Devil on My Shoulder

#213 - 24 May 2002

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.

The Other Man

#212 - 10 May 2002

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.

Naming Names

#211 - 3 May 2002

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.

Perfect Evidence

#210 - 19 April 2002

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.

Didn't Ask to Be Born

#209 - 29 March 2002

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.

Office Politics

#208 - 15 March 2002

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.

Special Ed

#207 - 8 March 2002

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.

Somewhere in the Arabian Sea

#206 - 1 March 2002

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.

Plan B

#205 - 1 February 2002

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.

81 Words

#204 - 18 January 2002

The story of how the American Psychiatric Association decided in 1973 that homosexuality was no longer a mental illness.