Alex Edelman grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household in Boston. But one year, unexpectedly, his family decided to celebrate Christmas – for what he says are very Jewish reasons.

Ira and Ben consider how officers could be flagged for bad policing in a more systematic way, rather than the freak occurrence of a couple walking into an officer’s home and finding a KKK application up on his wall.

On election night, producer Emmanuel Dzotsi was the last person at our office. Just before midnight, he got on the phone to his mom in Ohio, and recorded their conversation.

Ira Glass talks with producer Lilly Sullivan about a story she heard growing up about men messing with a girl’s mind. Lilly can relate. (9 minutes)

Writer Emily Flake’s young daughter tries to make up her mind about whether or not she has a crush on a boy in her class.

Elna Baker investigates the “Shot Girl Summer” phenomenon.

In the wake of a break-up, writer Starlee Kine finds so much comfort in break-up songs that she decides to try and write one herself—even though she has no musical ability whatsoever. For some help, she goes to a rather surprising expert on the subject: Phil Collins.

A documentary by Cecilia Vaisman and Christina Egloff, with Jay Allison, about a white woman named Carolyn Wren Shannon, who grew up hating blacks in a Catholic neighborhood, and how her attitudes change.

Joshuah Bearman's story continues. Chris Butler makes a transition into true criminal behavior.

Myron Jones and his sister Carol Bove explain what happened when they were teenagers, and they ended up babysitting children who didn't exist.

A bunch of high school students gets taken to see a movie that’s supposed to teach them about history. But they end up learning about a lot of other stuff instead.

Calvin is an 11 year old who is learning what love is all about, the hard way. (7 minutes)

After hearing about the heist, Kirk Wallace Johnson gets sucked into the feather underground. He ends up discovering things that the people in charge of the theft investigation didn’t.

Producer Ben Calhoun recalls a weighty moment from childhood and thinks about how the words from that encounter have come up again.

Host Ira Glass talks to Anthony Swofford, a former marine sniper and author of the Gulf War memoir Jarhead. He explains what he's seeing when he watches this new war with Iraq on television.

Ira talks to producer Elna Baker about Stede Bonnet, a nobleman who woke up one day and decided that his new life goal was to become a pirate. You can read the trials of Stede Bonnet online.

Sean hit up this one piece of coverage that wasn’t like any of the others. He got a little obsessed with it.

A visit to one of the many states where the GOP has been picking up strength, to see why and how. This American Life producer Alex Blumberg spends some time with the Alabama Republican Party.

Susan Drury tells the story of Chauncey Julius, who ended up in over his head completely by accident. As a high school student, Chauncey decided to turn his life around, only to be overwhelmed by all the attention he got for his achievements.

Producer Miki Meek takes Ira back to her old high school in a town called Payson, Utah. They meet up with students who go above and beyond when asking dates out to school dances.

Clay Elder grew up Mormon, with a fear of outsiders. That changed on a visit to New York City.

At a Muslim community center in New York, two lawyers teach a workshop on how to react when an FBI agent shows up at the door asking questions. The workshop is a project of CLEAR — Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility — at the City University of New York School of Law.

When the United States Congress saw a problem — sex trafficking — it acted to eliminate it.

Jonathan Goldstein interrogates the girls, now grown up, who terrorized him and his classmates years ago in school—and finds they can be just as scary as ever. Jonathan Goldstein is the author of the novel Lenny Bruce is Dead.