The vexing difficulty of finding the perfect gift.

Hyder returns to Afghanistan.

The tiny island of Nauru is at the center of several of the decade's biggest global events.

Turkeys, chickens, geese, ducks, fowl of all kinds, real and imagined, and their mysterious hold over us. 

In his ongoing effort to write his own version of the Bible, Jonathan Goldstein retells the story of Cain and Abel.

Why is it always harder than you think it'll be?

We follow the trash from the sanitation men on the street, to the mob guys who controlled the hauling business, to the people who actually live in dumps.

David Rakoff guest hosts.

What is this thing called love? For answers, we explore the romance novel industry, a $1.5 billion empire run almost entirely by and for women.

Stories of very unusual pen pals, people whose relationship could not exist without the help of the postal service.

They treat us badly, they don't call us back, they cancel plans at the last minute, and yet we come back for more.

Four real stories in which real people invent amazingly clever solutions to their problems.

Stories about what the passage of time can do to someone.

The story of a fixer for the Catholic Church and how he came to sympathize with the people that he was sent to deceive.

All kinds of little stories that we ordinarily can't use on the radio show because they are just too short.

There is a ominous information gap between the U.S. officials running the country and the Iraqi people being governed.

Stories of people who are lost, histories that are lost, and things that are lost.

Jonathan Goldstein and Starlee Kine go to a karaoke club that has, along with all the songs, comedy routines for people to perform.

Stories of regime change in everyday life.

We try to figure out the paradox of the current economy, where Americans are simultaneously both losing jobs and buying new homes and cars.

Stories from the beginnings of the war in Iraq, and how it compares with wars in our country's past.

Does talking about it really help?

A man in retirement tries to start over in a new life with a new venture: a cable channel, with lots of puppies.

Real stories from three very different wars.

Stories of sudden truths delivered by complete strangers.

A California teenager returns to the home country he's never known.

Stories of some of the secrets our government keeps: of imprisonment, deportation, and spying.

Two modern-day reinterpretations of the Frog Prince story.