The story of an entire town that gets a status update. Producer Chana Joffe-Walt talked to Paul Kiel of Pro Publica, the man who gave the town its status update.

Ira speaks with New York Times Magazine Reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones about her years reporting on education and the various kinds of school reforms administrators have tried to close the achievementgap that never seem to work. Nikole says there's one reform that people have pretty much given upon, despite a lot of evidence that it works – school integration.

We bring you this very matter-of-fact article from 1853, about something profoundly troubling: a slave auction in Virginia.

This American Life producer Robyn Semien watched the Eric Garner video with a friend who's aNew York cop. Robyn's black.