It's another not-so-great period in Scott's life. This time he takes a job inside his profession, as a producer for a national commercial radio program.

Sarah Vowell on the joy of making mix tapes of your favorite songs to send to loved ones. She spots an ad for someone who makes them for money. "Prostitute," she thinks.

Most media stories set in shopping malls don't really tell you much about what it feels like for the people who work in a big retail operation, or for the people who hang out at the mall. Because the mall's more than just sales.

We plays excerpts from Mike Pesca's podcast, The Gist, from Slate. Mike Pesca used to be the sports reporter for NPR, but The Gist isn't about sports.

At one grain elevator on the outskirts of Lincoln, Nebraska, during the slow months, the five burly men who load corn, soybeans, wheat and milo onto trains spend their work hours watching soap operas.

Carmen Delzell on a deal she made with the devil when she turned 30.

Lisa Pollak tells the story of a high school football team in Mississippi getting ready to play its first game just a month after Hurricane Katrina upended everything.

Writer Quincy Troupe talks about how, as a boy, he idolized Miles Davis, and how, as a man, he actually became one of Davis's closest friends. And how his picture of the man changed.

Sarah Vowell's story continues. She and Amy visit the home of President Andrew Jackson, the villain in the Trail of Tears drama.

Rebecca Grant introduces us to an abortion pill smuggler, who walks us through her undercover operation to mail pills to people who want medication abortions in places where it's hard to get them.

Jack Hitt's story about a prison production of Hamlet continues. He discovers that almost all the actors draw on their pasts in one way or another to get into character.

When Terry Shine's father was in the hospital, Terry and his brothers spent weeks trying to do whatever they could to help. But first they had to learn the language and customs of the average American hospital.

For more than fifty years, Jeanne Darst’s dad neglected to tell his entire family about their entire family. (13 minutes)

Do cell phones give people brain tumors? Ira speaks with Christopher Ketcham, who wrote an article on this subject for GQ magazine.

American cities have gone through a massive wave of gentrification in the last few decades. To some people, it's not a natural ebb and flow of the real estate market, but a plot, by rich, mainly white people, to take over the neighborhoods of poor, mainly black people. This American Life producer Jon Jeter reports on how, in neighborhoods all over the country, the plot has a name, "The Plan," and most people you talk to know about it.

Barbara's story continues, as she hears some terrible news about her son.

Writer Anne Lamott presents an example of what we can learn from music outside of formal classes. She tells the story of an airplane trip, a song, and a small miracle.

Paul Zimmer is eighty-three years old now, and he’s still haunted by something he saw in his teens. Something very few Americans have ever seen: The explosion of an atomic bomb.

Iggy Pop, the documentary's narrator, begins by listing some of the artists and artistic movements influenced by Burroughs: Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Steely Dan, Kurt Cobain, Lou Reed; punk, heavy metal. We hear from director John Waters on the impact on him of Burroughs' open homosexuality and frankness about sex.

Ira invites Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon to perform a song from his Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog DVD extra commentary, which is a musical satire that pokes fun at the idea of DVD commentary.

Host Ira Glass talks with writer David Sedaris at the Louvre in Paris. David's never set foot inside, though he lives just a few minutes away.

Emanuele Berry and Ira Glass watch a Soviet film from 1936. A bizarre cameo of an African American baby in an all-white crowd makes Emanuele wonder about what it’s like to be Black in a country with so few Black people.

You can’t get herd immunity until you deal with the herd, and get enough of them moving together in the same direction. That’s been difficult this past year, in a way it’s never been during any other epidemic in our history.