Host Ira Glass discusses what it means to peacefully transfer power from one president to the next. He points out one of the weirdest things about it, that the new president has to go and sleep in the same bedroom as the previous president.

Ira gives us a recent shortlist of things that feel almost too unreal to believe as we head into the national election.

A nurse giving instructions to her partner in case she dies from COVID-19; a brother and sister talking every day, all of a sudden. (9 minutes)We first heard about nurse Elise Barrett in a story by Eric Boodman for STAT.

Host Ira Glass explains how things have changed in Hong Kong this month, and wonders how things are going for a protester we’re calling Jennifer, who he went to protests with back in the fall.

This clip is from what Ira calls “the beachiest show” public radio ever made.

Bim talks to poet Ross Gay, whose book inspired today’s show, about the discipline and rigor of seeking and holding onto delight.

Host Ira Glass talks with writer Michael Schulman about a book he wrote.

Host Ira Glass gives an update on his health status after going into quarantine last week, and David Kestenbaum interviews a 71 year old trying to avoid the virus.

Lissa Yellow Bird started searching for missing people after an oil worker disappeared from the reservation Lissa’s from. Since then, many Native American families have asked for Lissa’s help looking for their loved ones, too.

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

David Kestenbaum finds out about a speech that, in another world, President Clinton gave on August 17, 1998.

Producer Neil Drumming spends a couple days exploring Detroit, first with a quirky mayoral candidate running an Afrofuturist campaign, and then with a couple of locals.

As the school year moved forward, the fundraising committee planned a gala at the French Embassy. And the PTA planned a separate, Spring Carnival.

Host Ira Glass visits refugee camps we don’t call refugee camps—right on our country’s doorstep. (14 minutes)  

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

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.

A while ago, a farmer walked through a pork processing plant in Oklahoma with a friend who managed it. He came across boxes stacked on the floor with labels that said "artificial calamari." Ben investigates the physical resemblance between two very different types of food.

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.

The discovery of new information casts a new light on a high school competition. Producer Sean Cole talks to some of the people involved, more than a decade later.

When it comes to caring for Covid-19 patients, it’s the nurses who are carrying the heaviest burden. Ben Calhoun spent weeks talking to the nurses in the first Covid-19 unit to open in the ICU – Pod 4.

Two teachers find themselves thrown into a heated and ugly fight with parents right before school opens back up. Producer Miki Meek has this story from Utah.