When Lissa’s niece, Carla Yellow Bird, went missing in 2016, Lissa threw everything she had into figuring out what happened to her—including talking for hours on the phone with someone she suspected was involved.

Hemant Lakhani, an Indian-born British citizen, had been a salesman all his life. Clothing, rice, oil...it didn't matter to him what, as long as he could spin a deal.

Three guys who go by the names Professor So and So, Jojobean and YeaWhatever spend part of each day running elaborate cons on Internet scammers. They consider themselves enforcers of justice, even after they send a man 1400 miles from home, to the least safe place they can bait him: The border of Darfur.

For years, Jorge Salcedo was chief of security for the Cali drug cartel in Colombia. He was in charge of protecting some of the most powerful criminals in the world...until he decided to take them down.

Reporter Laura Beil tells the story of a kid named Kenneth Williams and an adult named Ton'Nea Williams (who share a last name but are not related).

A story about polygraph operator Doug Williams, created by the podcast Love + Radio, that’ll be part of their upcoming season. Produced by Jacob McClelland, Ana Adlerstein, Steven Jackson and Nick van der Kolk.

In the 1990s, Eli was a member of MOD, one of the most infamous and accomplished computer hacking groups in history. He was eventually arrested and served time in a minimum-security prison and home confinement.

Mika’s parents, Carissa Heavy Runner and Kevin Howard, share recordings of their interactions with law enforcement. (8 minutes)

For over two decades, there's been a secret court in the United States called the FISA court (short for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). Its job is to authorize wiretaps on possible foreign spies and foreign agents.

Ira Glass speaks with JoAnn Chiakulas, the only Juror on the trial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich who believed he was innocent of trying to sell Barack Obama's senate seat.

The story of Craig Monteilh continues: What happens when you turn someone in to the FBI who, it turns out, is working for the FBI? Trevor Aaronson, whom Sam Black interviewed for this story, has a book coming out called The Terror Factory.

For 17 months, New York police officer Adrian Schoolcraft recorded himself and his fellow officers on the job, including their supervisors ordering them to do all sorts of things that police aren't supposed to do. For example, downgrading real crimes into lesser ones, so they wouldn't show up in the crime statistics and make their precinct look bad.

Mike Birbiglia recalls being in a car accident with a hit and run drunk driver. In the weeks that follow, Mike's brush with death turns into a full blown nightmare when the police report is so poorly filled out that somehow Mike winds up owing the drunk driver 12 thousand dollars…not because it's fair, but because he can't get anyone to listen to him.

American criminals who flee to Mexico to evade law enforcement discover it's not so simple as crossing the border.

We hear from Kwaneta Harris, a former nurse incarcerated in Texas, who is constantly asked for medical advice by her neighbors. (17 minutes)

We play excerpts from the documentary film Troop 1500. In the film, girl scouts from an Austin, Texas, troop visit their mothers, all of whom are in prison.

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.

The story of a man who committed a murder when he was a teenager. He got away with it, and didn't tell the police for twenty years.

As the number of female prisoners climbs, visiting rooms are packed on Mother's Day. Eighty percent of female inmates have children at home.

When he was a kid, Josh Martin's mother Nancy told him that if anythingever happened to her, he needed to take care of his brother Ben. This confusedJosh, because Ben was his older brother, and he felt that if anything heshould be the one taken care of.

Back in 2004, a reporter named David Holthouse published a remarkable story in the weekly paper he worked for, Westword. It's about something he waited his entire life to do...since childhood.

Alex Kotlowitz reports on a woman with the power to change two people's lives...and at the height of her power, she doesn't even know she has it. Alex is the author of Never a City So Real and other books.

Just near the US-Mexico border, a group of self described "pissed off patriots" called the Minutemen stake out illegal immigrants trying to cross the border. They've got call-signs and walkie-talkies and guns.

A lawyer with almost no experience in criminal law is assigned to a criminal case with a sentence of 20 years to life. This happened because, in Louisiana, like in a few states, public defenders’ offices are so short-staffed that courts are ordering private attorneys to take pro bono clients.