Imagine feeling an unbearable itch, convinced that tiny insects are crawling under your skin. But no doctor believes you. You try to prove it, collecting samples, documenting everything. But under a microscope? Nothing is there.

That was Paula Cox’s experience with delusional infestation, a rare disorder where people are absolutely certain they’re infested with bugs, despite all evidence to the contrary. In this episode, Paula shares her harrowing experience, and experts - a leading entomologist and a psychiatrist-dermatologist - explain what’s really happening in the brain and how healing is possible.

Suggested episodes:

• Body Integrity Dysphoria: When being disabled is a desire
• When every face you see is distorted: Living with PMO

GUESTS: 

• Dr. Gale Ridge: an entomologist and Associate Scientist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven. She oversees the daily activities of the insect inquiry office. She’s also the editor of The Physician's Guide to Delusional Infestation
• Paula Cox: a woman in Australia who experienced delusional infestation. She started a Facebook support group called “Delusional parasitosis help”
• Dr. John Koo: a Professor of Dermatology at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center and Director of the UCSF Psoriasis Skin and Treatment Center. He is board-certified in both dermatology and psychiatry and co-author of Morgellons Disease: High Yield Principles for Clinical Practice

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What kind of person looks at a Boeing 727 and thinks, yes, I should live there? Or boards a cruise ship and decides never to go back to a traditional home? 

Bruce Campbell is a 76-year-old engineer and pilot who has spent more than 25 years living in a retired jetliner in the Oregon woods. 

Angelyn and Richard Burk are a married couple who turned loss, an enthusiasm for minimalism, and a love of travel into an everyday existence at sea. 

They share wisdom about home, routine, freedom, minimalism, and staying put.

 

Suggested episodes:

• Audacious at sea: Wisdom from strangers on a cruise ship

 

GUESTS: 

• Bruce Campbell: 76-year-old engineer who has lived in a retired Boeing 727 in the woods of Hillsboro, Oregon, since 1999. He welcomes visitors from around the world into the airplane home he built after deciding a conventional house no longer made sense for him
• Angelyn and Richard Burk: Married couple from the Seattle area who have been living as cruise nomads since 2021. After losing all their belongings in a moving-truck fire in 2013, they embraced minimalism and now spend much of the year making cruise ships their home

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Obituaries are meant to mark an end. But sometimes they start a whole new conversation.

First, Andy Corren, whose funny, biting, tender obituary for his mother captured so much life that it went viral and became a memoir.

Then, Sallie Hammett, whose loving obituary for her dog Charlie rippled across the internet and moved countless strangers.

And finally, we talk with professional obituary writer Jamie Passaro about what makes an obit memorable, honest and worth reading.

Suggested episodes:

• Rethinking funerals with the Coffin Confessor, living eulogies, and designer caskets 

• What death investigators can tell you about life 

GUESTS: 

• Andy Corren: Writer and author of Dirtbag Queen, a memoir that grew out of the viral obituary he wrote for his mother, Renay

• Sallie Hammett: South Carolina writer whose heartfelt obituary for her dog, Charlie, went viral after she shared it online

• Jamie Passaro: Professional obituary writer and founder of Dear Person Obits; she also co-founded Elegy.us, an online obituary platform

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What’s a sentence that invites the universe to call your bluff?

“I could do that!”

Meet three people who said it, and then had to live it.

Christopher Lamar runs Lunar Embassy, a company that sells deeds to plots on the Moon and other celestial bodies. Logan Goodspeed learns what happens when you casually claim you could run a marathon “with 24 hours’ notice,” and your spouse takes that seriously. And Mandle Cheung, a tech CEO and devoted music lover, writes a huge check to fund a Mahler concert, so he can conduct the Toronto Symphony Orchestra himself.

 

Suggested episodes:

• What Happens When You Act Like You Belong

• GOOD GOURD! A show about pumpkins!

• TOPS: A woman summits Everest, a man considers a body transplant, and world-record hat-wearing 

 

GUESTS: 

• Christopher Lamar: CEO of Lunar Embassy, a company that sells deeds to plots on the Moon and other celestial bodies. The business was founded by his father, Dennis Hope, in 1980

• Logan Goodspeed: A 32-year-old software engineer from California who ran the Rock ’n’ Roll San Diego Marathon with about 24 hours’ notice and no formal training

• Mandle Cheung: A 78-year-old technology CEO and amateur conductor who founded Mandle Philharmonic in 2018. In June 2025, he personally funded a one-night performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (“Resurrection”) and conducted the Toronto Symphony Orchestra

 

Jessica Severin de Martinez, Meg Fitzgerald, and Robyn Doyon-Aitken contributed to this show, with help from Coco Cooley.

