffee for travelers.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0388.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0388.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0388",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/388"
},{
  "number": 389,
  "date": "2009-09-11",
  "title": "Frenemies",
  "description": "This week we bring you stories about friends. Or wait, enemies? How about both? Tales of estranged sisters, BFFs breaking up and making up and breaking up, and how reality stars walk the fine line between making friends and making a name for themselves. Including a story from David Rakoff, whose new book Half Empty is available now.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0389.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0389.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0389",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/389"
},{
  "number": 390,
  "date": "2009-09-25",
  "title": "Return To The Giant Pool of Money",
  "description": "In which we mark the anniversary of the economic collapse and the anniversary of Planet Money: Recapping some of the original episode, The Giant Pool of Money, and finding out what's happened to all those guys in the year since.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0390.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0390.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0390",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/390"
},{
  "number": 391,
  "date": "2009-10-09",
  "title": "More Is Less",
  "description": "An hour explaining the American health care system, specifically, why it is that costs keep rising. One story looks at the doctors, one at the patients and one at the insurance industry.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0391.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0391.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0391",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/391"
},{
  "number": 392,
  "date": "2009-10-16",
  "title": "Someone Else's Money",
  "description": "This week, we bring you a deeper look inside the health insurance industry. The dark side of prescription drug coupons. A story about Pet Health Insurance, which is in its infancy, and how it is changing human behaviors—for example, if you have the pet health insurance, you bring your pet to the vet more often, and the vet makes more money and...well, you can see the parallels.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0392.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0392.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0392",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/392"
},{
  "number": 393,
  "date": "2009-10-30",
  "title": "Infidelity",
  "description": "Stories of cheating, cheaters and the cheated. Writer James Braly with a story about temptation (performed and recorded at The Moth), Dani Shapiro on being the mistress, and more.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0393.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0393.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0393",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/393"
},{
  "number": 394,
  "date": "2009-11-06",
  "title": "Bait and Switch",
  "description": "Stories about people who take the bait, and those who place it. Including the story of man who tries to investigate a neighborhood crime and ends up in jail himself. And the story of the pitfalls of luring customers to a make-believe pizza delivery place.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0394.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0394.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0394",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/394"
},{
  "number": 395,
  "date": "2009-11-27",
  "title": "Middle of the Night",
  "description": "Stories of people who are up while the rest of us are sleeping—some for work, some for play, and some for a free sandwich. Including the story of a woman walking alone at night, who encounters another woman walking alone at night, for the exact same reason, and a whole population of people haggling over the cost of oranges at 3 in the morning.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0395.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0395.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0395",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/395"
},{
  "number": 396,
  "date": "2009-12-18",
  "title": "0396",
  "description": "This year, The Princeton Review named Penn State the #1 Party School in America. It's a rotating crown—last year it was University of Florida, before that it was West Virginia University. So we wondered: what's it like to be at the country's top party school?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0396.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0396.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0396",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/396"
},{
  "number": 397,
  "date": "2010-01-01",
  "title": 2010,
  "description": "At the start of a new year, journalistic outfits put out lots of mealy \"perhaps oil prices will rise or perhaps they won't\" predictions for the coming year. Instead of that, we asked our contributors to predict real events that will happen to them and the people they know in 2010.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0397.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0397.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0397",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/397"
},{
  "number": 398,
  "date": "2010-01-08",
  "title": "Long Shot",
  "description": "Stories of people betting on something with very bad odds, mostly because they have no other choice.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0398.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0398.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0398",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/398"
},{
  "number": 399,
  "date": "2010-01-22",
  "title": "Contents Unknown",
  "description": "A man named David Maclean finds himself in a train station in India, with no idea how he got there or who he is. His memory gone, he has no choice but to let other people—police, doctors, friends, family—create an identity for him. David's book about this incident is called The Answer to the Riddle Is Me. Plus other stories of filling in the blank.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0399.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0399.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0399",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/399"
},{
  "number": 400,
  "date": "2010-02-12",
  "title": "Stories Pitched by Our Parents",
  "description": "For our 400th show, we try something harder than anything we've ever tried in the previous 399. We take the random ideas that members of our own families have told us at weddings and family gatherings would be \"perfect for the show\"...and we actually try to make those ideas into stories.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0400.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0400.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0400",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/400"
},{
  "number": 401,
  "date": "2010-02-19",
  "title": "Parent Trap",
  "description": "Stories about parents setting accidental traps for their children, and sometimes for themselves, including a story from WNYC's Radiolab about a chimp raised twice—once as a human child, and again as a chimp.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0401.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0401.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0401",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/401"
},{
  "number": 402,
  "date": "2010-03-12",
  "title": "Save the Day",
  "description": "Stories about one person single-handedly taking charge of a situation gone wrong—including one man's mission to rescue two kids who were kidnapped by alleged murderers and taken to Mexico, and another about a professor's mission to keep the educators of a liberal arts college from extinction.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0402.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0402.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0402",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/402"
},{
  "number": 403,
  "date": "2010-03-26",
  "title": "NUMMI",
  "description": "A car plant in Fremont California that might have saved the U.S. car industry. In 1984, General Motors and Toyota opened NUMMI as a joint venture. Toyota showed GM the secrets of its production system: How it made cars of much higher quality and much lower cost than GM achieved. Frank Langfitt explains why GM didn't learn the lessons—until it was too late.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0403.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0403.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0403",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/403"
},{
  "number": 404,
  "date": "2010-04-02",
  "title": "Enemy Camp 2010",
  "description": "Living behind enemy lines, among the enemy, it's sometimes hard to remember why you're fighting in the first place.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0404.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0404.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0404",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/404"
},{
  "number": 405,
  "date": "2010-04-09",
  "title": "Inside Job",
  "description": "For seven months a team of investigative journalists from ProPublica looked into a story for us, the inside story of one company that made hundreds of millions of dollars for itself while worsening the financial crisis for the rest of us.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0405.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0405.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0405",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/405"
},{
  "number": 406,
  "date": "2010-04-23",
  "title": "True Urban Legends",
  "description": "Can a rat crawl through your plumbing and end up in your toilet? Can your cell phone give you a brain tumor? Download a transcript or read much more information about our Steve Poizner story.  Christopher Ketcham's GQ cell article is here.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0406.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0406.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0406",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/406"
},{
  "number": 407,
  "date": "2010-05-07",
  "title": "The Bridge",
  "description": "We bring you stories of bridges from three different countries, including one in China that's famous for its massive size and its high suicide rate. One takes it upon himself to patrol the bridge, looking for jumpers. You can read entries from the watchman's blog here. This and other stories where we stop before getting to the other side.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0407.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0407.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0407",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/407"
},{
  "number": 408,
  "date": "2010-05-21",
  "title": "Island Time",
  "description": "Unprecedented amounts of money have been pledged to Haitian relief in the last few months. American households have given over $1 billion and in March, 120 countries pledged over $9 billion(!) to rebuild. The only problem is that—historically—blanketing a country in aid and money has never really worked so well. Is there a chance this time things could be different?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0408.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0408.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0408",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/408"
},{
  "number": 409,
  "date": "2010-06-04",
  "title": "Held Hostage",
  "description": "A kidnapping victim in Colombia spends his nights listening to a radio station that plays messages from the families of the kidnapped. That and other stories of people held captive—by criminals, by paperwork, and in one man's case, his own body—and the ways they try to cope.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0409.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0409.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0409",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/409"
},{
  "number": 410,
  "date": "2010-06-18",
  "title": "Social Contract",
  "description": "Richard Ravitch has helped fix three governmental crises, including when New York City nearly went bankrupt in 1975. What's changed, to make it so much harder for him to solve the state's current financial crisis? (Photo: stress balls in the state budget office.)",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0410.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0410.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0410",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/410"
},{
  "number": 411,
  "date": "2010-06-25",
  "title": "First Contact",
  "description": "Stories of first encounters with unknown and distant beings: Girls, foreigners and perhaps even aliens. Including a story by comedian Mike Birbiglia about his first kiss.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0411.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0411.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0411",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/411"
},{
  "number": 412,
  "date": "2010-07-16",
  "title": "Million Dollar Idea",
  "description": "Back in the 1980s Michael Larson made the most money ever on the game show Press Your Luck. And it was no accident—Larson had a plan to get rich that surprised everyone: The home viewers, the show's producers and mostly Larson himself.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0412.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0412.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0412",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/412"
},{
  "number": 413,
  "date": "2010-07-30",
  "title": "Georgia Rambler",
  "description": "In the 1970s a reporter named Charles Salter wrote a column for the Atlanta Journal called \"Georgia Rambler.\" He'd get into his car, head out to some small town, and ask around until he found a story. This week, nine of us go to Georgia to try it out for ourselves, in small towns all over the state.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0413.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0413.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0413",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/413"
},{
  "number": 414,
  "date": "2010-09-10",
  "title": "Right to Remain Silent",
  "description": "Stories about people who have the right to remain silent... but choose not to exercise that right—including police officer Adrian Schoolcraft, who secretly recorded his supervisors telling officers to manipulate crime statistics and make illegal arrests.  The Village Voice series that broke Schoolcraft's story, written by Graham Rayman, is here.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0414.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0414.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0414",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/414"
},{
  "number": 415,
  "date": "2010-09-24",
  "title": "Crybabies",
  "description": "Crybabies are annoying. They whine, they complain, sometimes they ruin it for the rest of us. But being a crybaby can be a really effective tactic. We have stories of crybabies in sports, in politics, on Wall Street, on the streets of California, including a new story by David Sedaris.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0415.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0415.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0415",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/415"
},{
  "number": 416,
  "date": "2010-10-15",
  "title": "Iraq After Us",
  "description": "Operation Iraqi Freedom is over. And the next chapter of Iraq is being written now. But what actually happened there the last seven years? Producer Nancy Updike and reporter Larry Kaplow spent a month in Iraq talking to Iraqis and Americans about the war that tore the country apart, and what's happening as we try to put it back together.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0416.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0416.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0416",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/416"
},{
  "number": 417,
  "date": "2010-10-29",
  "title": "This Party Sucks",
  "description": "A show for this year's midterm elections. Two best friends in Michigan, both political novices, get tired of yelling at their TVs and take matters into their own hands.  They form a Tea Party chapter to effect political change. But when push comes to shove and they have to choose a candidate, their ideologies, their principles and their friendship explode.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0417.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0417.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0417",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/417"
},{
  "number": 418,
  "date": "2010-11-05",
  "title": "Toxie",
  "description": "In January 2010, reporters from Planet Money bought a toxic asset—you know, the things that blew up wall street banks, sank the economy and brought the global financial system to a halt—one of those. And \"Toxie\" turned out to be an encyclopedia of the financial crisis. Here's an animation about Toxie. And here's an interactive timeline tracking its value.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0418.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0418.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0418",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/418"
},{
  "number": 419,
  "date": "2010-11-12",
  "title": "Petty Tyrant",
  "description": "In Schenectady, NY, a school maintenance man named Steve Raucci works his way up the ranks for 30 years, until finally he's in charge of the maintenance department. That's when he starts messing with his employees. Teasing them at meetings. Punishing them with crummy work assignments. Or worse things, like secretly slashing their tires in the middle of the night.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0419.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0419.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0419",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/419"
},{
  "number": 420,
  "date": "2010-11-19",
  "title": "Neighborhood Watch",
  "description": "It’s amazing just how much drama can take place in the mini-universe of a neighborhood. This week we bring you stories of neighbors watching out for each other, for better and worse, including a story from CBC's WireTap.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0420.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0420.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0420",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/420"
},{
  "number": 421,
  "date": "2010-12-03",
  "title": "Last Man Standing",
  "description": "Is it stubbornness? Tenacity? Survival of the fittest? This week, stories about people who feel compelled to keep going, especially when everyone else has given up.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0421.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0421.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0421",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/421"
},{
  "number": 422,
  "date": "2010-12-17",
  "title": "Comedians of Christmas Comedy Special",
  "description": "The holidays are stressful so we booked a seasonal pick-me-up: an hour of comedy.  Including comedians Wyatt Cenac, Mike Birbiglia, Julian McCullough, Jenny Slate, Gabe Liedman and Edith Zimmerman. Musical guests: Dave Hill and Doug Gillard.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0422.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0422.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0422",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/422"
},{
  "number": 423,
  "date": "2011-01-07",
  "title": "The Invention of Money",
  "description": "Five reporters stumbled on what seems like a basic question: What is money?  The unsettling answer they found: Money is fiction.  Photo: Stone money on the island of Yap.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0423.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0423.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0423",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/423"
},{
  "number": 424,
  "date": "2011-01-14",
  "title": "Kid Politics",
  "description": "What if, say, the U.S.-led invasion of Grenada in 1983 had been decided, not by Ronald Reagan, but by a bunch of middle-schoolers? And what if every rule at your high school had been determined, not by teachers and administrators, but entirely by teenagers? This week, stories about whether, when it comes to governing, kids do any better than grown-ups.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0424.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0424.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0424",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/424"
},{
  "number": 425,
  "date": "2011-01-21",
  "title": "Slow To React",
  "description": "This week we have stories where people's reactions move very slowly, including the story of a wedding 17 years in the making, and what it's like when you have a terminal illness that's supposed to kill you in a year or two, and it decides to take its time. Note: The story in Act One isn’t suitable for children and we’d like to note a trigger warning to survivors of abuse.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0425.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0425.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0425",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/425"
},{
  "number": 426,
  "date": "2011-02-04",
  "title": "Tough Room 2011",
  "description": "This week we bring you backstage with comedy writers at The Onion. They start with over 600 potential headlines for their fake-news newspaper each week, and over the course of two days, in the very tough room that is their editorial conference room, they select 16 to go in the paper. Plus other people speaking their minds in very tough rooms.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0426.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0426.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0426",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/426"
},{
  "number": 427,
  "date": "2011-02-11",
  "title": "Original Recipe",
  "description": "The formula for Coca-Cola  is one of the most jealously guarded trade secrets in the world. Locked in a vault in Atlanta.  Supposedly unreplicable.  But we think we may have found the original recipe.  And to see if the formula actually might be Coke, we made a batch.  Or, anyway, we asked the folks at Jones Soda and Sovereign Flavors to whip up some up, to see if it tastes like Coke. The recipe is here.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0427.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0427.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0427",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/427"
},{
  "number": 428,
  "date": "2011-03-04",
  "title": "Oh You Shouldn't Have",
  "description": "Stories about the perils of giving and receiving gifts: Ones that go over spectacularly well in spite of being in poor taste, and ones that flop even with the best intentions. Including what happens when—surprise!—your whole past gets laid out for a live TV audience.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0428.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0428.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0428",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/428"
},{
  "number": 429,
  "date": "2011-03-11",
  "title": "Will They Know Me Back Home?",
  "description": "Stories of people who've grown so accustomed to wartime that the lives they've left behind no longer make sense. Including a US battalion going home on leave after 15 months of deployment, and an Iraqi translator's story of life after the gig is up.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0429.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0429.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0429",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/429"
},{
  "number": 430,
  "date": "2011-03-25",
  "title": "Very Tough Love",
  "description": "This week: A drug court program that we believe is run differently from every other drug court in the country, doing some things that are contrary to the very philosophy of drug court.  The result?  People with offenses that would get minimal or no sentences elsewhere sometimes end up in the system five to ten years. (Transcript.)",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0430.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0430.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0430",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/430"
},{
  "number": 431,
  "date": "2011-04-01",
  "title": "See No Evil",
  "description": "When things are awkward or uncomfortable or distressing, a lot of times it's easier to not think about it. This week we have stories of people pretending that everything is okay and ignoring the awful stuff that's staring them straight in the face. Including a story of deceit and intrigue involving commemorative spoons from the Kennedy Center.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0431.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0431.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0431",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/431"
},{
  "number": 432,
  "date": "2011-04-08",
  "title": "Know When To Fold 'Em",
  "description": "When is it time to walk away, and when is it time to run? This week we have the story of an entire country deciding whether to give up on just one of its citizens, when to hold 'em in order to win nearly a million dollars in poker, and a new story from Dave Dickerson.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0432.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0432.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0432",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/432"
},{
  "number": 433,
  "date": "2011-04-15",
  "title": "Fine Print 2011",
  "description": "Stories where the fine print changes everything, whether you read it or not.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0433.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0433.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0433",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/433"
},{
  "number": 434,
  "date": "2011-05-06",
  "title": "This Week",
  "description": "This week we're trying something we've never tried before: An hour of stories about...this week. We take a crack at major news events, like what's happening in Egypt; and at the most minor, like an 8-year-old who's finally taking the training wheels off her bike. The stories are united by one thing: They all happened in the seven days prior to broadcast.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0434.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0434.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0434",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/434"
},{
  "number": 435,
  "date": "2011-05-13",
  "title": "How To Create a Job",
  "description": "It seems like every politician has a plan for putting people back to work. But we and the Planet Money team couldn’t help but wonder…how do you create a job? Can politicians truly create many jobs? Is it possible the whole thing is just well-intentioned hot air?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0435.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0435.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0435",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/435"
},{
  "number": 436,
  "date": "2011-05-27",
  "title": "The Psychopath Test",
  "description": "Recently we heard about this test that could determine if someone was a psychopath. So, naturally, our staff decided to take it. This week we hear the results. Plus Jon Ronson asks the question: is this man a psychopath?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0436.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0436.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0436",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/436"
},{
  "number": 437,
  "date": "2011-06-03",
  "title": "Old Boys Network",
  "description": "Stories about standing up to the man—or, really, the men. Nurses at a small Texas hospital report a well-connected doctor for dangerous medical practices, and find themselves under arrest. Plus...how political operators in Chicago get to be judges.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0437.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0437.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0437",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/437"
},{
  "number": 438,
  "date": "2011-06-17",
  "title": "Father's Day 2011",
  "description": "Yes yes yes you've heard it all before, when it comes to stories of fathers and their children.  There's the story of the kid who idolizes his dad, but then learns something and becomes disappointed.  Or the opposite story, where the kid gives up on his dad when he's still young, and then much later comes to have a grudging respect.  This week for fathers day: surprising stories of fathers trying to be good dads.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0438.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0438.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0438",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/438"
},{
  "number": 439,
  "date": "2011-06-24",
  "title": "A House Divided",
  "description": "Stories about people who find themselves either unexpectedly being singled out or doing the singling out. Including one story about nine public officials whose constituents are trying to throw them out of office, and another story about a man's very physical battle with himself.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0439.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0439.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0439",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/439"
},{
  "number": 440,
  "date": "2011-07-08",
  "title": "Game Changer",
  "description": "A professor in Pennsylvania makes a calculation, to discover that his state is sitting atop a massive reserve of natural gas—enough to revolutionize how America gets its energy. But another professor in Pennsylvania does a different calculation and reaches a troubling conclusion: that getting natural gas out of the ground poses a risk to public health. Two men, two calculations, and two very different consequences. (Transcript)",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0440.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0440.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0440",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/440"
},{
  "number": 441,
  "date": "2011-07-22",
  "title": "When Patents Attack!",
  "description": "Why would a company rent an office in a tiny town in East Texas, put a nameplate on the door, and leave it completely empty for a year? The answer involves a controversial billionaire physicist in Seattle, a 40 pound cookbook, and a war waging right now, all across the software and tech industries. (Transcript)",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0441.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0441.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0441",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/441"
},{
  "number": 442,
  "date": "2011-07-29",
  "title": "Thugs",
  "description": "Like a lot of Mexican towns, Florencia has had its share of problems dealing with drug gangs. That is until recently, when new narcos rolled into town telling residents that they were there to liberate them. They promised that people would live in peace and tranquility. And so far, it's working. As long as the narcos are on the streets with guns, people feel safe. That and other stories of thugs.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0442.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0442.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0442",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/442"
},{
  "number": 443,
  "date": "2011-08-12",
  "title": "Amusement Park",
  "description": "We head to some of the happiest places on Earth: Amusement Parks! Jonathan Goldstein revisits one he worked at as a teen, Ira takes us behind the scenes at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, where the staff so loves their jobs they make music videos and other videos.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0443.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0443.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0443",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/443"
},{
  "number": 444,
