Alissa Shipp

Charlie suffers from a serious disease that causes acute narcolepsy whenever he is happy. Although he develops a variety of techniques to deny himself pleasure and deal with his sleep issues, they’re put to the test when he falls in love.

Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.

A burgeoning stand-up comedian struggles with the stress of a stalled career, a stale relationship, and the wild spurts of severe sleepwalking he is desperate to ignore.

In late 2009, the staff of This American Life went on stage to talk for the first time as a group about how the show is put together. Get answers to burning questions like: how close to disaster was the 2008 live show? What is the connection between This American Life and Matt Damon? Will we ever do a swim suit edition of the show? Includes a rare interview with our boss, Torey Malatia, about being made fun of at the end of every episode.