Dr. Amelia Huntsberger loves everything about her rural town in northern Idaho.

Abdurahman Tohti left his home country, China, behind 7 years ago to move to Turkey, safe from the Chinese regime that discriminates and arbitrarily detains Uyghurs, specifically, which Abdurahman is. Reporter Durrie Bouscaren talks to him about what happened to his wife and children and extended family in China, and the endless challenges he faces trying to be sure they are safe.

Ira talks to JetBlue pilot Anne Aldrich about the unusual speech she gives before take-off.

Disinformation and propaganda works differently in Putin’s Russia than it did during the Soviet Union. Instead of tamping down the opposition, the Russian government works to control the opposition.

Ira talks to Luke Huisenga, a Marine sniper who became a fan of Gilmore Girls while on deployment in Iraq.

There are young single men and women at the camps, and there’s some flirting for sure. But usually it doesn’t seem to go very far.

Fat is seen by so many people as a kind of moral issue. They think you’re fat because you’re weak and can’t get control of your own life.

In this act, writer Michael Kinsley describes harnessing the power of his own mind to deal with his Parkinson's diagnosis. Michael Kinsley is a contributing columnist for Vanity Fair and the Washington Post.

A lot of people lost their homes during Katrina, but a lot of people lost their homes afterward, too—in ten years of post-storm debt, foreclosures, and hard loans. Zoe Chace talked with Roy Bradley, a Saints fan who’s facing losing his house right after he rebuilt it.

About 20 years ago, a group of educators launched one of the biggest recent experiments in American education when they started creating charter schools designed for poor, minority kids. The idea was to create classrooms that are rigorous and strict.

This story, produced by the podcast Love+Radio, is the story of a woman throwing herself into a business plan that’s really an entire life plan. The piece is non-narrated—just a long interview with the young woman, named Taylor Rose Nations.

Chana Joffe-Walt tells the story of a teenager named Michael. Like a lot of teenagers Michael decides to follow his dreams — and that to follow his dreams, he’s going to need to make a total change.

The first day on the job inevitably means mistakes, mishaps, and sometimes... fiascos. A true story, told by a former rookie cop.

Kelly McEvers with the story of Zora, a self-made superhero. From the time she was five years old, Zora had recurring dreams in which she was a 6'5" warrior queen, who could fly and shoot lightning from her hands.

Elna Baker has a story about her teenage cousin, Navey Baker, who manages to have a secret identity while being a public figure at the same time: She's the school mascot — a tiger — at her high school.

David and Chana meet another toxic asset owner, like themselves. Only difference, David and Chana bought theirs after it was already toxic, for a steep discount, 99% off.

Ira with This American Life producer Alex Blumberg, about a kind of institutionalized crybabying in pro basketball called "the flop." Alex started to wonder if the story basketball fans tell themselves about the origins of the flop is true, and turned to Tommy Craggs at the sports blog Deadspin.com.

This American Life producer Sarah Koenig tells the story of how her stepsister Rue bought a house on the cheap, with the understanding that the previous owner would soon move out. More than ten years later, she's still waiting.

Scott Carrier and his family live in the same Salt Lake City neighborhood as Elizabeth Smart, the fourteen-year-old whose kidnapping made international news in 2002. Though pictures of Smart were everywhere in Salt Lake City, and thousands of volunteers searched for her, her captors brought her back to the neighborhood she was taken from, and they walked freely through the streets with her.

Amy O'Leary tells the story of a software writer at Apple Computer whose job contract ends, but he refuses to go away. He continues to show up at work every day, sneaking in the front door, hiding out in empty offices, and putting in long hours on a project the company canceled.

David Segal of the Washington Post investigates the competitive world of db drag racing ("db" stands for "decibels"), where people customize their cars with stereos so loud that they can't actually be played—or listened to—at least not without risking a nose bleed.

Patrick Howell, a gay Republican from Orlando, goes on what might seem like an ill-fated hearts-and-minds mission at the Republican Convention.