What is This American Life? It's "like movies for radio." This American Life (TAL) is an American weekly hour-long radio program produced by WBEZ and hosted by Ira Glass. It is distributed by Public Radio International on PRI affiliate stations and is also available as a free weekly podcast. Primarily a journalistic non-fiction program, it has also featured essays, memoirs, field recordings, short fiction, and found footage. The first episode aired on November 17, 1995, under the show's original title, Your Radio Playhouse. A television program of the same name ran for two seasons on the Showtime cable network between June 2007 and May 2008.