Paper trails: A viral book list and a wife’s secret thoughts revealed

What can a handwritten record reveal after someone is gone? In this episode, we follow two very different paper trails.  Marci Pelzer shares the 109-page list her father kept of more than 3,500 books he read over six decades. After going viral, his private habit became a public window into his lif…

Inside the Mascot: The Phillie Phanatic, a Yard Goat, and a mascot maker

Mascots: They’re furry, funny, and just a little funky. But what's actually going on in there? Tom Burgoyne shares what it’s been like to embody the Phillie Phanatic for over three decades. Mikaela Higgins reveals how her company became a giant in the world of mascot-makers, designing icons from …

Audacious Live! Show & Tell in Winsted: From movie props to prophylactics

Taxidermied dogs. A CIA agent's hat. A perfume that made strangers on elevators lose their composure. This is what happens when you pull names from a vase at a brewery and say: show us something you love, and tell us why. Our fourth live Show and Tell at Little Red Barn Brewers in Winsted, Connec…

Female truckers: Meet the women behind the wheels

Fewer than 10% of truck drivers are women, and in this episode, you’re going to meet three of them. Spend the day with Chion and a tow truck driver, get to know a woman who runs a CDL training school, and hear about life on the road from a truck driver who happens to be a trans woman. This episod…

How delusional infestation makes you feel bugs that aren’t there

Imagine feeling an unbearable itch, convinced that tiny insects are crawling under your skin. But no doctor believes you. You try to prove it, collecting samples, documenting everything. But under a microscope? Nothing is there. That was Paula Cox’s experience with delusional infestation, a rare d…

You live where?! When home is a plane or a cruise ship

What kind of person looks at a Boeing 727 and thinks, yes, I should live there? Or boards a cruise ship and decides never to go back to a traditional home?  Bruce Campbell is a 76-year-old engineer and pilot who has spent more than 25 years living in a retired jetliner in the Oregon woods.  Angel…

Unconventional obituaries: for a mother, for strangers, and for one very good dog

Obituaries are meant to mark an end. But sometimes they start a whole new conversation. First, Andy Corren, whose funny, biting, tender obituary for his mother captured so much life that it went viral and became a memoir. Then, Sallie Hammett, whose loving obituary for her dog Charlie rippled acr…

“I could do that!” Stories of improbable confidence

What’s a sentence that invites the universe to call your bluff? “I could do that!” Meet three people who said it, and then had to live it. Christopher Lamar runs Lunar Embassy, a company that sells deeds to plots on the Moon and other celestial bodies. Logan Goodspeed learns what happens when yo…

Multiple sclerosis tried to bench her. Karen Smith won gold instead

At 74, Karen Smith is still chasing the feeling she fell in love with as a kid: the freedom and aliveness of playing sports. After years of sudden pain and uncertainty, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis - news that could have ended her life in athletics. Instead, adaptive equipment helped …

Audacious Scotland: CT’s Highland Festival & Games, plus quarrelsome dames seek justice for witches

Two Scotlands, one episode.  Scotland One: kilts, haggis, bagpipes, and that irresistible fairground mix of music and muscle at Connecticut’s Scottish Highland Festival & Games! Plus swordplay and the oddly soothing chaos and grunts of Weight Over Bar.  Scotland Two: centuries of witch trials, po…