Why are people asking me if my mother recognizes me, when it’s totally beside the point? (14 minutes)Janelle Taylor originally wrote about her mother in an academic paper for Medical Anthropology Quarterly.

Boen visits Norman, Oklahoma, where he was born, to meet the man he thinks changed his parents’ lives—and his life, too. (31 minutes)

An excerpt from “Belles Lettres," a short story by Nafissa Thompson-Spires from her book Heads of the Colored People, performed by actors Erika Alexander and Eisa Davis with a cameo from our colleague Alvin Melathe.

The Iowa State Fair awarded coveted slots to just nine new food vendors this year. All of them are run by people who already own restaurants or who’ve done other big fairs.

Producer Diane Wu travels to Minnesota, where the turkey set to be pardoned by The President of the United States later this month is having the turkiness trained out of him. (10 minutes)

Host Ira Glass spent America’s presidential election in the swing state of Michigan, where he found very little dispute over the ballot count from Republican poll challengers in Detroit now that they are doing the counting themselves. (8 minutes)

Ira tells the stories of three things that broke–two of them in his own family. (8 minutes)

Writer Michael Harriot reexamines the DIY criminal justice system his mom invented to deal with his bad behavior as a child. (20 minutes)

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.

“What do you think about Beyoncé?” and other questions raised by people on first dates.

Majid finally gets his day in court.

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

Reporter Dana Ballout sifts through a very long list—the list of journalists killed in the Israel-Hamas War—and comes back with five small fragments of the lives of the people on it. (10 minutes)

"June" is making a tactical decision about her vote this election.

Two college friends try to stop Donald Trump’s primary season momentum by convincing New Hampshire voters to vote against everything they care about. Producer Zoe Chace follows along.

After hearing from people who dread a possible second Trump term, we hear from those who are excited about it.

When you have some power, but not a lot, how do you wield it when you’re suddenly cast into the spotlight? (4 minutes)

Yorkshire, 1866. A farmer overcomes his timidity and writes a very important letter to a local beauty.

Host Ira Glass talks with producer Tobin Low about the question he got asked after he and his husband moved in together, and what he thinks people were really asking. (4 minutes)

A story by producer Boen Wang about how to get through a summer of bad days. (9 minutes)

For writer Marie Phillips, moving in with her partner meant finding herself deeply connected to the woman who came before her. (12 minutes)Marie Phillips is the author of Gods Behaving Badly.

For Producer Lilly Sullivan, there’s one story about her parents that defines how she sees them, their family, and their history.

Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, Yousef Hammash has decided where to go next and when. In Rafah, he is out of options and faces his toughest move yet.