Stories about the intersection of Christmas and retail, originally broadcast in 1996 when our show was only a year old. Including David Sedaris's story "Santaland Diaries," which first aired on NPR's Morning Edition in a much shorter version.

We take the stately laws of physics—laws which mathematicians and scientists have spent centuries discovering and verifying—and apply them to the realm of human relationships, to see if they shed useful light on our daily lives.

People earnestly doing what they're told, and absolutely not getting what they were promised.

In 2006, a new convert showed up at a mosque in Orange County, California. Known as Farouk al-Aziz, the convert was actually an FBI informant named Craig Monteilh. That informant’s infiltration of the mosque is at the heart of FBI v Fazaga, a case heard at the Supreme Court last month. We return to our episode from 2012, which tells the story behind it.

This bird-focused week, stories about birds and the hearts they sway, the havoc they wreak, the lives they change.

People who tell a lie and then believe the lie more than anyone else.

Getting the point across — or trying to, anyway.

Stories that take place on the edge of civilization, just out of sight.

A man who was imprisoned for 14 years in Guantanamo Bay, without charges, gets out and issues an invitation to all the people who kept him there. Amazingly, three of them agree to talk.

In a world where a virus spreads across the country and most people are not going to movie theaters, we bring the movies to you.

Stories about getting from Point A to Point B—with expert assistance.

Personal recordings one person made for just one other person, including what some have called the greatest phone message ever.

An hour devoted to embarrassing stories. They’re not always just little moments – funny, daily stuff that we laugh about later. Some can change you for the rest of your life.

People caught in limbo, using ingenuity and guile to try to get themselves out.

What happens when one family goes all in on fighting climate change.

Who thought that would be good for a kid?

We made you a mixtape. Don't make a big deal out of it or anything.

People trying to escape all kinds of seemingly impossible situations.

A group of inmates at a high-security prison rehearse and stage a production of the last act—Act V—of Hamlet.

The pandemic forced jobs to change, but then the workers changed, too.

We human beings think we run the world, that we’ve got things under control. Then an animal shows up, and things don’t go as planned. This week, seals, wolves, and a moose drop in and show us who isn't boss.

Bad neighbors. What can you do about them?

What’s recovery mean, anyway?

We heard about a test that could determine if someone was a psychopath. So, naturally, our staff decided to take it.

Words mean things, but some words are especially meaningful.

Solving problems using very extreme measures.

Most of us go from day to day just coasting on the status quo. If it ain’t broke, why fix it—right? But when routines just get too mundane or systems stop making sense, sometimes you just have to hold your breath and jump. People who leap from their lives, their comfort zones, even through time.

A bank robber on an undercover mission. A teenage girl with the powers of a tiger. A vigilante seeking vengeance in Ciudad Juarez. All have secret identities. But not all of them chose those identities for themselves.

Sisters build worlds together, worlds that are just for them. Stories about the bonds between sisters and how they get broken and fixed—or not.

Remember conventions, before the pandemic? When people with one common interest gather in monstrous, fluorescent-lit halls for the weekend. Sometimes they drive each other crazy, sometimes they fall in love.

So many of us, we don’t want to think about death. We avoid grieving when we lose someone, distract ourselves, look away. In this episode, at a moment when so many families are mourning, we have stories of people figuring out how they’ll grieve, and doing a pretty good job of it.

Lissa Yellow Bird searches for missing people. Cold cases, mostly. People no one else is looking for. It’s not her job, but a lot of Native Americans go missing and their cases remain unsolved, so families often ask Lissa for help. But then, Lissa’s own niece goes missing.

An ode to life's daily practices, and what you learn from doing a thing every single day.

People starting over—sometimes because they want to, other times because they have to.

What happens when your own community suddenly turns on you?

Other universes that are just like our own, but with one small difference.

Stories about the power of blood.

Adults telling kids who they are, and kids wondering — are they right?

How the pandemic has thrown college admissions process into a kind of slow-motion chaos. One of the biggest changes: most colleges have stopped requiring the SAT. For decades, there’s been a debate over whether schools should drop the test. What’s it mean that it finally happened?

People squirming in a world where everything is rated and reviewed.

A boy who can’t dribble gets a coach, a new best friend, and something to believe in.

Stories from the upside-down world where conspiracy theorists dwell.

We asked listeners to send us their best coincidence stories, and we got more than 1,300 submissions! There were so many good ones we decided to make a whole show about them. From a chance encounter at a bus station to a romantic dollar bill to a baffling apparition in a college shower stall.

People looking everywhere to find a place—any place—where, for once, they don't have to be the odd man out.