This American Life

If you've never listened to This American Life, there are a lot of amazing and powerful stories that you're missing out on. You can listen to all of their past episodes for free on the website, or put them on your ipod. What I like so much about this program is that I feel like I am getting something important and interesting out of it every time I listen. Some stories teach about important topics (like detailed explanations of what exactly caused the financial crisis), and others spark a lot of emotion from hearing about someone's story. Although I haven't had the chance to listen to all of the series (some of the recordings go all the way back to 1995), there are a few that I have heard that stick out vividly as the most compelling:

414: Right to Remain Silent

Stories about people who have the right to remain silent... but choose not to exercise that right—including police officer Adrian Schoolcraft, who secretly recorded his supervisors telling officers to manipulate crime statistics and make illegal arrests.

409: Held Hostage

A kidnapping victim in Colombia spends his nights listening to a radio station that plays messages from the families of the kidnapped. That and other stories of people held captive—by criminals, by paperwork, and in one man's case, his own body—and the ways they try to cope. 

423: The Invention of Money

Five reporters stumbled on what seems like a basic question: What is money? The unsettling answer they found: Money is fiction. 

394: Bait and Switch

Stories about people who take the bait, and those who place it. Including the story of man who tries to investigate a neighborhood crime and ends up in jail himself. And the story of the pitfalls of luring customers to a make-believe pizza delivery place.