  "date": "2011-08-26",
  "title": "Gossip",
  "description": "This week, Sarah Koenig hosts, as we tackle the thing we all hate to love: Gossip. That's right; we've got rumor, we've got innuendo, and we've got a story of gossipers gone pro. Sarah even makes a compelling case that in some places, gossip could very well be saving lives. But you didn't hear it from us.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0444.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0444.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0444",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/444"
},{
  "number": 445,
  "date": "2011-09-09",
  "title": "Ten Years In",
  "description": "In this show, we return to people who've been on This American Life in the last ten years, whose lives were drastically altered by 9/11, including Hyder Akbar, an Afghan-American teen who moved to Afghanistan after his father was tapped to become governor of Kunar province there.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0445.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0445.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0445",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/445"
},{
  "number": 446,
  "date": "2011-09-16",
  "title": "Living Without (2011)",
  "description": "Stories of people living without. Nubar Alexanian explains what fish can do for him that his own ears cannot. Bobby Morris, on leaving baseball. And other stories.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0446.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0446.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0446",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/446"
},{
  "number": 447,
  "date": "2011-09-23",
  "title": "The Incredible Case of the P.I. Moms",
  "description": "What do you get when you take a P.I. firm, then add in a bunch of sexy soccer moms, official sponsorship from Glock, a lying boss, and delusions of grandeur?  This week's show.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0447.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0447.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0447",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/447"
},{
  "number": 448,
  "date": "2011-10-07",
  "title": "Adventure!",
  "description": "Sometimes you choose the adventure and sometimes the adventure chooses you. This week, stories that pinpoint when people's boring old lives turn into something wildly unfamiliar. Including a story of one young man's time served in a Chinese prison, and a handful of adventure stories from some of our favorite writers.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0448.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0448.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0448",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/448"
},{
  "number": 449,
  "date": "2011-10-28",
  "title": "Middle School",
  "description": "This week, at the suggestion of a 14-year-old listener, we bring you stories from the awkward, confusing, hormonally charged world of middle school. Including a teacher who transforms peer pressure into a force for good, and reports from the frontlines of the middle school dance. (Pictured: 7th graders at a costume dance, dressed as chararacters from The Outsiders.)",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0449.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0449.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0449",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/449"
},{
  "number": 450,
  "date": "2011-11-11",
  "title": "So Crazy It Just Might Work",
  "description": "A few years ago a cancer researcher named Jonathan Brody gave a speech at his alma mater saying that people in his field really needed to think outside the box to find a cure. Afterward he was approached by his old orchestra teacher, who had something way out of the box—a theory that he could kill cancer cells with electromagnetic waves. And other stories.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0450.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0450.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0450",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/450"
},{
  "number": 451,
  "date": "2011-11-18",
  "title": "Back to Penn State",
  "description": "In the wake of the recent news, listeners have contacted us and tweeted about the show we did two years ago at Penn State, #1 Party School. We listen again to some of those stories, with new interviews recorded this past week, as Penn State fans and loyalists try to make sense of the actions of Coach Joe Paterno and school officials.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0451.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0451.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0451",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/451"
},{
  "number": 452,
  "date": "2011-12-02",
  "title": "Poultry Slam 2011",
  "description": "We bring you our sort-of-annual holiday tradition: The Poultry Slam! Stories of what happens when humans and fowl collide, including the tale of one notorious turkey who unleashed a long reign of terror on an unsuspecting neighborhood.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0452.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0452.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0452",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/452"
},{
  "number": 453,
  "date": "2011-12-16",
  "title": "Nemeses",
  "description": "This week, stories where a longtime standoff keeps both sides coming back for more. Including a story about the time in Poland's recent history where the country's two political blocks came together and believed, however briefly, they'd be able to set aside their differences. And another story about a college rivalry gone viral, and personal.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0453.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0453.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0453",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/453"
},{
  "number": 454,
  "date": "2012-01-06",
  "title": "Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory",
  "description": "NOTE: This American Life has retracted this story because we learned that many of Mike Daisey's experiences in China were fabricated.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0454.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0454.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0454",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/454"
},{
  "number": 455,
  "date": "2012-01-20",
  "title": "Continental Breakup",
  "description": "If you're like us, when the words \"European debt crisis\" pop up in the news you feel a little worried, and a little like taking a nap. Turns out, there's a story behind this story. One that's filled with guilt, and drama, and betrayal, and 100-year-old dreams come true. Alex Blumberg of Planet Money guest hosts.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0455.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0455.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0455",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/455"
},{
  "number": 456,
  "date": "2012-01-27",
  "title": "Reap What You Sow",
  "description": "Alabama's new immigration law aims to make life so difficult for illegal immigrants that they will \"self-deport.\" And in a way it's working. Immigrants are fleeing Alabama...but not just the undocumented ones. This and other stories of people living with the unintended consequences of their decisions.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0456.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0456.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0456",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/456"
},{
  "number": 457,
  "date": "2012-02-10",
  "title": "What I Did For Love",
  "description": "Love makes us do crazy things. But not this crazy. This week for Valentine's Day we have stories of people going to extremes as they fall in love, chase love down, and try to make sense of it—including a teenager who falls for an undercover cop, and epic tales of snooping.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0457.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0457.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0457",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/457"
},{
  "number": 458,
  "date": "2012-02-17",
  "title": "Play the Part",
  "description": "Stories of people who decide to flip their personalities and do the exact opposite of what they normally do.  Pictured: Louis Ortiz, Obama impersonator. He is the subject of the documentary film The Audacity of Louis Ortiz.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0458.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0458.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0458",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/458"
},{
  "number": 459,
  "date": "2012-03-02",
  "title": "What Kind of Country",
  "description": "All across the country right now, local and state governments are finding they can't pay their bills. Schools are losing teachers, street lights are going dark, garbage is piling up in public parks, and cops are suddenly an optional expense.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0459.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0459.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0459",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/459"
},{
  "number": 460,
  "date": "2012-03-16",
  "title": "Retraction",
  "description": "We've discovered that one of our most popular episodes contained numerous fabrications.  This week, we detail the errors in Mike Daisey's story about visiting Foxconn, which makes iPads and other products for Apple in China.  Marketplace's China correspondent Rob Schmitz discovered the fabrications. Transcript. Press Release.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0460.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0460.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0460",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/460"
},{
  "number": 461,
  "date": "2012-03-30",
  "title": "Take the Money and Run for Office",
  "description": "For anyone who has ever heard the term \"Washington insider\" and felt outside — we are with you. So this week, we go inside the rooms where the deals get made, to the actual moment that the checks change hands — and we ask the people writing and receiving the checks what, exactly, is the money buying?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0461.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0461.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0461",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/461"
},{
  "number": 462,
  "date": "2012-04-13",
  "title": "Own Worst Enemy",
  "description": "Stories of people who can’t seem to stop getting in their own way — sabotaging everything from their romantic relationships to their physical health. Featuring a new radio drama by Jonathan Mitchell.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0462.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0462.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0462",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/462"
},{
  "number": 463,
  "date": "2012-04-27",
  "title": "Mortal Vs. Venial",
  "description": "Religion makes it pretty clear what differentiates mortal sins from venial ones. Mortal are the really bad sins and venial the lesser ones. But in our everyday lives, it can be really difficult to determine just how bad we've been. This week we have stories of people trying to figure out that question.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0463.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0463.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0463",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/463"
},{
  "number": 464,
  "date": "2012-05-18",
  "title": "Invisible Made Visible",
  "description": "The radio version of an episode we did live on stage and beamed to movie theaters all over the country. David Sedaris, Tig Notaro and Ryan Knighton perform stories. Plus the late David Rakoff, in his final performance on the show. The other half of the two-hour performance was visual, including dancers, animation, and a short film. You can download video of the entire show.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0464.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0464.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0464",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/464"
},{
  "number": 465,
  "date": "2012-05-25",
  "title": "What Happened At Dos Erres",
  "description": "In 1982, the Guatemalan military massacred the villagers of Dos Erres, killing more than 200 people. Thirty years later, a Guatemalan living in the US got a phone call from a woman who told him that two boys had been abducted during the massacre — and he was one of them. ProPublica's print version: Finding Oscar.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0465.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0465.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0465",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/465"
},{
  "number": 466,
  "date": "2012-06-08",
  "title": "Blackjack",
  "description": "Stories about the casino game everyone thinks they can beat.  In one, a woman gambles away her inheritance and then sues the casino, saying they're to blame. In another, Christians join forces to take down casinos — by becoming professional card-counting blackjack players. Plus: MIT Blackjack Team member Andy Bloch teaches us to count cards.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0466.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0466.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0466",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/466"
},{
  "number": 467,
  "date": "2012-06-22",
  "title": "Americans in China",
  "description": "It used to be that the American expats in China were the big shots. They had the money, the status, the know-how. But that's changed. What's it like to be an American living in China now? And what do they understand about China that we don't?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0467.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0467.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0467",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/467"
},{
  "number": 468,
  "date": "2012-06-29",
  "title": "Switcheroo",
  "description": "People pretending to be people they're not: sometimes it's harmless, sometimes it's harmful and sometimes it's hard to tell.  From world-famous artists to mail-order brides to a practice that could change the face of American journalism.  And BTW if a woman has approached you at a Cindy Sherman exhibit claiming to be Cindy Sherman, email us at web@thislife.org.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0468.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0468.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0468",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/468"
},{
  "number": 469,
  "date": "2012-07-13",
  "title": "Hiding in Plain Sight",
  "description": "Sometimes when something is happening right under your nose, it becomes even harder to notice than if it were happening in secret. Stories of people of using that to their advantage, including one man who takes down some of the most powerful criminals in the world.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0469.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0469.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0469",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/469"
},{
  "number": 470,
  "date": "2012-07-27",
  "title": "Show Me The Way",
  "description": "Stories about people in trouble, who look for help in mystifying places. A 15-year-old boy travels more than 1,000 miles, alone, to seek out his hero, whom he's never met. And from Wiretap, Jonathan Goldstein and David Rakoff tell the story of a man with a terrible medical problem, hoping for a cure from a famous doctor — who only communicates in rhyme.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0470.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0470.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0470",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/470"
},{
  "number": 471,
  "date": "2012-08-10",
  "title": "The Convert",
  "description": "In 2006, a new convert showed up at a mosque in Orange County, California, eager to study the Koran and make new friends. But when he started acting odd and saying strange things, those friends got suspicious. To them, he was Farouk al-Aziz. But his real name was Craig Monteilh, and he was working undercover for the FBI. (Read the update to this story here.)",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0471.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0471.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0471",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/471"
},{
  "number": 472,
  "date": "2012-08-17",
  "title": "Our Friend David",
  "description": "Favorite stories by our longtime contributor and friend David Rakoff.  Note that the podcast and streaming versions contain unbeeped words that could not play on radio.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0472.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0472.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0472",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/472"
},{
  "number": 473,
  "date": "2012-08-24",
  "title": "Loopholes",
  "description": "Only the clever need apply. This week, stories of people acting on a technicality in the face of some of life's toughest regulators: financial regulators, parents and God.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0473.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0473.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0473",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/473"
},{
  "number": 474,
  "date": "2012-09-14",
  "title": "Back to School",
  "description": "As kids and teachers head back to school, we wanted to turn away from questions about politics and unions and money and all the regular school stuff people argue about, and turn to something more optimistic — an emerging theory about what to teach kids, from Paul Tough's new book How Children Succeed. Photo: Theo takes the marshmallow test.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0474.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0474.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0474",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/474"
},{
  "number": 475,
  "date": "2012-09-28",
  "title": "Send a Message",
  "description": "This week people reach out in all kinds of ways to try to get their point across. And the recipients of those messages try to decipher what they mean. Messages in code, over the phone, and from beyond the grave.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0475.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0475.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0475",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/475"
},{
  "number": 476,
  "date": "2012-10-05",
  "title": "What Doesn't Kill You",
  "description": "Stories of how people cope after brushes with death. Sometimes death comes as a disease. Sometimes it swims up and bites you. And sometimes it's a pen or pencil, sitting there, just waiting for you to ingest it. Tig Notaro's comedy set is at Louis CK's site.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0476.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0476.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0476",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/476"
},{
  "number": 477,
  "date": "2012-10-19",
  "title": "Getting Away With It",
  "description": "Stories of people breaking the rules fully, completely and with no bad consequences. Some justify this by saying they’re doing it for others, or for a greater good.  Some really don’t care.  And, unlike the mealy weaklings you usually hear on this program: None of these wrongdoers seem regretful about what they’ve done in the slightest.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0477.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0477.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0477",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/477"
},{
  "number": 478,
  "date": "2012-11-02",
  "title": "Red State Blue State",
  "description": "Everyone knows that politics is now so divided in our country that not only do the 2 sides disagree on the solutions to the country’s problems, they don’t even agree on what the problems are. It’s 2 versions of the world in collision. This week we hear from people who’ve seen this infect their personal lives. They’ve lost friends. They’ve become estranged from family members. A special pre-election episode of our show.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0478.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0478.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0478",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/478"
},{
  "number": 479,
  "date": "2012-11-23",
  "title": "Little War on the Prairie",
  "description": "Growing up in Mankato, Minnesota, John Biewen says, nobody ever talked about the most important historical event ever to happen there: in 1862, it was the site of the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Thirty-eight Dakota Indians were hanged after a war with white settlers. John went back to Minnesota to figure out what really happened 150 years ago, and why Minnesotans didn’t talk about it much after.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0479.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0479.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0479",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/479"
},{
  "number": 480,
  "date": "2012-11-30",
  "title": "Animal Sacrifice",
  "description": "What animals sacrifice for us, and what we sacrifice for them.  Including a story from Susan Orlean about dogs in World War II, and the This American Life staff confronts Ira about his dog, Piney.Photo: Dog wearing suicide bomb vest, 1943.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0480.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0480.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0480",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/480"
},{
  "number": 481,
  "date": "2012-12-07",
  "title": "This Week",
  "description": "This week we take on ... this week.  Stories united by one thing: They all happened in the seven days prior to broadcast. We try our hand reporting the global stories in Egypt and Afghanistan; and take on super local stories, too, like a man who tries valiantly — valiantly! — to actually get out of bed when his alarm clock goes off. You can also see this week in pictures. Pictured: Hyder Akbar’s car after he was ambushed in Kunar Province.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0481.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0481.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0481",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/481"
},{
  "number": 482,
  "date": "2012-12-21",
  "title": "Lights, Camera, Christmas!",
  "description": "This holiday season we bring you a show filled with stories of people going to great lengths to throw a special Christmas for their families. Including tales of Luna the guinea pig (pictured), Bambi the reindeer, and Jeko the super-powerful (and somewhat-scary) Christmas elf.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0482.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0482.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0482",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/482"
},{
  "number": 483,
  "date": "2013-01-04",
  "title": "Self-Improvement Kick",
  "description": "A perfectly normal guy gets rid of everything he owns, changes his name, says goodbye to his friends — and begins walking. In the name of peace. And Honduran government officials try to heal their corrupt country by starting a perfect city, from scratch. For the new year, we bring you stories about how far some people go in hopes of a better life.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0483.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0483.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0483",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/483"
},{
  "number": 484,
  "date": "2013-01-11",
  "title": "Doppelgängers",
  "description": "We got a tip about a meat plant selling pig intestines as fake calamari, wondered if it could be true, and decided to investigate. Doppelgängers, doubles, evil twins and not-so-evil twins, this week. Fred Armisen co-hosts with Ira Glass. EXTRAS: Fred's Ira impression on SNL. Pig/squid shirts. And prints.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0484.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0484.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0484",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/484"
},{
  "number": 485,
  "date": "2013-01-25",
  "title": "Surrogates",
  "description": "This week we look at people who see themselves in others and try to live out their lives through stand-ins — including the story of what one father saw in the convicted murderer he decided to adopt. And the proxy battle over a woman’s honor that became a presidential obsession.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0485.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0485.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0485",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/485"
},{
  "number": 486,
  "date": "2013-02-08",
  "title": "Valentine's Day",
  "description": "Love makes us do crazy things. But usually not this crazy. This week for Valentine's Day we have stories of people going to extremes to find and pursue their one true love.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0486.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0486.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0486",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/486"
},{
  "number": 487,
  "date": "2013-02-15",
  "title": "Harper High School, Part One",
  "description": "We spent five months at Harper High School in Chicago, where last year alone 29 current and recent students were shot. 29. We went to get a sense of what it means to live in the midst of all this gun violence, how teens and adults navigate a world of funerals and Homecoming dances. We found so many incredible and surprising stories, this show is a two-parter; you can listen to Part Two here.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0487.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0487.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0487",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/487"
},{
  "number": 488,
  "date": "2013-02-22",
  "title": "Harper High School, Part Two",
  "description": "We pick up where we left off last week in our second hour from Harper High School in Chicago. We find out if a shooting in the neighborhood will derail the school's Homecoming game and dance. We hear the origin story of one of Harper's gangs. And we ask a group of teenagers: where do you get your guns? Harper has set up a donation page here.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0488.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0488.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0488",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/488"
},{
  "number": 489,
  "date": "2013-03-01",
  "title": "No Coincidence, No Story!",
  "description": "We asked listeners to send us their best coincidence stories, and we got more than 1,300 submissions! There were so many good ones we decided to make a whole show about them. From a chance encounter at a bus station to a romantic dollar bill to a baffling apparition in a college shower stall. See more of your coincidence stories — with photos — here.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0489.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0489.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0489",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/489"
},{
  "number": 490,
  "date": "2013-03-22",
  "title": "Trends With Benefits",
  "description": "The number of Americans receiving federal disability payments has nearly doubled over the last 15 years. There are towns and counties around the nation where almost 1/4 of adults are on disability. Planet Money's Chana Joffe-Walt spent 6 months exploring the disability program, and emerges with a story of the U.S. economy quite different than the one we've been hearing. Web Extra: here.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0490.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0490.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0490",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/490"
},{
  "number": 491,
  "date": "2013-03-29",
  "title": "Tribes",
  "description": "A Native American tribe is doing exactly the opposite of what you'd think they'd do: they're kicking people out of the tribe, huge numbers of them, including people whose ancestors without question were part of the tribe. And the story of a white guy who only wants to date Asian women, who then has to adjust to the reality of a real actual Asian woman in his life. The phrase \"finding your tribe\" is a total cliche — but one that does apply to certain situations.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0491.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0491.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0491",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/491"
},{
  "number": 492,
  "date": "2013-04-12",
  "title": "Dr. Gilmer and Mr. Hyde",
  "description": "Dr. Benjamin Gilmer (left) gets a job at a rural clinic. He finds out he’s replaced someone — also named Dr. Gilmer (picture) — who went to prison after killing his own father. But the more Benjamin’s patients talk about the other Dr. Gilmer, the more confused he becomes. Everyone loved the old Dr. Gilmer. So Benjamin starts digging around, trying to understand how a good man can seemingly turn bad.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0492.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0492.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0492",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/492"
},{
  "number": 493,
  "date": "2013-04-19",
  "title": "Picture Show",
  "description": "This week, Israeli soldiers take snapshots of Palestinian boys, one house at a time, in the middle of the night. This and other stories where getting the picture gives you the upper hand.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0493.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0493.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0493",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/493"
},{
  "number": 494,
  "date": "2013-05-03",
  "title": "Hit the Road",
  "description": "It's spring, so we're opening windows and going places. This week we have stories of people who, for reasons that they can't always explain, feel compelled to get out and go somewhere. Including the story of one man who decides to take a trip from Philadelphia to San Francisco — by foot.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0494.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0494.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0494",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/494"
},{
  "number": 495,
  "date": "2013-05-17",
  "title": "Hot In My Backyard",
  "description": "After years of being stuck, the national conversation on climate change finally started to shift — just a little — last year, the hottest year on record in the U.S., with Hurricane Sandy flooding the New York subway, drought devastating Midwest farms, and California and Colorado on fire.  Lots of people were wondering if global warming had finally arrived, here at home.  This week, stories about this new reality.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0495.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0495.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0495",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/495"
},{
  "number": 496,
  "date": "2013-05-31",
  "title": "When Patents Attack... Part Two!",
  "description": "Two years ago, we did a program about a mysterious business in Texas that threatens companies with lawsuits for violating its patents. But the world of patent lawsuits is so secretive, there were basic questions we could not answer. Now we can.  And we get a glimpse why people say our patent system may be discouraging, not encouraging, innovation.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0496.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0496.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0496",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/496"
},{
  "number": 497,
  "date": "2013-06-14",
  "title": "This Week",
