A family dreams of life in rural Maine, moves there, and then things get really complicated.

Writer Sarah Vowell goes to Rock-n-Roll Fantasy Camp in Miami Beach.

A tale of two siblings — separated, but not at birth. Reporter Paul Tough and his sister grew up in Toronto, the most American of Canadian cities.

Julie throws up.

This American Life gets a return visit from Evan Harris, the woman who used to believe that quitting was the one thing at the heart of all human existence.

Sarah Vowell and her family.

Host Ira Glass goes to the Federal Express hub at Memphis to watch 1.2 million pieces of overnight mail get sorted in one night and to talk to the adrenaline junkies in the FedEx Command Center.

Kevin Kelly is interviewed.

Chicago writer Cheryl Trykv on her own close encounter with Hollywood, the media, and a famous maid.

Host Ira Glass uses Italian author Umberto Eco's essay Travels in Hyperreality as a guidebook to American simulated worlds. Eco says that the urge to create these miniature simulated worlds is a very American impulse — a significant American aesthetic — and one that's not often discussed.

David Sedaris reads from his story "Naked." (21 minutes)

Cassandra Smith has temptation in Kyoto.

Contributor David Sedaris tells a story about discovering the possibilities—and pitfalls—of travel by hitchhiking.

After he goes to Jerusalem and sleeps on what is supposedly the very spot where Jesus was crucified, Kevin Kelly has a revelation: that he should live the next six months as if he would die at the end of them. So he gives away nearly everything he owns, and tries to live each day as if his death is imminent — which turns out to be a great challenge.