Comedian W. Kamau Bell has two daughters, and tries to figure out just how much about the violent history of racism and oppression his four-year-old can handle.

Harmon Leon is a writer and comedian whose cocktail party story about “the-weirdest-gig-I-ever-did” is more weird—by a lot—than anyone else’s we’ve heard. He answered an ad several years ago that called for a hilarious sidekick to a celebrity on a hidden camera show.

The rise of NUMMI, or how one of the worst auto plants in America started producing some of its best cars, thanks to lessons learned from the Toyota production system.

Stephanie Foo tells us the story of amateurs who for one night get thrown into a very, very big job — perhaps the biggest: President of the United States of America.

It turns out winning the lottery is only the first step in trying to come to America. More than half of the people who win each year never make it.

Lots of people in America share actual beds – but almost never see each other. Flight attendants have crash pads near airports, oil rig workers carry their own sheets and sleep in shifts in an RV – and Stephanie Foo has a profile of Mexican immigrants who share a few beds in a tiny trailer in upstate New York.

We bring you this very matter-of-fact article from 1853, about something profoundly troubling: a slave auction in Virginia.

Updike and Ephron reconstruct the night of the murder, with Ephron describing what he recalls (he reported from Israel at the time and covered the rally where Rabin was assassinated). A police investigator talks about interrogating Amir in the hours after the assassination.

As we were putting together this week's show, we thought back to the guy in Act One who was in charge of marketing when Jack in the Box went through an E. Coli crisis.

Larry speaks English. His dad speaks Chinese.

Actress Sue Scott reads a short story by Etgar Keret. Etgar's newest book is a memoir called The Seven Good Years.

As we were putting together this week's show, we came across a talk that changed the way we seeall the stories in it. Ira explains.

Ira speaks with Mike Pesca, host of the sports podcast Hang Up and Listen and Slate's daily podcast The Gist about the whole concept of the game face in sports. What is it exactly? And who might be the best examples of athletes with incredible game faces? Then Ira speaks with writer David Dupuis about the athlete who may have the game face-iest game face in sports history – hockey goalie Terry Sawchuk.

Ira talks to New York Times reporter Damien Cave, about a strange phenomenon he noticed in the pages of in-flight magazines.

Most big grand transformations we go through really come down to a hundred little things that we change about ourselves. This recently happened for a refugee from Afghanistan, now living in Detroit.

Ira finds a ridiculous comment thread on the Internet about an optical illusion.

An odd occurrence at 124 East Fourth Street in Manhattan's East Village. For the last five weeks, a singer named Nick Drakides has stood on the stoop singing Sinatra songs late at night to the delight of his neighbors.

Producer Brian Reed tells the story of a city that years ago was given a title and is now saying, "not it!" They want to shed that title once and for all.