History
Kids do not like being told it'll make sense when they're older. They're pretty sure the grown-ups are wrong.
Kids navigating hairy situations all on their own, with no help from grown-ups.
Government isn't doing much to prevent school shootings. So parents are jumping in: parents whose kids have died in mass shootings, in the wake of each shooting. They take practical, effective action — and they get results.
The one thing you know for sure when you're watching a romantic comedy is that it's going to turn out okay in the end. When you're living one? Not so much. This week, stories that unfold like rom-coms.
Kids using perfectly logical arguments, and arriving at perfectly wrong conclusions.
People staring squarely at the truth, and still finding it hard to believe what they're seeing.
A man finds himself thrust into a new world he didn't necessarily ask to visit. He takes a look around.
In this moment when autocrats and almost-autocrats are getting bolder and more powerful, we bring you two stories of resistance, from Hungary and Russia.
People trying to jump in and solve other people's problems, putting themselves directly in the gap between the problem and the solution.
Three people, and one animal, who know the path their lives will take until, suddenly, they don't.
We take the stately laws of physics—laws which mathematicians and scientists have spent centuries discovering and verifying—and apply them to the realm of human relationships, to see if they shed useful light on our daily lives.
People earnestly doing what they're told, and absolutely not getting what they were promised.
In 2006, a new convert showed up at a mosque in Orange County, California. Known as Farouk al-Aziz, the convert was actually an FBI informant named Craig Monteilh. That informant's infiltration of the mosque is at the heart of FBI v Fazaga, a case heard at the Supreme Court last month. We return to our episode from 2012, which tells the story behind it.
This bird-focused week, stories about birds and the hearts they sway, the havoc they wreak, the lives they change.
Getting the point across — or trying to, anyway.
A man who was imprisoned for 14 years in Guantanamo Bay, without charges, gets out and issues an invitation to all the people who kept him there. Amazingly, three of them agree to talk.
In a world where a virus spreads across the country and most people are not going to movie theaters, we bring the movies to you.
Stories about getting from Point A to Point B—with expert assistance.
Personal recordings one person made for just one other person, including what some have called the greatest phone message ever.
An hour devoted to embarrassing stories. They're not always just little moments – funny, daily stuff that we laugh about later. Some can change you for the rest of your life.
What happens when one family goes all in on fighting climate change.
We made you a mixtape. Don't make a big deal out of it or anything.
People trying to escape all kinds of seemingly impossible situations.
The pandemic forced jobs to change, but then the workers changed, too.
We heard about a test that could determine if someone was a psychopath. So, naturally, our staff decided to take it.
Words mean things, but some words are especially meaningful.
Most of us go from day to day just coasting on the status quo. If it ain't broke, why fix it—right? But when routines just get too mundane or systems stop making sense, sometimes you just have to hold your breath and jump. People who leap from their lives, their comfort zones, even through time.
Sisters build worlds together, worlds that are just for them. Stories about the bonds between sisters and how they get broken and fixed—or not.
So many of us, we don't want to think about death. We avoid grieving when we lose someone, distract ourselves, look away. In this episode, at a moment when so many families are mourning, we have stories of people figuring out how they'll grieve, and doing a pretty good job of it.
An ode to life's daily practices, and what you learn from doing a thing every single day.
Adults telling kids who they are, and kids wondering — are they right?
How the pandemic has thrown college admissions process into a kind of slow-motion chaos. One of the biggest changes: most colleges have stopped requiring the SAT. For decades, there’s been a debate over whether schools should drop the test. What’s it mean that it finally happened?
People squirming in a world where everything is rated and reviewed.
This week, three men who came together to protest the murder of George Floyd. They were unified, loud, and impressive, but over time these three friends end up in three very different places.
A boy who can’t dribble gets a coach, a new best friend, and something to believe in.
Stories of people summoning up stuff that’s usually hidden down deep.
Stories from the upside-down world where conspiracy theorists dwell.
We asked listeners to send us their best coincidence stories, and we got more than 1,300 submissions! There were so many good ones we decided to make a whole show about them. From a chance encounter at a bus station to a romantic dollar bill to a baffling apparition in a college shower stall.
Things we’ve lost in the past year — since the first American coronavirus case — that we haven’t talked about so much. Gossip. The chance to make new friends. And much larger stuff.
People looking everywhere to find a place—any place—where, for once, they don't have to be the odd man out.
There's always someone whose job it is to decide if you measure up.
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