This is Love

You've Got Mail

18 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Delia Ephron has worked on some of the most famous romantic comedies of all time – like Sleepless in Seattle, and You’ve Got Mail – alongside he...

A Needle in a Haystack

04 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A dog went missing in a park in Brooklyn. A local Facebook group decided to help. Say hello on Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us ...

Chloe and the Hare

18 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“It felt like a magical experience. It felt like some sort of spell. I was living a childhood fairytale, of the comings and goings of this extraordi...

The Treasure Hunt

04 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In 2010, a man named Forrest Fenn took a bronze box filled with treasure into the Rocky Mountains and hid it. He told one treasure hunter, “You just...

Into the Ice

21 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The B-15 iceberg in Antarctica was the largest iceberg in recorded history. Explorer Jill Heinerth wanted to see what it looked like from the inside. ...

The Obituary Section

07 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Heather Lende has written nearly 500 obituaries for people in her small town in Alaska. She’s known just about everyone she has written about.  Sa...

The Long Walk

17 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Emma Gatewood was 67, she told her children she was going on a walk. “The next they would hear from her would be via postcard… And it said, ‘...

How's Your Life?

03 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Minh Nguyen was in school, he didn’t ask anyone to sign his yearbooks — he says he was too uncomfortable. But twenty years later, he started ...

Cry

19 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1971, for his mother’s birthday, Alvin Ailey gave her a ballet. The dance was grueling – sometimes the women who did it bled. “I remember ver...

Ava and the Pickpocket

05 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

“He stole my watch. He stole my jewelry. I stopped wearing jewelry – just to see what else he would steal.” In 2004, Ava Do met a professional p...

One More Time

22 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A visitor to the islands of the Pacific Northwest once described seeing “a forest of totem poles.” But by the time Robert Davidson was born, there...

A Sky of Kites

08 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

People in India have been flying kites for hundreds of years – using them to predict the weather, carry love letters, and compete in the air. But th...

The Throne

24 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1964, a landlord in Washington, DC, noticed that his tenant hadn’t paid rent and went to look for him. The tenant wasn’t in the building – bu...

My Penny

10 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 wh...

The World According to Rick Steves

20 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Never check a bag, always bring a journal, and consider duct tape: a conversation with Rick Steves. Say hello on Facebook and Instagram. Follow the s...

Alone Together

06 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1966, Maurice and Maralyn Bailey had been married for three years. They’d bought a house in the suburbs in the middle of England, and had jobs at...

The Sea Around Us

16 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When writer Rachel Carson built a house on Maine’s Southport Island, her new neighbor, Dorothy Freeman, sent her a note to welcome her. Rachel wrote...

Hot Dog!

02 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

An episode all about hot dogs and the people who love them. Say hello on Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts. Wa...

The Terra Nova

18 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, i...

An American Original

04 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Bambi, a Burrito Bowl, and Barry Manilow

30 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Two years ago, we started making Criminal Plus episodes — behind-the-scenes conversations featuring Phoebe and Criminal co-creator Lauren Spohrer. T...

The Bear Repair

21 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 bea...

This Is Uncomfortable

07 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 sta...

And... Did You Kiss? Part 2

23 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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?” W...

And… Did You Kiss? Part 1

09 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 he...

D'yan

19 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 m...

The Security Guard

05 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 securi...

On the Way to Dinner

19 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, ...

Nice to Meet You Again

05 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Cody Bryant suddenly stopped communicating with Haley Woloshen after weeks of hanging out, she assumed she was being ghosted. It was only later t...

Frog Call

22 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 – bri...

In the Great Green Room

08 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 wr...

Beaver in the Christmas Aisle, Pig in the Pumpkins, Camel on the Run

18 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

The King of Fruit

04 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 doze...

The Manuscript

20 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

“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 kno...

What Happens Next

06 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Valentine

16 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Prairie Warbler

02 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ove...

