List of 1995 This American Life episodes
Encyclopedia
In 1995, there were seven This American Life
episodes; all 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; all were broadcast under the original name of the program Your Radio Playhouse.
- Our program's very first broadcast – 1995-11-17
- 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 :...
seeks advice from long-time talk show host Joe FranklinJoe FranklinJoe Franklin is an American radio and television personality. From New York City, Franklin is sometimes credited with hosting the first television talk show...
. (six minutes)
- Prologue – Ira Glass
- Interlude: Dinah WashingtonDinah WashingtonDinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones , was an American blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s", and called "The Queen of the Blues"...
– "Destination Moon"- Act 1 – Kevin KellyKevin KellyKevin Kelly is the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, and a former editor/publisher of the Whole Earth Catalog. He has also been a writer, photographer, conservationist, and student of Asian and digital culture.-Biography:...
(23 minutes)
- Kevin KellyKevin KellyKevin Kelly is the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, and a former editor/publisher of the Whole Earth Catalog. He has also been a writer, photographer, conservationist, and student of Asian and digital culture.-Biography:...
has a sort of religious experience in Jerusalem and decides to live the next six months of his life to the fullest. This plot was revisited for episode 50 – Shoulda Been Dead- Act 2 – Ira Glass (seven minutes)
- Ira calls his parents in for advice about broadcasting.
- Act 3 – Lawrence Steger (13 minutes)
- Steger recounts a road trip he and a friend took after hearing about Steger's HIVHIVHuman immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
diagnosis.
- Act 1 – Kevin Kelly
- Interlude: The TreniersThe TreniersThe Treniers were an American R&B and jump blues musical group, led by identical twins Cliff and Claude Trenier. Their Gene Gilbeaux Orchestra included Don Hill on saxophone, Shifty Henry and later James Johnson on bass, Henry Green on drums and Gene Gilbeaux on piano, with the Treniers Twins and...
– "(Uh-Oh) Get Out of the Car"- Act 4 – Ed Ryder, interviewed by Ira Glass and Nancy UpdikeNancy UpdikeNancy Updike is an American public radio producer and writer. Her work has been featured on radio programs including This American Life, All Things Considered, and Fresh Air, and has been published in The New York Times Magazine, LA Weekly, The Boston Globe, and Salon.com.- This American Life work...
(nine minutes)
- Ryder was wrongly imprisoned for twenty years and recently released, and he discusses dream of playing music. Ryder performs "God Bless the Child"—this performance was re-broadcast in episode 119 – Lock-Up.
- Act 4 – Ed Ryder, interviewed by Ira Glass and Nancy Updike
- Interlude: Django ReinhardtDjango ReinhardtDjango Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
– "I've Had My Moments"
- Small-scale stories on the nature of small-scale sin – 1995-11-24
- Prologue – Three teenagers who committed credit card fraud tell their stories. (16 minutes)
- Act 1
- Playwright Jeff Dorchen writes a play about the previous act. (10 minutes)
- Act 2 – Ira Glass interviews Michael Warr
- Poet Warr discusses his childhood as a Jehovah's Witness. (eight minutes)
- Act 3
- A member of the hackingHacker (computer security)In computer security and everyday language, a hacker is someone who breaks into computers and computer networks. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, including profit, protest, or because of the challenge...
group MODMasters of DeceptionMasters of Deception was a New York-based hacker group. MOD reportedly controlled all the major telephone RBOC's and X.25 networks as well as controlling large parts of the backbone of the rapidly emerging Internet....
discusses his arrest and imprisonment and his success as a criminal. (26 minutes)
- Stories decrying the wonders of turkeys, chickens, and other fowl – 1995-12-01
- Act 1
- Danielle explains why her family calls chicken "fish" at the dinner table. (20 minutes)
- Interlude: Louis JordanLouis JordanLouis Thomas Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the...
– "Saturday Night Fish FrySaturday Night Fish FrySaturday Night Fish Fry is a popular song, written by Louis Jordan and Ellis Lawrence Walsh , best known through the version recorded by Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five....
"- Act 2
- Julie discusses life on a turkey farm (eight minutes)
- Act 3 – Luis RodriguezLuis RodriguezLuis Rodriguez may refer to:*Luis Rodríguez , baseball player from Venezuela*Luis Rodríguez , Puerto Rican volleyball player*Luis J. Rodriguez , U.S...
- Act 3 – Luis Rodriguez
- Rodriguez reads a poem about poultry. (four minutes)
- Interlude: Cab CallowayCab CallowayCabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....
– "A Chicken Ain't Nothing But a Bird"- Act 4 – Verda Mae Cosgrove
- The hostess of NPRNPRNPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
's Seasonings explains how to cook a chicken. (six minutes)
- Interlude: Charles MingusCharles MingusCharles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
– "Eat That Bird"- Act 5 – David SedarisDavid SedarisDavid Sedaris is a Grammy Award-nominated American humorist, writer, comedian, bestselling author, and radio contributor....
