Viva Donohoe always saw her grandmother as the archetype of a sophisticated woman, modeled in the spirit of iconic country singer Patsy Cline. But an investigation into Cline’s life leads Viva to discover hidden truths about her grandmother and the woman she modeled herself after.

Story By: Viva Donohoe

Producers: Viva Donahoe, Eva Sanez, Ana De Almeida Amaral

Music: Internet Archive

In today’s episode, Sarah Lewis reads “Willies on West 79th,” a strangely moving tale about love, body dysmorphia, and why a rat ballet company might be the most honest place in New York.

Producers

Arun Chhetri

Sarah Lewis

Alex Strong

Story by: Sarah Lewis

Music by: Blue Dot Sessions

In today’s episode, Wallace Stegner Fellow Zach Williams reads his surreal story “Mousetraps,” where a simple errand spirals into a disorienting interrogation of masculinity, guilt, and moral performance.

Producers

Arun Chhetri

Zach Williams

Isabelle Edgar

Story by: Zach Williams

Music by: Blue Dot Sessions

As an added bonus to our Invisibility series, we’re including conversations with the creators who made them to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the craft of audio storytelling. In this episode, Alex Strong talks with Langston Buddenhagen, the creator of New Flowers, the first story in our Invisibility series.

Langston Buddenhagen takes us to Ethiopia's capital city of Addis Ababa in order to explore how neighborhoods change and what that change means. In the process, Langston explores how his mixed racial identity dovetails into these same issues, and how is own hometown - Oakland, California - is changing too. 

We all know what it's like to sense something unspoken in a conversation—the hesitation, the sharpness, the softness. It's not the words, but how they're said. This episode, we explore the invisible language of emotional prosody—the tone, rhythm, and subtle cues in our voices that reveal how we feel, often without us realizing it.

Alana Esposito and Alex Strong to discuss the process behind how A Foot in Both Worlds came to be. 

Producers: Alana Esposito, Alex Strong

Paul Calvo has always been ambitious, but he hasn't always been on the right side of the tracks. This is his story.

Producer: Alex Strong.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Sounds by Free Sounds.

Paul Calvo has always been ambitious, but he hasn't always been on the right side of the tracks. This is his story.

Producer: Alex Strong.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Sounds by Free Sounds.

A group of Stanford alumni recall their time in undergrad climbing buildings on campus – and the way it permanently altered their lives.

Producer: Alana Esposito