Host Ira Glass talks to producer Elna Baker about the time she and her siblings found themselves trapped in a hotel room with an unexpected visitor. (13 minutes)

Fewer than 40 million Americans have gotten the vaccine so far, which leaves a lot of people jealous and wondering what happens inside those little rooms.

A teenage girl finds a wallet and has to decide whether to return it. That, and other stories of people trying to do the right thing, and it not working out the way they thought.

Ira Glass talks to Sam Ashner, whose debilitating fear of spiders was ruining his life. So he opted for an extraordinary treatment — the nuclear option — to deal with it.

At Sullivan High School in Chicago, being able to communicate is key. (5 minutes)

A beloved drawing goes missing from Mr. Ablao’s third grade classroom.

Ira tells three stories about the ghosts captured whenever you record sound. (10 minutes)Michèle Dawson Haber wrote about hearing her father’s voice on tape as a Modern Love column "Hearing His Voice Changed Everything," in The New York Times.

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)

We hear a phone call from this week between Kirk Johnson in California, and Ajmal, a man standing in a canal outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Guest host Elna Baker hears of a story from Jane Marie, about an embarrassing moment that haunts her. (3 minutes)

Host Ira Glass with the last piece in today’s show, inspired by the New York Times podcast, The Daily. (3 minutes)

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.

Rebecca Shrader thought she knew what was right when it came to abortion. Then she got pregnant.

Reporter Anna Maria Barry-Jester tells the story of two public health officials in Santa Cruz County, California, whose lives have been completely upended by threats and harassment over the past year. (20 minutes)This story is a collaboration with Kaiser Health News. You can read their version here.

There’s a museum in Baltimore that was created to memorialize the Black experience in America. It’s called The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum.

Writer Kiese Laymon tells Elna Baker his most embarrassing story, involving one of the most important people in his life. Kiese Laymon is the author of Heavy and Long Division.

Carmen Maria Machado tells the story of being stuck in an abusive relationship as a “Choose Your Own Adventure” tale.

Producer Ben Calhoun investigates a daily mystery—a daily musical mystery. (15 minutes)

Producer Sean Cole has, unfortunately, experienced something known as “cumulative grief” this year. He writes about the multiple upheavals he’s been dealing  with.

Pavan Bivigou writes about having sickle-cell anemia.

When you need to retrieve all manner of treasures secured behind steel doors and complex locks, there’s one man you can count on: safecracker Dave McOmie.