Throughout history, stories have been told but sometimes preserving them for future generations has proven difficult. We examine the ways stories have been passed down, and the role the written word has played in shaping our civilizations.

From Pirates of the Caribbean and Captain Hook to the Pittsburgh Pirates and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, pirates have a real foothold in our culture. But their history is anything but a fair tale. Historian Eric Jay Dolin joins the show to discuss some of the most notorious real-life pirates to ever life.

Every year, there is some outrage over Oscar snubs. This year, many of us wish Ethan Hawke had been nominated for First Reformed. We look at why.

We talk to the parent and the doctor of a transgender child to discover what science says about gender transitions and how one family navigated the issues associated with having a child you suddenly don’t fully understand.

Grudges are something most of us think of as a negative feeling. They’re petty or vindictive or unforgiving. But we talk to author Sophie Hannah, who says grudges can be a really positive thing in our lives if we just know how to hold them properly. She can explain.

For a decade now, it seemed like comic book movies had settled in to an existence based on these larger cinematic universes. Now, Spider-Man and The Joker are proving comic stories can have their cake and eat it, too.

Brian Scudamore founded 1-800-GOT JUNK when he was just 18. Now, it’s one of the biggest companies in the world. He talks about the lessons he learned and what advice he has for young entrepreneurs dreaming of creating the next big startup.

Since the beginning of the US prison system, religion has been suggested as a way to help rehabilitate criminals. We talk to Tanya Erzen, a professor of religion, about why that is and what role prison ministries play in the lives on inmates.

With a new year comes new things to look forward to, and this year will offer an enormous slate of hotly anticipated new films, like Toy Story 4, It: Chapter 2, and a plethora of superhero offerings.

Grief is an innate part of human life, but how we process that grief varies from person to person. Tom Malmquist knows too much about grief after he lost his partner shortly after the birth of their first child. Malmquist put his experiences into his novel, In Every Moment We Are Still Alive, to help others in similar situations feel less alone.