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At 74, Karen Smith is still chasing the feeling she fell in love with as a kid: the freedom and aliveness of playing sports.

After years of sudden pain and uncertainty, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis - news that could have ended her life in athletics. Instead, adaptive equipment helped her keep skiing, and it reshaped how she carried the diagnosis. 

Through the Gaylord Sports Association, she helped expand a program now offering 17 adaptive sports, and she became a gold medal-winning goalie on Team USA’s women’s sled hockey team. 

At Choate Ice Rink, she and veteran player Anthony Kuntz introduce Chion to sled hockey, and to Karen’s fierce belief in inclusion and the “dignity of risk.”

 

Suggested episodes:

• A marathon swimmer and ultrarunner: surviving cancer, breaking records 
• Revealing Our Blind Spots About Blindness

 

GUESTS: 

• Karen Smith: Team manager of the Gaylord Wolfpack sled hockey team and a longtime leader in Connecticut’s adaptive sports community. In her early 60s, she earned the starting goalie position on Team USA’s Women’s Sled Hockey squad at the first IPC Ice Sledge Hockey Women's International Cup in 2014, winning gold alongside teammates decades younger
• Anthony Kuntz: Gaylord Wolfpack sled hockey player from Colchester, Connecticut, who has spina bifida. He has 22 years of experience in the sport, including four on the U.S. Junior National Team, competing internationally in Vancouver during the 2010 Paralympic Games
  

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Two Scotlands, one episode. 

Scotland One: kilts, haggis, bagpipes, and that irresistible fairground mix of music and muscle at Connecticut’s Scottish Highland Festival & Games! Plus swordplay and the oddly soothing chaos and grunts of Weight Over Bar. 

Scotland Two: centuries of witch trials, powered by rumor, rubber-stamped by law. Meet Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi of Witches of Scotland, a campaign and podcast working to restore names and dignity to the accused from 1563 to 1736. 

 

Suggested episodes:

• Where We Live - 'Before there was Salem, there was Connecticut': State formally pardons accused witches 
• Where We Live - Are witch hunts truly a thing of the past? 
• Dress to unrepress: Women who dressed like men, broke rules and made history 
• Are you very superstitious or just a little 'stitious'?
• Big E ep? (similar vibe)

 

GUESTS: 

• Benjamin Elzerman: flute player from East Hartford, CT
• Haley Hewitt: harpist from Manchester, CT
• John Morahn: instructor at Western Swordsmanship Technique and Research (WSTR) from Ashford, CT
• Eric Lewis: weight over bar competitor at The Scottish Highland Festival and Games from Woburn, MA 
• Christopher Annino: weight over bar competitor at The Scottish Highland Festival and Games from Groton, CT
• John H Spencer: the only living founding member of The Scottish Highland Festival and Games
• Reggie Patchell: Co-Chairman and Vice President of Scotland Connecticut Highland Festival Committee
• Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi: founders of Witches of Scotland, a campaign seeking justice for the roughly 4,000 people - mostly women - accused of witchcraft in Scotland between 1563 and 1736, many of whom were executed

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An unexpected death leaves survivors with a single relentless question: what happened? 

Three forensic experts share how they investigate the dead to bring clarity to the living.

Dr. Cori Breslauer, an associate medical examiner in Connecticut, describes the realities of autopsies, trauma, and truth-telling. Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick, who pioneered forensic genetic genealogy, explains how investigators use DNA and family history to put a name to unidentified remains, and bring long-delayed answers to families.

And retired forensic pathologist Dr. Cindy Hoeflinger shares what it was like to spend a career giving families answers… until she needed answers herself.

Suggested episodes:

• Look For The Helpers: The Anatomy Of A Death 
• Views from the end: David Meyers
• The Quest For A Good Death

GUESTS: 

• Dr. Cori Breslauer: Associate Medical Examiner at Connecticut's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, specializing in forensic pathology
• Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick: Forensic genetic genealogist, founder of Identifinders International; she pioneered the use of genetic genealogy to solve cold cases
• Dr. Cindy Hoeflinger: Retired forensic pathologist who investigated sudden and unexplained deaths; she lost her 18-year-old son Brian in a drunk driving crash in 2013

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Forget the typical meet-cute; this episode features individuals whose paths crossed in extraordinarily unique circumstances.

