851: Try a Little Tenderness
This American Life
01/25/26
•61m
About
Comments
Featured In
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 hardened PI works the toughest case of his very young life. (18 minutes)
- Act Two: Producer Aviva DeKornfeld talks to a man who finds himself the target of vengeful crows. (8 minutes)
- Act Three: Comedian Josh Johnson wonders if some people should’ve been spanked as kids. (10 minutes)
- Act Four: Writer Etgar Keret reads his story about a bus driver who refuses to open the doors for late passengers. (9 minutes)
Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
This American Life privacy policy.
Learn more about sponsor message choices.
Previous Episode
879: A Christian and a Muslim Walk Into a Bar
January 18
•60m
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 Bashar al-Assad, comedian Sharief Homsi knew which jokes were too dangerous to say on stage. Now that Syria is under the control of a new government, Sharief and the other comedians of “Styria” set out on a national tour to see how far their comedy can go in this new Syria. (6 minutes)
- Act One: The comedians test out risky material and get big laughs on early tour dates. It’s going smoothly until they find out that their show scheduled in the conservative city of Hama is in danger of being cancelled. (13 minutes)
- Act Two: The comedians go to battle with local officials. (18 minutes)
- Act Three: The comedians try everything they can think of to keep their shows from being cancelled. (20 minutes)
Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
This American Life privacy policy.
Learn more about sponsor message choices.
Next Episode
880: What Is Your Emergency?
February 1
•59m
911 calls unlike any we’ve heard before, and other stories about immigration agents sweeping through America.
Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription.
- Prologue: A collection of 911 calls where you can hear immigration enforcement moving through different cities and leaving chaos in their wake. (9 minutes)
- Act One: More 911 calls, including people on the line with dispatchers as ICE is chasing them, trying to puzzle out their next moves. (22 minutes)
- Act Two: Home Depots keep getting raided over and over again in Los Angeles. And day laborers are still showing up in store parking lots to find work every day. So what’s that like? Months and months of that cat and mouse? Anayansi Diaz-Cortes went to find out. (11 minutes)
- Act Three: Memo Torres tries to build an archive of every person taken by federal agents in Southern California. (11 minutes)
Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org
This American Life privacy policy.
Learn more about sponsor message choices.
If you like this episode you’ll love
Promoted