List of 1996 This American Life episodes
Encyclopedia
In 1996, there were forty original This American Life
episodes; the first nine were broadcast under the original name of the program Your Radio Playhouse.
This American Life
This American Life is a weekly hour-long radio program produced by WBEZ and hosted by Ira Glass. It is distributed by Public Radio International on PRI affiliate stations and is also available as a free weekly podcast. Primarily a journalistic non-fiction program, it has also featured essays,...
episodes; the first nine were broadcast under the original name of the program Your Radio Playhouse.
- Stories that reflect back on 1995 – 1996-01-03
- 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. – 1996-01-10
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- Prologue
- Act 1: Julia's Brother Gets Cancer – Julia SweeneyJulia SweeneyJulia Anne Sweeney is an American actress, comedian and author best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for her autobiographical solo shows.-Personal life:...
- Act 2: Julia Gets Cancer – Julia SweeneyJulia SweeneyJulia Anne Sweeney is an American actress, comedian and author best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for her autobiographical solo shows.-Personal life:...
- The KinksThe KinksThe Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
, Complicated Life - Willie NelsonWillie NelsonWillie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
, These Are Difficult Times
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- Susan Bergman's father was a family man, head of the church choir, and, secretly, having sex with men. He died before his children had a chance to really talk to him about what they should make of his hidden life. When Bergman wrote a book about her family's experience, other gay men tried to explain her father's actions to her. That, and other stories of parents deceiving their children. – 1996-01-17
- A story of a friendship between two adolescent boys that was destroyed through the manipulativePsychological manipulationPsychological manipulation is a type of social influence that aims to change the perception or behavior of others through underhanded, deceptive, or even abusive tactics. By advancing the interests of the manipulator, often at the other's expense, such methods could be considered exploitative,...
acts of one of them. – 1996-01-24-
- Act 1: Dave's Love
- Act 2: Dave's Hate
- Act 3: Dave Today
- Act 4: Another Dave – David SedarisDavid SedarisDavid Sedaris is a Grammy Award-nominated American humorist, writer, comedian, bestselling author, and radio contributor....
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- Stories about the animalness of animals, the irreducible ways in which they are not human. – 1996-01-31
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- Prologue
- Act 1: Food Chain in a New York Apartment – Paul ToughPaul ToughPaul Tough is a writer and broadcaster. He is the author of Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America. He grew up in Toronto and was educated at the University of Toronto Schools...
- Shonen KnifeShonen KnifeShonen Knife, written in Japanese characters as 少年ナイフ, which transliterates as Shōnen Naifu, literally "Boy Knife," is an all-female Japanese pop-punk band formed in Osaka, Japan, in 1981...
, Insect Collector - Act 2: More Animals Eating Other Animals
- Kathleen on the Carpet, a radio play by David SedarisDavid SedarisDavid Sedaris is a Grammy Award-nominated American humorist, writer, comedian, bestselling author, and radio contributor....
, performed by the Pinetree Gang - Lena HorneLena HorneLena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
, Rocky Raccoon - Act 3: The Moment Humans Stopped Being Animals – Scott CarrierScott CarrierScott Carrier is an American author, radio producer, and educator. He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is currently finishing his second book and is a professor in the Department of Communication at Utah Valley University.- Written work :...
- Louis PrimaLouis PrimaLouis Prima was a Sicilian American singer, actor, songwriter, and trumpeter. Prima rode the musical trends of his time, starting with his seven-piece New Orleans style jazz band in the 1920s, then successively leading a swing combo in the 1930s, a big band in the 1940s, a Vegas lounge act in the...
, I Wanna Be Like You, from Disney's The Jungle BookThe Jungle Book (1967 film)The Jungle Book is a 1967 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Released on October 18, 1967, it is the 19th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It was inspired by the stories about the feral child Mowgli from the book of the same name by...
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- Explorations of the dream of true love ... and the difficulties with achieving and maintaining that dream. – 1996-02-07
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- Prologue
- Al GreenAl GreenAlbert Greene , better known as Al Green, is an American gospel and soul music singer. He reached the peak of his popularity in the 1970s, with hit singles such as "You Oughta Be With Me", "I'm Still In Love With You", "Love and Happiness", and "Let's Stay Together"...
