Anna Cherepnina fulfilled a long-held dream of serving in the military when she enlisted in the Army Reserves in 2009. But a string of personal tragedies brought her to the darkest moment of her life. At StoryCorps, she reflected on how an encounter with an insolent fox and a trip to the base of Mount Everest helped her see the light again.

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Leah Bash is an avid runner, a dog mom, a wife – and there's a part of her family's history she can't stop thinking about. Both sides of her family were incarcerated alongside 125,000 other Japanese Americans during World War II. Her father and his six siblings spent more than three years behind barbed wire at isolated camps in Manzanar, California and Crystal City, Texas. After Leah learns about her father's struggles with panic attacks and is herself diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she starts to wonder: could those experiences at camp during World War II have far-reaching consequences a generation later? In this episode of Inheriting from LAist Studios and the NPR network, Leah has a candid conversation with her cousin Joya, for the very first time, about their family's mental health and the effects of the incarceration camp.

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We're back with more listener voicemails. This week: Your stories about music boxes, family secrets, and the people who made a mark on you. Tell us your story at 702-706-TALK.

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Navy veterans Windy Barton and Michael Davidson struggled to feel fulfilled after leaving the military. Then they discovered Team Rubicon: a special team of veterans who go into the fray when natural disasters strike. The two friends came to StoryCorps to reflect on what inspired their sense of duty.

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StoryCorps does a lot of different things, but they all come down to connecting people— even if they disagree. That's the idea behind our One Small Step initiative, where we pair strangers with opposing political views to have a conversation, not about politics, but about their lives. In the last episode of our season, two people who connected — even though their beliefs divided them.

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On the morning of January 29th, 1998, a terrorist bombed the New Woman All Women Health Care Clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, killing a police officer and severely injuring a nurse. Both victims risked their own safety to show up for others—despite having different beliefs—and will forever be linked by the same act of political violence.

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As communities across the Southern United States set about recovering from one of the most devastating hurricane seasons ever, we're doing what Mr. Rogers always told us to do when the news is scary: we're looking for the helpers. In this episode, two stories about people who have stepped up for their neighbors, despite their differences.

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For almost fifty years, people have been gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia to achieve something that seems impossible: world peace. And despite the fact these people are kids, they're pretty successful. Schoolteacher John Hunter invented The World Peace Game as a way to teach messy geopolitical realities. He never could have anticipated what his students ended up teaching him— or that the game would bring him face-to-face with the heights of real-world power.

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As we enter the home stretch of this presidential election, we're bringing you an all new season of the StoryCorps Podcast called Stepping Up. We're sharing stories from people who did just that, by making the decision to confront the difficulties and divides in their own lives head on; those who chose to seek connection when the opposite path seemed easier or sometimes even more logical. These stories aren't about finding an easy solution, they're about dealing with the reality of the world, and trying to make the best of it.

If you want to leave the StoryCorps Podcast a voicemail, call us at 702-706-TALK. Or email us at [email protected].

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We're back with more stories that listeners, like you, have shared on our voicemail. This week: The thin lines between life and death, and friendship and love. Leave your own voicemail at 702-706-TALK, or email us at [email protected].

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