We hear two stories of everyday life which are more easily understood if one knows some of the laws of physics, specifically the Mediocrity Principle and the Casimir Effect.

Host Ira Glass talks to producer David Kestenbaum about what it was like to be a kid magician.

Our senior editor David Kestenbaum introduces us to someone who is literally running around the block as a way to solve one of his problems. David tries to figure out why it works.

Producer David Kestenbaum explains how teachers at his sons’ preschool installed a “tattle phone” where kids could register their complaints about each other. David rigged it up to record those complaints and document the unfairnesses of preschool.

If there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, why haven’t we heard from the extraterrestrials yet? Producer David Kestenbaum explains The Fermi Paradox to host Ira Glass. The possibility that we are alone in the universe makes David sad.

Senior Editor David Kestenbaum talks with a different kind of advocacy group: animal scientists doing their best to save a particular species before it winks out of existence. (16 minutes)

David Kestenbaum finds that the most unforgettable person in this county is a dead guy. A guy named Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Host Ira Glass talks with David Kestenbaum about a phone app that can create alternate universes with the press of a button.

Donald Trump has promised to get rid of Obamacare. Producer David Kestenbaum talks with someone who’d lose their insurance.

Our producer David Kestenbaum spoke with some people who are in the grand gesture business: skywriters.

Where do we go when we die? Producer David Kestenbaum learns that the answer's pretty bureaucratic. 

David Kestenbaum finds out about a speech that, in another world, President Clinton gave on August 17, 1998.

Planet Money correspondent David Kestenbaum investigates the growing popularity of pet insurance, and what it reveals about insurance for people.

Producer David Kestenbaum tells the story of an astronaut who returns with a very unexpected view of the great beyond.

David Kestenbaum retraces the steps of Steve Snyder, a man who found himself running for love.

Producer David Kestenbaum took issue with the entire premise of today’s show, and explains why.

David Kestenbaum tells the story of a man on the verge of one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time … right on the verge. (4 minutes) 

When senior editor David Kestenbaum was still a rookie reporter, he wrote an email to a legend.

David Kestenbaum talks about his love of the number zero and its power to destroy. Among zero's victims: one of the most controversial laws in recent memory.

Two civil servants who do not like our new President weigh their options. Quit? Stay? Stay and fight? Producer David Kestenbaum reports.

Host Ira Glass gives an update on his health status after going into quarantine last week, and David Kestenbaum interviews a 71 year old trying to avoid the virus.

Guest host David Kestenbaum talks to producer Diane Wu about a list she keeps of things she means to know. Sweet potatoes vs. yams.