This American Life

This American Life episode 888 explores three stories themed around Greek mythology: Pablo Manriquez, a DC reporter who taught himself oil painting and navigated Capitol politics; Jeremiah Schofield, a Social Security Administration whistleblower who revealed DOGE's attempts to falsely mark thousands of people as dead to facilitate deportations; and writer Daniel Alarcon's humiliating attempt to interview Lionel Messi for a glossy magazine.

This American Life episode features four stories about books that changed people's lives, including a playwright who followed a dead Broadway legend's autobiography as a life blueprint, David Sedaris's family's comic encounter with found pornography, a construction worker who built a world-class Lewis and Clark collection without reading the books, and a New York writer who moved to Nebraska inspired by Laura Ingalls Wilder.