Nancy Updike and UPS Men.

Sarah Vowell, on selling the secrets of art dealer Graham Arader.

Ira with Clarence Hicks, who picks up dead animals for a living.

Writer Dirk Jamison, who gave up a 9-to-5 job and succeeded in getting something for nothing: he decided he'd feed the family by diving into dumpsters for free food. His father's very zen attitude about this, and how it affected the family.

Scott Carrier in Salt Lake City with a story about whether it's possible to be a good person if you're not a Christian.

Jay Allison presents a woman who "talks" to animals and a slaughterhouse owner.

Independent producer Dan Collison, on Pilottown and a feature story that fell apart.

After all this doom and gloom about the difficult lives of artists, we end the show with a more hopeful story from Joel Kostman, a New York City locksmith, who tells us about an incident that happened to him on the job. Joel is author of Keys to the City: Tales of a New York City Locksmith.

New York City locksmith Joel Kostman tells the story of an act of kindness he committed, hoping for a small reward. From his book: Keys to the City: Tales of a New York City Locksmith.

Samantha Martin trains raccoons to play basketball and rats to bowl. She says that what we want from animals is for them to imitate humans.

David Sedaris recounts his shameful career as a performance artist. Recorded before a live audience by KUOW Seattle.

How a guy named Tom became Camden Joy — and what he gained and what he lost. With Sarah Vowell.

Ron Carlson's short story.

Beau O'Reilly tells the story of a man who tried to run for President as a utopian nudist.

Meema Spadola with Lou Zeidberg.

A story by therapist Lauren Slater about a case she had with a tough man obsessed with porn and how he changed.

"Edison, New Jersey," a story about delivering pool tables from Junot Diaz's book Drown.

Singles in Agriculture. By reporter Liz Weil and Alix Spiegel.

Ira with Lloyd Natoff, on killing chickens.

Hollywood is all about the idea of getting something for nothing, and no show on the subject would be complete without a Hollywood story. Writer Sandra Tsing Loh provides it.

There can be consequences for reading other people's mail.

We begin to hear a story by Scott Carrier.

Andrea worked at a bakery under a convention hotel in Chicago. The conventioneers used to drive her crazy because people act so different when they're in a crowd of their own kind.