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.

Stories, tributes, and attempts to understand the Chairman of the Board.

Stories about our parents falling in love.

Stories about the border between mental health and mental illness.

Stories of people who handle dead animals. (Don't worry—it's not as gross as it sounds.) Featuring a story by George Saunders.

A man decides to live as if he'll die in six months. That, and other stories of starting life over.

Stories about the animalness of animals, the irreducible ways in which they are not human.

A portrait of Americans at the International Tribunal.

The intersection of Christmas and retail, including David Sedaris's "Santaland Diaries."

A family where the father was one kind of sissy and the son was another kind, and how the family was destroyed despite the fact that no one wanted it to be.

People struggling at the fringes of our nation's infotainment industry.

Stories about turkeys, chickens, ducks, and fowl of all kinds.