Because the line between a mortal and venial sin can be hazy, sometimes the only way to tell is to test it. And that's particularly true when you're a kid, trying to figure out if you agree with where your parents draw that line.

A short story, "Fatso," by Etgar Keret from his collection "The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God." A woman reveals to her boyfriend that she's not always what she seems, especially at night. Matt Malloy reads.

Host Ira Glass talks with Michael Perrino, a law professor at St Johns University School of Law in New York, who wrote a book about Ferdinand Pecora called The Hellhound of Wall Street. Pecora was the lead attorney in the Senate Banking Committee hearings in the 1930s looking into wrongdoing in the banking industry.

A live performance detailing a humiliating love affair. When comedian Mike Birbiglia was in high school, he fell for a cool girl named Amanda.

In the 1930s, the designer of the U.S. Supreme Court made a frieze to adorn the courtroom walls.

Joe Lockhart was press secretary for President Bill Clinton. He recently told stories from his time on the job—live onstage at a performance space in New York City called The Moth, where regular people share stories about their lives—in front of a boisterous crowd.

"Fatso," a short story by Etgar Keret from his collection The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God. A woman reveals to her boyfriend that she's not always what she seems, especially at night.

Host Ira Glass visits Arlington Racetrack on opening day with four regulars who explain their quasi-scientific systems for winning.

A short story, "Fatso," by Etgar Keret. A woman reveals to her boyfriend that she's not always what she seems.

A short story by Jhumpa Lahiri, from her book of short stories The Interpreter of Maladies. The story is read by Mira Nair, director of the movies Mississippi Masala, Monsoon Wedding, and others.

What happens when you go into a place—in this case a prison—where there are all sorts of codes about what you're never supposed to say...and you say every one of them. Rick Reynolds tells a story from his one-man show (and CD) All Grown Up and No Place to Go, about performing stand-up comedy at a maximum security prison just before Christmas a few years ago.

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

A story by Margy Rochlin.

David Kestenbaum talks to one teacher there who’s already gone through a month of in-person learning to see what the  future might hold for other schools.

When school closed and threw routines into disarray, one mom and daughter figured out a new way to make it work.

Ruth Whitfield. 86 years old. There was a detail repeated often came to Ruth Whitfield, the oldest victim.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas had just completed a schoolwide upgrade on their emergency plans, just a month before the mass shooting at their school. Producer Robyn Semien talks to two teachers at the school about how that training both benefited them, and didn’t.

Etgar Keret always had a good relationship with his dad, except for one thing. This was read for us in English translation by actor Michael Chernus.

David Rakoff demonstrates—in rhyme—how to make a wedding toast for people you never wanted to see married in the first place. Rakoff is the author of several books, most recently Half Empty.

Ira tells the stories of three things that broke–two of them in his own family. (8 minutes)

David Sedaris reads one of his funniest and most affecting stories from his book Naked before a live audience. As an adolescent boy, David feared he might be a homosexual.

On this week’s show, we’re airing excerpts of interviews with former hostages produced by an Israeli podcast, Echad Bayom. In these interviews they describe, in a remarkably detailed and complicated way, what happened to them a year ago. We start with Chen Almog-Goldstein.

Ryan Knighton tells a story about trying to get his daughter to understand his blindness.

Two quick snapshots of life in the West Bank since October 7th. (6 minutes)