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.