Budd Mishkin

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.

Christmas Eve in New York, and the lonely divorced publisher, Rose Collins, needs a miracle to improve the health of her mother, interned in a hospital with Alzheimers. She feels sorry for another patient and meets his visitor. Meanwhile, Nina Vasquez breaks her engagement with her beloved fiancé Mike due to his suffocating jealousy, but misses him. Mike is stalked by a stranger, bartender Artie Venzuela. The poor Jules arranges to spend Christmas Eve in the hospital, where he spent the best Christmas of his life when he was a teenager. The lives of some of these characters cross with others along the night.

ニューヨーク、クイーンズ区のパトロール警官、チャーリ ー・ラングは、下町の人気者である。仕事熱心で気の優しい彼は、住民たちに親しまれている平凡な生活に満足していた。イヴォンヌ・ビアジは下町のコーヒーショップで働く、心根のいいウエイトレス。だが、別居中の夫エディの不始末を被って破産宣告を受けている身であった。 ある日、イヴォンヌの店に立ち寄ったチャーリーは、チップの持ち合わせがなく、「持っていた宝くじが当たったら、賞金の半分を君にあげる」と約束する。なんと、そのくじが400万ドルという大金に当たった。200万ドルの贈り物に、ことのほか喜ぶイヴォンヌ。おとぎ話のような逸話に、マスコミがさっそく飛びついたのだった…。