A story about someone who's desperately trying – against long odds – to make it to the United States and become an American.
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People trying to learn something when no one is clear what the lesson is supposed to be.
A man in retirement tries to start over in a new life with a new venture: a cable channel, with lots of puppies.
A security guard at the airport notices something going wrong on the tarmac, and takes it upon herself to fix it.
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Graeme told us in the interview that he’d often wondered if you could calculate how fast the brick would have been going as it whizzed past his head. Here's the problem. Do you know the solution?
The clues people find when trying to make sense of a death.
Conservative students don't feel like their ideas are welcome on campus. So they're fighting back.
Stories about people who accidentally bump into unsettling facts of history.
The screenwriter Marcus Hinchey, who spent hundreds of hours talking to Bishop Pearson, chose favorite videos of him.
The film tells the real-life story of Carlton Pearson, who was a rising star in the Pentecostal church and Oral Roberts’s protégé.
People having to make a choice, when no good options exist.
Before he leaves the Senate for good, Republican Jeff Flake is trying to get a bill passed.
Footage of people rushing the fences in Melilla had appeared in Donald Trump’s first TV ad when he was running for president.
Stories from border walls all over the world, and of the strange ecosystems that arise around them.
Once a wall is built, it becomes a fact on the landscape that can totally change the logic of the world around it. In the episode “The Walls,” we have stories about people at walls all over the globe. Fly around to visit the walls in each story.
We commissioned an original cover of “9 to 5,” by Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards, and it’s fantastic. Chana and Robyn talk about how the song came to be. Also, now you can download the song.
A different kind of #MeToo story, about several women who worked for the same man.
Exactly how much are the animals that live in our home caught up in everyday family dynamics?
Stories about surviving the mishaps of love.
People who say the “wrong” thing and suffer the consequences.
A year into Trump’s presidency, stories of politicians—of both parties—unable to accomplish tasks that seem pretty straightforward.
A boy who can’t dribble gets a coach, a new best friend, and something to believe in.
People bungle simple operations on some of the most dangerous weapons in the world.
A study by economist Giovanni Peri, who worked with us on our shows about Albertville, Alabama.
When an Alabama town went from 98% white to one-fourth Latino, what did it mean for taxpayers, schools, traffic, crime?
What really happened when undocumented workers showed up in one Alabama town?
Jeff Sessions believes undocumented workers drove down wages in Alabama poultry plants. We commissioned a study to see if he’s right.
Blurring the line between animal and human.
Stories of people trying to unspool some of life’s certainties.
Stories about delays, including a town in Ohio known almost entirely for its speed trap.
Stories that take place on the edge of civilization, just out of sight.
Neil Drumming looks back at a toy he loved that, in retrospect, probably wouldn’t love him back.
What should we make of right-wing groups like the Proud Boys, who believe “the West is the best”?
See Bill Alexander and Marvin Barnard transform from freshmen to seniors.
In 1967, the first black students integrated the South’s elite prep schools. One of the main reasons they were there? To benefit the white kids.
What Betsy DeVos's experience in a public school in her hometown can tell us about her vision for education in this country.
Afrofuturism is a way of looking at black culture that’s fantastic, creative, and oddly hopeful.
Stories of lucky people who have found the exact right person to ring up for help.
Two towns grapple with the question—who do we let in?
People try to go deeper—to get to something real—in some unexpected places: war, magic, and porn.
"My mom made that cape. I really loved that cape."
See the inspiration for Teller's Red Ball trick.
Former kid magicians Ira Glass and David Kestenbaum dive back into the world of magic.
A polygraph operator and his strange journey.
A Belgian appeals court delivered a verdict in his case.
If there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, why haven’t we heard from them yet?
Stories about both historical and modern-day swashbucklers who loot, pillage, and question their choices.
Brian Reed, host of S-Town, talked to Jimmy Fallon about how a chance email sent by a fascinating Alabama antique clock restorer led to the podcast.
As part of The Tonight Show’s Mixtape series, Brian Reed shared what podcasts he’s listening to, plus the storytelling styles that helped inspire S-Town.
Before Trump started his presidential campaign, there was a congressional race that redefined what was possible in American politics.
What it's actually like to live in the confusing information landscape that is Putin's Russia.
A surgeon takes out his own appendix in what might be one of the most daring surgeries ever performed.