Every year, thousands of teenagers come from all over the world to experience American high school. Last year, thirteen students from Palestine came to the US on a program sponsored by the US State Department.

Many of us, especially when we’re young, feel like we’re the alien, trying to understand and fit in with the humans on this planet. Producer Diane Wu spent some time recently with a teenage humanoid who feels that way.

After every school shooting a political debate reemerges about guns. Meanwhile, kids keep going to school.

A group of 6th grade boys are bothered by their teacher’s behavior. They complain, but no one listens.

Michelle Navarro attended a Catholic youth group retreat when she was thirteen.

Protestors came out across Russia after the Ukraine invasion. In this act, that we first broadcast in 2017, we hear from young people who attended anti-government protests that swept through Russia.

During her sophomore year in high school, Nevaeh was targeted in a secret text message chain by a handful of her peers. She’d come to learn the text chat was a mock slave trade where her photo and photos of other Black classmates were uploaded, talked about as property, and bid on.

Because the U.S. doesn’t usually prosecute anyone under 18 for the crime of smuggling people illegally across the border from Mexico, tons of teenagers do it, for money. Reporter Kevin Sieff spent months talking to some of them.

Ira Glass talks to Bim Adewunmi about her understanding of delight through American pop culture and the summer she spent in the US as a 19-year-old.

Host Ira talks with comedian Gary Gulman about his transformation from high school nobody to football star.

Hannah Dreier with ProPublica spent a year reporting in Brentwood, Long Island where three teenagers mysteriously disappeared. All three were considered runaways by the Suffolk County Police.

Ira talks to producer Sean Cole about a video he found of the rap duo Run the Jewels—giving advice to teenage girls.

Producer Miki Meek takes Ira back to her old high school in a town called Payson, Utah. They meet up with students who go above and beyond when asking dates out to school dances.

A teenager reports what it is like to be inside an abusive relationship with an older man. (29 minutes)This piece was created by WNYC’s Radio Rookies program.

Tina Dupuy was a teenage alcoholic. She joined Alcoholics Anonymous at the age of 12, got sober by 13.

Sarah Koenig tells the story of the murder of Hae Min Lee, a popular high-school senior in Baltimore County, Maryland. She disappeared after school one day in January, 1999.

Chana Joffe-Walt tells the story of a teenager named Michael. Like a lot of teenagers Michael decides to follow his dreams — and that to follow his dreams, he’s going to need to make a total change.

Writer Domingo Martinez tells a story from his memoir The Boy Kings of Texas, about when he was forced to face how he might look in 20 years, if he kept doing what he was doing.

When you're a preteen, you walk around every day with the knowledge that your body is about to change. You don’t know exactly when or how.

Ira talks to Rick Clark, director of undergraduate admissions at the Georgia Institute of Technology, better known as Georgia Tech. Clark says the latest trend in misguided college admissions efforts: parents emailing and calling the admissions office, pretending to be their own children.

Christine Gentry grew up in a house in Texas where there was one important rule above all others. It came from her dad: we have loaded guns in the house, and even though I’ve taught you how to shoot them, no one can ever touch them without me being there.