Emily Dickinson said “The heart wants what it wants.” This week, stories from people who take that notion to extremes and are unapologetic about it.
Conspiracy theories about the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin continue to shape Israel's politics and future.
Meet the people who pitch ideas for new foods and then decide which ones they're actually going to make.
We've always loved to gawk at others, but what's it like when the tables are turned and all eyes are on you?
Getting inside a situation and finding out just how interesting it is.
A father constructs an elaborate fantasy to occupy his 12 children.
We go to the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans to talk to residents about what matters most to them ten years after the hurricane.
It can be hard to know the right moment for something to happen.
A city goes all out to integrate its schools.
There’s one thing that has been proven to cut the achievement gap between black and white students by half: integration.
A car plant in Fremont California that might have saved the U.S. car industry.
A story about someone who's desperately trying – against long odds – to make it to the United States and become an American.
The story of a concentration camp in China that housed groups of Girl Scouts.
Stories of people facing very difficult situations who put their game face on and muscle through.
Stories about the vague and not-so-vague ways we teach children about race, death, and sex.
A movie star and her ex-husband plot against Kim Jong-Il, plus more stories of people who are tied together but imagine radically different futures.
Stories of those very infrequent instances where people’s opinions flip on fundamental things that they believe.
A mysterious world of heroin addiction treatment centers where no one seems to be taking responsibility for the people they're treating.
People caught in limbo, using ingenuity and guile to try to get themselves out.
Stories of valiant men attempting to do good: in department stores, public buses, and at the bottom of a cave.
What happens when of a group of public school students in the Bronx goes to visit an elite private school three miles away.
A tough group of soldiers attempts to save lives through the power of show tunes.
We look at one city where relations between police and black residents are terrible, and another city where they seem to be improving remarkably.
There's a division between people who distrust the police and people who see cops as a force for good.
Ira Glass was never into William Burroughs. Then he heard this radio story that changed that.
What happens when the internet turns on you?
Can people’s expectations change whether a blind man can see?
The story of a company—or maybe it's a movement?—that has hundreds of people posting enthusiastic videos about it online.
Two brothers take a doomed road trip through Mexico. Plus other stories of feeling lost and trying to figure out how to move ahead.
People struggling with regrets—big and small—that take root and have to be dealt with.
If a Border Patrol agent is not actually at the border, do you have to obey him?
When routines get too mundane, sometimes you just have to hold your breath and jump.
There's no agreement about how teachers should discipline students. And there's evidence that some of the most popular punishments may harm kids.
The pilot episode of Serial, hosted by Sarah Koenig.
An unprecedented look inside one of the most powerful, secretive institutions in the country.
Little-known and surprising stories of how all sorts of institutions began.
School board disputes are pretty common, but not like this one.
Alex Blumberg tells the incredible, sweat-stains-and-all saga of a man fumbling through starting a new business. And the man is: himself.
Stories where people recite words that have the power to change their lives.
Stories where one person's powerlessness is transformed when they discover they have backup. And what happens when that backup goes away.
A cellphone hidden in a bag of chips starts a messy turf war between the FBI and a local sheriff.
A Japanese reality show contestant has to enter sweepstakes from magazines to win enough sustenance to survive.
In our most ambitious live show, we turn journalism into a Broadway musical written by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Stories of people who go one way, and then, for what ever reason, turn around and go the exact opposite direction.
A woman wakes up from a coma having forgotten that she'd divorced her husband. And Molly Ringwald watches The Breakfast Club with her daughter.
Stories of people coming to terms with being in serious trouble.
Alex Blumberg talks to his dad about the daily pot habit he had while Alex was growing up.
