Producer Nancy Updike goes to the West Bank to investigate why Israeli soldiers routinely wake up Palestinian families in the middle of the night, to take photos of the teen boys in the house.

Ben Loory wrote and tells this story, which begins with a duck falling in love with a rock.

Host Ira Glass speaks to teenagers at the Arundel Mills Mall in Maryland about something that's difficult for so many teenagers: finding Christmas presents for their parents. He talks to Kevin and Karyn Delauder and their dad JD, and two other teens, Gage and William.

Chris Garcia and his dad were driving home, listening to oldies, sharing a bag of chips. A totally familiar scene for them.

Yowei’s story continues. Meron learns whether or not the kidnappers can be trusted to keep their word when she pays the ransom, and what will become of the hostages.

A recording of a very unusual conversation that came about in an unusual way. Filmmaker named Eugene Jarecki made a documentary about the drug war, prisons and the criminal justice system called The House I Live In.He’s been taking it around the country and showing it in prisons, and producer Brian Reed went to one of these screenings where an inmate and a corrections staff member ended up talking face-to-face.

To get a sense of what may be broken about our process for bringing these Iraqis into the US, the ones who worked with US forces and who believe their lives are now in danger because of that, Kirk Johnson tells Nancy Updike about one guy. Almost a year of his emails were forwarded to Kirk, who printed them out and started to realize that he was looking at a dead man’s attempt to immigrate to the U.S.

Elna Baker has a story about her teenage cousin, Navey Baker, who manages to have a secret identity while being a public figure at the same time: She's the school mascot — a tiger — at her high school.

Reporter Yowei Shaw tells the story of the first group of 28 captives that Meron spoke to, the obstacles she faced in trying to publicize their plight and her decision to try to raise ransom money to free them.

If you ever think about assuming a secret identity, you may want to take a little time to consider the possible consequences. Jon Ronson tells the tale of a bank robber who absolutely does not take that advice.

Jonathan Goldstein tells the story of Santa Claus, who, after losing his wife, Martha Claus, sets out to find love once again. Jonathan's the host of podcast/radio show Wiretap, which is heard on the CBC and on many public radio stations in this country.

Reporter Michael May tells the story of activists from the National Immigrant Youth Alliance who intentionally got arrested for being undocumented. They believed if they could get inside the Broward Transitional Center in Florida, they could prevent lots of the immigrants there from being deported.

A young idealist named Octavio Sanchez is chief of staff to the president of Honduras. He gets an idea: What if you could cure all your country's ills by just ... starting over? In one little spot, you could create a whole new, perfect city.