Host Ira Glass talks to producer David Kestenbaum about what it was like to be a kid magician.

We hear two stories of everyday life which are more easily understood if one knows some of the laws of physics, specifically the Mediocrity Principle and the Casimir Effect.

Producer David Kestenbaum became obsessed with one trick he loved as a kid—when David Copperfield made the statue of liberty disappear.

Where do we go when we die? Producer David Kestenbaum learns that the answer's pretty bureaucratic. 

Host Ira Glass talks with David Kestenbaum about a phone app that can create alternate universes with the press of a button.

Donald Trump has promised to get rid of Obamacare. Producer David Kestenbaum talks with someone who’d lose their insurance.

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

Our producer David Kestenbaum spoke with some people who are in the grand gesture business: skywriters.

Producer David Kestenbaum tells the story of an astronaut who returns with a very unexpected view of the great beyond.

Host Ira Glass gives an update on his health status after going into quarantine last week, and David Kestenbaum interviews a 71 year old trying to avoid the virus.

Planet Money correspondent David Kestenbaum investigates the growing popularity of pet insurance, and what it reveals about insurance for people.

Producer David Kestenbaum took issue with the entire premise of today’s show, and explains why.

David Kestenbaum retraces the steps of Steve Snyder, a man who found himself running for love.

A private basketball coach teaches a young student some things his parents don't agree with. David Kestenbaum has the story.

David Kestenbaum tells the story of a man on the verge of one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time … right on the verge. (4 minutes) 

If there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, why haven’t we heard from the extraterrestrials yet? Producer David Kestenbaum explains The Fermi Paradox to host Ira Glass. The possibility that we are alone in the universe makes David sad.

Producer David Kestenbaum explains how teachers at his sons’ preschool installed a “tattle phone” where kids could register their complaints about each other. David rigged it up to record those complaints and document the unfairnesses of preschool.

Senior Editor David Kestenbaum talks with a different kind of advocacy group: animal scientists doing their best to save a particular species before it winks out of existence. (16 minutes)

David Kestenbaum finds that the most unforgettable person in this county is a dead guy. A guy named Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

David Kestenbaum desperately wants to set the record straight for everybody about whether aliens regularly visit earth. They don’t, he says.

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.

There are two tiny Spanish towns on the African continent protected by multiple layers of razor wire, cameras and guards.

Two civil servants who do not like our new President weigh their options. Quit? Stay? Stay and fight? Producer David Kestenbaum reports.