At the End of Sight

18 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Writer Andrew Leland talks with Phoebe about slowly losing his eyesight. He was diagnosed with the degenerative eye disease Retinitis pigmentosa when ...

Octavia and Miguel

04 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Hula with Teeth

21 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Nurse BokHee

07 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

A Day at the Crematory

24 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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, f...

Switched-On

10 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 albu...

To Know the Dark

19 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The night sky is getting brighter almost everywhere in the world. We visit a place that is trying to stay dark. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Ins...

You Can't Promise to Love Forever

05 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Folk singer Peggy Seeger and her partner, Irene Pyper-Scott, live on different continents. Peggy has written dozens of poems and songs for Irene, and ...

The Most Romantic Place in Philadelphia

15 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

McGillin’s Olde Ale House is the oldest bar in Philadelphia, and it also claims to be the most romantic place in the city. The Philadelphia Inquirer...

At the Drawing Board

01 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Curtis was one of the first nationally-syndicated comic strips with a mostly-Black cast of characters. Ray Billingsley has been drawing it for newspap...

I'm Alright

17 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When comic Maria Bamford made her OkCupid profile with the username Hogbook, she says Scott Marvel Cassidy was one of the only people who contacted he...

A Family Secret

03 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kyo Maclear remembers when she took a DNA test, the kit came with a piece of paper with terms and conditions that read, “You may discover unanticipa...

Charlotte as Romeo

20 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When Charlotte Cushman arrived in England, she was heartbroken. But she began looking for work as an actor. There was one part she really wanted: Rome...

One in a Million

06 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2016, scientist Angus Davison got an email about a rare, left-coiling snail. He began a quest to find it a mate. This episode was first released in...

The Nicholas Effect

21 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If you visit Italy, you might come across a street, or a park, or a school, or even a chain of coffee shops named after a 7-year-old American named Ni...

Albert and Alberta

07 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

One day, as a student at the University of Florida, Kourtney LaPlant was reading the student newspaper. “And there was this little tiny ad in the pa...

The Care and Keeping of You

24 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When Valorie Lee Schaefer was asked to write a book about puberty for kids, her first thought was, “Why me?” But as she got to work on it, she rea...

Tau = 10.8

10 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When twin rovers named Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars twenty years ago, they were only supposed to last 90 Martian days. But years passed, they...

How to Live Forever

20 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

An experiment in living together, forever. This episode was originally released in 2018. We're going back on tour in February! We’ll be telling bran...

Let’s Give It a Whirl

06 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2015, Brad Ryan called up his 85-year-old grandmother to see if she wanted to join him on a road trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. “Sh...

The Pointe Shoes

15 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Growing up, Ashton Edwards spent hours watching videos of famous ballerinas. Ashton loved the ballet “Swan Lake” – especially the role of the Sw...

The Barbizon Hotel

01 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In its early days, the magazine Mademoiselle positioned itself as “the magazine for smart young women.” It published work by Truman Capote, Albert...

The Contestant

18 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After Jean Westcott's first "Jeopardy!" audition, she waited 18 months to find out if she'd be on the show. She didn't get called, so she auditioned a...

Jiminy Crickets

11 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Here's a little preview of what we’re making over on Criminal Plus! We’re having a lot of fun making these bonus episodes. In each one, Criminal ...

Here I Am

04 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jules Hirsh had his first bar mitzvah when he was 13 years old, in 1946. Seventy years later, he celebrated a second one, at 83 - and then his wife, J...

Phoebe vs. Oyster

28 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We’re coming up on 10 years of our other show, Criminal. In the past decade, we've loved taking the show all over the country - including the time I...

Beatrix Potter and Her Sheep

20 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“It's all about finding the place that makes you happy, finding the life that makes you happy, and not worrying that other people make different cho...

A Really Terrible Orchestra

06 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the Really Terrible Orchestra of the Triangle, it's perfectly good to sound bad. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and ...

The Wolves

23 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We go searching for wolves in Yellowstone National Park, and learn about the dramatic and surprisingly relatable relationship between a powerful young...