  "description": "This week we return to one of our favorite themes: This Week! All of the stories in the show are things that have taken place in the last seven days. We've got our own take on the big, national stories of the week but we also turn a searchlight across America and find the smaller, more personal and more spectacular stories that most of us never hear.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0497.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0497.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0497",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/497"
},{
  "number": 498,
  "date": "2013-06-21",
  "title": "The One Thing You're Not Supposed To Do",
  "description": "This week, stories about people who know something's a bad idea, but convince themselves to do that thing anyway. Including the story of a bunch of illegal immigrants who turn themselves in to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, hoping to be sent into detention.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0498.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0498.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0498",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/498"
},{
  "number": 499,
  "date": "2013-06-28",
  "title": "Taking Names",
  "description": "The truly incredible story of a guy named Kirk Johnson who started a list of hundreds of Iraqis who needed to get out of their country. They were getting death threats, and he was their only hope. Only 26 and living in his aunt's basement, he had no idea what to do. How Kirk kind of succeeded spectacularly and failed spectacularly at the same time. INTERACTIVE: \"Emails From a Dead Man\"",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0499.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0499.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0499",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/499"
},{
  "number": 500,
  "date": "2013-07-12",
  "title": "500!",
  "description": "To celebrate our 500th episode, Ira asked the producers of This American Life to talk about their very favorite moments on the show. Some chose stories that've been more or less forgotten for years; others chose just one line of script, or a segment that secretly made them cry. So for our 500th, we bring you the best of This American Life — the way we've been hearing it, behind the scenes, all these years.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0500.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0500.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0500",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/500"
},{
  "number": 501,
  "date": "2013-07-26",
  "title": "The View From In Here",
  "description": "It's so easy to lose perspective (or worry you've lost perspective) when you're deep inside some situation. For instance, an American woman who suddenly trades her life for one in a place most people might think twice about: Juarez, Mexico.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0501.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0501.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0501",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/501"
},{
  "number": 502,
  "date": "2013-08-09",
  "title": "This Call May Be Recorded... To Save Your Life",
  "description": "A journalist named Meron Estefanos gets a disturbing tip. She's given a phone number that supposedly belongs to a group of refugees being held hostage in the Sinai desert. She dials the number, and soon dozens of strangers are begging her to rescue them. How can she ignore them?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0502.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0502.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0502",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/502"
},{
  "number": 503,
  "date": "2013-08-16",
  "title": "I Was Just Trying To Help",
  "description": "Stories of people doing the noble thing and stepping up to help, only to find out that others think what they're doing isn't helping at all. Planet Money looks at a charity that's decided to just give people money, and a sheriff in California devises a plan to let farmers grow weed — as long as they register with him.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0503.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0503.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0503",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/503"
},{
  "number": 504,
  "date": "2013-09-06",
  "title": "How I Got Into College",
  "description": "Students all over are starting college this month, and some of them still have a nagging question: what, exactly, got me in? An admissions officer tells us the most wrongheaded things applicants try. And Michael Lewis has the incredible story of how a stolen library book got one man — Emir Kamenica — into his dream school. (Photo: Emir as a Harvard undergrad. Credit Terri Wang.)",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0504.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0504.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0504",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/504"
},{
  "number": 505,
  "date": "2013-09-20",
  "title": "Use Only as Directed",
  "description": "One of the country's most popular over-the-counter painkillers — acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol — also kills the most people, according to data from the federal government. Over 150 Americans die each year on average after accidentally taking too much. And it requires a lot less to endanger you than you may know. We reported this alongside ProPublica. Their stories here and here.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0505.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0505.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0505",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/505"
},{
  "number": 506,
  "date": "2013-10-04",
  "title": "Secret Identity",
  "description": "A bank robber on an undercover mission. A teenage girl with the powers of a tiger. A vigilante seeking vengeance in Ciudad Juarez. All have secret identities. But not all of them chose those identities for themselves. WEB EXTRA: A drawing by Alice Leora Briggs accompanies the text of \"Diana, Hunter of Bus Drivers.\"",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0506.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0506.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0506",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/506"
},{
  "number": 507,
  "date": "2013-10-11",
  "title": "Confessions",
  "description": "Two crime scenes, two murders. One crime is solved, the other case went cold. Both raise the question: What should a person suspected of murder say?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0507.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0507.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0507",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/507"
},{
  "number": 508,
  "date": "2013-10-18",
  "title": "Superpowers 2013",
  "description": "This is an updated version of a classic episode, featuring a new story from Snap Judgment. We answer the following questions about superpowers: Can superheroes be real people? (No.) Can real people become superheroes? (Maybe.) And which is better: flight or invisibility? (Depends who you ask.) Chris ware's comic mentioned in the episode is here.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0508.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0508.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0508",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/508"
},{
  "number": 509,
  "date": "2013-10-25",
  "title": "It Says So Right Here",
  "description": "Everyone knows you can't always believe what you read, but sometimes even official documents aren't a path to the truth. This week we have stories of people whose lives are altered when seemingly boring documents like birth certificates and petitions are used against them. And a family wrestles with a medical record that has a very clear, but complicated diagnosis.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0509.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0509.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0509",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/509"
},{
  "number": 510,
  "date": "2013-11-01",
  "title": "Fiasco!",
  "description": "Stories of when things go wrong. Really wrong. When you leave the normal realm of human error, fumble, mishap, and mistake and enter the territory of really huge breakdowns. Fiascos. Things go so awry that normal social order collapses. An updated version of a classic episode, now including one of the most popular stories we've ever aired... about a police officer and a squirrel.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0510.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0510.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0510",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/510"
},{
  "number": 511,
  "date": "2013-11-08",
  "title": "The Seven Things You're Not Supposed to Talk About",
  "description": "Producer Sarah Koenig's mother lives by a set of rules about conversation. She has an actual list of off-limits topics, including how you slept, your period, your health, your diet and more. You don't talk about these things, she says, because nobody cares. This week we try to find stories on these exact topics that will prove her wrong.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0511.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0511.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0511",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/511"
},{
  "number": 512,
  "date": "2013-11-22",
  "title": "House Rules",
  "description": "Where you live is important. It can dictate quality of schools and hospitals, as well as things like cancer rates, unemployment, or whether the city repairs roads in your neighborhood. On this week's show, stories about destiny by address. Much of this story is told to Nancy Updike by ProPublica reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones, whose series on the Fair Housing laws — with more stories, research and interviews — is here.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0512.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0512.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0512",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/512"
},{
  "number": 513,
  "date": "2013-12-13",
  "title": "129 Cars",
  "description": "We spend a month at a Jeep dealership on Long Island as they try to make their monthly sales goal: 129 cars. If they make it, they'll get a huge bonus from the manufacturer, possibly as high as $85,000 — enough to put them in the black for the month. If they don't make it, it'll be the second month in a row. So they pull out all the stops. Photo gallery here.  NOTE: the Internet version of this episode includes un-bleeped curse words. Bleeped version here.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0513.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0513.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0513",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/513"
},{
  "number": 514,
  "date": "2013-12-20",
  "title": "Thought That Counts",
  "description": "It's the thought that counts. So true. Unfortunately, sometimes it's not always so clear what that thought was. And sometimes, when it is clear, we wish it wasn't. This week, during this, the season of giving, we turn our spotlight on the givers and exactly whatever it was they could've possibly been thinking.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0514.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0514.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0514",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/514"
},{
  "number": 515,
  "date": "2014-01-10",
  "title": "Good Guys",
  "description": "Lots of men think of themselves as \"good guys.\" But what does it actually take to be one? To be a truly good guy. Stories of valiant men attempting to do good in challenging circumstances: in war zones, department stores, public buses, and at the bottom of a cave 900 feet underground.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0515.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0515.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0515",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/515"
},{
  "number": 516,
  "date": "2014-01-17",
  "title": "Stuck In The Middle",
  "description": "Jan Brady is not the only one who hated being in the middle. This week we have stories about how it sucks to be in limbo or be the mediator, but we also hear from a man who absolutely loves being in that uncertain and boring middle most of us dread — on hold, listening to hold music.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0516.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0516.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0516",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/516"
},{
  "number": 517,
  "date": "2014-01-31",
  "title": "Day At The Beach",
  "description": "It's January, and freezing outside. This week 5 stories from the sunny beach! Including David Sedaris telling us how losing a sister in 2013 prompted a family reunion, and an impulse buy of a lifetime — an oceanfront cottage big enough for all of them.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0517.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0517.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0517",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/517"
},{
  "number": 518,
  "date": "2014-02-14",
  "title": "Except For That One Thing",
  "description": "Mike Anderson was 36 years old, married, a suburban father of four. He owned a contracting business and built his family’s modest, three-bedroom house in St. Louis from the ground up. He volunteered at church on the weekends and coaches his son’s football team. All pretty normal, right? Except for one thing … which surfaced one day last summer.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0518.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0518.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0518",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/518"
},{
  "number": 519,
  "date": "2014-03-07",
  "title": "Dead Men Tell No Tales",
  "description": "Last May, a weird story made the news: the FBI killed a guy in Florida who was loosely linked to the Boston Marathon bombings. He was shot seven times in his living room by a federal agent. What really happened? Why was the FBI even in that room with him? A reporter spent six months looking into it, and she found that the FBI was doing a bunch of things that never made the news. Her Boston Magazine story.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0519.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0519.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0519",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/519"
},{
  "number": 520,
  "date": "2014-03-14",
  "title": "No Place Like Home",
  "description": "There's lots of ways we define where we're from. And whether we're proud of it, or ashamed of it, love it, hate it, miss it or are trying desperately to get back to it — where we're from is always a big part of who we are. This week, stories of people who are, in good ways and bad ways, coming to terms with the places they call home.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0520.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0520.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0520",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/520"
},{
  "number": 521,
  "date": "2014-03-28",
  "title": "Bad Baby",
  "description": "They're small. And they're cuddly. But sometimes it feels as though our babies were replaced with demon replicas — controlling, demanding, or just downright awful. This week, stories of infants and children who dominate the adults around them with their baditude, or whom adults have painted with the \"bad\" brush from early on. We also ask the question: at what age does badness begin?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0521.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0521.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0521",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/521"
},{
  "number": 522,
  "date": "2014-04-11",
  "title": "Tarred and Feathered",
  "description": "This week, stories of people being threatened and punished with public shame. Including the story of someone who was literally tarred and feathered. It happened a lot more recently than you'd guess.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0522.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0522.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0522",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/522"
},{
  "number": 523,
  "date": "2014-04-25",
  "title": "Death and Taxes",
  "description": "It is a peculiar feeling to know with certainty that something big is about to happen to you. This week we watch people go right up to the edge of inevitable change. We hear from preteens about the terrifying knowledge that puberty is about to happen...any minute now. And true to the death and taxes saying, we found it unavoidable to include a story about each one of those things.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0523.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0523.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0523",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/523"
},{
  "number": 524,
  "date": "2014-05-02",
  "title": "I Was So High",
  "description": "Your waitress. Your colleagues at work. Your doctor. Maybe even your parents. They’re all high. All the time. That’s what it feels like anyway. This week, stories in which drug use and daily life intersect – and in which people get high in secret and then do their best to function in the non-high world. Also, we hear some “I Was So High” stories from our very own listeners.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0524.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0524.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0524",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/524"
},{
  "number": 525,
  "date": "2014-05-09",
  "title": "Call For Help",
  "description": "Stories of people coming to terms with being in serious trouble. They need help. Figuring out how to get it, that's another problem.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0525.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0525.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0525",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/525"
},{
  "number": 526,
  "date": "2014-05-23",
  "title": "Is That What I Look Like?",
  "description": "You've been seeing yourself, getting to know what you look like, your whole life. So why is does it often take an outsider to see things about you that are obvious, and set you straight?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0526.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0526.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0526",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/526"
},{
  "number": 527,
  "date": "2014-06-13",
  "title": "180 Degrees",
  "description": "Flipflops, u-turns, changes of heart, about faces. Completely changing our position — sometimes it can be our best move, sometimes it can be our worst. Either way, it's usually complicated. This week we bring you stories of people who go one way, and then, for what ever reason, turn around and go the exact opposite direction.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0527.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0527.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0527",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/527"
},{
  "number": 528,
  "date": "2014-06-20",
  "title": "The Radio Drama Episode",
  "description": "Our most ambitious live show ever! (get the video!) We pulled together a massive team of theater pros at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Opera House – nearly 50 singers, actors, dancers and musicians. The result? Journalism turned into a Broadway musical (the cast album is here), into opera. Mike Birbiglia, Sasheer Zamata, Stephin Merritt, Josh Hamilton, Lindsay Mendez, Lin-Manuel Miranda and others.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0528.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0528.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0528",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/528"
},{
  "number": 529,
  "date": "2014-06-27",
  "title": "Human Spectacle",
  "description": "Gladiators in the Colosseum. Sideshow performers. Reality television. We've always loved to gawk at the misery or majesty of others. But this week, we ask the question: What's it like when the tables are turned and all eyes are on you?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0529.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0529.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0529",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/529"
},{
  "number": 530,
  "date": "2014-07-11",
  "title": "Mind Your Own Business",
  "description": "Stories of meddling, snooping, and just getting way, way up in other people's business. A cellphone hidden in a bag of chips starts a messy turf war between the FBI and a local sheriff; and a surprising handbook lets us peek into the secret world of professional cheerleading. Plus: Studs Terkel.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0530.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0530.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0530",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/530"
},{
  "number": 531,
  "date": "2014-07-25",
  "title": "Got Your Back",
  "description": "There is a special comfort that comes from knowing someone's got your back. You can do things that just weren't possible before. You take huge risks, including some that aren't necessarily advisable. This week: stories where one person's powerlessness is transformed when they discover they have backup. And we see what happens when that backup goes away. Note: This episode contains un-bleeped curse words. BLEEPED VERSION",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0531.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0531.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0531",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/531"
},{
  "number": 532,
  "date": "2014-08-15",
  "title": "Magic Words",
  "description": "When Jonathan Goldstein was a kid, his father gave him a book that promised to teach you how to shoot mental laser beams, win the lottery, move solid objects with your mind, make others obey your command – all through the use of mental power and magic words. This week, he revisits the book to try to unlock the secrets within. And we have other stories where people recite words that have the power to change their lives, with no magic or mumbo jumbo at all.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0532.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0532.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0532",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/532"
},{
  "number": 533,
  "date": "2014-09-05",
  "title": "It's Not the Product, It's the Person",
  "description": "Starting a business is not for the self-doubting. Or even usually the self-deprecating. The first thing you have to sell is yourself — like dating, but with a greater chance of landing in debt. Alex Blumberg tells the incredible, sweat-stains-and-all saga of a man fumbling through starting a new business, and the man is: himself. Plus, new stories from Mike Birbiglia and Love + Radio.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0533.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0533.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0533",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/533"
},{
  "number": 534,
  "date": "2014-09-12",
  "title": "A Not-So-Simple Majority",
  "description": "We take it for granted that the majority calls the shots. But in one NY school district, that idea — majority rules — has led to an all-out war. School board disputes are pretty common, but not like this one. This involves multimillion-dollar land deals, lawyers threatening to beat up parents, felony criminal charges, and the highest levels of state government. Meanwhile, the students are caught in the middle.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0534.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0534.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0534",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/534"
},{
  "number": 535,
  "date": "2014-09-19",
  "title": "Origin Story 2014",
  "description": "This week we bring you little-known and surprising stories of how all sorts of institutions began. An updated version of a 2009 episode.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0535.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0535.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0535",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/535"
},{
  "number": 536,
  "date": "2014-09-26",
  "title": "The Secret Recordings of Carmen Segarra",
  "description": "This week, an unprecedented look inside one of the most powerful, secretive institutions in the country. The NY Federal Reserve is supposed to monitor big banks and prevent another financial crisis. But when Carmen Segarra was hired, what she witnessed inside the Fed was so alarming that she bought a tiny recorder, and started secretly taping. ProPublica reports.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0536.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0536.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0536",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/536"
},{
  "number": 537,
  "date": "2014-10-03",
  "title": "The Alibi",
  "description": "Baltimore, 1999. Hae Min Lee, a bright teenager disappears after school one day. Six weeks later her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed is arrested for her murder. He says he's innocent — though he can't remember what he was doing that afternoon. But someone can. A classmate at Woodlawn High School claims to know exactly where Adnan was. Trouble is, she’s nowhere to be found. This week features a pilot of our new podcast, Serial, hosted by Sarah Koenig.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0537.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0537.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0537",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/537"
},{
  "number": 538,
  "date": "2014-10-17",
  "title": "Is This Working?",
  "description": "Stories of schools struggling with what to do with misbehaving kids. There's no general agreement about what teachers should do to discipline kids.  And there's evidence that some of the most popular punishments actually may harm kids.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0538.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0538.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0538",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/538"
},{
  "number": 539,
  "date": "2014-11-07",
  "title": "The Leap",
  "description": "Most of us go from day to day just coasting on the status quo. If it ain’t broke, why fix it, right? But when routines just get too mundane or systems stop making sense, sometimes you just have to hold your breath…and jump. This week, stories of people who leap from their lives, their comfort zones…even through time.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0539.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0539.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0539",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/539"
},{
  "number": 540,
  "date": "2014-11-21",
  "title": "A Front",
  "description": "Stories about people and places that are fronting in order to hide the truth. We visit a bizarre store in Milwaukee called Fearless Distributing, government checkpoints scattered on highways out west, and a front in a doctor's office.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0540.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0540.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0540",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/540"
},{
  "number": 541,
  "date": "2014-12-05",
  "title": "Regrets, I've Had a Few",
  "description": "Every day we make mistakes, and most of the time we just ignore these failings and move forward. But every so often, there is one that makes us pause and take notice. This week, people struggling with those regrets — big and small — that take root and have to be dealt with.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0541.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0541.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0541",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/541"
},{
  "number": 542,
  "date": "2014-12-12",
  "title": "Wait - Do You Have The Map?",
  "description": "Stories about people feeling lost and trying to figure out how to move ahead: two brothers take a doomed road trip through through Mexico and a couple from radically different backgrounds draw up a contract for their unlikely romance.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0542.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0542.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0542",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/542"
},{
  "number": 543,
  "date": "2014-12-26",
  "title": "Wake Up Now",
  "description": "As New Year’s approaches and people are contemplating things they want to change about themselves, we have stories of people trying to wake themselves up, shake up their own lives, or wake up others. Including the story of a company – or maybe it's a movement – called WakeUpNow.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0543.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0543.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0543",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/543"
},{
  "number": 544,
  "date": "2015-01-09",
  "title": "Batman",
  "description": "Can other people's expectations of you alter what you can do physically? Alix Spiegel and Lulu Miller of NPR's new radio show and podcast Invisibilia investigate that question – specifically, they look into something that sounds impossible: if people’s expectations can change whether a blind man can see.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0544.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0544.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0544",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/544"
},{
  "number": 545,
  "date": "2015-01-23",
  "title": "If You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say, SAY IT IN ALL CAPS",
  "description": "The Internet is the one place where it’s safe to say whatever you want — nobody will know it’s you. But the same protections that make commenters invulnerable are what make the Internet scary — even downright dangerous — for the commented upon. In this week’s show: what happens when the Internet turns on you?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0545.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0545.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0545",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/545"
},{
  "number": 546,
  "date": "2015-01-30",
  "title": "Burroughs 101",
  "description": "This American Life host Ira Glass was never into William Burroughs. Didn't get why people love his writing so much. Then he heard this radio story that changed all that, partly because it wasn't very reverential about Burroughs. For Burroughs 101st birthday, we hear that story. A bleeped version of this episode will be posted here.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0546.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0546.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0546",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/546"
},{
  "number": 547,
  "date": "2015-02-06",
  "title": "Cops See It Differently, Part One",
  "description": "There are so many cops who look at the killing of Eric Garner or Mike Brown and say race didn't play a factor. And there are tons of black people who say that's insane. There's a division between people who are distrustful of the police — even scared of them — and people who see cops as a force for good. These next two weeks, we have stories of people living on both sides of that divide, and people trying to bridge it.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0547.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0547.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0547",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/547"
},{
  "number": 548,
  "date": "2015-02-13",
  "title": "Cops See It Differently, Part Two",
  "description": "Our second hour of stories about policing and race. We hear about one city where relations between police and black residents went terribly, and another city where they seem to be improving remarkably. And one of our producers asks: Why aren't police chiefs talking about race after incidents where unarmed black men are wrongly killed by officers?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0548.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0548.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0548",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/548"
},{
  "number": 549,
  "date": "2015-02-27",