Alex and Sue Tatham met each other on the globally televised dating show "Blind Date" in the UK, leading to a wedding watched by millions.

Heather and Tony are Disney enthusiasts who found love across continents thanks to a dating site for fellow fans, MouseMingle.com

And after three years of chatting online, Robbie Romu and Avichai Sofer finally met… Only to have their relationship immediately tested by the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war during their first in-person meeting.

Suggested episodes:

• Audacious Love Playlist

GUESTS: 

• Alex & Sue Tatham: a couple who met on the British dating show Blind Date in 1988. Their wedding in 1991 was watched by 17 million people
• Heather & Tony Lash: Heather from Australia and Tony from Florida met through Mousemingle.com, a dating site for Disney fans, in 2015. They got married at Walt Disney World in 2018
• Robbie Romu & Avichai Sofer: Robbie from Canada and Avichai from Israel met on a dating site in 2020. Robbie traveled to Israel to meet Avichai in person for the first time on October 6, 2023, a day before the Israel-Hamas war began

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Imagine being afraid of a pickle. Or a banana. Or a nub of bread.

That’s daily life for people with ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder). It's an eating disorder not driven by weight or body image, but by fear, sensory overwhelm, or low appetite. People with this condition experience real terror and powerful aversions to certain foods - far beyond picky eating. 

Clinical psychologist Dr. Evelyna Kambanis explains ARFID, who it affects, and how treatment helps people reclaim their lives. Andrew Luber (aka “ARFID Andrew”) shares his funny, blunt, and vulnerable attempts at food exposures online. And Danielle Meinert tells the story of carrying ARFID since toddlerhood, and the startling change she says came after a high-dose psilocybin experience. 

 

Resources:

National Eating Disorders Association - ARFIDAssociation of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated DisordersFamilies Empowered and Supporting Treatment of Eating Disorders

Suggested episodes:

• The hidden hunger of Pica: Stories from people who eat objects 
• Anorexia is complex. Two people talk frankly about their decades-long journeys 

 

GUESTS: 

• Dr. Evelyna Kambanis: Licensed clinical psychologist in the Eating Disorders Clinical & Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and a faculty member at Harvard Medical School. She is involved in clinical care and research on ARFID
• Andrew Luber, aka ARFID Andrew: Los Angeles filmmaker and social media creator who documents food exposures with humor under the tagline, “Conquering my fear of food one laugh at a time”
• Danielle Meinert: Lived with ARFID for 27 years after a major shift in her relationship with food following ear surgery as a toddler. After years of trying traditional approaches, she described experiencing a dramatic change after a session using psilocybin

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How brave can a nine-year-old be?

We follow Lola Fraisse from Kidderminster, England, as she leaves home for six months to live with a host family in Lüneburg, Germany. She learns a new language, new rules, and new ways to see herself. Along the way, Lola grows her confidence, builds friendships, and even picks up a slight German accent!

We also hear from Lola’s mom, Jennie, who did a childhood exchange herself and knows exactly what this kind of leap can set in motion for a life. And we meet Sylvie, Lola’s host mom, on welcoming a child into your family, and then saying goodbye. 

After Lola returns to England, the story flips: her exchange sister Hanna comes to stay, and the girls describe what it’s like to become sisters on purpose.

 

Suggested episodes:

• Francesca Abroad: Following an American high school student’s year in Sarajevo 
• Salaar Stateside! Following a Pakistani high school student’s year in the US 

 

GUESTS: 

• Lola Fraisse: a girl from Worcestershire, England, who embarked on a student exchange in Germany for six months when she was nine years old through the ALLEF program
• Jennie Fraisse: Lola’s mother, who was an exchange student herself at a young age. Her family hosted Lola’s exchange partner, Hanna
• Hanna Michaelis: a girl from Northern Germany and Lola’s exchange partner. Hanna’s family hosted Lola for six months, and Hanna spent six months in England with Lola’s family 
• Sylvie Michaelis: Hanna’s mother and Lola’s host mom

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