This is Love

In 1910, a group of British men set off on an expedition – they wanted to be the first people to reach the South Pole. Over a hundred years later, in the journals and letters that survived, a writer discovered a love story. For more, check out Allegra Rosenberg’s article, “From Antarctica with Love.” Say hello on Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts. Want to list...

In 1963, Jeanne and Alan Abel traveled to Washington, DC to picket in front of the White House. They said they were part of a campaign that wanted to put clothes on animals — including the first lady’s horse. Jenny Abel and her husband, Jeff Hockett, made a documentary about her parents called Abel Raises Cain. Say hello on Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts. W...

Two years ago, we started making Criminal Plus episodes — behind-the-scenes conversations featuring Phoebe and Criminal co-creator Lauren Spohrer. Today, we’re sharing some of those conversations with you — about everything from Phoebe’s jangly bracelets to the reason a judge ordered a man to watch Bambi. And we’re also sharing a promo code if you’d like to support our work and join our membership...

For the past 40 years, people have been sending Sally Winey their damaged stuffed animals, and she's been doing what she can to repair them. "That bear's been with them through everything.” Say hello on Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts. Want to listen to This is Love ad-free? Sign up for Criminal Plus – you’ll get to listen to This is Love, Criminal, and Phoe...

Terence McPherson and Shawnika Giger met at a party in Atlanta, and went on their first date a few weeks later. Things were going well, until they started to talk about money. This episode is in collaboration with our friends at This Is Uncomfortable. Say hello on Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts. Want to listen to This is Love ad-free? Sign up for Criminal P...

When The Guardian sends two strangers on a blind date, the last question they have to answer for the newspaper column is “Would you meet again?” We asked people how their dates went – and what happened next. Say hello on Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts. Want to listen to This is Love ad-free? Sign up for Criminal Plus – you’ll get to listen to This is Love,...

At The Guardian newspaper, there’s a person who has to find two complete strangers to send on a blind date every week.  In our next episode, we hear about how things really went from the blind daters themselves. You can listen right now by signing up for Criminal Plus.  Say hello on Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts. Want to listen to This is Love ad-free? Sig...

About twenty years ago, D’yan Forest considered getting into stand-up comedy. “People told me, no, don’t go into comedy. Everybody is going to make fun of you. They’re gonna heckle you. You’re an old woman.” D’yan ignored them. Say hello on Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts. Want to listen to This is Love ad-free? Sign up for Criminal Plus – you’ll get to list...

When his older brother died of cancer, Patrick Bringley quit his New York office job and got a new one at the Metropolitan Museum of Art—as a security guard. He stayed for 10 years. Patrick Bringley's book is All the Beauty in the World. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts. Want to listen to This is Love ad-free? Sign up for Criminal Plus –...

On August 28th, 2000, Danny Stewart got on the subway to meet his boyfriend Pete Mercurio for dinner in New York City. As he was exiting the station, he noticed something on the ground. It looked like a baby doll wrapped in a shirt. And then he saw the doll's legs move. Pete Mercurio's children's book is Our Subway Baby. His forthcoming memoir is called There: We Found Our Family In a New York Cit...

When Cody Bryant suddenly stopped communicating with Haley Woloshen after weeks of hanging out, she assumed she was being ghosted. It was only later that she found out he’d forgotten about her entirely.  Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts. Want to listen to This is Love ad-free? Sign up for Criminal Plus – you’ll get to listen to This is L...

The day Edgardo Griffith met Heidi Ross, he asked her if she’d like to come with him to look for frogs. He was looking for a particular kind – bright yellow, with black spots: the Panamanian golden frog. But by the time Edgardo and Heidi were engaged, the frogs had started to disappear. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts. Want to listen to...

Everything you didn’t know about Goodnight Moon, the book that’s put children to bed for generations — and the woman who wrote it. "She could write very well for young children because she remembered exactly what it was like to be one of them." Leonard Marcus’ book is Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podc...

Stories we love about animals really going for it. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts. Want to listen to This is Love ad-free? Sign up for Criminal Plus – you’ll get to listen to This is Love, Criminal, and Phoebe Reads a Mystery without any ads. Plus, you’ll get behind-the-scenes bonus episodes of Criminal and other exclusive benefits. Le...

One night in 2018, Ahmed Ali Akbar rented a car and drove two hours to the Detroit airport. He was picking up a package for his cousin – over a dozen boxes of a very special fruit. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts. Want to listen to This is Love ad-free? Sign up for Criminal Plus – you’ll get to listen to This is Love, Criminal, and Phoe...

“After more than a hundred years of hard work from some of the greatest cryptological and linguistic minds on the planet, we still don’t quite know what this object is. There’s really nothing like it in the world.” Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts. Want to listen to This is Love ad-free? Sign up for Criminal Plus – you’ll get to listen t...

Recently, Phoebe told a personal story about her mother, who died this year. In this episode, she talks to journalist Sebastian Junger, who was rushed to the hospital one day after feeling sick – and then, he saw something strange. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts. Want to listen to This is Love ad-free? Sign up for Criminal Plus – you’l...

For our 100th episode, a story from Phoebe about her mother, Valentine, who died this spring. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts. Want to listen to This is Love ad-free? Sign up for Criminal Plus – you’ll get to listen to This is Love, Criminal, and Phoebe Reads a Mystery without any ads. Plus, you’ll get behind-the-scenes bonus episodes o...

When Drew Lanham was growing up in South Carolina, he used to lie down in a field and play dead, just so he could get a glimpse of vultures flying over him. He made binoculars out of toilet paper rolls, and wings out of cardboard. He loved birds. But when he went to college, he says, “I was trying to live up to the expectations of others who said, ‘You’re a Black kid who’s good at math and science...

Writer Andrew Leland talks with Phoebe about slowly losing his eyesight. He was diagnosed with the degenerative eye disease Retinitis pigmentosa when he was in high school. "It was like, 'I'm going out in the woods with my friends at night. And oddly enough, I'm bad at it.'" Andrew Leland’s memoir, The Country of the Blind, A Memoir at the End of Sight, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Say h...

When Miguel Esteban was 14 years old, he got an idea to make his own science fiction magazine. He wanted Octavia Butler to write a piece for it. So he picked up the phone to ask her. Special thanks to Terry Gross and Fresh Air, which is produced at NPR member station WHYY and distributed by NPR. Quotes reprinted with permission of the Octavia E. Butler Estate. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and In...

One Saturday night in the 90s, Patrick Makuakāne and about 15 other hula dancers showed up to a club in San Francisco they called Old Dreamland. "It didn’t feel like taking risks. Because no one was there to tell me 'what the hell are you doing?'" Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 Want to listen to This is Love a...

Nurse BokHee is in the background of every season of "Grey’s Anatomy." She’s become one of the show’s most beloved characters – but she's only had a few lines. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 Want to listen to This is Love ad-free? Sign up for Criminal Plus – you’ll get This is Love, Criminal, and Phoebe Reads...

Gabrielle Gatto works at one of the most famous cemeteries in the country. Recently, she recorded a day in her life for the podcast Finally! A Show, for an episode called “Finally! A Show about a Crematorium Worker at Green-Wood Cemetery.”  Criminal listeners might recognize one of the voices in this episode - Lynda Thompson-Lindsay - who runs the Lawrence H. Woodward Funeral Home. You can hear ou...

The synthesizer was invented in the 1890s. But for people to really start using it, it took half a century, a musician named Wendy Carlos, and an album called Switched-On Bach. Charlie Harding and Nate Sloan of Switched On Pop tell Phoebe why Wendy Carlos is “the most significant figure in 20th century music that the least people know about.” Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow th...