List of 2009 This American Life episodes
Wikimedia list article
In 2009, there were 25 This American Life episodes.
Episode 372 – "The Inauguration Show"
Episode 373 – "The New Boss"
Episode 374 – "Somewhere Out There"
Episode 375 – "Bad Bank"
Episode 376 – "Wrong Side of History"
Episode 377 – "Scenes From a Recession"
Episode 378 – "This I Used to Believe"
Episode 379 – "Return to the Scene of the Crime"
Episode 380 – "No Map"
Episode 381 – "Turncoat"
Show description: Stories of people betraying, or perceived as betraying, their own people.
Act 1: Code Red – Ira Glass and My Thuan Tran (The Los Angeles Times reporter)
How San Jose City Councilwoman Madison Nguyen was first celebrated, then red-baited and demonized by the Vietnamese-American community that elected her.
Act 2 & 3: My Way or the FBI Way – Michael May (reporter)
How Brandon Darby, a radical activist against the United States government, became an FBI informant against his former community.
Music interlude: Jamo Thomas – "I Spy (For the FBI)"
Act 4: If the Shoe Fits – Matt Malloy
Reading of Etgar Keret's short story "Shoes," about a Jewish boy and his love for German-made Adidas shoes.
Music interlude: Run DMC – "My Adidas"
Episode 382 – "The Watchmen"
Show description: Stories produced by the Planet Money team, about how the financial regulation and rating agencies, intended to prevent financial disaster, oversaw and permitted the risky activities that led to the 2008 financial crisis.
Prologue: Ira Glass and Michael Perrino, law professor at St. John's University School of Law, discuss Ferdinand Pecora, lead attorney in the 1930s Senate Banking Committee hearings, who captured public and congressional attention regarding the causes of the Wall Street crash of 1929.
Act 1: Investigation Report #1 – Chana Joffe-Walt (Planet Money reporter)
While various regulatory agencies were responsible for overseeing components of AIG, there was no agency in charge of their most risky activities—or so it was said by some—despite primary Office of Thrift Supervision oversight, which was hampered by other issues.
Act 2: Investigation Report #2 – Alex Blumberg (NPR correspondent, Planet Money reporter, TAL producer) and David Kestenbaum (Planet Money reporter)
The story of how credit rating agencies, Standard and Poors, Moody's and Fitch, gave AAA ratings to the risky financial instruments that led to the 2008 financial crisis.
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