Host Ira Glass explains that today's show begins in 1865 and ends today. Ira reads briefly from Lincoln's Second Inaugural address, which describes slavery as America's Original Sin of sorts.

This is a story of a father and son—told by the son, Juan Zaldivar, who was born in Cuba. Juan has spent the past four years shooting a movie about his father, to try to reassure him that he did the right thing to leave Cuba with his family in the 1980s and come to America.

The first in a series of pieces in the coming months on This American Life: Non-journalists covering aspects of the Presidential campaign. First up: Chicago playwright David Isaacson presents a piece on Pat Buchanan.

We hear a quick rundown of all the ways that Christian conservatives are making headway in advancing their values as public policy, why they think total separation of church and state is not what the founding fathers intended. And why they're wrong.

The journalist E. Jean Carroll is one of dozens of women who’ve accused the president of sexual assault or harassment.

Alex Jones spread the idea that Sandy Hook was a hoax, on his radio show and website for years after the shooting. He's probably the country's most famous conspiracy theorist. He's even had Donald Trump on his show.

Washington Post reporter, Isaac Arnsdorf, and producer, Zoe Chace, continue the story about the takeover of the Republican party. Together, they hit the road to document how the presence of the MAGA newbies are changing things on the ground in Arizona. Isaac is writing a book all about the MAGA plot to take over America.

Ten years ago, Congress voted to reform campaign finance, after Senators John McCain and Russ Feingold took up the cause. Here they reunite on the radio, to reminisce and lament how that reform failed.

Ira talks to cyber cafe workers around the world about something that lots of Americans have never heard of, but that people in other countries know all about: a lottery run by the U.S. government where the prize is a visa to come to America. Each year people flock to cyber cafes to enter it, hoping for a lucky break that will change their life.

Ira Glass talks to journalist Jochen Bittner about a political lie from 1920s Germany and the lessons it holds for 2020s America. His op-ed about this ran in the New York Times. Bittner’s one of the people who runs the Opinion section of the German newspaper Die Zeit.

Here in America, here's how we interact with our political candidates: We dispatch middlemen to the scene, they listen to what the candidates say, they research the candidates' backgrounds, and they tell us what they think is most important. Those middlemen, of course, are journalists.

Back in 1999 there was series of bombings of apartment buildings in Moscow and across Russia. 300 people died. It happened just as Vladimir Putin was coming to power.

Ira Glass talks with Robert Costa of The Washington Post about President Trump's promise that Mexico would build the wall.Then Brian Reed investigates a wall that may or may not exist. Brian is our senior producer and host of our podcast series S-Town.

The FCC says it just wants a little civility on the nation's airwaves. And by tightening the rules on what swear words are allowed, government officials say they're protecting kids.

The newspaper Military Times did a survey of 2000 active duty servicemen and women, asking them about the new president. Presented with the statement, "As president, Barack Obama will have my best interests at heart," 36 percent agreed...43 percent disagreed.

Two stories about people who suddenly realize they're the only ones around who value the separation of church and state. Paul Williams, a city councilman in Janesville, Wisconsin, wants to make sure a Salvation Army built with public money doesn't proselytize.

When Heidi Schreck was 15 years old she loved the United States Constitution — in part, because she believed it enshrined the idea of fairness. She traveled to American Legion posts across the country, where she competed in speaking competitions about the Constitution.

When the United States Congress saw a problem — sex trafficking — it acted to eliminate it.

Ira's quest continues. He calls his Uncle Lenny, who gets his news from Fox and the Wall Street Journal, and lives with an entirely different set of facts, and Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration expert at the CATO Institute, who explains that the central issue in Donald Trump’s candidacy is based on something that isn’t true.

More than England, or Japan or Israel.... When we think of South Africa, it's a more interesting mirror of the United States than nearly any country, because we glimpse a distant echo of the most frightening parts of American society — and the most inspiring.

Ira speaks with Professor Glenn Loury. Loury failed to stand up for a light-skinned friend at a black unity rally in the sixties.

DeSantis has passed law after law about what can and can’t be taught in Florida classrooms. Reporter Emmanuel Dzotsi followed how things unfolded at Florida State.

The secret games delegates play to amuse themselves, differences between Republican and Democratic convention delegates, and more.

Producer David Kestenbaum drops in on some Republicans who are still trying to field a candidate to challenge this president.