  "title": "Amateur Hour",
  "description": "This week, stories of people who are in put into positions they’re completely unqualified to handle … but who try to make it work anyway. Including one story of a tough group of soldiers who attempt to save lives through the power of show tunes.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0549.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0549.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0549",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/549"
},{
  "number": 550,
  "date": "2015-03-13",
  "title": "Three Miles",
  "description": "There’s a program that brings together kids from two schools. One school is public and in the country’s poorest congressional district. The other is private and costs $43,000/year. They are three miles apart. The hope is that kids connect, but some of the public school kids just can’t get over the divide. We hear what happens when you get to see the other side and it looks a lot better.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0550.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0550.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0550",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/550"
},{
  "number": 551,
  "date": "2015-03-20",
  "title": "Good Guys 2015",
  "description": "Yes fellas, lots of you think of yourselves as good guys. But what does it really take to be a good guy? We have stories of valiant men attempting to do good in challenging and not-so-challenging circumstances: in department stores, public buses, and at the bottom of a cave 900 feet underground.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0551.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0551.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0551",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/551"
},{
  "number": 552,
  "date": "2015-03-27",
  "title": "Need To Know Basis",
  "description": "Even when you're not trying to get one over on someone, it can be useful to keep the truth to yourself. Or conversely, to not know why people are lying to your face all the time. This week we'll tell you the whole truth about not telling the whole truth. Including the story of a guy who learned to lie for the first time in his life at age 29.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0552.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0552.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0552",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/552"
},{
  "number": 553,
  "date": "2015-04-03",
  "title": "Stuck In The Middle (2015)",
  "description": "Jan Brady is not the only one who hated being in the middle. This week we have stories about how it sucks to be in limbo or be the mediator, but we also hear from a man who absolutely loves being in that uncertain and boring middle most of us dread — on hold, listening to hold music.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0553.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0553.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0553",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/553"
},{
  "number": 554,
  "date": "2015-04-10",
  "title": "Not It!",
  "description": "Stories of people, cities, and commonwealths touching their noses and proclaiming \"not it!\" Including the story of how one city used a rocking chair to take retribution against a late night TV show host, and an island that takes people it doesn't want to deal with and ships them away.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0554.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0554.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0554",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/554"
},{
  "number": 555,
  "date": "2015-04-24",
  "title": "The Incredible Rarity of Changing Your Mind",
  "description": "We tend to give credit to those who stand by their beliefs. But sometimes it requires even more courage to change them. This week, stories of people reconsidering how they really feel about their enemies, their homes, and themselves. We also talk to a girl named Zalena, who finds herself in a pretty unexpected place.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0555.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0555.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0555",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/555"
},{
  "number": 556,
  "date": "2015-05-01",
  "title": "Same Bed, Different Dreams",
  "description": "Stories of people who are tied together, but imagine radically different futures. In one case, a movie star and her ex-husband plot against Kim Jong-Il. In another, a woman stalks her doppleganger. And sometimes, one bed is the basis for an entire relationship, even for a man who almost never sees the person who shares his bed.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0556.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0556.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0556",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/556"
},{
  "number": 557,
  "date": "2015-05-15",
  "title": "Birds & Bees",
  "description": "Some information is so big and so complicated that it seems impossible to talk to kids about. This week, stories about the vague and not-so-vague ways to teach children about race, death and sex - including a story about colleges responding to sexual assault by trying to teach students how to ask for consent. Also, a story about how and when to teach kids about the horrors of slavery and oppression in America.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0557.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0557.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0557",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/557"
},{
  "number": 558,
  "date": "2015-05-29",
  "title": "Game Face",
  "description": "Blair Braverman was a dog musher on an Alaskan glacier. One day the weather turned rough, and she and a pack of tourists were stuck. The worst part? They had to pretend like nothing was wrong. This and other stories of people facing very difficult situations who put their game face on and muscle through. And, we hear from people whose faces betray them and prominently display all their anxiety.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0558.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0558.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0558",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/558"
},{
  "number": 559,
  "date": "2015-06-26",
  "title": "Captain's Log",
  "description": "A captain’s log is a simple thing: the date, the time, maybe the weather — and the current status of a long journey. You wouldn’t know from the cryptic notations what weird worlds lurk beneath. On this week's show, stories behind those cryptic notations — including a concentration camp in China that housed groups of Girl Scouts. Also, Aziz Ansari explains the significance of a Thanksgiving text message, and Etgar Keret destroys a marriage piece by piece.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0559.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0559.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0559",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/559"
},{
  "number": 560,
  "date": "2015-07-03",
  "title": "Abdi and the Golden Ticket",
  "description": "For July 4th, a story about someone who's desperately trying – against long odds – to make it to the United States and become an American. Abdi is a Somalian refugee living in Kenya and gets the luckiest break of his life: he wins a lottery that puts him on a short list for a U.S. visa. This is his ticket out. But before he can cash in his golden ticket, the police start raiding his neighborhood, targeting refugees.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0560.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0560.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0560",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/560"
},{
  "number": 561,
  "date": "2015-07-17",
  "title": "NUMMI 2015",
  "description": "A car plant in Fremont California that might have saved the U.S. car industry. In 1984, General Motors and Toyota opened NUMMI as a joint venture. Toyota showed GM the secrets of its production system: How it made cars of much higher quality and much lower cost than GM achieved. Frank Langfitt explains why GM didn't learn the lessons—until it was too late.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0561.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0561.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0561",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/561"
},{
  "number": 562,
  "date": "2015-07-31",
  "title": "The Problem We All Live With",
  "description": "Right now, all sorts of people are trying to rethink and reinvent education, to get poor minority kids performing as well as white kids. But there's one thing nobody tries anymore, despite lots of evidence that it works: desegregation. Nikole Hannah-Jones looks at a district that, not long ago, accidentally launched a desegregation program. First of a two-part series.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0562.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0562.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0562",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/562"
},{
  "number": 563,
  "date": "2015-08-07",
  "title": "The Problem We All Live With - Part Two",
  "description": "Last week we looked at a school district integrating by accident. This week: a city going all out to integrate its schools. Plus, a girl who comes up with her own one-woman integration plan.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0563.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0563.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0563",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/563"
},{
  "number": 564,
  "date": "2015-08-14",
  "title": "Too Soon?",
  "description": "When is too soon for that celebrity comeback; that joke that is either brilliant or full-on repugnant; that parent-child conversation? This week: stories about a fallen man trying to kickstart his career with a reality show, and an awkward moment between a mom and a daughter.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0564.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0564.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0564",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/564"
},{
  "number": 565,
  "date": "2015-08-28",
  "title": "Lower 9 + 10",
  "description": "Katrina bus tours go all over New Orleans, but it’s illegal for them to go into the Lower 9th Ward, the area that's been the slowest to rebuild. This week we go around talking to residents there about what matters the most to them (and what doesn't) ten years after the hurricane. The episode we did in 2005 the week of the storm is here. Pictured: map of Katrina-related fatalities. (Source)",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0565.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0565.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0565",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/565"
},{
  "number": 566,
  "date": "2015-09-11",
  "title": "The Land of Make Believe",
  "description": "A father constructs an elaborate fantasy to occupy his 12 children, and a woman finds herself sucked into a world of make believe that we almost never get to see inside.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0566.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0566.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0566",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/566"
},{
  "number": 567,
  "date": "2015-09-18",
  "title": "What's Going On In There?",
  "description": "Often we see someone’s situation from the outside and think we know exactly what’s going on. This week we get inside and find out just how much more interesting the reality of it is. Including a teenaged girl who records a remarkable story about the boyfriend who abuses her, and why it’s so hard to break up with him. Also this week: our new video by Bianca Giaever.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0567.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0567.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0567",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/567"
},{
  "number": 568,
  "date": "2015-10-02",
  "title": "Human Spectacle 2015",
  "description": "Gladiators in the Colosseum. Sideshow performers. Reality television. We've always loved to gawk at the misery or majesty of others. But this week, we ask the question: What's it like when the tables are turned and all eyes are on you? An episode from last year, with one story swapped.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0568.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0568.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0568",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/568"
},{
  "number": 569,
  "date": "2015-10-09",
  "title": "Put a Bow on It",
  "description": "This week we go into the room at the headquarters of fast food chain Hardee's with the people who decided that this burger with beef, hot dogs, and chips is what America should be eating. We'll hear the story of how they sold that burger and other instances where how you tell the story is more important than the literal facts.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0569.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0569.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0569",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/569"
},{
  "number": 570,
  "date": "2015-10-16",
  "title": "The Night In Question",
  "description": "Twenty years ago, the prime minister of Israel was assassinated. The killer was a lone gunman, Israeli and Jewish, just like the prime minister. Lots of witnesses saw it happen; the assassin confessed immediately, that night, and has never recanted. But today, oddly, lots of people don’t believe it happened that way. And a question hangs over the country: did this act change the fate of the nation?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0570.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0570.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0570",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/570"
},{
  "number": 571,
  "date": "2015-10-30",
  "title": "The Heart Wants What It Wants",
  "description": "When Jesse first started getting letters from Pamala, he couldn’t believe his luck. He'd been waiting all his life to fall in love—and then he started getting these letters from the perfect woman. Vulnerable. In need of protection. Classic beauty. He was totally devoted. They corresponded for years. And when something happens that really should change how he feels about her— he just can’t give it up.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0571.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0571.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0571",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/571"
},{
  "number": 572,
  "date": "2015-11-06",
  "title": "Transformers",
  "description": "This week we have stories of people deciding to take on some very big fears. A prisoner who hasn't talked to anyone in years comes up with a bold plan to re-introduce himself to the world, while a 90-year-old woman shocks her family when she announces a love interest.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0572.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0572.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0572",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/572"
},{
  "number": 573,
  "date": "2015-11-27",
  "title": "Status Update",
  "description": "Most of the time, the updates we share about our lives are small and inconsequential. This week, status updates that interrupt daily life. We hear two friends talk about how one of them has become rich and famous. And an entire town gets a status update on itself.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0573.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0573.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0573",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/573"
},{
  "number": 574,
  "date": "2015-12-11",
  "title": "Sinatra's 100th Birthday",
  "description": "For Frank Sinatra's 100th Birthday: stories, tributes, and attempts to understand the Chairman of the Board. An updated version of an episode originally broadcast back in 1997.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0574.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0574.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0574",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/574"
},{
  "number": 575,
  "date": "2015-12-18",
  "title": "Poetry of Propaganda",
  "description": "Sure, there's a crude message that propaganda is trying to get across. But like poetry, when you know how to read it, propaganda contains lots of more subtle messages that you might not see at first glance. This week: examples, big and small, from around the world.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0575.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0575.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0575",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/575"
},{
  "number": 576,
  "date": "2015-12-25",
  "title": "Say Yes To Christmas",
  "description": "No Christmas can ever be as good as the ones you had as a kid. But this week we go all in and bring the joy, the spontaneity, the sense that anything can happen back to Christmas. We've got a live Christmas performance from some of the best improvisors in the country including Mike Birbiglia, Chris Gethard, and SNL's Aidy Bryant and Sasheer Zamata. Also holiday meals – on fire.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0576.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0576.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0576",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/576"
},{
  "number": 577,
  "date": "2016-01-15",
  "title": "Something Only I Can See",
  "description": "When you’re the only one who can see something, sometimes it feels like you’re in on a special secret. The hard part is getting anyone to believe your secret is real. This week, people trying to show others what they see—including a woman with muscular dystrophy who believes she has the same condition as an Olympic athlete.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0577.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0577.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0577",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/577"
},{
  "number": 578,
  "date": "2016-01-29",
  "title": "I Thought I Knew You",
  "description": "This week, stories of people who are feeling the ground shift underneath them when people they are close to change. Including conservative radio host Tony Beam in South Carolina who is completely baffled by the candidate his audience has decided to get behind this election season.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0578.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0578.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0578",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/578"
},{
  "number": 579,
  "date": "2016-02-12",
  "title": "My Damn Mind",
  "description": "The brain! It's powerful! We have the story of how one man's delusions lead him to a situation that's just as strange as the worst thoughts his mind is cooking up. That story's a collaboration with the New York Times. Our second story is about a man using the power of his own mind to deal with a problem. Pictured: Alan Pean, with visible scar from a bullet wound. Photo by Chad Batka for The New York Times.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0579.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0579.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0579",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/579"
},{
  "number": 580,
  "date": "2016-02-19",
  "title": "That's One Way to Do It",
  "description": "Forget the easy way. This week, stories about people who come up with very innovative…and unusual...solutions to their problems. Including the story of a young voter who defies political categorization.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0580.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0580.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0580",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/580"
},{
  "number": 581,
  "date": "2016-02-26",
  "title": "Anatomy of Doubt",
  "description": "This week, a story about doubt: how it germinated, spread, and eventually took hold of an entire community, with terrible consequences. A collaboration with The Marshall Project and ProPublica.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0581.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0581.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0581",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/581"
},{
  "number": 582,
  "date": "2016-03-11",
  "title": "When the Beasts Come Marching In",
  "description": "We human beings think we run the world, that we’ve got things under control. And then an animal shows up, and things don’t go as planned. We have stories this week where seals, wolves and a moose drop in and show us who isn't boss.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0582.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0582.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0582",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/582"
},{
  "number": 583,
  "date": "2016-03-25",
  "title": "It'll Make Sense When You're Older",
  "description": "At first, it’s super annoying, getting told it’ll make sense when you’re older. Then, when you’re a teenager, hard lessons are learned, despite your best efforts to be too cool to care. By the time you’re actually old, you know a bunch of stuff— and you’re desperate to hold onto it. You might even wonder HOW you know all the things you know. Hosted by Chana Joffe-Walt and featuring SNL’s Sasheer Zamata.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0583.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0583.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0583",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/583"
},{
  "number": 584,
  "date": "2016-04-08",
  "title": "For Your Reconsideration",
  "description": "The older and wiser we get, the more bewildering our past decisions can seem. This week, people revisit those decisions — and we revisit a story we aired a year ago with new, fascinating updates about a groundbreaking study that turned out to be false.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0584.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0584.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0584",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/584"
},{
  "number": 585,
  "date": "2016-04-22",
  "title": "In Defense of Ignorance",
  "description": "Exactly how incompetent you are. What your ex’s best friend really thinks of you. The approximate time that you will die. Some things in life are better not to know about. And sometimes there can be a benefit to not knowing. In this episode – examples of ignorance truly being bliss, or even being an asset",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0585.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0585.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0585",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/585"
},{
  "number": 586,
  "date": "2016-05-06",
  "title": "Who Do We Think We Are?",
  "description": "It’s nice to belong, to feel connected to others. But what happens when you realize that your fundamental beliefs don’t line up with the people you want to be close to? Do you bring it up? And, what does that conversation sound like? Guest host Sean Cole sits in for Ira.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0586.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0586.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0586",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/586"
},{
  "number": 587,
  "date": "2016-05-27",
  "title": "The Perils of Intimacy",
  "description": "Stories about mysteries that exist in relationships we thought couldn't possibly surprise us, and the strangeness of putting our wants on the line with someone who may not share them at all-- and how much we're willing to risk for someone we may never see again.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0587.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0587.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0587",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/587"
},{
  "number": 588,
  "date": "2016-06-03",
  "title": "Mind Games 2016",
  "description": "Stories of people who try simple mind games on others, and then find themselves in way over their heads.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0588.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0588.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0588",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/588"
},{
  "number": 589,
  "date": "2016-06-17",
  "title": "Tell Me I'm Fat",
  "description": "The way people talk about being fat is shifting. With one-third of Americans classified as overweight, and another third as obese, and almost none of us losing weight and keeping it off, maybe it’s time to rethink the way we see being fat. A show inspired by Lindy West’s book Shrill.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0589.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0589.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0589",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/589"
},{
  "number": 590,
  "date": "2016-06-24",
  "title": "Choosing Wrong",
  "description": "Stories of people making the wrong choice, even though the right one is staring them squarely in the eye. Basketball players making a conscious decision to not do the thing that makes them better, pollsters refusing to see the truth of Donald Trump, and more.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0590.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0590.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0590",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/590"
},{
  "number": 591,
  "date": "2016-07-15",
  "title": "Get Your Money's Worth",
  "description": "Stories of people trying to make sure they get what they paid for, from political change to bedroom slippers. We follow a donor as he vets presidential candidates, and go inside a company wrestling with the consequences of its \"no questions asked,” lifetime return policy.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0591.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0591.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0591",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/591"
},{
  "number": 592,
  "date": "2016-07-29",
  "title": "Are We There Yet?",
  "description": "A bunch of us from our show went to refugee camps all over Greece. We found people falling in love, kids mad at their parents for dragging them to Europe, women doing their laundry in a baseball stadium locker room, hundreds of people living at a gas station, sitting next to the pumps, smoking, and a guy running what amounts to a cigarette charity. Also: wild pigs. 57,000 refugees are stuck in Greece, making homes in some surprising locations. We hear what that’s really like. INTERACTIVE TOUR",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0592.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0592.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0592",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/592"
},{
  "number": 593,
  "date": "2016-08-05",
  "title": "Don’t Have to Live Like a Refugee",
  "description": "We return to Greece with stories of people trying to move on with their lives in whatever way they can. We meet a couple who fell in love even though they weren't expecting anything like that to happen, and even though her family didn't approve. We also meet a shopkeeper in a camp who's running what amounts to a cigarette charity. INTERACTIVE TOUR",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0593.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0593.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0593",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/593"
},{
  "number": 594,
  "date": "2016-08-12",
  "title": "My Summer Self",
  "description": "Summer is a time when change seems more possible than ever. But is that really how it happens? Can people actually reinvent themselves in the warmer months? This week we present stories — and some comedy — about people and their summer selves.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0594.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0594.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0594",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/594"
},{
  "number": 595,
  "date": "2016-08-26",
  "title": "Deep End of the Pool",
  "description": "What do you do when you're thrown into a situation you’re not prepared for? And while you’re flailing around—what happens to the people who depend on you? This week we present stories of people who find themselves in over their heads, including an attorney who knows little about criminal law assigned to defend a young man facing twenty years in prison. ANNOTATED COURT DOCUMENT",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0595.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0595.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0595",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/595"
},{
  "number": 596,
  "date": "2016-09-09",
  "title": "Becoming a Badger",
  "description": "This week, stories about people trying their best to turn themselves into something else—like a badger. Or a professional comedian, in a language they didn’t grow up speaking.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0596.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0596.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0596",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/596"
},{
  "number": 597,
  "date": "2016-09-23",
  "title": "One Last Thing Before I Go",
  "description": "Words can seem so puny and ineffective sometimes. On this show, we have stories in which ordinary people make last ditch efforts to get through to their loved ones, using a combination of small talk and not-so-small talk.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0597.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0597.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0597",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/597"
},{
  "number": 598,
  "date": "2016-10-07",
  "title": "My Undesirable Talent",
  "description": "San Francisco’s Spider-Man burglar was remarkable. He dropped into buildings from skylights, leapt 10 feet from one roof to another. But mostly, his talent got him into trouble. This week, his story, and stories of other undesirable talents.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0598.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0598.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0598",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/598"
},{
  "number": 599,
  "date": "2016-10-21",
  "title": "Seriously?",
  "description": "Watching lies become the truth in this year's election. And a few people who try to bridge the gap between the way the two sides see the facts.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0599.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0599.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0599",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/599"
},{
  "number": 600,
  "date": "2016-10-28",
  "title": "Will I Know Anyone at This Party?",
  "description": "Right now lots of Republicans feel like they don’t recognize their own party. Like a Minnesota congressman who’s confused when the residents in his district, people he’s known for years, start calling for a ban on Muslims moving to their town.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0600.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0600.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0600",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/600"
},{
  "number": 601,
  "date": "2016-11-04",
  "title": "Master of Her Domain… Name",
  "description": "A story about Hillary Clinton that offers a different picture than what we’ve been hearing from both sides during this campaign. And some funny stuff, because everyone’s tired of the election.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0601.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0601.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0601",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/601"
},{
  "number": 602,
  "date": "2016-11-11",
  "title": "The Sun Comes Up",
  "description": "People around the country talking about the coming four years. Some of them exultant, some of them, as President Obama said Wednesday, \"less so.\"",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0602.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0602.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0602",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/602"
},{
  "number": 603,
  "date": "2016-12-02",
  "title": "Once More, With Feeling",
