This American Life - 892: Trapped on a Bus

People on journeys they did not intend — or agree to. (00:00:00) Prologue: A woman on a nighttime bus ride wakes up to discover the bus driver is taking the passengers somewhere none of them want to go. (8 minutes) (00:08:11) Act One: Ayman Oghanna was reporting in Syria when he got a surprising call from home: one of his neighbors had been arrested for spying. (13 minutes) (00:21:18) Act Two: Eileen Sosin Martínez describes life in Havana right now, where blackouts have become so constant that it’s nearly impossible to make ice and garbage trucks don’t collect the trash regularly. (11 minutes) (00:33:33) Act Three: A beloved tree in England, more than 100 years old, is mysteriously cut down overnight, leaving the country bereft and enraged and out for justice. (15 minutes) (00:49:31) Act Four: When she was 16, Leticia flew from Sao Paolo, where she lived, to Germany. She was seated next to an older woman who did something so surprising during the flight that Leticia still tells people about it today. (9 minutes)

Duration: 1h 5m
Broadcast on: 19 Jul 2026
Audio Format: other

Hey, it's Ira, the quick word before the show starts. So I have this video that I want to show you. Maybe you heard because we did so many promos, actually, that we just did this live show on stage in Los Angeles where I told stories and then Vic McCaleless and these really talented comedians did improvise scenes based on those stories on the spot. And we live streamed video of this show. And I'm just here to say that if you missed the live stream, you can now see the show. We have posted the video online. It's a really fun show and to watch this, for absolutely free, sign up for a free trial this American Life Partners subscription. And our hope is, you know, you'll stick around after the trial and you'll love all the bonus episodes and listening ad free and all the other stuff we give you plus we hope you'll like helping us make the show by sending us this money. But if you don't, if you just want the free trial, watch the video, try it out for a couple of days. Quit. No foul. Find with us. And I think you're really going to enjoy watching the show we did. Go to thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners and use the, this is a very original promo code we came up with, video. That's right. The promo code is video, that link is also in the show notes. Okay, here's this week's show. This message comes from the nature conservancy, for 75 years, the nature conservancy has helped protect remarkable natural places to ensure they thrive for generations to come. Learn more at nature.org/75. A quick warning. There are curse words that are unbeeped in today's episode of the show. If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org. From WBEZChicago, it's this American Life, I'm David Kestenbaum, sitting in for hourglass. This morning on the subway, this guy brought his own chair. He's sitting next to him, but he was in like a fold out chair. That's Aviva de Cornfeld, apparently our transportation correspondent. She came in the studio to tell me a story about a woman on a bus ride that went very strangely. Her, her name's Duck, or that's her nickname. That's what we're going to call her. Okay. That's this bus between New York and D.C. a lot back and forth. So on this trip, she's going from New York to D.C., Union Station, and she's leaving around 6 p.m. at night, and she has this whole routine around the bus because she's done this trip a million times. This is Duck. I'll go. Get a margarita. Get on the bus. Take an app. Wake up back home in D.C. No, I boarded the bus as normal.

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