When Lissa’s niece, Carla Yellow Bird, went missing in 2016, Lissa threw everything she had into figuring out what happened to her—including talking for hours on the phone with someone she suspected was involved.

Host Ira Glass plays a recording of a rookie, try-hard, 25-year-old radio reporter.

What happens when a dealer of delight gets depressed? Podcast host Tracy Clayton talks to Bim Adewunmi about the road back. (17 minutes)

Jonathan Goldstein tells the story of Santa Claus, who, after losing his wife, Martha Claus, sets out to find love once again.  Jonathan is the host of the podcast, Heavyweight.

To cope with this pandemic, producer Sean Cole finds himself turning to a movie about a pandemic, What's So Bad About Feeling Good? But the virus in this movie isn’t like any you’ve ever heard of. (20 minutes)

A mysterious tunnel in Toronto leads to wild public speculation. Nick Kohler tells Ira the story behind the tunnel, which he wrote about for MacLean’s.

Michael Bernard Loggins tried to battle his fears by listing them — at last count he had a list of 138 fears. Actor Tom Wright reads excerpts.

Ira and producer Neil Drumming visit a comic book store in Philadelphia to try and help Ira understand Afrofuturism.

Producer Miki Meek speaks to Noriko Meek, her 72-year-old mother, about discovering delight late in life.

FBI agents question NSA contractor Reality Winner, who was later charged with leaking evidence of Russian interference in U.S. elections. Even the most casual small talk takes on an air of menace. (18 minutes)This is an excerpt from Is This A Room, a play based on the real FBI interrogation transcript.

Los Angeles Times reporter Molly O’Toole talks to U.S. asylum officers—the people who end up sending migrants back to Mexico.

In just one year, everything in one ordinary public middle school changed. It went from an incoming class of thirty sixth graders—most of them Black, Latino, and Middle Eastern—to a class of 103 sixth graders.

Stephanie Foo talks to a father trying to go about his day while his daughter comes to him over and over, with some things on her mind.

Jonathan Goldstein tries to convince his uncle and his father to get into the same room and have a conversation for the first time in decades, before it’s too late and one of them dies.

Jonathan Goldstein talks about his friend Howard who gets amazing treatment from people in the service industry.

Sarah Vowell and her twin sister, Amy, retrace the Trail of Tears. They visit the town in Georgia that was the capital of the Cherokee Nation before the Cherokee were expelled. They enjoy a tourist trap hotel in Chattanooga. They go to Ross's Landing, the embarkment point for the water route of the Trail of Tears. (27 minutes)

We heard about these fire camps from Lizzie Johnson. She’s a reporter at The San Francisco Chronicle and spends most of the year chasing fires around California.