Comedian Atsuko Okatsuka moved suddenly from Japan to the U.S. when she was eight years old, and has long joked that it was because her grandmother kidnapped her from her dad. But she'd never talked to anyone in her family about what had actually happened. (31 minutes) Tickets for Atsuko’s comedy tour at atsukocomedy.com.

Someone writes into the advice column Dear Sugar to ask whether or not they should quit a relationship, and gets a strange but very persuasive response. (9 minutes)An adaptation of some of Cheryl Strayed’s columns is now streaming on Hulu.

Many of us, especially when we’re young, feel like we’re the alien, trying to understand and fit in with the humans on this planet. Producer Diane Wu spent some time recently with a teenage humanoid who feels that way.

Writer Marie Phillips believes that magic is not just reserved for the beginning of a relationship.

Scaachi Koul is commemorating a Christmas first of her own – and ON her own – this year.

Is it possible for the U.S. to reach the goals set by the Paris Agreement? What steps would we have to take to cut emissions by 50% by 2030? We challenge climate researcher Melissa Lott to get us to that number. (11 minutes)

Amy Bloom tells the story of her husband, Brian, getting Alzheimer's and wanting assisted suicide. Her search to find a way to do that led her to Dignitas, in Switzerland.

Writer Kiese Laymon talks to comedian Darryl Lenox about how his trust in strangers dramatically shifted after he lost his sight. (17 minutes)

Emma Green spends time with Anja Baker, who’s working on preparing Mississippi for the influx of babies it will have to absorb now that abortion is illegal in that state.

Reporter Ashley Cleek talks to one Russian protestor in the middle of re-evaluating one of her oldest friendships. (15 minutes)

Our producer, Diane Wu, spent most of her life thinking she doesn’t have a unique and personal take on The Sound of Music. She is wrong.

When Adele wrote into our show last summer, she described herself as “the worst phlebotomist in the whole hospital.” Producer Diane Wu couldn’t resist calling her up to find out exactly what she meant by that.

Our producer Diane Wu spent most of her life thinking she doesn’t have a unique and personal take on The Sound of Music.

Producer Diane Wu goes to a party. A Chinese flag party.

Producers Diane Wu and Lina Misitzis spend the night at a corner grocery store in Brooklyn, New York and talk to some of the people that pass by. (25 minutes)

Diane Wu has the story of a woman who goes to South Korea to meet her birth mother, a trip that lets her visit one of the other worlds in which she almost lived.

The 22-year-old woman from the beginning of the show catches up with producer Diane Wu. Things are different.

We put out a call looking for people having to face something that freaked them out. Over two hundred people wrote in, facing big, life-changing moments, and some smaller ones.

There’s a lawsuit going on between Harvard and some Asian American students who say the admissions process discriminates against them.

Producer Diane Wu tells Ira the story of a woman and her quest to find out who sent her a mysterious gift.

Comedian Jillian Welsh tells Diane Wu about one of the most romantic—and stressful—nights of her life, a night that paralleled the plot of a rom-com in several ways. A version of this story first appeared on the Risk! podcast.

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