Senior editor David Kestenbaum helps his kids set up an ant farm. They follow all the instructions, to the letter! But he ends up learning a lesson he’s pretty sure the manufacturer did not intend.

The discovery of 30 century-old postcards written in old Yiddish by a distant family member challenges David Kestenbaum’s ideas about the unimportance of blood ties.

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.

A state senator tries persuading his own constituents, from his own party, that the 2020 election was not stolen. (17 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.

David Kestenbaum follows one person as they try to find something—a set of words, some facts, a story—to convince Trump Republicans to get themselves vaccinated.

When Saidu’s friend Marcus-David Peters was killed by police, he wanted to figure out what to do with the weight of that loss. He began following three men who began protesting after the murder of George Floyd. They seemed to know what to do when faced with police violence. Saidu tells the story of their lives after they began protesting with the Warriors in the Garden.

A lot of music discovery happens when we are kids.

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.

Ira goes out birding with birder extraordinaire Noah Strycker, who tells the dramatic story of the bird that changed his life: the turkey vulture.

For the last five years or so, Johnny Dark has kept up a very specific, unusual, and labor intensive daily practice.

Host Ira Glass talks to Eyal Levin, who says his neighbor has been propagating a lie for years about one of the most contentious issues in New York: street parking.

Paul Tough turns to UT Austin to see what happens if you admit students with great grades, who didn’t perform well on the SAT, into your college.

For more than fifty years, Jeanne Darst’s dad neglected to tell his entire family about their entire family. (13 minutes)

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

What does God get out of us praising him? Or is it actually for us? (7 minutes)

Nancy Updike tells the story of the phone call from the prologue.

For the last year, writer Karen Cheung has been watching her hometown of Hong Kong change in big and small ways under a new law, and wondering when and if leaving will be her last resort.

There are the birds who exist, and then there are the birds who may as well exist. Producer Sean Cole explains.

Mohamedou talks to a man he only knew as Mr. X and who still gives him nightmares.