The Other Phoebe Judge

21 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A preview of what we’re making over on Criminal Plus! Hear me and Criminal co-creator Lauren Spohrer taking your questions, telling stories, and tal...

Telling the Bees

09 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For a long time, beekeepers have told bees their news. They’ve told their bees about weddings, and when people they know have died. It’s said that...

Sun-Man

19 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1984, Yla Eason’s three-year-old son told her he couldn’t be a superhero because he wasn’t white like his He-Man action figures. So she looke...

Wimbledon in a Cornfield

05 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Kuhn grew up in Iowa in a family of corn farmers. When he was 10 years old, he heard a BBC broadcast of the Wimbledon finals. He couldn’t stop ...

At Brown’s Barbershop

21 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Brown’s Barbershop in Athens, Georgia, has been in business for more than 60 years.  One day, Everett Long went in for a haircut. Fred Smith was ge...

Fajita, Tamale, Clarence, and Blague

07 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“Our Sydney. Died Sept 4, 1902. Born a dog. Lived like a gentleman.” A story about the oldest pet cemetery in the country. Say hello on Twitter, F...

Museum of Broken Relationships

24 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišić broke up, they had a hard time dividing up their belongings – there were items that felt too painful for...

The Weatherman

10 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“He loves the clouds, the wind, the sky. He wants you to love them too.” Meteorologist Tom Skilling has been forecasting on TV in Chicago for the ...

Punch the Moon

26 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Growing up, Albert Samaha knew his uncle Spanky Rigor had been a musician in the Philippines. Spanky had helped start a band called VST & Company in t...

Sampson and Baylor

12 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A story about two golden retrievers. Aynsley Floyd’s short film about Sampson and Baylor is called The Mountain Dogs. You can watch it here. Say hel...

The Shelter

22 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alex Borovenskiy and Anabell Ramires run a theater in Kyiv, Ukraine. It's called ProEnglish Theatre, and was used as a bomb shelter during World War I...

"The show is coming back!"

08 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As a kid, Josh Dela Cruz used to watch Blue’s Clues with his little sister. The show was entirely animated except for a single human - Steve - who t...

How Have You Been?

22 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Five years ago, on Valentine's Day, we started a show about the ways we’re connected to each other. Today, we’re catching up with some of the peop...

Bill Russell, King of the Court

08 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Bill Russell joined the NBA in the 1950s, he was the only Black player on the Celtics. He went on to win 11 championships, more than any player i...

Always Tomorrow

21 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A woman becomes a best-selling novelist by writing more than 100 books about her first romance. Find out more about Brenda Jackson’s books here. Thi...

Nelson’s Camera

07 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1983, Nelson Sullivan picked up a video camera and started filming everything – going to nightclubs in New York City, shopping at the grocery sto...

You've Got Mail

23 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Delia Ephron has worked on some of the most famous romantic comedies of all time – like Sleepless in Seattle, and You’ve Got Mail – alongside he...

The Rescue

09 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Last November, George Linnane found himself at the bottom of a hole, deep inside a cave. He was badly injured after falling more than two stories. And...

Grace and Julia

26 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Grace Young remembers her parents were obsessed with food growing up — they went shopping every day for groceries and every night they cooked tradit...

Desperate In Rockland

12 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 Lette...

In the Mouth of the Whale

28 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

The Pizza Maker

14 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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. “...

A Crush

31 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Beneath the City

27 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Evan Woodard explores the city of Baltimore from underneath. He searches for things buried underground—things that some people might consider trash....

The Freelons

29 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 forgo...

Frank Goes to the Spelling Bee

30 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 audien...

The Visitor

27 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 t...

Seeing and Being Seen

13 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Cain's Jawbone

30 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

The Adventures of Dillon Helbig

23 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 hel...

The Brain in Love

26 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 onc...

Finding Joy

15 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 openl...

Grandfather of the Forest

17 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

“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...

Can I Speak to David?

27 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

"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...