This American Life

People who are tied together, but imagine radically different futures.

Feeling lost and trying to figure out how to move ahead.

Sometimes you raise your hand. Other times you’re just the only one left.

Prologue: What happens when an emergency room nurse has an emergency? Kelsay Irby did something that landed her in the headlines. (9 minutes)

Act One: Megan Tan never felt close to her father. For years they’ve been distant. He was super critical. She stopped engaging, moved across the country, and stayed away. And then something happened that made Megan decide to take charge and remake their relationship. (27 minutes)

Act Two: Over the last few years, producer Chana Joffe-Walt has been checking in with someone who wears the mantle of being “it” well. She’s a school principal named Teresa Hill. She likes being in charge. She’s very consistent about it. Except for one choice she made that Chana did not understand. (17 minutes)

People being dodged, delayed, and evaded—and what they do to put an end to it.

They mean something, whether we want them to or not.

Writer Etgar Keret tries to come up with the stories that capture his late mother, Orna Keret—but it’s hard, he says, because she’s like Maria in West Side Story and she’s also like Thanos from the Avengers. He ends up with a series of very short stories — most just a few paragraphs long — that give glimpses of different sides of her.

San Francisco’s Spider-Man burglar was remarkable. He dropped into buildings from skylights, leapt 10 feet from one roof to another. But mostly, his talent got him into trouble. This week, his story, and stories of other undesirable talents.

People experiencing Christmas in brand new ways, giving the holiday even more meaning.

People use machines to find people they lost.

Stories about one person single-handedly taking charge of a situation gone wrong.