Schools ask their students the strangest essay questions sometimes.

Six million Syrians fled the country after the start of its civil war.

Host Ira Glass bikes around Manhattan with Gersh Kuntzman, in search of illegal license plates.

For one kibbutz-dwelling family in Israel, the decision of where to land after the October 7th attacks goes back and forth… and back… and forth.

Ira talks to two members of a recreational swimming club who intentionally swam straight toward a shark that had just bitten their friend. (10 minutes)

Ira goes out with a letter carrier, ‘Grace,’ as she delivers mail on her route.

The parole board members puzzle through the pros and cons of releasing Henry Dee from prison and cast their votes. (26 minutes)

Producer Diane Wu travels to Minnesota, where the turkey set to be pardoned by The President of the United States later this month is having the turkiness trained out of him. (10 minutes)

A Boston woman takes her dog for a walk and suddenly finds herself in a terrible situation she never anticipated.

Editor Bethel Habte examines video evidence of two parents trying to get to the bottom of a minor crime committed in their own home. (7 minutes)

Yousef does not even want to think about leaving Gaza. (18 minutes)

Every year, thousands of teenagers come from all over the world to experience American high school. Last year, thirteen students from Palestine came to the US on a program sponsored by the US State Department.

Ira talks with Zoe Chace about watching Trump’s victory from an ecstatic room in Michigan. Then he checks in with a DC cop who was injured at the Capitol on January 6.

What life lessons can kids learn at the 4-H rabbit competition? A lot. (11 minutes)

This summer, thousands of young people have taken to the streets in Nairobi to protest the Kenyan government. But behind those protestors are thousands of worried parents.

Yousef is managing a camp of 60 people in Rafah, including his youngest sister, who is 8 months pregnant. Every day there’s talk that Israel will launch a ground assault in Rafah. Yousef and his sister make a plan for her to give birth safely, but it doesn’t go according to plan. And all 60 people in the family are looking to Yousef to tell them where they should go next and how to stay safe.

A teenage whiz kid invents a new toy for Milton Bradley. Then the trouble starts.

A brief visit with Bobby, who keeps a list in his phone of all the dogs in his neighborhood and their names to save him from the awkwardness of not knowing the name of someone’s dog – because people get upset if you don’t remember their dog’s name.

For Producer Lilly Sullivan, there’s one story about her parents that defines how she sees them, their family, and their history.

Daniel Alarcón takes us back to the early 90’s when Keiko lived in an adventure park in Mexico City, swimming with human friends. (43 minutes)

"June" is making a tactical decision about her vote this election.

Elena Kostyuchenko tells the story of how she was probably poisoned after reporting on Russian’s invasion of Ukraine, and how she kept not believing it was happening. Bela Shayevich translated this story from Russian and reads it for us. (21 minutes)We adapted this from an article in n+1 magazine.

Majid finally gets his day in court.