Factions

#21 - 26 April 1996

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.

From A Distance

#20 - 19 April 1996

Stories of hero worship, of people admiring someone from afar, and trying to get closer to them.

Rich Guys

#19 - 12 April 1996

Men who had comfortable, decent lives, yet decided to do something wild and eccentric with their lives instead.

Liars

#18 - 28 March 1996

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.

Name Change / No Theme

#17 - 21 March 1996

Our first show as This American Life.

Economy

#16 - 14 March 1996

Stories of politics, the economy, and the big picture.

Dawn

#15 - 28 February 1996

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.

Accidental Documentaries

#14 - 21 February 1996

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.

Love

#13 - 7 February 1996

Explorations of the dream of true love ... and the difficulties with achieving and maintaining that dream.

Animals

#12 - 31 January 1996

Stories about the animalness of animals, the irreducible ways in which they are not human.