Economy

#16 - 14 March 1996

Stories of politics, the economy, and the big picture.

Dawn

#15 - 28 February 1996

Writer Jack Hitt goes on a search for a mysterious neighbor from his childhood in Charleston, South Carolina, and stumbles onto an epic story of the Old South, the New South, gender confusion, Chihuahuas, and changing values in American journalism.

Accidental Documentaries

#14 - 21 February 1996

What unites these stories on the surface is that they're all made from old tapes, recordings found in attics and thrift stores. What unites them under that surface — and not far under it — is that they all end up being stories about fathers and the legacies that fathers leave their children.

Love

#13 - 7 February 1996

Explorations of the dream of true love ... and the difficulties with achieving and maintaining that dream.

Animals

#12 - 31 January 1996

Stories about the animalness of animals, the irreducible ways in which they are not human.

Enemies

#11 - 24 January 1996

A story of a friendship between two adolescent boys that was destroyed through the manipulative acts of one of them.

Double Lives

#10 - 17 January 1996

People living their lives, just like the rest of us. Plus an extra life.

Julia Sweeney

#9 - 10 January 1996

When comedienne Julia Sweeney and her brother both got cancer, she decided to tell the story the best way she knew how: in a comedy club. It might seem like a strange choice, but what resulted is halfway between standup comedy and true-life diary entries.

New Year

#8 - 3 January 1996

Stories that reflect back on 1995.

Quitting

#7 - 29 December 1995

Stories of people who quit everything in their lives that they hated—and what happened to them afterwards.