  "description": "Stories of people who decide to rethink the way they’ve been doing things... or try to get others to do that. Including the story of a veteran who finds a new way to talk about war.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0603.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0603.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0603",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/603"
},{
  "number": 604,
  "date": "2016-12-09",
  "title": "20 Years Later",
  "description": "Samantha Broun talks to cops, politicians, inmates, and family closest to the crime that changed policy 20 years ago for inmates serving life sentences in Pennsylvania. It's a crime Samantha knows well, because it happened to her mom.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0604.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0604.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0604",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/604"
},{
  "number": 605,
  "date": "2016-12-16",
  "title": "Kid Logic 2016",
  "description": "Stories of kids using perfectly logical arguments, and arriving at perfectly wrong conclusions. An updated version of an episode from 2001, with one story swapped.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0605.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0605.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0605",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/605"
},{
  "number": 606,
  "date": "2016-12-23",
  "title": "Just What I Wanted",
  "description": "Stories from people who want something desperately—for Christmas or otherwise—and then have their wishes fulfilled. Or do they?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0606.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0606.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0606",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/606"
},{
  "number": 607,
  "date": "2017-01-06",
  "title": "Didn’t We Solve This One?",
  "description": "We’ve fought two wars since 9/11. We got help from tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans—some were targeted or killed because they helped us. We owe these people. We’ve passed laws that say so. So why has it been so hard for us to get many of them to safety?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0607.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0607.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0607",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/607"
},{
  "number": 608,
  "date": "2017-01-20",
  "title": "The Revolution Starts At Noon",
  "description": "Some people are super-stoked for the political changes that are coming. We hear from them. And others.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0608.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0608.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0608",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/608"
},{
  "number": 609,
  "date": "2017-02-03",
  "title": "It’s Working Out Very Nicely",
  "description": "This week we document what happened when the President’s executive order went into effect temporarily banning travel from seven countries, and we talk about the way it was implemented. A major policy change thrown into the world like a fastball with no warning. It’s hard not to ask: “What just happened? What was that all about?”",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0609.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0609.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0609",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/609"
},{
  "number": 610,
  "date": "2017-02-17",
  "title": "Grand Gesture",
  "description": "This week we have stories of people going to very extreme measures to demonstrate their feelings. Elna Baker makes a questionable trip to Africa, while a man in Florida commits a series of disturbing acts in the name of love. Ira also goes to a high school to talk to kids before a dance.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0610.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0610.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0610",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/610"
},{
  "number": 611,
  "date": "2017-03-03",
  "title": "Vague and Confused",
  "description": "A show about rules and what happens when they’re vague and randomly enforced.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0611.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0611.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0611",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/611"
},{
  "number": 612,
  "date": "2017-03-17",
  "title": "Ask a Grown-Up",
  "description": "Stories from people who need a grown-up. Featuring teenage girls asking for advice about their love lives and Ira's tribute to his very grown-up friend Mary.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0612.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0612.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0612",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/612"
},{
  "number": 613,
  "date": "2017-03-31",
  "title": "OK, I’ll Do It",
  "description": "Stories of people who decide that they are the best person for the job, no matter how dangerous. Including a story about a stay-at-home mom with a history of gun running for a guerilla organization, and a surgeon who does surgery...on himself.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0613.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0613.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0613",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/613"
},{
  "number": 614,
  "date": "2017-04-14",
  "title": "The Other Mr. President",
  "description": "Since Russia meddled in our election, there's been concern that the fake news and disinformation that's so prevalent there could be taking hold in this country. But is that hyperbole? This week we look at what it's actually like to live in the confusing information landscape that is Putin's Russia.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0614.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0614.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0614",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/614"
},{
  "number": 615,
  "date": "2017-04-28",
  "title": "The Beginning of Now",
  "description": "Before Donald Trump started his presidential campaign in 2015, there was a congressional race that redefined what was possible in American politics. Steve Bannon and Breitbart News got involved in that race early, just like they later got deeply involved in Donald Trump's race. On this week’s show: What happened in that campaign, what it made it work, and how we got to now.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0615.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0615.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0615",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/615"
},{
  "number": 616,
  "date": "2017-05-05",
  "title": "I Am Not A Pirate",
  "description": "To be, or not to be a pirate? This week, that is the question. Hold fast, mateys! We have stories about both historical and modern-day swashbucklers who loot, pillage, and question their choices.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0616.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0616.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0616",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/616"
},{
  "number": 617,
  "date": "2017-05-19",
  "title": "Fermi’s Paradox",
  "description": "Three people grapple with the question, “Are we alone?”",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0617.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0617.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0617",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/617"
},{
  "number": 618,
  "date": "2017-06-09",
  "title": "Mr. Lie Detector",
  "description": "A polygraph operator and his strange journey. And other stories.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0618.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0618.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0618",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/618"
},{
  "number": 619,
  "date": "2017-06-30",
  "title": "The Magic Show",
  "description": "Just a few years before he got the internship at NPR that started him in radio, our host Ira Glass had another career. He performed magic at children's birthday parties. A powerful sense of embarrassment has prevented him from ever doing an episode on the subject, but when he learned that producer David Kestenbaum was also a kid conjurer, they decided to dive in together. Photo: David P. Abbott demonstrates his floating ball routine.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0619.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0619.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0619",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/619"
},{
  "number": 620,
  "date": "2017-07-14",
  "title": "To Be Real",
  "description": "Most of the time, we show the world a pretty superficial version of ourselves. \"How about that weather?\" But this week—people who try to go deeper, to get to something real, in some unexpected places: war, magic and porn.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0620.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0620.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0620",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/620"
},{
  "number": 621,
  "date": "2017-07-21",
  "title": "Fear and Loathing in Homer and Rockville",
  "description": "Two towns where people got really upset about undocumented immigrants, even though in both places, that did not seem to be the most important thing happening at all. One of the towns, a small town in Alaska, has no undocumented immigrants at all, but the possibility of them arriving put the whole town at each other’s throats.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0621.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0621.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0621",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/621"
},{
  "number": 622,
  "date": "2017-08-04",
  "title": "Who You Gonna Call?",
  "description": "When everything goes wrong, one of the first things we think is, \"Who do I call?\" This week, stories of lucky people who have found the exact right person to ring up for help.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0622.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0622.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0622",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/622"
},{
  "number": 623,
  "date": "2017-08-18",
  "title": "We Are in the Future",
  "description": "One of our producers, Neil Drumming, has recently become fascinated with Afrofuturism. It's more than sci-fi. It’s a way of looking at black culture that’s fantastic, creative, and oddly hopeful—which feels especially urgent during a time without a lot of optimism. Featuring the new song \"The Deep\" by clppng. Original artwork by Paul Davey. Click to enlarge.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0623.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0623.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0623",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/623"
},{
  "number": 624,
  "date": "2017-09-01",
  "title": "Private Geography",
  "description": "Everyone walks around on their own private map of the world. The places we’re from and how they made us, whether we like it or not.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0624.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0624.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0624",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/624"
},{
  "number": 625,
  "date": "2017-09-08",
  "title": "Essay B",
  "description": "In 1967, the first two black students were enrolled at an all-white private boarding school in Virginia. The main reason they were there? To benefit the white kids. This week: stories about being enlisted to benefit another person’s educational experience. A version of this story appears in The New York Times Magazine.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0625.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0625.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0625",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/625"
},{
  "number": 626,
  "date": "2017-09-22",
  "title": "White Haze",
  "description": "Right-wing groups like the Proud Boys say they have no tolerance for racism or white supremacist groups. Their leader Gavin McInnes disavowed the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville. But the Proud Boys believe “the West is the best,” which, one of them points out, is not such a big jump from “whites are best.” And one of the Proud Boys organized the Charlottesville rally. (The group now claims he was a spy.) What should we make of groups like this?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0626.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0626.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0626",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/626"
},{
  "number": 627,
  "date": "2017-10-06",
  "title": "Suitable for Children",
  "description": "This week we ask: who thought that would be good for a kid? Neil Drumming looks back at a toy he loved that, in retrospect, probably wouldn’t love him back. And we go to a museum that educates children but also scares the hell out of them.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0627.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0627.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0627",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/627"
},{
  "number": 628,
  "date": "2017-10-13",
  "title": "In the Shadow of the City 2017",
  "description": "Stories that take place on the edge of civilization, just out of sight.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0628.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0628.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0628",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/628"
},{
  "number": 629,
  "date": "2017-10-20",
  "title": "Expect Delays",
  "description": "We all love to travel to different places, but not many of us like the stressful, banal process of the journey. This week, stories about delays—including a town known entirely for its speed trap, and a woman who comes up against bureaucratic nightmares every time she wants to go just a few blocks away.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0629.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0629.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0629",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/629"
},{
  "number": 630,
  "date": "2017-10-27",
  "title": "Things I Mean to Know",
  "description": "There are so many facts about the world that we take for granted—without ever questioning how we know them. Of course the earth revolves around the sun. Of course my dog loves me. But how exactly do we know things like that are true? This week, stories of people trying to unspool some of life’s certainties, and what they find.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0630.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0630.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0630",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/630"
},{
  "number": 631,
  "date": "2017-11-10",
  "title": "So a Monkey and a Horse Walk Into a Bar",
  "description": "This week, blurring the line between animal and human.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0631.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0631.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0631",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/631"
},{
  "number": 632,
  "date": "2017-12-08",
  "title": "Our Town",
  "description": "The man whose views on immigration are a cornerstone of Trump administration policy—Attorney General Jeff Sessions—apparently came to his opinions on the issue from seeing what happened in the poultry plants of Alabama. He believes undocumented workers showed up in those plants, stole American jobs, and drove down wages. Was he right? We have an economist crunch the numbers, and visit to see for ourselves.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0632.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0632.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0632",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/632"
},{
  "number": 633,
  "date": "2017-12-15",
  "title": "Our Town - Part Two",
  "description": "So many people in Albertville, AL wondered what it cost them in taxes when thousands of undocumented immigrants moved to their town. One woman drove our host Ira Glass to the grocery store to watch a random Latina mom buy some milk with government assistance, to try to prove her point. So what’d all the newcomers really cost? And what was their effect on crime, schools, and politics?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0633.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0633.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0633",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/633"
},{
  "number": 634,
  "date": "2017-12-22",
  "title": "Human Error in Volatile Situations",
  "description": "Even the best laid plans can go catastrophically wrong when humans get involved. This week, people bungle simple operations on some of the most dangerous weapons in the world.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0634.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0634.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0634",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/634"
},{
  "number": 635,
  "date": "2018-01-12",
  "title": "Chip in My Brain",
  "description": "A boy who can’t dribble gets a coach, a new best friend, and something to believe in.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0635.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0635.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0635",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/635"
},{
  "number": 636,
  "date": "2018-01-19",
  "title": "I Thought It Would Be Easier",
  "description": "A year into Trump’s presidency, stories of politicians—of both parties—unable to accomplish tasks that seem pretty straightforward.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0636.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0636.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0636",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/636"
},{
  "number": 637,
  "date": "2018-02-02",
  "title": "Words You Can't Say",
  "description": "In this politically charged climate, it feels like you have to be super careful with your language, no matter who you are or what side you're on. Stories about people who say the “wrong” thing and suffer the consequences, including a very conservative Republican from Louisiana who's lambasted for being too liberal.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0637.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0637.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0637",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/637"
},{
  "number": 638,
  "date": "2018-02-09",
  "title": "Rom-Com",
  "description": "The one thing you know for sure when you're watching a romantic comedy is that it's going to turn out okay in the end. When you're living one? Not so much. This week, stories that unfold like rom-coms.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0638.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0638.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0638",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/638"
},{
  "number": 639,
  "date": "2018-02-23",
  "title": "In Dog We Trust",
  "description": "Exactly how much are the animals that live in our homes caught up in our everyday family dynamics?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0639.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0639.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0639",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/639"
},{
  "number": 640,
  "date": "2018-03-02",
  "title": "Five Women",
  "description": "As Harvey Weinstein goes to trial, we have a different kind of #MeToo story about several women who worked for the same man. They tell us not only about their troubling encounters with him, but also about their lives beforehand. Who were they when they entered the workplace, and how did their personal histories shape the way they dealt with his harassment?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0640.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0640.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0640",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/640"
},{
  "number": 641,
  "date": "2018-03-16",
  "title": "The Walls",
  "description": "Stories from border walls around the world, where one place ends and another begins. And the strange ecosystems that arise.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0641.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0641.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0641",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/641"
},{
  "number": 642,
  "date": "2018-04-06",
  "title": "The Impossible Dream",
  "description": "Before he leaves the Senate for good, Republican Jeff Flake is trying to get a bill passed. He has his work cut out for him, with a Senate that barely brings anything to the floor, a party he feels estranged from, and a president who seems to hate his guts. Producer Zoe Chace hung out with him for four months.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0642.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0642.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0642",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/642"
},{
  "number": 643,
  "date": "2018-04-13",
  "title": "Damned If You Do…",
  "description": "It’s one thing to weigh pros and cons. But sometimes all you have is con and con. This week, stories of people having to make a choice, when no good options exist.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0643.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0643.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0643",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/643"
},{
  "number": 644,
  "date": "2018-04-27",
  "title": "Random Acts of History",
  "description": "Stories about people who accidentally bump into unsettling facts of history in settings meant to teach them history. What they end up learning is very different from what they’re supposed to.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0644.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0644.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0644",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/644"
},{
  "number": 645,
  "date": "2018-05-04",
  "title": "My Effing First Amendment",
  "description": "Conservative students don't feel like their ideas are welcome on campus. So they're fighting back. We go to Nebraska, where one skirmish spins out of control.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0645.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0645.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0645",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/645"
},{
  "number": 646,
  "date": "2018-05-18",
  "title": "The Secret of My Death",
  "description": "Cryptic messages on a cell phone and a teeter totter at a construction site: these are clues people found, trying to make sense of a death.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0646.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0646.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0646",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/646"
},{
  "number": 647,
  "date": "2018-05-25",
  "title": "LaDonna",
  "description": "A security guard at the airport notices something going wrong on the tarmac, and takes it upon herself to fix it. It’s way harder than she expects.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0647.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0647.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0647",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/647"
},{
  "number": 648,
  "date": "2018-06-08",
  "title": "Unteachable Moment",
  "description": "Stories about people trying to learn something when no one is clear what the lesson is supposed to be.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0648.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0648.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0648",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/648"
},{
  "number": 649,
  "date": "2018-06-22",
  "title": "It's My Party and I'll Try If I Want To",
  "description": "Democrats are desperate to retake part of Congress. Their best shot is the House. This fall, they’ll be slugging it out with Republicans—but in the meantime, they’re slugging it out with each other. The progressive and moderate wings of the Democratic party are going head-to-head in Democratic primaries all over the country right now, wrestling over what the party should be and stand for. This week, we have the story of a candidate in one primary like that.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0649.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0649.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0649",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/649"
},{
  "number": 650,
  "date": "2018-06-29",
  "title": "Change You Can Maybe Believe In",
  "description": "An innocent man forgives the cop who framed him. An Argentinian talk show that usually treats women as objects suddenly gets really interested in feminism. This week, stories about changes that seem too tidy to be true.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0650.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0650.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0650",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/650"
},{
  "number": 651,
  "date": "2018-07-13",
  "title": "If You Build It, Will They Come?",
  "description": "A young preacher opens a new church. A new restaurant reopens old wounds. This week, stories of people trying to build something that will last.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0651.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0651.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0651",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/651"
},{
  "number": 652,
  "date": "2018-07-20",
  "title": "ICE Capades",
  "description": "Dispatches from a government agency in its tumultuous teenage years.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0652.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0652.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0652",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/652"
},{
  "number": 653,
  "date": "2018-08-03",
  "title": "Crime Scene",
  "description": "Every crime scene hides a story. In this week's show, we hear about crime scenes and the stories they tell.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0653.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0653.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0653",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/653"
},{
  "number": 654,
  "date": "2018-08-10",
  "title": "The Feather Heist",
  "description": "A flute player breaks into a British museum and makes off with a million dollars worth of dead birds.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0654.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0654.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0654",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/654"
},{
  "number": 655,
  "date": "2018-08-24",
  "title": "The Not-So-Great Unknown",
  "description": "What happens when unadventurous people end up in adventurous situations. Like an astronaut who goes to places no one has gone before, even though he’s not really into outer space.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0655.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0655.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0655",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/655"
},{
  "number": 656,
  "date": "2018-09-14",
  "title": "Let Me Count the Ways",
  "description": "Yes, youʼve heard about the family separations. Youʼve heard about the travel ban. But there are dozens of ways the Trump administration is cracking down on immigration across many agencies, sometimes in ways so small and technical it doesnʼt make headlines. This week, the quiet bureaucratic war that’s even targeting legal immigrants.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0656.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0656.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0656",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/656"
},{
  "number": 657,
  "date": "2018-09-21",
  "title": "The Runaways",
  "description": "A bunch of teenagers go missing from a town in Long Island. For months, the police treat them as runaways, ignoring the kids' parents, who keep trying to tell them otherwise. They keep trying to tell them that something much worse might have happened.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0657.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0657.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0657",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/657"
},{
  "number": 658,
  "date": "2018-10-05",
  "title": "The Unhappy Deciders",
  "description": "Making big decisions about other people's lives can feel pretty awful. Zoe Chace followed Senator Jeff Flake as he decided to force the Senate to delay its vote on Judge Kavanaugh. Among her discoveries: Those protestors in the elevator? They aren’t the reason he did what he did.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0658.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0658.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0658",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/658"
},{
  "number": 659,
  "date": "2018-10-12",
  "title": "Before the Next One",
  "description": "There’s no rulebook on how to handle a school shooting. And no real way to prepare for one. This week, people take what they’ve learned from these tragedies and try to use that knowledge to save others.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0659.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0659.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0659",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/659"
},{
  "number": 660,
  "date": "2018-11-02",
  "title": "Hoaxing Yourself",
  "description": "People who tell a lie and then believe the lie more than anyone else.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0660.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0660.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0660",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/660"
},{
  "number": 661,
  "date": "2018-11-09",
  "title": "But That's What Happened",
  "description": "Stories of women in unsettling situations. When they try to explain what’s wrong, they’re told that they don’t understand—that there’s nothing unsettling about it.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0661.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0661.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0661",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/661"
},{
  "number": 662,
  "date": "2018-11-16",
  "title": "Where There Is a Will",
  "description": "Stories of people who believe there is always a way. And also those who don’t.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0662.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0662.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0662",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/662"
},{
  "number": 663,
  "date": "2018-12-07",
  "title": "How I Read It",
  "description": "Documents you don't normally think of, showing you things you didn't expect.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0663.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0663.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0663",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/663"
},{
  "number": 664,
  "date": "2018-12-28",
  "title": "The Room of Requirement",
  "description": "Libraries aren't just for books. They're often spaces that transform into what you need them to be: a classroom, a cyber café, a place to find answers, a quiet spot to be alone. It's actually kind of magical. This week, we have stories of people who roam the stacks and find unexpected things that just happen to be exactly what they required.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0664.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0664.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0664",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/664"
},{
  "number": 665,
  "date": "2019-01-11",
  "title": "Before Things Went to Hell",
  "description": "We revisit those moments of calm before the storm, when things could have gone very differently, but instead, they went to hell.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0665.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0665.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0665",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/665"
