Schools ask their students the strangest essay questions sometimes.

Guest host Emmanuel Dzotsi talks to Leroy Smith about how one high school basketball tryout forever changed Leroy’s relationship to a childhood friend. (7 minutes)

A teenage whiz kid invents a new toy for Milton Bradley. Then the trouble starts.

A big bull, a giant slide, and cowboys on horseback shooting balloons are just a few sights you can take in at the Iowa State Fair.

Ira talks with Zoe Chace about watching Trump’s victory from an ecstatic room in Michigan. Then he checks in with a DC cop who was injured at the Capitol on January 6.

Six million Syrians fled the country after the start of its civil war.

Producer Zoe Chace with a political fable that she noticed playing out last week in North Carolina. (11 minutes)Zoe covered Mark Harris’ election fraud case in the podcast The Improvement Association by Serial Productions and The New York Times.

Motley Crue pledged never to play the fairgrounds. Then they did.

Frank Filocomo thinks people care too much about politics when it comes to dating.

When a common, seemingly innocuous question goes wildly off the rails. (13 minutes)Here's the video this story is about, featuring comedian Adam Ray. 

For years, Mike Comite has replayed in his head the moment when he and his bandmate blew their shot of making it as musicians.

A man finds himself sucked into an intense head-to-head running competition against a perfect rival – all for free burritos from Chipotle. (18 minutes)

Two adult sisters revisit old rivalries when they compete for a world record in typing with their pinkies. (16 minutes)

Every year, thousands of teenagers come from all over the world to experience American high school. Last year, thirteen students from Palestine came to the US on a program sponsored by the US State Department.