This Is Uncomfortable

When Stephanie Stone’s older brother Michael died, their family didn’t have the money to pay for his burial. His body went unclaimed, and the county where he was living made arrangements. Years later, Stone doesn’t know where he was laid to rest. In this episode, we follow Stephanie’s quest to find her late brother and dig into what it reveals about the economic and emotional toll of losing a love...

Nicole and Rachel were deeply, happily in love when they had their first serious fight about money. Nicole’s two-year old nephew accidentally scratched up Rachel’s car, leaving them to figure out who was responsible for paying to fix it. To Rachel, it seemed obvious: Nicole’s family was responsible. Nicole didn’t see it that way. During the months-long fight, both women realized their fight about...

“This is Uncomfortable,” our show about life and how money messes with it, is back for a new season starting May 5! This season, we’re exploring love and relationships of all kinds. Because there’s probably no close relationship — be it with friends, family or coworkers — where money doesn’t make things weird. And sometimes the fights you think are about money are not actually about money at all....

The Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles has historically been home to tightknit immigrant communities. Francisco Gonzalez had lived in an apartment a block away from the neighborhood’s Mariachi Plaza for a decade when the building was sold, and the new owner nearly doubled his rent. Several of Gonzalez’s neighbors got rent hikes too. At first, Gonzalez figured he had no choice but to get out...

Gina Serna is helping lead Colombia’s effort to sterilize the roughly 120 invasive hippos roaming the Magdalena River — hippos that were never supposed to be there at all. They were illegally imported decades ago by Pablo Escobar, the country’s most notorious drug lord. In many ways, it’s the perfect job for Serna. She dreamed of being a wildlife veterinarian since she was little. On the other han...

When Dalip Singh became taxi driver in New York City, he thought it’d be his ticket to the middle class. It would take years before he discovered that he’d instead bought into a massive lending scam, one that would go on for decades, pushing him and thousands of other drivers into extreme debt. Now, as Dalip and his family try to get ahead, they find themselves struggling against the exact systems...

When you’re a kid, your parents make all the financial decisions for you. But what happens when you grow up … and don’t agree with their choices? We’re off this week for the Thanksgiving holiday. This episode originally aired in July 2019.

This week, we’re running a story from our colleagues at the new Marketplace podcast “How We Survive.” It’s about the climate, but it’s not all doom and gloom. It explores solutions for avoiding some of the worst effects of the crisis. If you liked this story, be sure to follow “How We Survive” wherever you get podcasts .

When Sonia Delgado divorced her husband after 30 years of a bad marriage, she thought she’d finally seized financial freedom. She’d no longer have to go along with her ex’s money decisions, which had landed them in chronic debt and insecurity. But when she learned she would have to pay him alimony for the rest of her life, it was as though the divorce had tethered her, once and for all, to everyth...

Matthew Chow spent his adult life trying to build a close relationship with his estranged father. But just when he felt like he made real progress, his father passed away. In the will he found a secret his father had kept buried for decades — one that sent Matthew on a monthslong journey that  changed how he thought about not only his father, but the very idea of family. If you liked this episode,...

What happens when you stumble on something with the potential to change your life? Oscar (not their real name) was going through a rough patch in life when they found a bag of money in their dim basement apartment in Montreal. It was enough to propel their life in a different direction. First, they almost had a panic attack. Later, a gnawing regret consumed them. “This Is Uncomfortable” is Reema K...

When Ibby Hanlon started experiencing mysterious and debilitating pain, she put her faith in the medical system to find a solution. After a series of unexpected events forever changed her body — and her finances — her trust in the system shattered. This week, we dissect trust between doctors and patients. “This Is Uncomfortable” is Reema Khrais, Donna Tam, Megan Detrie, Peter Balonon-Rosen, Camila...

The more Morgan Curtis learned about the source of her family’s multi-generation wealth — from gold mining, to fossil fuel investment, to slave ownership — the less she wanted anything to do with it. When she started to give away half a million dollars to social justice organizations in her late twenties, her dad told her he may write her out of her future inheritance. In this episode, we hear fro...

