Reporter Nancy Updike spends two days with Neal Smither, who cleans up crime scenes for a living, and comes away wanting to open his Los Angeles franchise, despite the gore — or maybe because of it.

The story of a con man, one of the most successful salesmen in a long-running multimillion-dollar telemarketing scam, who finally got caught when he was conned himself. Producer Nancy Updike talks about the case with Dale Sekovich, Federal Trade Commission investigator.

As a teenager he saw himself as an historical figure, then that ended up becoming true. Producer Zoe Chace tells the story of Newt Gingrich, the man who either reinvented politics or broke it.

Jonathan Goldstein talks to Sven Berger, a juror still hung up over an assignment he served ten years ago. Jonathan is the host of Heavyweight from Gimlet Media, which just began its third season.

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.

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)

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.

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.

Zoe Chace gives us a peek at what Senator Jeff Flake was up to in the days before and after deciding to delay Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation vote.

Reporter Jasmine Garsd grew up in Argentina watching talk shows, which were kind of extreme even for Latin American television. The women on screen were pumped with silicone and Botox, and sometimes showed up wearing almost nothing.

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.

Lydia Sigwarth spent a lot of time in her public library growing up – all day, almost every day, for six months straight. Producer Stephanie Foo returned to that library with her, after years away.

Reporter Steve Kolowich goes to the University of Nebraska where one new recruit to Turning Point goes out on campus to sign people up for her club. And that one act immediately devolves into a political battle of epic proportions.

Growing up, Deanna is told that relationships with men won’t be easy: that men are dumb and she’ll have to make sense of things for them. Throughout her twenties, this proves true.

A famous YouTuber gets harassed on the internet—no surprise there. What is surprising is who winds up harassing her, and what she does about it.

Ira takes us through a couple of occasions in which President Trump has evoked the brutal street gang MS-13. The President has lauded local law enforcement on Long Island on its efforts to stop the gang.

Sean Cole explains why he decided that he would speak with a British accent—morning, noon and night—from the age of fourteen until he was sixteen, and how he believed the lie that he was British must be true.

Ben Calhoun spent months following some key leaders in the Democratic Party, to find out the party’s best strategy for the future. He got some answers.

Comedian Jillian Welsh tells Diane Wu about one of the most romantic—and stressful—nights of her life, a night that paralleled the plot of a rom-com in several ways. (16 minutes)A version of this story first appeared on the Risk! podcast.