- Sedaris buys a taxidermiedTaxidermyTaxidermy is the act of mounting or reproducing dead animals for display or for other sources of study. Taxidermy can be done on all vertebrate species of animals, including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians...
turkey. (three minutes)- Act 6 – Ira Glass
- Glass presents the first new episode of the WCFLWCFLWCFL may refer to:* WCFL , a radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, United States, which held the call sign WCFL from June 1926 to May 1987* WCFL-FM , a radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois from 1948 to January 1950....
radio program "Chickenman" since 1969. (eight minutes)
- Act 5 – David Sedaris
- Stories about vacations gone awry—or perhaps vacations that never should have happened – 1995-12-08
- Prologue – Ira Glass
- Ira discusses his family photos from a trip to Hawaii. (nine minutes)
- Act 1 – Sandra Tsing LohSandra Tsing LohSandra Tsing Loh is a Los Angeles, California-based writer, actress, performance-artist, pop-culture analyst, and radio commentator.-Biography:Loh is the daughter of a Chinese father and a German mother...
- Act 1 – Sandra Tsing Loh
- Loh reads a story about her family vacation in Ethiopia. (22 minutes)
- Act 2 – David Sedaris
- Sedaris discusses hitchhiking. (25 minutes)
- Interlude: Ozark Mountain Devils – "If You Wanna Get to Heaven"
- Stories that reveal the societal "trend" toward anger and away from genuine forgiveness – 1995-12-15
- Prologue – Ira Glass
- Glass reads a list of words that Newt GingrichNewt GingrichNewton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is a U.S. Republican Party politician who served as the House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995 and as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999....
advised RepublicansRepublican Party (United States)The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
use when referring to DemocratsDemocratic Party (United States)The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
. (seven minutes)- Act 1 – 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...
- Act 1 – Jack Hitt
- Hitt is confronted by someone who read an article he wrote about Susan SmithSusan SmithSusan Leigh Vaughan Smith is an American woman sentenced to life in prison for murdering her children. Born in Union, South Carolina, and a former student of the University of South Carolina Union, she was convicted on July 22, 1995 of murdering her two sons, 3-year-old Michael Daniel Smith, born...
. (15 minutes)- Act 2 – Iris Moore and Larry Steeger
- Moore and Steeger give monologues about forgiveness. (nine minutes)
- Glass reads a list of words that Newt Gingrich
- Interlude: Unknown artist – "I Blame God"
- Act 3 – Darrin Bowden
- Bowden explains the effects of harsh criminal sentences on minors. (six minutes)
- Interlude: Johnny CashJohnny CashJohn R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
– "The Wall"- Act 4 – Ira Glass
- Glass interviews Glen Fitzgerald, a Christian missionary who works with gang members. (nine minutes)
- Interlude: Johnny Cash – "Folsom Prison BluesFolsom Prison Blues"Folsom Prison Blues" is the title of a song written and recorded by American country music artist Johnny Cash. The song combines elements from two popular folk genres, the train song and the prison song, both of which Cash would continue to use for the rest of his career...
"- Act 5 – Cheryl Trykv
- A story read before a live audience about someone who doesn't want forgiveness. (14 minutes)
- Several Christmas-themed performances – 1995-12-22
- Prologue – David Sedaris
- A Christmas radio play with Sedaris and the Pinetree Gang. (28 minutes)
- Act 1 – Beau O'Reilly
- A Christmas tree story. (14 minutes)
- Act 2 – Reginald GibbonsReginald GibbonsReginald Gibbons is an American poet, fiction writer, translator, literary critic, artist, and Professor of English, Classics, and Spanish and Portuguese at Northwestern University...
- Act 2 – Reginald Gibbons
- A story about Christmas at juvenile court. (10 minutes)
- Act 3 – Peter Clowney
- Christmas at the Faith Tabernacle Baptist Church, whose choir provides music for the entire episode. (nine minutes)
- Stories of people who quit everything in their lives that they hated—and what happened to them afterwards – 1995-12-29
- Prologue – Ira Glass
- Evan Harris starts the magazine Quitter Quarterly with Shelley Ross (22 minutes)
- Interlude: Ella FitzgeraldElla FitzgeraldElla Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
– "Don't Fence Me In"- Act 1 – Sandra Tsing LohSandra Tsing LohSandra Tsing Loh is a Los Angeles, California-based writer, actress, performance-artist, pop-culture analyst, and radio commentator.-Biography:Loh is the daughter of a Chinese father and a German mother...
- Loh reads a story about quitting. (10 minutes)
- Act 1 – Sandra Tsing Loh
- Interlude: Brave ComboBrave ComboBrave Combo is a polka/rock band based in Denton, Texas. Founded in 1979 by guitarist/keyboardist/accordionist Carl Finch, they have been a prominent fixture in the Texas music scene for more than twenty-five years...
– "Do Something Different (Disappear)"- Act 2 – 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 :...
- Glass plays excerpts from Shut Up, Little Man!Shut Up, Little Man!Shut Up, Little Man! is the title of audio vérité recordings of two argumentative and violent alcoholics, Peter J. Haskett and Raymond Huffman in San Francisco...
(nine minutes)- Act 3 – Lisa Buscani
- A story about being unable to quit. (13 minutes)
- Act 2 – Ira Glass
- Interlude: Robert Metrick – "The Calendar Song"
- Act 4 – Dwight Okita and Ira Glass
- Okita read the poem "Farewell Samba" from his book Crossing with the Light and Glass reads Philip LarkinPhilip LarkinPhilip Arthur Larkin, CH, CBE, FRSL is widely regarded as one of the great English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century...
's "Poetry of Departures". (three minutes)