, Love and Happiness - Act 1: Yearning
- Act 2: Sex
- MadonnaMadonna (entertainer)Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, Forbidden Love - Act 3: A Wedding
- Ready, an original song performed by kids at Daniel J. Nellum Youth Services in Chicago
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- Stories made from old tapes found in various places, including a "letter on tape" found in a Salvation Army thrift store. Host Ira Glass with tapes of his father on the radio, circa 1956. And radio producer Nora Moreno with tapes of her father, a Spanish broadcasting pioneer in America. Her mother fell in love with him over the radio, with tragic results. – 1996-02-21
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- Prologue
- Act 1: Berrian Springs Michigan, Circa 1967 – Davis family tapes
- James BrownJames BrownJames Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
, It's a Man's World - Act 2: Baltimore, Circa 1956 – Ira GlassIra GlassIra Glass is an American public radio personality, and host and producer of the radio and television show This American Life.- Early life :...
plays tapes of his father, Barry Glass, as a radio deejay in the 1950s - Nat King ColeNat King ColeNathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
, Personal Possession - Act 3: Chicago, in the 1960s – Nora Moreno
- José Alfredo JiménezJosé Alfredo JiménezJosé Alfredo Jiménez was a Mexican singer-songwriter in the ranchera style whose songs are considered an integral part of Mexico's musical heritage....
, El Rey
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- 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. 1996-02-28
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- Prologue
- Digital UndergroundDigital UndergroundDigital Underground was an alternative hip hop group from Oakland, California. It could have been considered a music "family" rather than a group, as its personnel changed and rotated with each album and tour....
, ? - Act 1: Dawn – Jack HittJack HittJack Hitt is an American author. He is a contributing editor to The New York Times Magazine, Harper's, and This American Life. He served previously as a contributing editor to the now-defunct magazine Lingua Franca. He also frequently appears in places like Rolling Stone, Wired, and Outside Magazine...
tells the story of Gordon Langley Hall, a.k.a. Dawn Langley Hall Simmons - Marlene DietrichMarlene DietrichMarlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
, ? - Act 2 – from the 1998 rebroadcast of this episode, Jack HittJack HittJack Hitt is an American author. He is a contributing editor to The New York Times Magazine, Harper's, and This American Life. He served previously as a contributing editor to the now-defunct magazine Lingua Franca. He also frequently appears in places like Rolling Stone, Wired, and Outside Magazine...
discusses his new conclusions two-and-a-half years after his first report of the story
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- Stories of politics, the economy, and the big picture. 1996-03-14
- First show as This American Life. 1996-03-21
- 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. Everyone's known someone like this, but it's a topic that's only rarely studied or discussed publicly. Journalist and TALcontributing editor Margy Rochlin co-hosts. 1996-03-28
- Men who had comfortable decent lives, yet decided to do something wild and eccentric with their lives instead. 1996-04-12
- Stories of hero worship, of people admiring someone from afar, and trying to get closer to them. 1996-04-19
- 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. 1996-04-26
- Stories of the difficult relationships between parents and their grown children, including two long stories from Sandra Tsing Loh about her father. 1996-05-03
- Stories of the people who fall for a life in the theater. 1996-05-10
- Stories of girls who have to figure out how they're going to act when the ground rules are constantly shifting. 1996-05-24
- 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. These are unusual stories about people in the throes of love for basketball, including a story about the dreams about the Bulls Chicagoans have while sleeping. 1996-06-07
- Ira's own father Barry Glass co-hosts this special father's day edition of the show. 1996-06-14
- Stories about kids being mean to each other. 1996-06-21
- 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. 1996-07-12
- Unusual perspectives on the presumptive Republican nominee. 1996-07-19
- Stories of obsession and compulsion. What happens when a little idea starts to control you. Co-hosted by Paul Tough. 1996-07-26
- Stories of people whose lives are transformed by music. 1996-08-09
- More campaign diaries from The New Republic's Michael Lewis. 1996-08-16
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- This episode is about the unique culture in a Chicago fast food restaurant.
- Prologue – New introduction recorded in 2006, saying this show was never broadcast nationally – Ira GlassIra GlassIra Glass is an American public radio personality, and host and producer of the radio and television show This American Life.- Early life :...
- Ira records various colorful personalities at the Wiener's Circle. 1996-08-23
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- Unusual stories from the 1996 Democratic Convention in Chicago, with scenes and moments not documented elsewhere. 1996-08-30
- Evocative, funny emotional stories collected over the last few months that haven't fit into any of our regular "theme" shows. 1996-09-06
- 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. People came for two nights and read their letters onstage. Some were funny. Some were poignant. They told a wide range of stories: a heartfelt letter from prison, a hilariously pretentious job letter sent to the New Yorker magazine, a wringingly sincere teenage "should we be more than friends" letter. Four hours of letters were recorded in all. These were edited down to an hour of letters, with a few unusual songs about letters thrown in. 1996-09-20
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- Prologue – Ira GlassIra GlassIra Glass is an American public radio personality, and host and producer of the radio and television show This American Life.- Early life :...
