This is Love

Meredith Goldstein started giving her mother dating advice when she was a teenager, and today she offers people advice as the author of the Love Letters column for The Boston Globe. She says: “My favorite letters are breakup letters because it doesn't matter who you are – if you have been dumped, it is awful." Meredith Goldstein’s podcast is Love Letters.  Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instag...

Michael Packard makes a living fishing off the coast of Cape Cod. He catches mostly tuna and mackerel. He drags for clams. And for three months every summer, he dives for lobsters. "It's an extremely dangerous profession. I think about it a lot, but I try not to. I can't dwell on it,” he told us. “You know, this is what I love. It's a different world down there. It’s a whole different world." Last...

When Margaret Dugan was 17, she ate lunch most days at a place called Little Venice where a young Domenico DeMarco would sing while he made pizza. “He would always be singing. And he had a beautiful voice,” she told us. Eventually, he asked her out on a date. At their wedding in 1965, she had no idea she was marrying the man who’d later be called “The Godfather of Pizza.” Today, a look at the man...

As a teenager, Kendra James had a crush on the actor Orlando Bloom. She decorated her room with pictures of him, she wrote stories imagining a romance with him, and she joined a message board dedicated entirely to him.  One day, someone on the message board had an idea to make contact with Orlando Bloom himself.  Kendra James’s book is Admissions: A Memoir Of Surviving Boarding School. Say hello o...

Evan Woodard explores the city of Baltimore from underneath. He searches for things buried underground—things that some people might consider trash. We decided to go to Baltimore and join him on a dig. Take our survey: vox.com/podsurvey Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a My...

Nnenna and Phil met on a friend’s front porch in Carrboro, North Carolina in 1978. “It felt like I was meeting someone that I had known, but forgot that I knew,” she says. “It just was magic.”  You can listen to Nnenna’s podcast, Great Grief, here. We need your help. We are conducting a short audience survey to help plan for our future and hear from you. To participate, head to vox.com/podsurvey,...

A few months ago, Frank Dumas won his 4th grade class spelling bee. And then he just kept winning. We need your help. We are conducting a short audience survey to help plan for our future and hear from you. To participate, head to vox.com/podsurvey, and thank you! Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 We also make Cr...

Many years ago, Cathy Raven decided to build herself a small house on a large piece of land in rural Montana. She’s said, “I saw myself alone in the furthest future that I could imagine.” Then a red fox began to arrive, at the same time every day.  Cathy Raven’s book is The Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship. We need your help. We are conducting a short audience survey to help plan for our future a...

When artist Wilfrid Wood was looking for new people to draw, he got an idea - and put a call out for models on Grindr. When Theo Adamson saw Wilfrid's profile, he says “it just caught me in the right moment as being up for trying something new.” Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: http...

There’s a strange book from 1934 called Cain’s Jawbone that's "not for the faint-hearted.” It’s part puzzle, part murder mystery. And it’s only been solved three times. You can find the book here. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 We also make Criminal and Ph...

Dillon Helbig is 8 years old. He's been writing books since he was 5. One day, he decided he wanted to see his book on the shelf in a library. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. C...

Dessa spent the better part of two decades in love with the same person. They’d broken up and gotten back together over and over again. And even once they were broken up for good, she couldn’t give up hope that they still had a future. She says she felt kind of stuck. And so she started planning an experiment—part science project, part art project—to try to fall out of love. Say hello on Twitter,...

In 2015, Kate Bowler was diagnosed with stage IV cancer. She was 35. “The chronic nature of what I had really lent itself to people wanting to openly explain why I was suffering. Was it something I ate? Was it something I did spiritually? Like, who’s at fault here? You know, maybe everything doesn’t happen for a reason.” Today, she says, “One of the only things that really cuts through all the noi...

“On the last day of the world, I would want to plant a tree.” A story about people coming together, willing to try something. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our onli...

"I began to think: ‘Oh, my gosh. Everyone was against me dropping out of college, marrying a complete stranger, and moving to New York. Perhaps they may have been on to something.’” Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a My...

Tami is a sharpie, and Ed is her cap. After all these years, marriage has left an indelible mark. Listeners of this show know that from the very beginning, we’ve wanted to highlight unconventional stories of love. Oftentimes, not romantic love. What we have for you today is one of the strangest and funniest conversations we’ve heard in a long time. Everything is Alive is hosted and created by Ian...

"History was dependent upon people like me remembering." A conversation with Betty Reid Soskin, shortly before her 100th birthday. Betty Reid Soskin’s book is Sign My Name to Freedom. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a...

When Shigeru Yabu was a little boy he made a new friend in an unexpected place. “That bird walked up my arm all the way to my shoulder, and we looked at each other, eye to eye.” Shigeru Yabu’s book is Hello Maggie! Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 We also ma...

In October of 2006, a press conference was held at a hospital in Denver. During the press conference, a man asked if anyone watching could tell him who he was, or how he got there. Because he didn’t know. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 We also make Crimina...

On today's episode: Home recordings, people recording their friends, neighbors, and strangers — for a look at how we live, and who we are, by listening closely. Featuring a 5-year-old Sofia Coppola, and Patti Smith before she recorded her first album. Lost & Found Sound is the work of Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, also known as The Kitchen Sisters. No one makes radio like the Kitchen Sisters. As T...

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 book is Our Subway Baby. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The...

One day in the spring of 1986, a woman in Hot Springs, Arkansas named Ruth Coker Burks was visiting a friend in the hospital. She noticed a door down the hall that had a red tarp over it, and the nurses were avoiding the room. So she decided to sneak in. Ruth Coker Burks’ book is All The Young Men. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice....

Our favorite story, for anyone who might be feeling a little lost. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop.  Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Le...

In June of 2020, a 72-year-old man in the UK named Gerald Stratford posted a photograph of himself in his garden on Twitter. He wrote, “Just giving my onions their daily inspection, a crucial time now for veg.” The tweet, like many of Gerald Stratford’s tweets, went viral. Gerald told us he never expected so many people to like his tweets about his garden, but that he just tries to be nice and pol...

When Carlos Acosta was a kid, he wanted to be the next Michael Jackson. He spent all his time break-dancing in the streets of Havana. Until one day, when his father decided to put Carlos in a ballet class. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2BmMZr5 We also make Crimin...