'This American Life' premieres on KAWC

Multi-award-winning series provides unique take on modern America

"This American Life," an innovative program that documents and describes contemporary America, joins the KAWC schedule on Tuesdays at 7 pm on 88.9 FM and on Sundays at 9 am on AM 1320.

Built around the personal vision of host Ira Glass, "This American Life" offers a special kind of radio storytelling. Each week, it explores a theme — fiascos, sentencing, conventions, the job that takes over your life — through a mix of radio monologues, mini-documentaries, "found tape" and unusual music. At this point, the program finds and commissions more original fiction than any other show on public radio.

The stories on "This American Life" range from humorous and engaging to disturbing and bittersweet. Glass and his staff find writers and performers whose work hasn't been heard on radio, and produces their stories alongside his own commentary in a way that critics praise as "riveting," "mesmerizing." The series won a George Foster Peabody Award in its first year of broadcast and has since earned several of the industry's most prestigious honors.

"This American Life" is produced by Chicago Public Radio and is distributed nationally by Public Radio International. It is made possible in part by Kohler, "The Economist" and the listeners of WBEZ Chicago.

For more on This American Life, visit their website.