Love Me

In the middle of Amelia's family, there's a silence. She wants to crack it open, so she starts learning to sing.  Voice Lessons is a special feature from Signal Hill, a new, independent audio magazine. You can listen to more Signal Hill stories at www.signalhill.fm or wherever you get podcasts. Sign up to support Signal Hill through their membership program (there are perks!) here.  Voic...

Story 1: Safwat has A LOT of anxiety for his daughter's future: that she won’t learn enough Urdu to be able to talk with her grandmother while she’s still alive. That she’ll grow embarrassed by his accent. That she’ll bear the brunt of climate change. Now that she’s 7 years old, Safwat confesses some of these worries to his daughter and tries to uncover her own anxieties for the future. Story 2: J...

Talia is half-Greek and bisexual. But her Greek and queer sides have been forced to stay hidden from each other. Her Greek grandad doesn’t know that she’s bi and keeping these two parts of herself compartmentalized has been taking a toll. So Talia comes up with a plan: to unite her two halves by dressing up as a Greek man on stage in full drag. We follow Talia as she choreographs her first ever dr...

Story 1: When Mehran Mansoori was a kid, he would run home after school each day to be with the homing pigeons that his father kept in the backyard. He would hold them gently in his hands, feeling the softness of their feathers and warmth of their little bodies. When they flew up into the sky, he would spend hours watching them swoop and dive. Until one day, everything changed. Story 2: On Ju...

Story 1: For the past few months, Chris and his partner Beth have been crying. A lot. What’s triggering the waterworks? Reading Dr. Seuss’ “Oh, The Places You’ll Go” to their toddler. It gets Chris and Beth weepy every... single... time. Eavesdropping on home recordings, we join Chris and Beth on their absurdist quest to get through this kids’ book without crying. Story 2: Six years ago, Boen...

Story 1: Bob and Matt have a friendship ritual. For the past 24 years, they’ve been writing each other threatening letters. Until one of them suddenly stops. Story 2: Linda discovers that the preschool she went to at the university her parents worked at was cheaper “because of the experiments." It turns out that the psychology department was studying Linda and her four-year-old classmates from beh...

Not long after Peter’s mother Mara dies, a stranger messages him on Facebook. His name is Francesco and he says that before she met Peter’s dad, Mara was the love of his life. Francesco starts sending Peter poetry and links to love songs, describing his romance with Peter’s mom in more and more detail. And the woman in his stories is nothing like the mother Peter knew. So Peter reaches out to Fran...

Xander gets facial feminization surgery (FFS). As she searches for a face that will finally make her feel safer and prettier, she wrestles with cis and trans beauty standards, insecurities and self-hate.  Episode Credits: Produced by Xander Adams, Cristal Duhaime and Mira Burt-Wintonick. Sound design by Cristal Duhaime, mix engineered by Xander Adams.  Original Music by David Drury.

A new season of Love Me is coming. Real stories of real, complicated relationships. How does it feel when your dead mom’s Italian ex-lover won’t stop writing you? Or when you try to connect with your queer identity by.... doing drag as your grandpa? Or when people try to silence the one thing that makes you calm? Join host Lu Olkowski for brand new episodes starting October 6.

A special episode of Love Me. In 2019, Julie Piñero lost her boyfriend Jose. It was sudden. He was 26 years old. A virtual reality video-game designer. When he died, Julie and Jose were still in that honeymoon phase of their relationship. They hadn’t had their first real fight. Julie’s dad—who has been helping her cope with her grief—never even got to meet Jose. The future was ripped away, leaving...

A man falls in love with a mysterious woman... in a painting. And a note slipped into the back pocket of someone's jeans leads to a surprising late-night encounter. Plus, Lu's grandparents document their lives in very unique Polaroids.

A woman goes to an ornamental shrimp society meet-up on a one-of-a-kind first date. Plus, the former president of Kiribati worries for his island nation's future as sea waters rise. And a poem about finding the courage to move deeper into a relationship.

A mini episode where Lu shares her feelings about the holidays... and the movie Groundhog Day. And a daughter navigates grieving in public.

A man obsessed with meet-cutes falls for all the wrong men and winds up in one mind-boggling situation after another. Will his dream of a fairy-tale romance come true? Plus, a poetic reflection on home, distance, and being your lover's pet whippet by Phil Smith.

A woman tries to live her life while a stalker pursues her for over a decade; and a former U.S. Navy sailor is haunted by the memory of a woman he killed when he discovers a song has been written about her death.

A woman with Alzheimer's dreams of returning to her childhood home as she lies in bed, staring at the ceiling; two adult siblings find themselves sharing their old room again after years apart; and a daughter navigates the loss of her childhood house after her father's death.

Have you heard the tale of the little girl who lost her leg while horsing around at the fair? A safety-obsessed father tells his daughter bedtime stories about freak accidents from around the world. Plus, one grandson remembers the tall tales his grandfather used to tell him, while another grandson searches for the truth about a grandmother he never new.

Hotline volunteers at the world's oldest suicide prevention network share how they respond to crisis callers through the practice of active listening. How can you empty your mind and be fully present during someone's call for help? Music and voice intertwine in this documentary about bridging the gap between strangers who will never meet face to face.

Sara collects sounds of her son, her second child, during the first year of his life. Laughter, cries, shrieks of joy... Her first child never made much sound and died three days after she was born. The story explores Sara's connection to both children as she listens to the sounds of her family and grieves for the sounds that are missing.

Mansoor Adayfi remembers the romance classes he and fellow prisoners held while at Guantanamo Bay detention camp. How do you imagine falling in love when you know you might never get the chance to? (A story we almost couldn't bring you as the audio was temporarily confiscated by authorities.)

Teenage punster Tracy talks to Lu about meeting girls through wordplay. Then, a young woman obsessively reads her boyfriend's diary to find out what kind of person to be. Plus, an artist charts the scents of her disintegrating relationship.

Host Lu shares the story of an Icelandic sweat lodge experience that catches her off guard. Plus, a woman navigates the waters of a devastating betrayal.

A family of four examines their sleep habits, vying for the spare bedroom. And a 90s teenager's dreams come true when she visits the set of "Beverly Hills 90210" and meets her crush: Luke Perry.

An ex-inmate is haunted by a man he knew in prison. And a pathway at the bottom of the sea reveals secrets of childhood.

A murky relationship between a man, a woman and the fungus that lives in the woman's knee. Plus, a recipe for heartbreak. Featuring Seth Morris and a story by Tim Kreider.