Writer Bill Eville and his brother are picked up on the side of the road late at night, and not taken to their destination. (10 minutes)Bill Eville is the author of a collection of essays called Washed Ashore: Family, Fatherhood, and Finding Home on Martha’s Vineyard.

A teenage girl gets bitten by a shark, rushed to the doctor's office, stitched up, and told she'll be totally fine. Crisis averted, right? Not so much.

Jack Hitt's Peter Pan story continues. (18 minutes)Jack is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and Harper’s.

Ira talks about a priest who set up what may have been the first hotline in the United States. It was just him, answering a phone, trying to help strangers who called.

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.

Daniel Alarcón’s dad was obsessed with soccer when he was growing up, but he was only average at soccer. But those who can’t do...find something else to do.

Two teachers find themselves thrown into a heated and ugly fight with parents right before school opens back up. Producer Miki Meek has this story from Utah.

We set up a special 800-number for listeners to call with their true-life scary stories. More than 500 people called.

We revisit a refugee who’s been resettled in America, and on our show in the past—Abdi Nor—to see what he thinks.

Ira talks with Connie Rex about the deer she and her sisters kidnapped and ended up putting into their school’s Christmas pageant in Woodruff, Utah, in a starring role.

Jeanne Darst was 16 when her parents split up. But it turned out they just weren't too skilled at the whole divorce thing.

We told Chicago playwright Jeff Dorchen about what the three boys in Act One said, and he created a brief original radio play picking up where they left off.

Ira talks with Connie Rex about the deer she and her sisters kidnapped and ended up putting into their school’s Christmas pageant in Woodruff, Utah, in a starring role.

Jack Hitt's Peter Pan story continues. Jack is the author of several books, including Bunch of Amateurs.

Host Ira Glass point out that it's not enough this time of year that we eat millions of turkeys. Someone also went to the trouble to make up a song about turkeys getting the supernatural power to play baseball.

Stand-up comedian Julian McCullough tells this story about heading to someone else's home for the holidays. You can watch Julian's Comedy Central Presents special at his website, julianmccullough.com.

Host Ira Glass finds the men behind a bot, whose job was to generate random inspirational quotes and images. But the bot ended up making something more surprising.

In 2008, reporter Chris Neary told the story of John, a soldier who returned from tours of Iraq and Afghanistan with severe PTSD, and ended up attacking his fiancee and her mother. Chris finds out how John is coping today.

Legendary broadcaster Paul Harvey had one of the most popular radio shows of all time.

Remember learning that women’s menstrual cycles tend to sync up when they spend a lot of time together? Producer Diane Wu was skeptical. So she went looking for evidence.

When health care premiums went up in New York State, a bunch of people got mad and wrote letters to the state.

The first in a series of pieces in the coming months on This American Life: Non-journalists covering aspects of the Presidential campaign. First up: Chicago playwright David Isaacson presents a piece on Pat Buchanan.

We find someone brave enough to stand up and make a case FOR lying.

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