In 1995, there were seven new This American Life episodes; all were broadcast under the original name of the program Your Radio Playhouse.
Air Date: 1995-11-17
Description: Our program's very first broadcast
*Prologue â Ira Glass seeks advice from long-time talk show host Joe Franklin. (6 minutes)
:Interlude: Dinah Washington â "Destination Moon"
*Act 1 â Kevin Kelly (23 minutes)
:Kevin Kelly 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 â Shoulda Been Dead
*Act 2 â Ira Glass (7 minutes)
:Ira calls his parents in for advice about broadcasting.
*Act 3 â Lawrence Steger (13 minutes)
:Steger recounts a road trip he and a friend took after hearing about Steger's HIV diagnosis.
:Interlude: The Treniers â "(Uh-Oh) Get Out of the Car"
*Act 4 â Ed Ryder, interviewed by Ira Glass and Nancy Updike (9 minutes)
:Ryder was wrongly imprisoned for twenty years and recently released, and he discusses dream of playing music. Ryder performs "God Bless the Child"âÂÂthis performance was re-broadcast in episode 119 â Lock-Up.
:Interlude: Django Reinhardt â "I've Had My Moments"
Air Date: 1995-11-24
Description: Small-scale stories on the nature of small-scale sin
*Prologue â Ira Glass visits the Hackers On Planet Earth conference and talks to 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 â Ira Glass interviews Michael Warr
:Poet Warr discusses his childhood as a Jehovah's Witness. (8 minutes)
*Act 3
:A member of the hacking group MOD discusses his arrest and imprisonment and his success as a criminal. (26 minutes)
Air Date: 1995-12-01
Description: Stories decrying the wonders of turkeys, chickens, and other fowl
*Act 1
:Danielle explains why her family calls chicken "fish" at the dinner table. (20 minutes)
:Interlude: Louis Jordan â "Saturday Night Fish Fry"
*Act 2
:Julie discusses life on a turkey farm (8 minutes)
*Act 3 â Luis Rodriguez
:Rodriguez reads a poem about poultry. (4 minutes)
:Interlude: Cab Calloway â "A Chicken Ain't Nothing But a Bird"
*Act 4 â Verda Mae Cosgrove
:The hostess of NPR's Seasonings explains how to cook a chicken. (6 minutes)
:Interlude: Charles Mingus â "Eat That Bird"
*Act 5 â David Sedaris
:Sedaris buys a taxidermied turkey. (3 minutes)
*Act 6 â Ira Glass
:Glass presents the first new episode of the WCFL radio program "Chickenman" since 1969. (8 minutes)
Air Date: 1995-12-08
Description: Stories about vacations gone awryâÂÂor perhaps vacations that never should have happened
*Prologue â Ira Glass
:Ira discusses his family photos from a trip to Hawaii. (9 minutes)
*Act 1 â Sandra Tsing Loh
:Loh reads a story about her family vacation in Ethiopia. (22 minutes)
*Act 2 â David Sedaris
:Sedaris discusses hitchhiking. (25 minutes)
:Interlude: Ozark Mountain Devils â "If You Wanna Get to Heaven"
Air Date: 1995-12-15
Description: Stories that reveal the societal "trend" toward anger and away from genuine forgiveness
Prologue â Ira Glass
:Glass reads a list of words that Newt Gingrich advised Republicans use when referring to Democrats. (7 minutes)
*Act 1 â Jack Hitt
:Hitt is confronted by someone who read an article he wrote about Susan Smith. (15 minutes)
*Act 2 â Iris Moore and Larry Steeger
:Moore and Steeger give monologues about forgiveness. (9 minutes)
:Interlude: Unknown artist â "I Blame God"
*Act 3 â Darrin Bowden
:Bowden explains the effects of harsh criminal sentences on minors. (6 minutes)
:Interlude: Johnny Cash â "The Wall"
*Act 4 â Ira Glass
:Glass interviews Glen Fitzgerald, a Christian missionary who works with gang members. (9 minutes)
:Interlude: Johnny Cash â "Folsom Prison Blues"
*Act 5 â Cheryl Trykv
:A story read before a live audience about someone who doesn't want forgiveness. (14 minutes)
Air Date: 1995-12-22
Description: Several Christmas-themed performances
*Prologue â David Sedaris
:A Christmas radio play with Sedaris and the Pinetree Gang. (28 minutes)
*Act 1 â Beau O'Reilly
:A Christmas tree story. (14 minutes)
*Act 2 â Reginald Gibbons
:A story about Christmas at juvenile court. (10 minutes)
*Act 3 â Peter Clowney
:Christmas at the Faith Tabernacle Baptist Church, whose choir provides music for the entire episode. (9 minutes)
Air Date: 1995-12-29
Description: Stories of people who quit everything in their lives that they hatedâÂÂand what happened to them afterwards
*Prologue â Ira Glass
:Evan Harris starts the magazine Quitter Quarterly with Shelley Ross (22 minutes)
:Interlude: Ella Fitzgerald â "Don't Fence Me In"
*Act 1 â Sandra Tsing Loh
:Loh reads a story about quitting. (10 minutes)
:Interlude: Brave Combo â "Do Something Different (Disappear)"
*Act 2 â Ira Glass
:Glass plays excerpts from Shut Up, Little Man! (9 minutes)
*Act 3 â Lisa Buscani
:A story about being unable to quit. (13 minutes)
:Interlude: Robert Metrick â "The Calendar Song"
*Act 4 â Dwight Okita and Ira Glass
:Okita reads the poem "Farewell Samba" from his book Crossing with the Light and Glass reads Philip Larkin's "Poetry of Departures". (3 minutes)
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