NPR reporter Laura Sydell and This American Life producer/Planet Money co-host Alex Blumberg tell the story of Intellectual Ventures, which is accused of being the largest of the patent trolls. Executives at Intellectual Ventures insist they are not trolls, but rather, promoters of innovation.

A surprising number of coincidences involve grandmothers — that’s one of the things we learned doing this show. One grandma has so many coincidences happen to her, it drives her granddaughter, 16-year-old Juliana Bontrager, to try to beat her at her own coincidence game.

Ira talks to Rick Clark, director of undergraduate admissions at the Georgia Institute of Technology, better known as Georgia Tech. Clark says the latest trend in misguided college admissions efforts: parents emailing and calling the admissions office, pretending to be their own children.

Sometimes the best way to appreciate a coincidence is to look past all the rational reasons it might have happened. Other times, it’s better to face facts — even very, very large facts.

Until almost 10,000 years ago, everyone literally lived in a tribe of a few hundred or a small band of a few dozen people. U.C.L.A. scientist Jared Diamond talks about how back then, you could go your whole life without ever encountering a stranger.

Ben Calhoun tells a story of physical resemblance — not of a person, but of food. A while ago, a farmer walked through a pork processing plant in Oklahoma with a friend who managed it.

Reporter Sean Cole tells the history of getting warning labels onto acetaminophen bottles. In 1977 an FDA advisory panel recommended a warning about liver damage.

While we were putting together this week's show, we heard about a real life avenger with a secret identity in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Writer Yuri Herrera lived on the border for several years and spent a lot of time in Juarez.

More stories of dazzling coincidences: an old boyfriend is conjured in Morocco, a jazz singer seems to rise from the dead, and three boys believe they’ve seen a corpse. Plus stories of errant fathers, lost and found.

If you ever think about assuming a secret identity, you may want to take a little time to consider the possible consequences. Jon Ronson tells the tale of a bank robber who absolutely does not take that advice.

Emily Bonderer Cruz is American. Her husband is Mexican.

Painter Schandra Singh usually sells her paintings to wealthy art collectors. So when she gets a letter from a father of a boy with autism, saying his son loves her work, she decides to do a trade with him, one of her sketches for one of his.

Planet Money reporters David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein went to Kenya to see the work of a charity called GiveDirectly in action. Instead of funding schools or wells or livestock, GiveDirectly has decided to just give money directly to the poor people who need it, and let them decide how to spend it.

Amity Bitzel was a teenager when her parents decided to adopt a 27-year-old man. And that wasn't the strange part.

Under California law, it's legal to grow marijuana for medicinal purposes if you have a doctor's recommendation. A few years ago, Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman was trying to find a way to deal with the proliferation of marijuana in his county.

Reporter Julia Kumari Drapkin tells the story of Colorado’s State Climatologist, Nolan Doesken. Doesken has long believed that humans are driving climate change, but never connected it to his own life.

Elna Baker tells a story about her friend Daryl Watson. Daryl was a talented playwright working in New York City.

Christine Gentry grew up in a house in Texas where there was one important rule above all others. It came from her dad: we have loaded guns in the house, and even though I’ve taught you how to shoot them, no one can ever touch them without me being there.

A story about a guy named Steven who wants in on a group he definitely was not born into — and seems very unlikely to be accepted by. Filmmaker Debbie Lum tells the story, which is excerpted from her documentary Seeking Asian Female.

Ira speaks with Sharon Snyder. Until recently, Sharon was a clerk for circuit court judge in Missouri.

The dramatic conclusion to Laura and Alex's search for information about Intellectual Ventures, and the inventor they claimed they were helping, Chris Crawford. The story turns out to be different than the one Intellectual Ventures originally told.

Chana Joffe-Walt continues her story about the phenomenal rise in disability payments over the last 30 years, since President Bill Clinton signed legislation pledging to "end welfare as we know it." Turns out, two private sector groups have really contributed to the growing disability roles. One is a group of people you'd probably expect, the other is a shock.

Principal Leonetta Sanders is worried that in the wake of a recent shooting, some of her students at Harper might be in danger of retaliatory violence. The threat is so real, she's considering canceling the school's Homecoming football game and dance.