Laughing About Hard Things
Alongside life's darkest moments there often are moments of absurdity that make us laugh. In this episode, from a live San Francisco comedy festival in January, Anna and guests talk about the special ...
1 Apr 20251h 4min
A Middle-Aged Couple Made Porn to Spice Things Up. Then One of Them Got Fired.
When Joe Gow was fired from his position as chancellor and professor at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse, his superiors said it was due to “abhorrent” behavior. Joe had made porn videos with h...
25 Mar 202546min
Life After Blowing It All Up: A Sugar Baby Story Revisited
In 2020, we made an episode about a listener who cheated on his wife with sex workers and was going through a divorce. He told us the idea to go on the website Seeking Arrangement came from an episode...
18 Mar 202543min
Call It ‘A Midlife Awakening’
Anna talks to writer Ada Calhoun, author most recently of the novel Crush, about a married woman succumbing to extramarital temptation (she wrote it while she herself was separating from her husband) ...
11 Mar 202551min
From Uncertainty to Total Chaos, Your Stories About the New Trump Term
Since the inauguration in January, we’ve been getting emails and voice recordings from people whose lives have been thrust into uncertainty due to changes made by the Trump administration. Many federa...
4 Mar 202548min
I Was Ready to Write About My Domestic Abuser—Then Lawyers Said No.
When comedian Chelsea Devantez began writing her memoir, she knew exactly where to start: with a teenage relationship that spiraled into domestic violence. But when she submitted her draft, lawyers in...
25 Feb 202555min
Manhood: It’s Complicated
Six and a half years ago, in the wake of the #MeToo movement, we asked our listeners how they think about manhood–how to be, what’s hard, where they feel lost. Fast forward to 2025, and the norms and ...
18 Feb 202543min
After Sobriety, Chasing Goosebumps Instead of Highs
When the poet and writer Kaveh Akbar likes something, he really likes it. As a high school student, he got hooked on poetry. In college, it was alcohol. This week, Kaveh talks to Anna Sale about the f...
11 Feb 202542min
