Ira's good friend Mary Ahearn died this week. She was thirty years older than him...so, decidedly more grown-up than he.

The Department of Homeland Security’s new policies on deportation have sown fear and confusion among undocumented immigrants. Ira Glass and Lilly Sullivan go to Chicago and meet a family trying to navigate the situation.

This week we document what happened when the President’s executive order went into effect, and talk about the way it was implemented. A major policy change thrown into the world like a fastball with no warning.

Host Ira Glass talks to a man driving to Washington, D.C.—with his brother, father and a whole lot of neckties—for his first job on Capitol Hill.

Host Ira Glass interviews Congressman Seth Moulton (D., Mass.), who served four tours as a Marine in Iraq. Moulton talks about an Iraqi translator he grew close to, and about a special visa program that allows Iraqi and Afghan translators to come to the U.S.

Ira talks to Luke Huisenga, a Marine sniper who became a fan of Gilmore Girls while on deployment in Iraq.

Ira talks with Rebecca who, using perfectly valid evidence, arrived at the perfectly incorrect conclusion that her neighbor, Ronnie Loeberfeld, was the tooth fairy. Ira also talks with Dr.

Ira re-listens to an interview he did with his mom 16 years ago, three years before she died.

Ira talks to Eleanor Gordon-Smith, a writer/reporter in Australia who decides to confront her catcallers and figure out why they do it.

Ira talks to a Muslim woman who tweeted on election night that she was worried she would no longer feel safe wearing a hijab.

There’s a political parable about Hillary Clinton that’s made the rounds this year. Host Ira Glass interviews contributor Jack Hitt, who says that in this parable you can see almost every version of Hillary that exists in the popular imagination: the A student, the opportunist, the mastermind, the rat fink, the pragmatist, the truth-twister.

There’s a seismic, historic change going on in the Republican party this year. Producer Zoe Chace tells Ira about a place you can eavesdrop on a group of Republican friends as they fret and argue about that change week after week: a podcast called Ricochet.

Ira talks to Biba Struja – a Serbian man who says that when he was in high school, he discovered that he seemed to have a high resistance to electricity. It’s a power that he’s utilized, but is mostly a curse.

Ira explains how at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the men with their finger to the button called their loved ones for what was potentially the last time.

Charles Foster has always been obsessed with trying to figure out how animals see the world. So he decides to find out—by living life as a badger.

Host Ira Glass talks to Aaryn Zhou. When she was nine, her father threw her into the deep end of pool to teach her to swim.

Ira tells a story about how he doesn’t enjoy the summer.

A couple guys show off a pretty creative invention.

We were interested in how the Greek government was dealing with the refugees, but we also wanted to know what it was like for all these people who thought they were heading elsewhere in Europe who are now stuck in these camps, where they’re just waiting for some country to let them in and restart their lives. Ira goes on a quick tour of camps around Greece.