- Act 1: The Test – Scott CarrierScott CarrierScott Carrier is an American author, radio producer, and educator. He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is currently finishing his second book and is a professor in the Department of Communication at Utah Valley University.- Written work :...
(later published in his book Running After Antelope) - Merle HaggardMerle HaggardMerle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies,...
, Workin' Man's BluesWorkin' Man's Blues"Workin' Man Blues" is an American country music song performed by its writer, Merle Haggard. Released in 1969, the song was released during his early peak and became one of several signature songs during his career.-Background:... - Act 2: Tribe – Peter Clowney interviews cast members of a production of HairHair (musical)Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...
. - Act 3: The Port Chicago 50: An Oral History – Dan Collison interviews Albert Williams, Freddy Meeks, Joseph Small, Percy Robinson, and Robert Routh, survivors of the Port Chicago disasterPort Chicago disasterThe Port Chicago disaster was a deadly munitions explosion that occurred on July 17, 1944, at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in Port Chicago, California, United States. Munitions detonated while being loaded onto a cargo vessel bound for the Pacific Theater of Operations, killing 320 sailors and...
. - Josh WhiteJosh WhiteJoshua Daniel White , better known as Josh White, was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor, and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names "Pinewood Tom" and "Tippy Barton" in the 1930s....
, Uncle Sam Says - Act 4: Orientation – Matt MalloyMatt MalloyMatt Malloy is an American character actor. He has had numerous roles in both film and TV often portraying the beleaguered everyman. Malloy's only starring role to date was alongside Aaron Eckhart in the critically acclaimed black comedy, In the Company of Men...
reads Daniel OrozcoDaniel OrozcoDaniel Orozco is a writer of fiction known primarily for his short stories. His works have appeared in anthologies such as The Best American Short Stories and The Pushcart Prize Anthology and magazines such as Harper's and Zoetrope...
's short story http://www.e53.org/gatsby/archives/2004/06/a_story.htm - The Company Way (from How to Succeed in Business Without Really TryingHow to Succeed in Business Without Really TryingHow to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert, based on Shepherd Mead's 1952 book of the same name....
by Frank LoesserFrank LoesserFrank Henry Loesser was an American songwriter who wrote the lyrics and scores to the Broadway hits Guys and Dolls and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, among others. He won separate Tony Awards for the music and lyrics in both shows, as well as sharing the Pulitzer Prize for...
) 1996-09-27
- Prologue – Ira Glass
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- 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. 1996-10-11
- This week: A show for Halloween. Stories of things that are supposed to be scary, but aren't. 1996-10-25
- Stories from acclaimed storyteller Spalding Gray and others. 1996-11-01
- More stories of the election you can't hear anywhere else. 1996-11-08
- Three stories of people trying to forget the past and move on. 1996-11-15
- 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. 1996-11-22
- 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. 1996-11-29
- Four stories about people struggling at the fringes of our nation's media/music/infotainment industry. 1996-12-06
- 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. 1996-12-13
- Stories about the intersection of Christmas and retail, including David Sedaris's story "Santaland Diaries", which was first broadcast on NPR's Morning Edition several years ago in a much shorter version. The diaries are about David's two Christmas seasons working as an elf in Macy's department store on New York's Herald Square. When it was first broadcast, it generated more requests for tapes than any story in Morning Edition's history except the death of Red Barber. Also, David Rakoff on playing Freud in the windows of Barney's department store. And other stories. 1996-12-20
Reruns broadcast in 1996
- 1996-02-14 – Episode 4: Vacations
- 1996-03-07 – Episode 7: Quitting
- 1996-04-05 – Episode 9: Julia Sweeney
- 1996-05-17 – Episode 10: Double Lives
- 1996-06-28 – Episode 21: Factions
- 1996-07-05 – Episode 9: Julia Sweeney
- 1996-08-02 – Episode 20: From a Distance
- 1996-09-13 – Episode 22: Adult Children
- 1996-10-04 – Episode 4: Vacations
- 1996-10-18 – Episode 15: Dawn
- 1996-12-27 – Episode 20: From a Distance