},{
  "number": 666,
  "date": "2019-01-18",
  "title": "The Theme That Shall Not Be Named",
  "description": "Satan! In his many surprising manifestations, all around us.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0666.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0666.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0666",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/666"
},{
  "number": 667,
  "date": "2019-02-01",
  "title": "Wartime Radio",
  "description": "Intimate and personal dispatches from two very different battlefields: A small town in the Syrian war. And the U.S. opioid epidemic. Each came from a DIY radio outfit. (Okay, one’s a podcast.)",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0667.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0667.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0667",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/667"
},{
  "number": 668,
  "date": "2019-02-15",
  "title": "The Long Fuse",
  "description": "People tossing words out into the world impulsively, to ignite and burn over decades.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0668.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0668.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0668",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/668"
},{
  "number": 669,
  "date": "2019-03-01",
  "title": "Scrambling to Get Off the Ice",
  "description": "The Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee may have to fight to protect Mueller's investigation and make his report public. Now that they’re in the majority, they have new tools they can use. Our producer Zoe Chace spent weeks behind the scenes with them as they tried out their new powers for the first time. This and other stories of people scrambling to get their footing on some challenging terrain.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0669.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0669.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0669",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/669"
},{
  "number": 670,
  "date": "2019-03-15",
  "title": "Beware the Jabberwock",
  "description": "Stories from the upside-down world where conspiracy theorists dwell.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0670.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0670.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0670",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/670"
},{
  "number": 671,
  "date": "2019-03-29",
  "title": "Anything Can Be Anything",
  "description": "People connecting the dots that maybe should not be connected.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0671.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0671.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0671",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/671"
},{
  "number": 672,
  "date": "2019-04-05",
  "title": "No Fair!",
  "description": "Stories of very small injustices and also one very big one.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0672.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0672.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0672",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/672"
},{
  "number": 673,
  "date": "2019-04-19",
  "title": "Left Behind",
  "description": "People figuring out how to move through a world in which something important has disappeared.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0673.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0673.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0673",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/673"
},{
  "number": 674,
  "date": "2019-05-10",
  "title": "Get a Spine!",
  "description": "Stories of people standing up for themselves, shaking off their fear, bracing themselves, and doing what they’ve been scared to do.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0674.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0674.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0674",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/674"
},{
  "number": 675,
  "date": "2019-05-17",
  "title": "I’m on TV??",
  "description": "What it's like to be momentarily big on the small screen.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0675.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0675.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0675",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/675"
},{
  "number": 676,
  "date": "2019-05-31",
  "title": "Here’s Looking at You, Kid",
  "description": "Adults telling kids who they are, and kids wondering — are they right?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0676.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0676.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0676",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/676"
},{
  "number": 677,
  "date": "2019-06-14",
  "title": "Seeing Yourself In the Wild",
  "description": "Stories of those unexpected moments when we see who we really are.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0677.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0677.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0677",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/677"
},{
  "number": 678,
  "date": "2019-07-05",
  "title": "The Wannabes",
  "description": "This country is crawling in presidential candidates right now and they're bumping into each other in Des Moines and yelling over each other in Miami. We hang out with them, in this weird early period of the election when they're easy to walk right up to.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0678.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0678.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0678",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/678"
},{
  "number": 679,
  "date": "2019-07-12",
  "title": "Save the Girl",
  "description": "People go on missions to save young girls from danger. But sometimes they get so caught up in the mission that it overshadows the girl herself.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0679.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0679.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0679",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/679"
},{
  "number": 680,
  "date": "2019-07-26",
  "title": "The Weight Of Words (2019)",
  "description": "Words mean things, but some words are especially meaningful — whether in a survival manual, a song lyric, or a slur.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0680.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0680.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0680",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/680"
},{
  "number": 681,
  "date": "2019-08-16",
  "title": "Escape From the Lab",
  "description": "What happens when our most ingenious creations actually make it out into the world.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0681.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0681.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0681",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/681"
},{
  "number": 682,
  "date": "2019-08-23",
  "title": "Ten Sessions",
  "description": "What if someone told you about a type of therapy that could help you work through unhealed trauma in just ten sessions? Some people knock through it in two weeks. Jaime Lowe tried the therapy—and recorded it.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0682.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0682.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0682",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/682"
},{
  "number": 683,
  "date": "2019-09-20",
  "title": "Beer Summit",
  "description": "Two people, sitting down over a beer, hashing out their differences and understanding where the other guy is coming from. Hard to imagine these days, right? It's so rare right now that someone is curious enough to actually see the other person's point of view. This week on the show, beer summits. Including going behind the scenes of the most famous one ever.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0683.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0683.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0683",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/683"
},{
  "number": 684,
  "date": "2019-09-27",
  "title": "Burn It Down",
  "description": "Stories of people who decide the only way forward — for real change — is to burn everything to the ground.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0684.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0684.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0684",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/684"
},{
  "number": 685,
  "date": "2019-10-11",
  "title": "We Come From Small Places",
  "description": "The staff goes to one of the biggest parties in New York City, the Labor Day Carnival and the West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0685.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0685.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0685",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/685"
},{
  "number": 686,
  "date": "2019-10-18",
  "title": "Umbrellas Up",
  "description": "For over 100 days now, protestors in Hong Kong have taken to the streets every weekend. What it’s like to live through that.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0686.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0686.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0686",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/686"
},{
  "number": 687,
  "date": "2019-11-08",
  "title": "Small Things Considered",
  "description": "Stories about being little. Secret writings in tiny letters. The power of a very small number. And a medication that's supposed to cure shortness.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0687.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0687.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0687",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/687"
},{
  "number": 688,
  "date": "2019-11-15",
  "title": "The Out Crowd",
  "description": "Reports from the frontlines of the Trump administration's \"Remain in Mexico\" asylum policy. We hear from asylum seekers waiting across the border in Mexico, in a makeshift refugee camp,  and from the officers who sent them there to wait in the first place. This episode won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting, the first ever given for audio journalism.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0688.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0688.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0688",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/688"
},{
  "number": 689,
  "date": "2019-12-06",
  "title": "Digging Up the Bones",
  "description": "There's a lot that can be gained from unearthing the past -- learning about oneself, learning about others. But, it doesn't always go how you'd expect.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0689.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0689.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0689",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/689"
},{
  "number": 690,
  "date": "2019-12-27",
  "title": "Too Close to Home",
  "description": "For the holidays, stories of families finally addressing the thorny thing they’ve never really talked about.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0690.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0690.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0690",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/690"
},{
  "number": 691,
  "date": "2020-01-10",
  "title": "Gardens of Branching Paths",
  "description": "Other universes that are just like our own, but with one small difference.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0691.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0691.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0691",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/691"
},{
  "number": 692,
  "date": "2020-01-31",
  "title": "The Show of Delights",
  "description": "In these dark, combative times, we attempt the most radical counterprogramming we could imagine: a show made up entirely of stories about delight.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0692.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0692.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0692",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/692"
},{
  "number": 693,
  "date": "2020-02-07",
  "title": "Abdi the American",
  "description": "We return to our story about Abdi Nor from 2015, with some big news about his life today. When we first broadcast the story, Abdi was a Somali refugee living in Kenya desperately trying – against long odds – to get to the United States. Then he got the luckiest break of his life: he won a lottery that puts him on a short list for a U.S. visa. But before he could cash in his golden ticket, the police started raiding his neighborhood, targeting refugees.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0693.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0693.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0693",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/693"
},{
  "number": 694,
  "date": "2020-02-14",
  "title": "Get Back to Where You Once Belonged",
  "description": "People looking everywhere to find a place—any place—where, for once, they don't have to be the odd man out.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0694.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0694.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0694",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/694"
},{
  "number": 695,
  "date": "2020-02-28",
  "title": "Everyone's a Critic",
  "description": "People squirming in a world where everything is rated and reviewed.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0695.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0695.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0695",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/695"
},{
  "number": 696,
  "date": "2020-03-13",
  "title": "Low Hum of Menace",
  "description": "Things do not seem fine at all, but it’s hard to say why.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0696.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0696.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0696",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/696"
},{
  "number": 697,
  "date": "2020-03-20",
  "title": "Alone Together",
  "description": "This week, as the staff creates the episode from their apartments and houses, with our host in quarantine, in this moment when everyone’s reaching out to the people they love, we put together a collection of family stories, with some timely stuff at the top.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0697.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0697.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0697",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/697"
},{
  "number": 698,
  "date": "2020-03-27",
  "title": "The Test",
  "description": "The coronavirus has now fully arrived in the United States. This week, stories of people trying to rise to that challenge, in some pretty extreme situations.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0698.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0698.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0698",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/698"
},{
  "number": 699,
  "date": "2020-04-03",
  "title": "Fiasco!",
  "description": "Stories of when things go wrong. Really wrong. When you leave the normal realm of human error, fumble, mishap, and mistake and enter the territory of really huge breakdowns. Fiascos. Things go so awry that normal social order collapses.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0699.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0699.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0699",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/699"
},{
  "number": 700,
  "date": "2020-04-10",
  "title": "Embiggening",
  "description": "Sometimes a sketch of a thing needs filling in for its true significance to be known.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0700.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0700.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0700",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/700"
},{
  "number": 701,
  "date": "2020-04-17",
  "title": "Black Box",
  "description": "Desperate to know what happened to his family, a man obsessively decodes the only information about them he can get. That, and other stories of people looking into the void for answers.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0701.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0701.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0701",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/701"
},{
  "number": 702,
  "date": "2020-04-24",
  "title": "One Last Thing Before I Go",
  "description": "Words can seem so puny and ineffective sometimes. On this show, we have stories in which ordinary people make last ditch efforts to get through to their loved ones, using a combination of small talk and not-so-small talk.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0702.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0702.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0702",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/702"
},{
  "number": 703,
  "date": "2020-05-08",
  "title": "Stuck!",
  "description": "During a time when a lot of us feel like we are living in a holding pattern, stories of people feeling stuck.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0703.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0703.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0703",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/703"
},{
  "number": 704,
  "date": "2020-05-15",
  "title": "Our Pulitzer-Winning Episode",
  "description": "Last week, our episode \"The Out Crowd\" won the very first Pulitzer Prize ever awarded to a radio show. This is the episode that won, with some updates on the stories. Hear what the Trump administration’s \"Remain in Mexico\" policy actually means, on the ground, at the Mexican border.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0704.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0704.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0704",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/704"
},{
  "number": 705,
  "date": "2020-05-22",
  "title": "Time Out",
  "description": "While sports of all kinds have been put on pause, we bring you favorite stories from back when people were still on football fields, boxing rings, and basketball courts.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0705.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0705.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0705",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/705"
},{
  "number": 706,
  "date": "2020-05-29",
  "title": "A Mess to Be Reckoned With",
  "description": "Lissa Yellow Bird searches for missing people. Cold cases, mostly. People no one else is looking for. It’s not her job, but a lot of Native Americans go missing and their cases remain unsolved, so families often ask Lissa for help. But then, Lissa’s own niece goes missing.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0706.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0706.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0706",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/706"
},{
  "number": 707,
  "date": "2020-06-05",
  "title": "We Are in the Future",
  "description": "In this moment of sorrow, protest, and rage in the wake of George Floyd’s death, we offer this as a break from the dreadful present: our show about Afrofuturism. It’s a way of looking at Black culture that’s fantastic and hopeful, which feels especially urgent during a time without a lot of optimism. Featuring the song \"The Deep\" by clppng.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0707.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0707.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0707",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/707"
},{
  "number": 708,
  "date": "2020-06-12",
  "title": "Here, Again",
  "description": "An exhaustingly familiar story. Maybe it’ll have a different ending this time, but maybe not. We hear what different people said and did one weekend in reaction to the killing of George Floyd.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0708.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0708.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0708",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/708"
},{
  "number": 709,
  "date": "2020-06-26",
  "title": "The Reprieve",
  "description": "Michigan has passed its Covid-19 peak, and the state has started opening up. But it’s still been intensely difficult for the staff in the ICU at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. We've embedded with them over the past few months, and tracked how this pandemic has changed them and their city.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0709.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0709.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0709",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/709"
},{
  "number": 710,
  "date": "2020-07-10",
  "title": "Umbrellas Down",
  "description": "As China's new national security law tightens its control over Hong Kong, we return to our episode about last fall's anti-government protests and check in to see how people are responding.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0710.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0710.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0710",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/710"
},{
  "number": 711,
  "date": "2020-07-17",
  "title": "How to Be Alone",
  "description": "In space, in the ocean, by ourselves, or with others—we’re all just figuring out how to be apart.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0711.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0711.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0711",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/711"
},{
  "number": 712,
  "date": "2020-07-31",
  "title": "Nice White Parents",
  "description": "Years ago, producer Chana Joffe-Walt started reporting on one school in New York. She thought the story was about segregation and inequality in public schools. But the more she looked into it, the more she realized she was witnessing something else. She was seeing the inordinate power of white parents at this school. This is the first episode of Chana’s new mini-series: Nice White Parents.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0712.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0712.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0712",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/712"
},{
  "number": 713,
  "date": "2020-08-07",
  "title": "Made to Be Broken",
  "description": "From the moment we wake up in the morning there are a trillion rules — big and little — governing our lives. But sometimes, we encounter one we just can't abide by. In a pitched moment of rule-questioning, a show about rules and the people who break them.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0713.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0713.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0713",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/713"
},{
  "number": 714,
  "date": "2020-08-14",
  "title": "Day at the Beach",
  "description": "It’s the last few weeks of summer, so we’re going to the beach! This week, stories from the surf and sand.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0714.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0714.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0714",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/714"
},{
  "number": 715,
  "date": "2020-08-28",
  "title": "Long-Awaited Asteroid Finally Hits Earth",
  "description": "Teachers, students and parents around the country have been bracing themselves all spring and summer long for the start of this unprecedented school year. This week, it's here.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0715.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0715.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0715",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/715"
},{
  "number": 716,
  "date": "2020-09-04",
  "title": "Trail of Tears",
  "description": "Sarah Vowell and her twin sister Amy headed out on the road to retrace the Trail of Tears – the route their Cherokee ancestors took when expelled from their own land – and reflected on the question, what are we supposed to do with the mix of good and bad that is this country?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0716.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0716.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0716",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/716"
},{
  "number": 717,
  "date": "2020-09-11",
  "title": "Audience of One (2020)",
  "description": "At a time when going to the movies is mostly out of the question, we bring the movies to you.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0717.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0717.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0717",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/717"
},{
  "number": 718,
  "date": "2020-09-25",
  "title": "Same Bed, Different Dreams (2020)",
  "description": "Stories of people who are tied together, but imagine radically different futures. In one case, a movie star and her ex-husband plot against Kim Jong-Il. In another, a woman stalks her doppelgänger. And sometimes, one bed is the basis for an entire relationship, even for a man who almost never sees the person who shares his bed.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0718.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0718.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0718",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/718"
},{
  "number": 719,
  "date": "2020-10-02",
  "title": "Trust Me I’m a Doctor",
  "description": "A doctor who breaks the law might go to jail like anybody else. But who decides if that doctor gets to keep their medical license? On today’s show, the not-often-talked-about realm of licensing boards, and the disturbing decisions they sometimes make.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0719.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0719.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0719",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/719"
},{
  "number": 720,
  "date": "2020-10-16",
  "title": "The Moment After This Moment",
  "description": "People who are worried — or not worried enough! — about what's hurtling unstoppably towards them.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0720.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0720.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0720",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/720"
},{
  "number": 721,
  "date": "2020-10-23",
  "title": "The Walls Close In",
  "description": "People finding themselves stuck in small spaces—an elevator, an attic, an orchestra pit—trying to make sense of their new surroundings.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0721.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0721.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0721",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/721"
},{
  "number": 722,
  "date": "2020-10-30",
  "title": "The Unreality of Now",
  "description": "Ahead of the election, we have stories about people trying to live in the unreality that defines this moment. Election officials combat a contagion among their very own workers; people who've never owned guns suddenly go buy them; and two women who allege they were sexually assaulted by the president compare notes.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0722.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0722.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0722",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/722"
},{
  "number": 723,
  "date": "2020-11-06",
  "title": "Squeaker",
  "description": "People grappling with an endless presidential election.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0723.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0723.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0723",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/723"
},{
  "number": 724,
  "date": "2020-11-13",
  "title": "Personal Recount",
  "description": "Stories of people changing their minds.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0724.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0724.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0724",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/724"
},{
  "number": 725,
  "date": "2020-11-27",
  "title": "Turkey in a Face Mask",
  "description": "For Thanksgiving weekend, stories about food, and people who set out on very particular missions with food.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0725.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0725.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0725",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/725"
},{
  "number": 726,
  "date": "2020-12-11",
  "title": "Twenty-Five",
  "description": "To commemorate our show’s 25th year, we have a program about people who were born the year our show went on the air.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0726.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0726.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0726",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/726"
},{
  "number": 727,
  "date": "2020-12-18",
  "title": "Boulder v. Hill",
  "description": "What the day-to-day business of saving the world looks like. We visit with one group of people who are trying to rescue us from something very large, and another group trying to rescue us from something very small.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0727.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0727.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0727",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/727"
},{
  "number": 728,
  "date": "2020-12-25",
  "title": "Lights, Camera, Christmas!",
  "description": "People going to great lengths to throw a special Christmas for their families.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0728.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0728.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0728",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/728"
},{
  "number": 729,
  "date": "2021-01-08",
  "title": "Making the Cut",
  "description": "There's always someone whose job it is to decide if you measure up.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0729.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0729.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0729",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/729"
},{
  "number": 730,
  "date": "2021-01-22",
  "title": "The Empty Chair",
  "description": "Things we’ve lost in the past year — since the first American coronavirus case — that we haven’t talked about so much. Gossip. The chance to make new friends. And much larger stuff.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0730.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0730.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0730",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/730"
},{
  "number": 731,
  "date": "2021-02-12",
  "title": "What Lies Beneath (2021)",
  "description": "Summoning up stuff that’s usually hidden down deep.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0731.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0731.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0731",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/731"
},{
  "number": 732,
  "date": "2021-02-19",
  "title": "Secrets",
  "description": "Why we tell them, and what happens after we do.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0732.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0732.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0732",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/732"
},{
  "number": 733,
  "date": "2021-03-05",
  "title": "Warriors in the Garden",
  "description": "This week, three men who came together to protest the murder of George Floyd. They were unified, loud, and impressive, but over time these three friends end up in three very different places.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0733.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0733.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0733",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/733"
},{
  "number": 734,
  "date": "2021-03-19",
  "title": "The Campus Tour Has Been Cancelled",