“This Is Uncomfortable” is a podcast about our money and our feelings. And a lot of the money stuff we have the most feelings about we also like to keep secret. In season five, the secret’s out. We’re revealing family secrets, learning about the true cost of divorce, investigating mysterious piles cash and so much more. We’ll have new episodes every Thursday starting this week, on Oct. 14. Listen...

How do you bounce back from getting scammed? Become a scammer yourself, obviously. The inside story of a young man’s transformation into an online scammer — and the lengths he goes to for money when no one is looking. To keep up with us in the off-season,  subscribe to our newsletter ! Each Friday you’ll get a note from Reema, a story from a listener and some recs from the Uncomfortable team. You’...

What if we told you there was a way to walk away from your debts with no financial consequences? There’s just one big catch. By 21, Anthony was on top of the world: He had a six-figure salary, a loft apartment and a car with heated seats. But when the 2008 recession hit, he lost it all. And in trying to climb back up the ladder, he landed himself in $200,000 worth of debt. That is, until he found...

Many of us feel pressure to hit life milestones by a certain age. But what if that prepackaged timeline — finishing school, achieving financial stability, getting married, having children — just doesn’t work for you? Ana Sauceda always struggled at school, but her parents put a high value on a college education. She spent a decade trying to fit her parent’s script before throwing it out and writin...

We live in a world that rewards us for producing, and producing, and producing. But why is it that no matter how much we do, it never feels like enough? This week, we’re going to look at our obsession with productivity — the exhausting effort to be completely optimized in work and outside of it. Plus: Do you have a money secret? The last episode of our season is about them, and funny or serious, w...

Mira Celper had always wanted to be best friends with her mom, but their relationship grew strained once her mom started dating the mysterious David, a successful engineer. As her mom fell deeper in love, Mira couldn’t shake the feeling that something about David was off. So she set out to find the truth. Power this podcast! Give any amount today to help us reach our fundraising goal: marketplace....

Growing up, Aisha Salaudeen always considered herself middle-class. But when she turned 13, her parents sent her to boarding school in Lagos, Nigeria, where her classmates talked about the designer shoes they bought in France, the mansions they lived in and the international vacations they had been on. This week, we take a deep dive into Aisha’s past to understand why she can’t seem to kick her fi...

Growing up in Ohio, Diana Wang dreamed of working for a fashion magazine. So when she was offered the position of head intern at Harper’s Bazaar, she thought she’d finally landed her big break. But she didn’t realize her unpaid labor would come with such long hours, tons of responsibility and barely any training. That’s when she knew something had to be done and helped lead the charge of an intern...

When Lindsey Galbraith’s marriage ended over financial infidelity, she swore she would never mix money and relationships again. Then she met someone new. This week, we look at the aftermath of betrayal and how the consequences can last far beyond that one relationship. Plus, we eavesdrop on a money conversation between her and her new partner — the kind of talk that usually happens behind closed d...

Reporting on suicide is complicated. In trying to tell the story of someone who’s no longer here, which parts do you tell, which parts do you keep private? After a young woman dies by suicide, Reema sets out to understand why money was on her mind shortly before her death. Just a warning, this episode discusses mental health struggles, including suicide. If you or a loved one is in crisis, reach o...

Society places a big premium on looking a certain way — our cleanliness, our class status, even our mental health is judged based on our appearance. Esther Calixte-Bea was taught at a young age to hide her body hair. For most of her life, she spent hundreds of dollars a month trying to keep it under control — until she finally hit a breaking point. By the way, “This Is Uncomfortable” is up for a W...

After spending years fighting to get disability benefits, Amber was finally approved. But she and her wife, Diana, didn’t realize they had entered a complicated, arcane system where health care might cost you your marriage. For more “This Is Uncomfortable,” subscribe to our newsletter ! This week, Reema talks about celebrating Ramadan during the pandemic. Here’s the latest issue , in case you miss...