Michael Lewis on duck hunting.

A look at the Chicago political machine in the days before our story begins.

The first part of Josh Seftel and Rich Robinson's documentary about South Africa. Josh meets people who may be distant South African relatives.

Rennie Sparks from the band The Handsome Family.

Tony Starbucks, interviewed by Dierdre Dolan and Paul Tough.

New York writer Camden Joy tells what happened when in a greasy spoon restaurant filled with cabbies and club kids when Frank's film The Manchurian Candidate came on television. The whole place got silent, watched the film, and choked up.

Ira reads from In Dreams Begin Responsibilities. (7 minutes)

In 1940, Jack Geiger, at the age of fourteen, left his middle-class Jewish home and knocked on the door of a black actor named Canada Lee. He asked Lee if he could move in with him.

David Rakoff on how he tried to pass as a local once he moved from Toronto to New York. He claims that there must be a chip in his head — or something like it — that automatically tells him when someone or something famous is Canadian.

Writer David Sedaris on an unwelcome surprise in a toilet — a turd.

Gay Talese reads from his classic 1966 Esquire article, in which he followed around Sinatra at the height of Sinatra's power.

Ron Carlson's short story.

Alix Spiegel in Colorado Springs, where a massive prayer project is underway to pray for every person, business, and school. When she arrives, she finds the Christians speak a kind of Christian jargon she does not understand.

Ellery Eskelin never met his father but always heard he was a musical genius. Years after his father's death, Ellery started finding recordings of his musical output: he was the king of "song-poems." These are the songs that result when people answer those ads in the backs of magazines that say, "Send us your lyrics, and we'll write and record your song." Ellery's father's musical output was prodigious — and very odd.

Two people who've nearly died in gun battles describe what it's like, getting shot at. They draw opposite conclusions from their near death experiences.

South Carolina native Jack Hitt discusses the Confederate Flag's prominent place over the statehouse.

Sarah Vowell and her family.

Michael Ventura, who grew up Sicilian in New York, says that as a kid he thought Sinatra was in his family. His book The Death of Frank Sinatra is not really about Sinatra.

Writer Julie Showalter on her parents' romance.

Singles in Agriculture. By reporter Liz Weil and Alix Spiegel.

John Connors has very mixed emotions about attending a convention for viewers of the TV program Dark Shadows.

Sarah Vowell, on selling the secrets of art dealer Graham Arader.

Ira with chicken photographer Tamara Staples.

Kevin Kelly is interviewed.