  "description": "How the pandemic has thrown college admissions process into a kind of slow-motion chaos. One of the biggest changes: most colleges have stopped requiring the SAT. For decades, there’s been a debate over whether schools should drop the test. What’s it mean that it finally happened?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0734.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0734.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0734",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/734"
},{
  "number": 735,
  "date": "2021-04-09",
  "title": "Bloody Feelings",
  "description": "Stories about the power of blood.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0735.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0735.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0735",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/735"
},{
  "number": 736,
  "date": "2021-04-23",
  "title": "The Herd",
  "description": "What happens when your own community suddenly turns on you?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0736.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0736.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0736",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/736"
},{
  "number": 737,
  "date": "2021-05-14",
  "title": "The Daily",
  "description": "An ode to life's daily practices, and what you learn from doing a thing every single day.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0737.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0737.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0737",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/737"
},{
  "number": 738,
  "date": "2021-05-28",
  "title": "Good Grief!",
  "description": "So many of us, we don’t want to think about death. We avoid grieving when we lose someone, distract ourselves, look away. In this episode, at a moment when so many families are mourning, we have stories of people figuring out how they’ll grieve, and doing a pretty good job of it.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0738.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0738.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0738",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/738"
},{
  "number": 739,
  "date": "2021-06-11",
  "title": "Sisters",
  "description": "The bonds between sisters and how they get broken and fixed—or not.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0739.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0739.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0739",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/739"
},{
  "number": 740,
  "date": "2021-07-02",
  "title": "There. I Fixed It.",
  "description": "Solving problems using very extreme measures.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0740.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0740.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0740",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/740"
},{
  "number": 741,
  "date": "2021-07-09",
  "title": "The Weight of Words",
  "description": "Words mean things, but some words are especially meaningful.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0741.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0741.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0741",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/741"
},{
  "number": 742,
  "date": "2021-07-23",
  "title": "The Thing I'm Getting Over",
  "description": "What’s recovery mean, anyway?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0742.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0742.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0742",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/742"
},{
  "number": 743,
  "date": "2021-07-30",
  "title": "Don't You Be My Neighbor",
  "description": "Bad neighbors. What can you do about them?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0743.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0743.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0743",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/743"
},{
  "number": 744,
  "date": "2021-08-13",
  "title": "Essential",
  "description": "The pandemic forced jobs to change, but then the workers changed, too.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0744.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0744.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0744",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/744"
},{
  "number": 745,
  "date": "2021-08-27",
  "title": "Getting Out",
  "description": "People trying to escape all kinds of seemingly impossible situations.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0745.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0745.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0745",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/745"
},{
  "number": 746,
  "date": "2021-09-03",
  "title": "This Is Just Some Songs",
  "description": "We made you a mixtape. Don't make a big deal out of it or anything.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0746.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0746.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0746",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/746"
},{
  "number": 747,
  "date": "2021-09-10",
  "title": "Suitable for Children",
  "description": "Who thought that would be good for a kid?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0747.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0747.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0747",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/747"
},{
  "number": 748,
  "date": "2021-09-17",
  "title": "The End of the World as We Know It",
  "description": "What happens when one family goes all in on fighting climate change.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0748.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0748.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0748",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/748"
},{
  "number": 749,
  "date": "2021-10-01",
  "title": "My Bad",
  "description": "An hour devoted to embarrassing stories. They’re not always just little moments – funny, daily stuff that we laugh about later. Some can change you for the rest of your life.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0749.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0749.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0749",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/749"
},{
  "number": 750,
  "date": "2021-10-15",
  "title": "The Ferryman",
  "description": "Getting from Point A to Point B—with expert assistance.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0750.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0750.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0750",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/750"
},{
  "number": 751,
  "date": "2021-10-22",
  "title": "Audience of One",
  "description": "We bring the movies to you.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0751.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0751.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0751",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/751"
},{
  "number": 752,
  "date": "2021-10-29",
  "title": "An Invitation to Tea",
  "description": "A man who was imprisoned for 14 years in Guantanamo Bay, without charges, gets out and issues an invitation to all the people who kept him there. Amazingly, three of them agree to talk.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0752.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0752.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0752",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/752"
},{
  "number": 753,
  "date": "2021-11-12",
  "title": "What We’ve Got Here is Failure to Communicate",
  "description": "Getting the point across — or trying to, anyway.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0753.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0753.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0753",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/753"
},{
  "number": 754,
  "date": "2021-11-26",
  "title": "Spark Bird",
  "description": "Stories about birds and the hearts they sway, the havoc they wreak, the lives they change.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0754.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0754.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0754",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/754"
},{
  "number": 755,
  "date": "2021-12-03",
  "title": "The Convert",
  "description": "In 2006, a new convert showed up at a mosque in Orange County, California. Known as Farouk al-Aziz, the convert was actually an FBI informant named Craig Monteilh. That informant’s infiltration of the mosque is at the heart of FBI v Fazaga, a case heard at the Supreme Court last month. We return to our episode from 2012, which tells the story behind it.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0755.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0755.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0755",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/755"
},{
  "number": 756,
  "date": "2021-12-10",
  "title": "But I Did Everything Right",
  "description": "People earnestly doing what they're told, and absolutely not getting what they were promised.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0756.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0756.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0756",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/756"
},{
  "number": 757,
  "date": "2021-12-31",
  "title": "The Ghost in the Machine",
  "description": "People use machines to find people they lost.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0757.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0757.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0757",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/757"
},{
  "number": 758,
  "date": "2022-01-07",
  "title": "Talking While Black",
  "description": "Think back to two summers ago, the summer of 2020, when a series of violent, highly-publicized killings of Black Americans sparked outrage and a national movement to eradicate racism and its evils. That movement gave way to a newer, reactionary one, a backlash that is playing out in schools and school board meetings across America. Host Emanuele Berry shares stories about Black people who got tangled up in this current backlash in both extreme and very personal ways. This episode won a 2023 duPont-Columbia Award.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0758.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0758.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0758",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/758"
},{
  "number": 759,
  "date": "2022-01-21",
  "title": "A Couple Walks Into a House",
  "description": "Rob and Reyna Mathis make an unsettling discovery in the home of a local police officer. Soon, their whole city is asking questions about who the officer really is and what he's been doing.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0759.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0759.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0759",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/759"
},{
  "number": 760,
  "date": "2022-01-28",
  "title": "A City Walks Into an Investigation",
  "description": "Last week's story continues, about a Michigan couple who walked into a police officer's house and made a disturbing discovery. This week: the police officer suffers the consequences and so does the couple.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0760.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0760.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0760",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/760"
},{
  "number": 761,
  "date": "2022-02-04",
  "title": "The Trojan Horse Affair",
  "description": "A while back, one of our producers Brian Reed was in England giving a speech about the podcast he'd hosted, S-Town. A journalism student approached him, asking for advice about a story he wanted to look into – something that’d been big news in Britain, something he’d thought about for years. Brian and the student, Hamza Syed, decided to team up to try and solve the mystery at the heart of that story. The original idea was to put this on our show, but it got too big. Too many twists and turns! This week, it rolls out as a spectacularly great podcast called The Trojan Horse Affair. We’re excited to bring you their first episode today.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0761.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0761.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0761",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/761"
},{
  "number": 762,
  "date": "2022-02-11",
  "title": "Apocalypse Creep",
  "description": "A woman wakes up and discovers her backyard has disappeared, and other stories from places slowly coming apart.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0762.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0762.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0762",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/762"
},{
  "number": 763,
  "date": "2022-02-25",
  "title": "The Other Mr. President",
  "description": "Stories about Vladimir Putin. Did he come to power in 1999 by killing hundreds of innocent Russians? How’s he really seen in his home country? This show is a mix of old and new stories we’ve done about him.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0763.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0763.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0763",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/763"
},{
  "number": 764,
  "date": "2022-03-11",
  "title": "School's Out Forever",
  "description": "The pandemic broke school. Can we ever go back?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0764.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0764.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0764",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/764"
},{
  "number": 765,
  "date": "2022-03-18",
  "title": "Off Course",
  "description": "Three people, and one animal, who know the path their lives will take until, suddenly, they don’t.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0765.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0765.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0765",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/765"
},{
  "number": 766,
  "date": "2022-04-01",
  "title": "Well Someone Had to Do SOMETHING!",
  "description": "People trying to jump in and solve other people's problems, putting themselves directly in the gap between the problem and the solution.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0766.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0766.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0766",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/766"
},{
  "number": 767,
  "date": "2022-04-08",
  "title": "Do Not Go Gentle",
  "description": "In this moment when autocrats and almost-autocrats are getting bolder and more powerful, we bring you two stories of resistance, from Hungary and Russia.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0767.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0767.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0767",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/767"
},{
  "number": 768,
  "date": "2022-04-22",
  "title": "The Other Front Lines",
  "description": "Four personal stories from the war in Ukraine.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0768.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0768.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0768",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/768"
},{
  "number": 769,
  "date": "2022-04-29",
  "title": "The Reluctant Explorer",
  "description": "A man finds himself thrust into a new world he didn’t necessarily ask to visit. He takes a look around.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0769.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0769.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0769",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/769"
},{
  "number": 770,
  "date": "2022-05-06",
  "title": "My Lying Eyes",
  "description": "People staring squarely at the truth, and still finding it hard to believe what they’re seeing.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0770.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0770.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0770",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/770"
},{
  "number": 771,
  "date": "2022-05-27",
  "title": "The Parents Step In",
  "description": "Government isn’t doing much to prevent school shootings. So parents are jumping in: parents whose kids have died in mass shootings, in the wake of each shooting. They take practical, effective action — and they get results.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0771.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0771.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0771",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/771"
},{
  "number": 772,
  "date": "2022-06-03",
  "title": "The Kids' Table",
  "description": "Kids navigating hairy situations all on their own, with no help from grown-ups.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0772.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0772.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0772",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/772"
},{
  "number": 773,
  "date": "2022-06-17",
  "title": "The Longest Distance Between Two Points",
  "description": "Getting from A to B via Z.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0773.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0773.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0773",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/773"
},{
  "number": 774,
  "date": "2022-07-01",
  "title": "The Pink House at the Center of the World",
  "description": "The Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade began with a lawsuit filed by a Mississippi abortion clinic. On the day Roe was overturned, we were there. Stories from the center of this moment of history, the day it happened.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0774.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0774.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0774",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/774"
},{
  "number": 775,
  "date": "2022-07-08",
  "title": "The Possum Experiment",
  "description": "An investigation into a very basic question about people: Are most of us bad or good?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0775.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0775.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0775",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/775"
},{
  "number": 776,
  "date": "2022-07-29",
  "title": "I Work Better on Deadline",
  "description": "Stories of people racing against time to solve a problem. Will they make it?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0776.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0776.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0776",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/776"
},{
  "number": 777,
  "date": "2022-08-12",
  "title": "Name. Age. Detail.",
  "description": "Ten people were killed at a grocery store in Buffalo, NY. Their stories, as you’ve never heard them.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0777.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0777.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0777",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/777"
},{
  "number": 778,
  "date": "2022-08-26",
  "title": "Me Minus Me",
  "description": "When a fundamental part of yourself changes dramatically, are you still who you thought you were?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0778.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0778.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0778",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/778"
},{
  "number": 779,
  "date": "2022-09-16",
  "title": "Ends of the Earth",
  "description": "An exploration of the very upper limits of what you do for someone you love.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0779.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0779.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0779",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/779"
},{
  "number": 780,
  "date": "2022-09-30",
  "title": "Setting the Record Straight",
  "description": "Getting to the facts can be difficult, but it’s always the right thing to do. Except when it isn’t.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0780.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0780.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0780",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/780"
},{
  "number": 781,
  "date": "2022-10-07",
  "title": "Watching the Watchers",
  "description": "People taking it upon themselves to keep an eye on those in charge.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0781.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0781.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0781",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/781"
},{
  "number": 782,
  "date": "2022-10-14",
  "title": "Family Dig",
  "description": "Two people go on excavations of their families’ pasts. Including the first episode of the new podcast, “We Were Three,” hosted by our longtime producer, Nancy Updike, and from Serial Productions and The New York Times.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0782.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0782.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0782",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/782"
},{
  "number": 783,
  "date": "2022-10-28",
  "title": "Kids These Days",
  "description": "We hear from kids who are dealing with some of the country’s most contentious debates. Debates that are supposedly about them.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0783.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0783.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0783",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/783"
},{
  "number": 784,
  "date": "2022-11-04",
  "title": "Mapmaker, Mapmaker, Make Me a Map",
  "description": "Not long ago, Republicans in Ohio passed a constitutional amendment to end gerrymandering in the state. And then a funny thing happened. The same Ohio Republicans drew electoral maps that violated their own constitutional amendment. They’ll be using them in this week’s midterm elections. We try to understand how that could happen.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0784.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0784.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0784",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/784"
},{
  "number": 785,
  "date": "2022-11-25",
  "title": "Through the Looking Glass",
  "description": "People trying to coax each other across the line, from one side to the other.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0785.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0785.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0785",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/785"
},{
  "number": 786,
  "date": "2022-12-02",
  "title": "It's a Game Show!",
  "description": "Something we’ve never done before: true stories told in the form of a game show.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0786.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0786.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0786",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/786"
},{
  "number": 787,
  "date": "2022-12-23",
  "title": "Baby's First Christmas",
  "description": "People experiencing Christmas in brand new ways, giving the holiday even more meaning.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0787.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0787.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0787",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/787"
},{
  "number": 788,
  "date": "2023-01-06",
  "title": "Half-Baked Stories About My Dead Mom",
  "description": "Writer Etgar Keret tries to come up with the stories that capture his late mother, Orna Keret—but it’s hard, he says, because she’s like Maria in West Side Story and she’s also like Thanos from the Avengers. He ends up with a series of very short stories — most just a few paragraphs long — that give glimpses of different sides of her.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0788.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0788.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0788",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/788"
},{
  "number": 789,
  "date": "2023-01-20",
  "title": "The Runaround",
  "description": "People being dodged, delayed, and evaded—and what they do to put an end to it.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0789.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0789.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0789",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/789"
},{
  "number": 790,
  "date": "2023-01-27",
  "title": "You're It",
  "description": "Sometimes you raise your hand. Other times you’re just the only one left.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0790.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0790.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0790",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/790"
},{
  "number": 791,
  "date": "2023-02-10",
  "title": "Math or Magic?",
  "description": "When it comes to finding love, there seems to be two schools of thought on the best way to go about it. One says, wait for that lightning-strike magic. The other says, make a calculation and choose the best option available. Who has it right?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0791.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0791.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0791",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/791"
},{
  "number": 792,
  "date": "2023-03-03",
  "title": "When to Leave",
  "description": "People staring down that hardest of questions: Is now the time? To leave?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0792.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0792.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0792",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/792"
},{
  "number": 793,
  "date": "2023-03-10",
  "title": "The Problem with Ghosts",
  "description": "The ghosts that visit us, the ghosts that never do, and the ghosts that walk among us.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0793.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0793.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0793",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/793"
},{
  "number": 794,
  "date": "2023-03-24",
  "title": "So Close and Yet So Far",
  "description": "People ​so close to each other, ​in ​extremely intimate situations​,​ who are also a million miles apart.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0794.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0794.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0794",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/794"
},{
  "number": 795,
  "date": "2023-04-07",
  "title": "Nine Months Later",
  "description": "It’s been nine months since Roe v. Wade was overturned. We talk to people who wanted abortions right when the laws were changing in their states. They had to wait for appointments, for money to travel or abortion pills. And during that waiting, a lot of interesting things happened. We see how much life has changed, nine months later.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0795.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0795.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0795",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/795"
},{
  "number": 796,
  "date": "2023-04-14",
  "title": "What Lies Beneath",
  "description": "Summoning up stuff that’s usually hidden down deep.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0796.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0796.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0796",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/796"
},{
  "number": 797,
  "date": "2023-04-21",
  "title": "What I Was Thinking As We Were Sinking",
  "description": "It's funny the things that go through your head during a disaster.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0797.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0797.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0797",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/797"
},{
  "number": 798,
  "date": "2023-05-05",
  "title": "Leaving the Fold",
  "description": "A week after Jerry Springer’s death, we go back to a story we first broadcast years ago, about a side of Springer most people don’t know and can’t imagine: his years as an idealistic politician in the mold of Bobby Kennedy. Plus other stories of people who try to leave some moment in their life behind, which can be hard.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0798.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0798.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0798",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/798"
},{
  "number": 799,
  "date": "2023-05-12",
  "title": "The Lives of Others",
  "description": "Looping thoughts about people you barely know, or don't know at all.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0799.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0799.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0799",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/799"
},{
  "number": 800,
  "date": "2023-05-26",
  "title": "Jane Doe",
  "description": "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.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0800.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0800.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0800",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/800"
},{
  "number": 801,
  "date": "2023-06-09",
  "title": "Must Be Rats on the Brain",
  "description": "The one animal we can’t seem to live without, even when we really, really want to.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0801.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0801.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0801",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/801"
},{
  "number": 802,
  "date": "2023-06-16",
  "title": "Father's Day",
  "description": "Ira's own father, Barry Glass, co-hosts this special Father's Day show.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0802.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0802.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0802",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/802"
},{
  "number": 803,
  "date": "2023-06-23",
  "title": "Greetings, People Of Earth",
  "description": "Humans encounter non-human intelligences of various kinds and try to make sense of them.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0803.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0803.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0803",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/803"
},{
  "number": 804,
  "date": "2023-06-30",
  "title": "The Retrievals",
  "description": "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.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0804.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0804.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0804",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/804"
},{
  "number": 805,
  "date": "2023-07-14",
  "title": "The Florida Experiment",
  "description": "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?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0805.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0805.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0805",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/805"
},{
  "number": 806,
  "date": "2023-07-28",
  "title": "I Can't Quit You, Baby",
  "description": "People  on the verge of a big change, not wanting to let go. And the people who give them the final push.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0806.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0806.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0806",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/806"
},{
  "number": 807,
  "date": "2023-08-04",
  "title": "Eight Fights",
  "description": "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.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0807.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0807.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0807",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/807"
},{
  "number": 808,
  "date": "2023-08-18",
  "title": "The Rest of the Story",
