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.

Recordings for Someone

#203 - 11 January 2002

All the stories in this week's show center on personal recordings that one person made for just one other person.

Faith

#202 - 21 December 2001

Stories of faith: losing it, talking about it, constructing it, and working within it.

Them

#201 - 7 December 2001

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.

Hearts and Minds

#200 - 30 November 2001

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.

House on Loon Lake

#199 - 16 November 2001

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."

How to Win Friends and Influence People

#198 - 2 November 2001

Stories of people climbing to be number one. How do they do it? What is the fundamental difference between us and them?

Before It Had A Name

#197 - 26 October 2001

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.