One Last Thing Before I Go

#702 - 24 April 2020

Words can seem so puny and ineffective sometimes. On this show, we have stories in which ordinary people make last ditch efforts to get through to their loved ones, using a combination of small talk and not-so-small talk.

Black Box

#701 - 17 April 2020

Desperate to know what happened to his family, a man obsessively decodes the only information about them he can get. That, and other stories of people looking into the void for answers.

Embiggening

#700 - 10 April 2020

Sometimes a sketch of a thing needs filling in for its true significance to be known.

Fiasco!

#699 - 3 April 2020

Stories of when things go wrong. Really wrong. When you leave the normal realm of human error, fumble, mishap, and mistake and enter the territory of really huge breakdowns. Fiascos. Things go so awry that normal social order collapses.

The Test

#698 - 27 March 2020

The coronavirus has now fully arrived in the United States. This week, stories of people trying to rise to that challenge, in some pretty extreme situations.

Alone Together

#697 - 20 March 2020

This week, as the staff creates the episode from their apartments and houses, with our host in quarantine, in this moment when everyone’s reaching out to the people they love, we put together a collection of family stories, with some timely stuff at the top.

Low Hum of Menace

#696 - 13 March 2020

Things do not seem fine at all, but it’s hard to say why.

Everyone's a Critic

#695 - 28 February 2020

People squirming in a world where everything is rated and reviewed.

Get Back to Where You Once Belonged

#694 - 14 February 2020

People looking everywhere to find a place—any place—where, for once, they don't have to be the odd man out.

Abdi the American

#693 - 7 February 2020

We return to our story about Abdi Nor from 2015, with some big news about his life today. When we first broadcast the story, Abdi was a Somali refugee living in Kenya desperately trying – against long odds – to get to the United States. Then he got the luckiest break of his life: he won a lottery that puts him on a short list for a U.S. visa. But before he could cash in his golden ticket, the police started raiding his neighborhood, targeting refugees.