This American Life

This American Life primarily focuses on the field of journalism, but its news style is unique, with plot as the core and highly entertaining, essentially telling exciting stories. Their beloved stories revolve around highly attractive characters, infused with interesting moments, intense emotions, unexpected plot twists, and novel ideas, resembling microfilms on the radio.

The program has a wide influence, reaching over 3 million listeners every week through podcasts and over 500 public radio stations. Its reach has also expanded to radio stations in Canada and Australia. Over the years, the program has won numerous awards, including seven Peabody Awards (with an additional award for "Series" and "S-Town" produced by colleagues), and the first Pulitzer Prize ever awarded to a radio program or podcast.

For viewers who are new to the show, the carefully curated series list by host Ira Glass titled 'Are You Watching American Life for the First Time?' is an excellent starting point. Since its launch in 1995, viewers can browse the recommended list and enjoy the complete archive of over 800 episodes.

In the process of program production, they see it as a continuous experiment and boldly try various novel techniques. I once recorded a 24-hour program at an all night restaurant; Form a band based on classified advertisements of musicians to create a first episode content; I also did a program where all the stories were told by my parents. Although my parents were excellent, their ability to select high-quality radio stories was slightly lacking. They have produced programs exploring African futurism, as well as a special featuring David Sedaris strolling through Paris. An episode reported by Nicole Hannah Jones focuses on Michael Brown's recent history at Ferguson High School in Missouri, advocating for the long neglected education policy of abolishing racial segregation in schools. One of the most popular episodes delved into the origins of the 2008 economic collapse, which also gave rise to another complete program called 'Planet Money'. They also performed live on stage, with some shows available for viewing, such as the one where Lin Manuel Miranda adapted a story from the show into a mini musical.

American Life has launched numerous podcast series, such as Serial, S-Town, Nice White Parents, The Improvement Association, The Trojan Horse Affair, and more. In 2020, Serial Productions, responsible for producing these programs, became a member of The New York Times Corporation.

During the two seasons of 2007 and 2008, they produced a television version of the radio program for Showtime, which won three Emmy Awards (viewers can find the version on Amazon Prime, iTunes, and Hulu), and later voluntarily requested to withdraw the television broadcast. In addition, they have also produced multiple films, including Mike Burbida's "Sleepwalking with Me" and "Don't Think Twice", as well as "Come Sunday" adapted from an episode of the show about "infidels".

As early as 1999, the American News Review praised the program as a pioneer of the news revolution. Since then, a number of podcasts and radio programs such as Radiolab, Inviscibilia, StartUp, Reply All, Snap Judgment, Love+Radio, Heavyweight, as well as international programs such as Gushi FM, Israel Story, Radio Novel Apresenta, have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. They draw inspiration from the narrative news of American Life and create many unimaginable new forms.

American Life "is produced in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago and its program content is transmitted to various radio stations through PRX (Public Broadcasting Exchange).