This American Life

What’s recovery mean, anyway?

We heard about a test that could determine if someone was a psychopath. So, naturally, our staff decided to take it. 

Words mean things, but some words are especially meaningful.

Solving problems using very extreme measures.

Sisters build worlds together, worlds that are just for them. Stories about the bonds between sisters and how they get broken and fixed—or not.

So many of us, we don’t want to think about death. We avoid grieving when we lose someone, distract ourselves, look away. In this episode, at a moment when so many families are mourning, we have stories of people figuring out how they’ll grieve, and doing a pretty good job of it.

An ode to life's daily practices, and what you learn from doing a thing every single day.

What happens when your own community suddenly turns on you?

Stories about the power of blood.

How the pandemic has thrown college admissions process into a kind of slow-motion chaos. One of the biggest changes: most colleges have stopped requiring the SAT. For decades, there’s been a debate over whether schools should drop the test. What’s it mean that it finally happened?