With so many songs, movies, and books about the joy of the open road, it's hard to take just a normal road trip without huge expectations.

The story of a town that started with something huge—the falls—and built nothing lasting from it.

A radio show about what makes radio so great, and what makes it so terrible.

Variations on what it means to be a girl and what it means to be a woman.

Stories about what it means to be a person who throws the first punch, and how hard it is to give up.

David Sedaris tells true stories of photographers who try to take pictures of him which will make him seem "wacky." That, and other stories of wackiness.

Stories of people who were lifted out of everyday life, thrown into much bigger events, and how that made sense of what they did years after the fact.

Stories of people struggling to redefine monogamy, to stay monogamous, and what we should make of these ad hoc experiments in everyday life.

Ira teaches Sarah Vowell how to drive with some advice from the hosts of Car Talk.

Stories about couples that all take place decades after that moment their eyes first meet.

When someone tries to tell you a little bit more about themselves than you'd really rather know.

Stories of people trying to escape the box of their own lives, and create new lives.

The story of a teenager, illegal drug use, lying, stealing, and a kid's life changed completely when he heard how he sounded on the phone.

Stories about people who are destined to fight: brothers and sisters.

People trying to use numbers to describe things that should not be quantified.

Holiday stories from David Sedaris and Julia Sweeney.

A con man who's so good he's thanked.

Chickens and turkeys are a mirror of ourselves.

The story of Harold Washington and the white backlash that was set off when he became Chicago's first Black mayor.

Stories of outsiders who want to be insiders, and vice versa.

Stories of people who are haunted, not by ghosts or phantoms, but by other people.

Americans who love their guns, and the Americans who love them.

Scott Carrier with the latest installment in his 12-year quest to chase down and catch an antelope.

People stuck in the wrong decade, or simply carrying a lot of the props from another decade.

Ira Glass talks to three teenage boys who buy computer equipment using stolen credit card numbers. And other stories.

Can the secular world and the religious world understand each other?

The mob as portrayed in movies, and as it is in real life. And its hold over us.

A locksmith tells the story of an act of kindness he committed, hoping for a small reward. That, and other stories of kindness in New York City.

What happens when people with a common interest gather in fluorescent-lit halls? Sometimes they drive each other crazy, sometimes they fall in love.

Mona LisaThe darker side of the art world: petty jealousies, competitiveness, failure.

The story of two Americans—one white, one black—who go to South Africa and have very different opinions about what they find.

A man goes on a last big trip with his father who has Alzheimer's.

Four stories of people who read other people's mail, and what happens to them once they get caught up in these other lives.

Parents moving the family to some new place, hoping it works out for the kids.

We look at the legacy of the most moving, poetic inaugural speech in American history.

An interracial couple takes a plantation tour. And other stories in which someone's dream is someone else's nightmare.

Listeners sent us samples of what they're finding on the internet, including postings from Usenet groups, favorite web pages, and their own email.

Canadians claim they're no different from red-blooded Americans. We put their position to the test.

We want summer to be this wonderful break, but so often it fails to deliver.

A man tries to run for President as a utopian nudist, and other stories of people whose lives are organized around one thing.

Twenty-four people put one hand on a Hardbody pickup truck and wait...until only one person is left standing. Plus other stories of people trying to get rich quick.

Stories of when things go wrong. Really wrong.

Stories of people for whom death is a job—undertakers, homicide detectives, slaughterhouse workers, and others.

Stories about people who are not afraid of fire, though perhaps they should be.

The claustrophobia, freedom, and yearning people feel in small towns.

Stories about the delivery business and the people in it: UPS men, bike messengers, FedEx dispatchers.

Name changes are particularly American stories: they're the dream of starting over with a clean slate.

Radio producer Sandy Tolan was supposed to do a documentary about strippers with an aspiring writer—and stripper—named Susan. But then Susan disappeared.