Sara Corbett's father-in-law Dick is 81. And he's become obsessed with a limbo most of us hate – the music he hears whenever he's on hold. (14 minutes)Sara is co-author of the book A House in the Sky.The hold music, Opus No. 1, was composed by Tim Carleton and Darrick Deel.

Anna Boiko Weyrauch talks with a woman in the West African country of Ghana about the internet dating scams she has pulled on white Americans. The woman says she felt guilty about the scams and eventually came clean to her marks.

Chris Benderev speaks with writer Georgie Codd, who went searching for someone to be the father she never had.

A man tries something he’s never done before and discovers a new passion. A work of short fiction written by Neil Drumming and read by actor Dorian Missick.

Host Ira Glass explains how you can get away with anything if you claim you did it for love.

Cariad Harmon tells Elna Baker about what it was like to live through a literal embarrassment nightmare. (15 minutes)

How Etgar's parents met.

Ira finds out more about what Eric and Charlotte Kaufman’s sailing trip was meant to be, how prepared they were for such an extensive trip, and exactly what went wrong on their sailboat that led to the dramatic rescue for which they were so roundly criticized.

We hear from the people in the land of the non-working: Fred Beaton on hislast shift driving a shuttle bus at Logan Airport before he retires; LincCohen and Sandi Weisenberg talk about what chores get done once retirementbegins; and Angela Jane Evancie tries to get her boyfriend, Morgan Peach, tostop relaxing quite so much.

In this terrible economy, we wanted to hear the sound of someone actually getting a job, and producer Lisa Pollak recorded it in the Holland Michigan office of Novo 1. On Tuesday of this week, Deborah Ozga was interviewing applicants for 15 new call center jobs.

A con man named Nick Ward who's so good he's thanked.

Host Ira Glass talks to three teenage boys who buy computer equipment using stolen credit card numbers.

When Danielle's family serves poultry at their dinner table, no one utters the word "chicken." Instead, it is always called "fish." Danielle explains why with the help of her friend "Duki." (16 minutes)

Host Ira Glass talks to Jay Van Bavel, who recently found himself trapped in an elevator (in a very 2020 predicament).

Host Ira Glass talks to Aaryn Zhou. When she was nine, her father threw her into the deep end of pool to teach her to swim.

Even the most innocent office job can take over your life. A story by fiction writer Daniel Orozco about one such job.

Ira explains how at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the men with their finger to the button called their loved ones for what was potentially the last time.

The news of the executive order broke while immigrants and refugees were mid-flight. That meant they were stranded in airports around the country.

Jon Ronson tells the story of how his parents decided to commission a family portrait, and how things went awry because of the brilliant but troubled local artist they hired for the job. In the story, Jon circles in a reluctant orbit around his parents, and his parents are in a rather energetic orbit of their own.

Producer Alix Spiegel tells the story of a Lithuanian man who devises a plan to solve a problem related to the war in Ukraine.

Comedian Chris Gethard has a new podcast called Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People, where people can call in to talk to him about anything for an hour. Our editor, Joel Lovell, tells us about his favorite episode thus far — featuring a man who calls in desperately seeking Chris’ guidance.

The creators of the new podcast The Truth are trying to re-imagine and re-invent radio drama, so it doesn't sound like an antique novelty. They created this for us.

You can't do a program about middlemen without a story about business. In this act, we hear from a man who made his living buying low and selling high...incredibly high, sometimes at mark-ups of up to 1,000 percent.

How the science of radio enabled V103 to become tied for number one in the Chicago market. And how it cost DJ Ida Hackele her job.