Episode
892: Trapped on a Bus
- Podcast
- This American Life
- Published
- Jul 19, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3677
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://www.spreaker.com/episode/892-trapped-on-a-bus--73061589
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Summary
People on journeys they did not intend! Or agree to! Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription. 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) Act One: Sometimes, the bus ride you're stuck on, against your will, is the thoughts spinning around in your own mind. (13 minutes) Act Two: A dispatch from Cuba, where there are not a lot of buses running right now because the whole country is out of oil. (11 minutes) Act Three: Sometimes, an entire country can be taken on an unexpected journey against its will. That happened in England, where a crime occurred that was so confounding, so nonsensical, that people just could not wrap their heads around it. (15 minutes) Act Four: Someone trapped…not on a bus…but on a plane! 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) Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org This American Life privacy policy. Learn more about sponsor message choices. 🎬 SEE THE STORY UNFOLD: Want to see the original photos, documents, and the faces behind this week's acts? 👇 View the visual archive for this episode here: https://goo.su/XwNQm (Updated for each story)