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Lessons from 863 episodes of This American Life

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But I didn’t start out with any kind of goal or expectation that I’d ever finish; if anything, I kinda treated the show’s back catalog as a bottomless well of entertainment that I could tap forever, and only realized a few years ago that I might actually reach the end of it. There are plenty of high-minded (and truthful) reasons I could give to explain why I love This American Life: those signature stories that manage to be funny and surprising and candid and moving—but “moving” in a non-corny way—all at the same time; the amount of random stuff I’ve learned about far-flung topics over the years, and still remember, and will regularly cite in conversation if you don’t restrain me fast enough; the music, obviously. When I first started listening I was a college student with time to kill at a summer job, and since then I’ve gained a wife and a career and a few chronic ailments and have, shall we say, lived through some major world events.

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