Ira talks to producer Elna Baker about the time she and her siblings found themselves trapped in a hotel room with an unexpected visitor.

Host Ira Glass calls Jennifer to talk about the new security law. (12 minutes)

FBI agents question NSA contractor Reality Winner, who was later charged with leaking evidence of Russian interference in U.S. elections. Even the most casual small talk takes on an air of menace. (18 minutes)This is an excerpt from Is This A Room, a play based on the real FBI interrogation transcript.

Jonathan Goldstein tries to convince his uncle and his father to get into the same room and have a conversation for the first time in decades, before it’s too late and one of them dies.

Host Ira Glass explains how things have changed in Hong Kong this month, and wonders how things are going for a protester we’re calling Jennifer, who he went to protests with back in the fall.

When it comes to caring for Covid-19 patients, it’s the nurses who are carrying the heaviest burden. Ben Calhoun spent weeks talking to the nurses in the first Covid-19 unit to open in the ICU – Pod 4.

The journalist E. Jean Carroll is one of dozens of women who’ve accused the president of sexual assault or harassment.

The stories of undocumented people so often sound cliche. Writer Karla Cornejo Villavicencio has heard all of them, and thought she could do better.

Aviva DeKornfeld talks with a high schooler about how he’s prepped for remote learning with a bunch of kids he doesn’t know. (4 minutes)

Ira watches videos of police behavior at protests. The videos were pulled from a Twitter thread (and corresponding spreadsheet) created by T.

Emanuele Berry talks to Khalilah, who got involved as a poll watcher this year and ended up inside a national news story. (7 minutes)

Host Ira talks with a teacher in South Carolina who is just trying to figure out what the first day of school will look like.

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.

Host Ira Glass talks to a New York City ICU doctor about the little observations nurses are recording about their COVID patients to save for their families.

Nadia’s family has been isolating and disinfecting everything for weeks, and yet a cold still managed to creep in. How?

Host Ira Glass talks to a direct descendent of Thomas Jefferson about treating Monticello as his personal playground and about whether monuments to Jefferson should come down.

Comedian Mike Birbiglia talks about the time he ruined a cancer charity event by giving the worst performance of his life. Here's a hint: He improvised.

A week after starting classes, a Covid outbreak forces a university to send students back home. Producer Robyn Semien takes a tour of the emptying campus.

Host Ira Glass revisits the one movie he’s seen more than any other, about an ocean liner that gets hit by a tsunami and flips over. (9 minutes)

An incredibly accomplished 25-year-old, two-time Olympic boxing gold medalist Claressa Shields, achieved a big dream of hers this year. A dream that had nothing to do with her sport.

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.

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

What it’s like inside a small New York apartment with a toddler and two parents who are very sick with COVID-19. Producer Ben Calhoun talks to his brother-in-law, Elia Einhorn.

Producer Nadia Reiman tells the story of one mom and her son stuck someplace with no choice.