This Is Love

A still life showing a goblet of wine, a peeled clementine, and a loaf of sliced bread against a sepia backdrop, with the text: Everything is Alive.

Episode 38: Tami & Ed, Sharpie

Episode #38

2021-09-29 13:01:31

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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.
Black and White portrait photo of a young Betty Reid Soskin smiling, and wearing a hat and a suit. with

Episode 37: What Gets Told

Episode #37

2021-08-25 13:17:05

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"History was dependent upon people like me remembering." A conversation with Betty Reid Soskin, shortly before her 100th birthday.
Close-up portrait of Shigeru Yabu, smiling, resting his cheek in his hand.

Episode 36: The Magpie of Heart Mountain

Episode #36

2021-07-28 12:18:19

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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.”
Jeff Ingram and Penny Hansen on their wedding day, standing together in a parking lot and smiling. Jeff is wearing a suit and holding a small dog, and Penny is wearing a white dress and cardigan.

Episode 35: My Penny

Episode #35

2021-06-30 12:14:23

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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.
A black and white photograph of Patti Smith applying eye makeup with a pencil, all reflected in a mirror. In the corner of the photograph you can see a reflection of the photographer's arm holding the camera.

Episode 34: Lost and Found

Episode #34

2021-05-26 12:54:13

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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.
Two men holding a baby, gazing down at him and feeding him a bottle.

Episode 33: On the Way to Dinner

Episode #33

2021-04-28 12:13:51

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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.
Trees against a blue sky

Episode 32: Among the Oak Trees

Episode #32

2021-03-31 12:10:01

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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.
Faded photo of Lynne Cox, smiling, wearing a swimsuit, and pulling a swim cap over her head.

Episode 31: Something Large and Wild

Episode #31

2020-12-23 12:57:24

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Our favorite story, for anyone who might be feeling a little lost.
An elderly man standing in a garden, wearing overalls, holding a very large bunch of celery.

Episode 30: Cheers

Episode #30

2020-12-09 13:19:30

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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 polite and so far, people like it.
Carlos Acosta as a young man, performing in a ballet, mid-leap.

Episode 29: The Dancer

Episode #29

2020-11-25 13:01:50

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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.
A close-up of a three-toed footprint in the sand

Episode 28: The Clearwater Monster

Episode #28

2020-11-11 00:02:31

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Early one morning in 1948, a phone call woke up the police chief in the small town of Clearwater, Florida. The caller said he’d seen something strange at the beach. Residents woke up that morning to find an odd set of footprints in the sand, and a rumor began circulating...
An empty beach with steep reddish-brown dunes on the left and the ocean to the right, with a slightly overcast sky

Episode 27: He Left in a Storm, He’ll Return in a Storm

Episode #27

2020-10-28 12:38:32

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There’s an old story on Cape Cod about a woman named Maria Hallett who fell in love with a pirate. According to legend, when he died at sea, she became so heartbroken that she started walking along the cliffs in storms and cursing other ships. The story goes that she believed that if she had lost the person she loved to the sea, everyone else should too. She became known as “The Sea Witch of Billingsgate,” and her story has haunted Cape Cod for the last 300 years.
A photograph from the 1960s of a Black couple smiling happily.

Episode 26: The Kinseys

Episode #26

2020-10-14 12:49:32

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Bernard Kinsey met Shirley Pooler in 1963, when they were both students at Florida A&M University, after a protest to integrate the movie theaters in Tallahassee. Years later, when their son Khalil was born, Bernard and Shirley made a plan — they wanted him to understand where he came from, and where his ancestors came from. So they decided to become detectives, uncovering the history of the Black experience in America.

Episode 25: City Birds

Episode #25

2020-06-24 12:02:18

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Meet a woman who decided to devote her life to the wild birds of New York City, and a Los Angeles man who formed a once-in-a-lifetime friendship.

Episode 24: Gobi

Episode #24

2020-06-10 12:08:17

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In June of 2016, Dion Leonard attempted one of the toughest races in the world—155 miles through the Gobi Desert. At the start of day two, he looked down and saw a little brown dog chewing on his shoes. Dion and the little dog were about to embark on an adventure that would change both of their lives.

Episode 23: Into the Ice

Episode #23

2020-05-27 11:47:56

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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. She assembled a team of the most accomplished divers in the world, and they traveled for 12 days through the rough waters of the Southern Ocean. Attempting to dive into cracks in the iceberg, her life was in very real danger three times. And the third time, she would be saved by an animal so small, so transparent, that you can see its heart beating right through its skin.