Richard Klein of Cornell University explains that the way we view love really began with love poems in the 13th century — an illusion.

When she began working as a temp secretary in San Francisco, learning the computers, wasting time, Andrea put together a graph with Microsoft Excel. Its title: My Love Life: A Ten Year Span. It made her feel good.

Writer Tim Melley.

John Perry Barlow, a founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and former rancher and Grateful Dead lyricist, on an experience that began at the boundary of two conventions.

Mark O'Brien is a writer in California, who lives most of each day in an iron lung, thanks to a childhood case of polio. It's an excerpt from Jessica Yu's Oscar-winning documentary.

Pete found a bag of maybe a hundred letters in a dumpster and found himself completely wrapped up in the lives of the two people in the letters.

Ron Carlson's short story.

A story by Larry Doyle.

Singles in Agriculture. By reporter Liz Weil and Alix Spiegel.

Ira reads from In Dreams Begin Responsibilities. (7 minutes)

Story of a romance that began in a mental hospital. Sometimes, the line between crazy and not crazy is blurry; certain behavior could mean either thing.

Sarah Vowell on the joy of making mix tapes of your favorite songs to send to loved ones. She spots an ad for someone who makes them for money. "Prostitute," she thinks.

Carmen Delzell on a deal she made with the devil when she turned 30.

Excerpts from lessons found on old record, especially a Helen Gurley Brown disc called How to Love a Man, which instructs men on how to have an affair.

Chicago writer/musician Rennie Sparks, a member of the independent band The Handsome Family, reads "Skanks," a story of a girl struggling in a situation where some rules are strict, but other rules are up for grabs.