  "description": "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.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0808.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0808.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0808",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/808"
},{
  "number": 809,
  "date": "2023-09-08",
  "title": "The Call",
  "description": "One call to a very unusual hotline, and everything that followed.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0809.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0809.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0809",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/809"
},{
  "number": 810,
  "date": "2023-09-15",
  "title": "Say It to My Face",
  "description": "Friends and ex-friends finally talk about the one thing between them they've been avoiding.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0810.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0810.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0810",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/810"
},{
  "number": 811,
  "date": "2023-09-29",
  "title": "The One Place I Can’t Go",
  "description": "Spots we’re avoiding in our private maps of the world.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0811.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0811.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0811",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/811"
},{
  "number": 812,
  "date": "2023-10-20",
  "title": "The Bear at the End of the Tunnel",
  "description": "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.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0812.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0812.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0812",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/812"
},{
  "number": 813,
  "date": "2023-11-03",
  "title": "Is That What I Look Like?",
  "description": "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?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0813.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0813.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0813",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/813"
},{
  "number": 814,
  "date": "2023-11-10",
  "title": "Parents Are People",
  "description": "What happens when you realize the people in charge don’t have the answers.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0814.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0814.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0814",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/814"
},{
  "number": 815,
  "date": "2023-11-17",
  "title": "How I Learned to Shave",
  "description": "Things our dads taught us, whether they intended to or not.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0815.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0815.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0815",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/815"
},{
  "number": 816,
  "date": "2023-11-24",
  "title": "Poultry Slam",
  "description": "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.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0816.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0816.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0816",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/816"
},{
  "number": 817,
  "date": "2023-12-01",
  "title": "The Cavalry Is Not Coming",
  "description": "When you realize that help is not on the way, what do you do next?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0817.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0817.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0817",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/817"
},{
  "number": 818,
  "date": "2023-12-15",
  "title": "Stand Clear of the Closing Doors",
  "description": "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.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0818.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0818.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0818",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/818"
},{
  "number": 819,
  "date": "2023-12-20",
  "title": "Special Bonus Podcast — Yousef’s Week",
  "description": "One of our producers, Chana Joffe-Walt, had a series of conversations with a man in Gaza over the course of one week. They're so immediate – and particular to this moment in the war in Gaza – that we're bringing them to you now, outside of our regular schedule.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0819.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0819.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0819",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/819"
},{
  "number": 820,
  "date": "2023-12-22",
  "title": "It Wouldn’t Be Make-Believe If You’d Believe In Me",
  "description": "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?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0820.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0820.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0820",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/820"
},{
  "number": 821,
  "date": "2024-01-19",
  "title": "Embrace the Suck",
  "description": "People finding themselves in situations that are worse than they thought and deciding to really go with it.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0821.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0821.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0821",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/821"
},{
  "number": 822,
  "date": "2024-01-26",
  "title": "The Words to Say It",
  "description": "What it means to have words—and to lose them.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0822.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0822.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0822",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/822"
},{
  "number": 823,
  "date": "2024-02-02",
  "title": "The Question Trap",
  "description": "An investigation of when and why people ask loaded questions that are a proxy for something else.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0823.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0823.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0823",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/823"
},{
  "number": 824,
  "date": "2024-02-23",
  "title": "Family Meeting",
  "description": "Your mother and I have something we want to talk with you about.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0824.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0824.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0824",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/824"
},{
  "number": 825,
  "date": "2024-03-01",
  "title": "Yousef",
  "description": "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.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0825.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0825.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0825",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/825"
},{
  "number": 826,
  "date": "2024-03-15",
  "title": "Unprepared for What Has Already Happened",
  "description": "People waking up to the fact that the world has suddenly changed.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0826.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0826.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0826",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/826"
},{
  "number": 827,
  "date": "2024-03-22",
  "title": "All the King's Horses",
  "description": "The things we break and the ones we can't fix.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0827.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0827.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0827",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/827"
},{
  "number": 828,
  "date": "2024-04-05",
  "title": "Minor Crimes Division",
  "description": "People taking it upon themselves to solve the tiny, overlooked crimes of the world.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0828.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0828.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0828",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/828"
},{
  "number": 829,
  "date": "2024-05-10",
  "title": "Two Ledgers",
  "description": "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.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0829.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0829.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0829",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/829"
},{
  "number": 830,
  "date": "2024-05-17",
  "title": "The Forever Trial",
  "description": "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.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0830.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0830.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0830",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/830"
},{
  "number": 831,
  "date": "2024-05-24",
  "title": "Lists!!!",
  "description": "How they organize the chaos of the world, for good and for bad.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0831.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0831.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0831",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/831"
},{
  "number": 832,
  "date": "2024-05-31",
  "title": "That Other Guy",
  "description": "People tethered to one particular other person, whether they want to be or not.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0832.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0832.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0832",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/832"
},{
  "number": 833,
  "date": "2024-06-07",
  "title": "Come Retribution",
  "description": "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.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0833.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0833.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0833",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/833"
},{
  "number": 834,
  "date": "2024-06-14",
  "title": "Yousef and the Fourth Move",
  "description": "Yousef is forced into a move he is not sure he can make.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0834.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0834.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0834",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/834"
},{
  "number": 835,
  "date": "2024-06-28",
  "title": "Children of Dave",
  "description": "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.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0835.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0835.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0835",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/835"
},{
  "number": 836,
  "date": "2024-07-19",
  "title": "The Big Rethink",
  "description": "People rethinking some of the most important relationships in their lives — with their sister, their political party, and the nominee for president.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0836.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0836.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0836",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/836"
},{
  "number": 837,
  "date": "2024-08-09",
  "title": "Swim Towards the Shark",
  "description": "In a crisis, when all logic suggests that you get away from the dangerous thing, how will you respond?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0837.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0837.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0837",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/837"
},{
  "number": 838,
  "date": "2024-08-16",
  "title": "Letters! Actual Letters!",
  "description": "When the best—and perhaps only—way to say something is to write it down.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0838.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0838.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0838",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/838"
},{
  "number": 839,
  "date": "2024-09-06",
  "title": "Meet Me at the Fair",
  "description": "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.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0839.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0839.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0839",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/839"
},{
  "number": 840,
  "date": "2024-09-13",
  "title": "How Are You Not Seeing This?",
  "description": "People trying and struggling to see what another person sees.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0840.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0840.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0840",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/840"
},{
  "number": 841,
  "date": "2024-09-20",
  "title": "My Senior Year",
  "description": "One kid comes to America as an exchange student and commits herself to the senior year experience.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0841.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0841.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0841",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/841"
},{
  "number": 842,
  "date": "2024-10-04",
  "title": "51 Days",
  "description": "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.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0842.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0842.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0842",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/842"
},{
  "number": 843,
  "date": "2024-10-11",
  "title": "A Little Bit of Power",
  "description": "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.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0843.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0843.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0843",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/843"
},{
  "number": 844,
  "date": "2024-10-18",
  "title": "This Is the Case of Henry Dee",
  "description": "Thirteen parole board members decide whether or not one man should be released from prison.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0844.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0844.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0844",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/844"
},{
  "number": 845,
  "date": "2024-11-01",
  "title": "A Small Thing That Gives Me a Tiny Shred of Hope",
  "description": "A wee flame, flickering in the dark.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0845.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0845.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0845",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/845"
},{
  "number": 846,
  "date": "2024-11-08",
  "title": "This Is the Cake We Baked",
  "description": "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.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0846.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0846.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0846",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/846"
},{
  "number": 847,
  "date": "2024-11-15",
  "title": "The Truly Incredible Story of Keiko the Killer Whale",
  "description": "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.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0847.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0847.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0847",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/847"
},{
  "number": 848,
  "date": "2024-11-22",
  "title": "The Official Unofficial Record",
  "description": "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.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0848.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0848.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0848",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/848"
},{
  "number": 849,
  "date": "2024-12-13",
  "title": "The Narrator",
  "description": "Banias is an 8-year-old kid living in Gaza. And she has a story to tell — many stories, in fact.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0849.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0849.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0849",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/849"
},{
  "number": 850,
  "date": "2024-12-20",
  "title": "If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away",
  "description": "The tiny thing that unravels your world.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0850.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0850.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0850",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/850"
},{
  "number": 851,
  "date": "2025-01-10",
  "title": "Try a Little Tenderness",
  "description": "In the new year, stories of people trying a radical approach to solving their problems.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0851.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0851.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0851",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/851"
},{
  "number": 852,
  "date": "2025-01-17",
  "title": "Pivot Point",
  "description": "People living in that in-between moment before everything changes.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0852.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0852.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0852",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/852"
},{
  "number": 853,
  "date": "2025-01-31",
  "title": "Groundhog Day",
  "description": "People stuck in a loop, trying to find their way out.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0853.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0853.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0853",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/853"
},{
  "number": 854,
  "date": "2025-02-21",
  "title": "Ten Things I Don't Want To Hate About You",
  "description": "Zach Mack and his dad try to mend a rift between them in a very unusual way.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0854.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0854.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0854",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/854"
},{
  "number": 855,
  "date": "2025-02-28",
  "title": "That’s a Weird Thing to Lie About",
  "description": "Unnecessary and outrageous lies that make you wonder — why lie about that in the first place?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0855.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0855.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0855",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/855"
},{
  "number": 856,
  "date": "2025-03-14",
  "title": "You’ve Come to the Right Person",
  "description": "Sometimes, life’s biggest mysteries require one very specific person to answer them.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0856.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0856.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0856",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/856"
},{
  "number": 857,
  "date": "2025-03-28",
  "title": "Museum of Now",
  "description": "Artifacts and exhibits of this particular moment we are living through.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0857.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0857.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0857",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/857"
},{
  "number": 858,
  "date": "2025-04-11",
  "title": "How to Tell a Dumb American Story",
  "description": "A couple devises a strategy to get their daughter's killer prosecuted and to get attention for other Native families. ",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0858.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0858.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0858",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/858"
},{
  "number": 859,
  "date": "2025-04-25",
  "title": "Chaos Graph",
  "description": "People immersed in chaos try to solve for what it all adds up to.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0859.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0859.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0859",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/859"
},{
  "number": 860,
  "date": "2025-05-23",
  "title": "Suddenly: A Mirror!\n",
  "description": "A show about people who are suddenly confronted with who they are.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0860.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0860.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0860",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/860"
},{
  "number": 861,
  "date": "2025-05-30",
  "title": "Group Chat",
  "description": "Conversations across a divide: Palestinians who are outside Gaza check in with family, friends, and strangers inside.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0861.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0861.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0861",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/861"
},{
  "number": 862,
  "date": "2025-06-20",
  "title": "Some Things We Don't Do Anymore",
  "description": "On his first day in office, President Trump decided to freeze all U.S. foreign aid. Soon after, his administration effectively dissolved USAID—the federal agency that delivers billions in food, medicine, and other aid worldwide. Many of its programs have been canceled. Now, as USAID officially winds down, we try to assess its impact. What was good? What was not so good? We meet people around the world wrestling with these questions and trying to navigate this chaotic moment.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0862.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0862.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0862",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/862"
},{
  "number": 863,
  "date": "2025-06-27",
  "title": "Championship Window",
  "description": "People on a mission to achieve their goals before their window of opportunity closes.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0863.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0863.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0863",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/863"
},{
  "number": 864,
  "date": "2025-07-18",
  "title": "Chicago Hope",
  "description": "The story of the most commonly performed surgery, and what goes wrong with it – terribly wrong – 100,000 times a year in the United States. We’re excited to bring you the first episode of The Retrievals, Season 2, the new show from longtime This American Life producer and editor Susan Burton. It’s from Serial Productions and The New York Times.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0864.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0864.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0864",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/864"
},{
  "number": 865,
  "date": "2025-08-22",
  "title": "The Other Territory",
  "description": "Since October 7th, while the world has focused its attention on Gaza, the Israeli government has tightened the screws on the three million Palestinians in the West Bank in all sorts of dramatic ways. We travel to the West Bank to see these changes in person.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0865.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0865.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0865",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/865"
},{
  "number": 866,
  "date": "2025-09-05",
  "title": "Watch Out for That Tree",
  "description": "Small human plans that run into much larger obstacles.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0866.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0866.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0866",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/866"
},{
  "number": 867,
  "date": "2025-09-12",
  "title": "College Disorientation",
  "description": "Things are different on college campuses this year. We see inside the drama, with students and staff.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0867.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0867.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0867",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/867"
},{
  "number": 868,
  "date": "2025-09-19",
  "title": "The Hand That Rocks The Gavel",
  "description": "A group of immigration judges, who almost never speak to the press, describes the dismantling of our immigration court system from the inside.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0868.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0868.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0868",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/868"
},{
  "number": 869,
  "date": "2025-10-03",
  "title": "Harold",
  "description": "When Zohran Mamdani won the primary race for New York mayor, the Democratic establishment's lukewarm response echoed the treatment of another charismatic, unconventional candidate decades earlier. This week, we bring you the story of Harold Washington, the greatest politician you've probably never heard of, and the backlash that ensued when he became Chicago's first Black mayor.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0869.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0869.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0869",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/869"
},{
  "number": 870,
  "date": "2025-10-10",
  "title": "My Other Self",
  "description": "What happens when people create alternate versions of themselves and release them into the wild?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0870.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0870.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0870",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/870"
},{
  "number": 871,
  "date": "2025-10-24",
  "title": "The Thing About Things",
  "description": "Three stories about the strange power inanimate objects can hold over us.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0871.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0871.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0871",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/871"
},{
  "number": 872,
  "date": "2025-10-31",
  "title": "Winners",
  "description": "America loves winners—now more than ever. But how do you get to a win in 2025 America? We get up close and follow someone trying to build a big win for herself and thousands of others like her.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0872.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0872.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0872",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/872"
},{
  "number": 873,
  "date": "2025-11-07",
  "title": "Got You Pegged",
  "description": "Shalom Auslander goes on vacation with his family, and suspects the beloved, chatty old man in the room next door is an imposter—and sets out to prove it. This and other stories about the pitfalls of making snap judgments about others.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0873.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0873.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0873",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/873"
},{
  "number": 874,
  "date": "2025-11-14",
  "title": "Under One Roof",
  "description": "What’s great about living in a family is that everyone sees everything differently. Also, that’s what’s awful about living in a family. We go behind closed doors with two families.  ",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0874.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0874.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0874",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/874"
},{
  "number": 875,
  "date": "2025-11-21",
  "title": "I Hate Mysteries",
  "description": "What’s in the box? What’s in the $%&ing box?!?",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0875.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0875.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0875",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/875"
},{
  "number": 876,
  "date": "2025-12-05",
  "title": "Bigger Than Me",
  "description": "When history comes knocking, you have to figure out what to do.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0876.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0876.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0876",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/876"
},{
  "number": 877,
  "date": "2025-12-19",
  "title": "The Making Of ",
  "description": "How one block in Portland, Oregon became a movie-set war zone that lots of people think is a real war zone.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0877.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0877.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0877",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/877"
},{
  "number": 878,
  "date": "2026-01-09",
  "title": "New Lore Drop",
  "description": "People discovering information about their own lives that they did not know, and suddenly everything looks very different.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0878.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0878.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0878",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/878"
},{
  "number": 879,
  "date": "2026-01-16",
  "title": "A Christian and a Muslim Walk Into a Bar",
  "description": "When a joke could get you killed, should you say it anyway? A group of Syrian comedians test the limits of their newfound freedom, a year after the fall of the brutal Assad regime.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0879.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0879.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0879",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/879"
},{
  "number": 880,
  "date": "2026-01-30",
  "title": "What Is Your Emergency?",
  "description": "911 calls unlike any we’ve heard before, and other stories about immigration agents sweeping through America.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0880.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0880.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0880",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/880"
},{
  "number": 881,
  "date": "2026-02-20",
  "title": "I Want What I Want",
  "description": "People deciding to do things that most of us do NOT choose to do. ",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0881.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0881.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0881",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/881"
},{
  "number": 882,
  "date": "2026-03-06",
  "title": "Give a Little Whistle",
  "description": "Two lawyers who work for ICE step forward and lift the curtain on what is really happening inside our immigration system right now.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0882.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0882.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0882",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/882"
},{
  "number": 883,
  "date": "2026-03-20",
  "title": "Call Your Parents",
  "description": "In the early days of the radio show, Ira did a series of interviews with his parents that completely changed his relationship with them. This week, he returns to those interviews.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0883.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0883.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0883",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/883"
},{
  "number": 884,
  "date": "2026-03-27",
  "title": "The Idiot",
  "description": "M. Gessen returns to our show with a true-crime story that takes place entirely within their own family. This story comes to us from the producers at Serial Productions—who invented the true-crime podcast more than a decade ago—and from The New York Times.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0884.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0884.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0884",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/884"
},{
  "number": 885,
  "date": "2026-04-10",
  "title": "Bless This Mess",
  "description": "At a time when the U.S. government is trying to make American history tidier, we try to learn from the mess. Including the untold, messy story of Paul and Essie Robeson.",
  "image_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/images/0885.jpg",
  "audio_url": "https://assets.thisamericanlife.co/audios/0885.mp3",
  "url": "https://thisamericanlife.co/episodes/0885",
  "url_external": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/s/885"
}]