President Trump has a vision for the American workforce. Forget expensive college educations. His eye is on the skilled trades. The U.S. Department of Labor has adopted the slogan “Make America Skilled Again.” But who gets to be part of this renaissance? Since the 1980s, women have made small but me...
In the new year, stories of people trying a radical approach to solving their problems. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription. Prologue: Ira meets two sisters who got into a fight, and then learned a lesson in turning the other cheek. (8 minutes) Act One: A ...
Forty years ago, the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff. Seven astronauts were killed, including teacher-in-space Christa McAuliffe. It was a devastating blow to the U.S. space program and a national tragedy for the country. In the days after the explosion, the search for ans...
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. Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription. Prologue: Under the dictatorship of Ba...
L.A. County Public Defender Noah Cox noticed the disturbing trend. Many of his clients seemed to struggle answering even the most basic questions about the crimes they’d been charged with, questions like, “Where were you that day?” It seemed, Cox said, “like they were having troubles related to some...
What’s the harm of “better safe than sorry” in cases where abuse is ambiguous? One mother’s story is our answer to that question. Our newest podcast, “The Preventionist” is out now. Search for it wherever you get your podcasts. To get full access to this and other Serial Productions and New York Tim...
Stories about the intersection of Christmas and retail, originally broadcast in 1996 when our show was only a year old. Including David Sedaris's "Santaland Diaries" about the seasons he spent working as an elf at Macy's.
