Stuck in the Wrong Decade

#79 - 10 October 1997

People stuck in the wrong decade — or simply carrying a lot of the props from another decade. NOTE: This episode originally included a story by reporter Stephen Glass (no relation to Ira), which we have removed because of questions about its truthfulness. This story is included in the transcript only for reference.

How Bad Is Bad?

#78 - 3 October 1997

How bad is bad enough to count? To go to hell?

Pray

#77 - 26 September 1997

Can the secular world and the religious world understand each other?

Mob

#76 - 19 September 1997

The mob as portrayed in movies, and as it is in real life. And its hold over us.

Kindness of Strangers

#75 - 12 September 1997

Stories of the kindness of strangers and where it leads. Also, the unkindness of strangers and where that can lead. All of today's stories take place in the city most people think of as the least kind city in America: New York.

Conventions

#74 - 29 August 1997

What happens when people with one common interest gather in monstrous, fluorescent -lit halls for the weekend? Sometimes they drive each other crazy, sometimes they fall in love.

Blame It on Art

#73 - 22 August 1997

The darker side of the art world: petty jealousies, competitiveness, failure. And also what's so great about art.

Trek

#72 - 8 August 1997

An idiosyncratic first-person travelogue about race relations and tourism from radio producer Rich Robinson and television producer Josh Seftel. Their radio story is about a trip they took to the new South Africa. Rich Robinson is black. Josh Seftel is white. The interracial pair travel through the still mostly-segregated society and have very different opinions about what they see, especially when it comes to some distant relatives of Josh's in South Africa.

Defying Sickness

#71 - 1 August 1997

Stories of people trying to do exactly what the doctors say they can't — or shouldn't.

Other People's Mail

#70 - 25 July 1997

When you read other people's mail, you can't help but try to fill in between the lines. You try to decipher the stories of the people who wrote the letters. We hear four stories of people who read other people's mail, and what happens to them once they get caught up in these other lives.