Science Friday

A story about trying to sort fact versus fiction, how destabilizing that can be, and a very strange confrontation with the truth.

Richard Kraft was in a fog of grief when he bought his first Disney collectible at an auction. But once he started he couldn't stop. What's the role of positive distraction in the face of adversity?

HANNA ROSIN, HOST:

This program contains strong language and tops that might not be suitable for all listeners.

LINA MISITZIS, BYLINE: In 2015, Jack did something brazen and romantic - the kind of gesture movies end on and history textbooks hinge wars on. He went and saw about a girl.

JACK PETERSON: Just flew down there, like, in the middle of the night. I just showed up where I thought she was staying.

What would it be like if you could control your mood with a hand held device?

In this episode of Invisibilia, we explore our relationship with uncertainty through the eyes of a chief meteorologist.

What is the relationship between the version of you that lives online and the one that walks around the earth?

Invisibilia is aware of the objections raised on social media in response to our recent episode about pain, called "The Fifth Vital Sign." We regret that the story was shared on some platforms using the word "cure," which was not our intended message about this treatment program.

We look at how our culture's massive effort to address pain has paradoxically increased it. And we follow one young girl as she struggles through a bizarre and extreme treatment program.

Five years ago, Leena Sanzgiri was living her childhood dream...New York city apartment, job at Vogue, and a boyfriend she planned to marry. Until the July day she woke up in the hospital, and everything changed.

Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

An uncomfortable encounter with a stranger sets producer Abby Wendle on a quest to answer the question: who do you let in and who do you keep out? In her search for balance between openness and caution – she navigates the struggles of her long-distance relationship and chats up musician John Prine.

Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mike Kane (@Mike_Kane_TV) is an Emmy-award-winning producer and writer in the DC area. His work has appeared on PBS, Discovery, TLC, Animal Planet and more. He has been performing stories on stage for more than seven years has performed in Story District's Top Shelf show four times.

Today we introduce you to Allie n Steve, who is one person. For half the day she can be Allie and the other half he is Steve. For many of us this would be a disorienting experience. But after a shattering experience in their life, Allie n Steve has learned to live comfortably in this in between space. And Allie n Steve has lessons to teach us about the beauty of not retreating to black and white. We also talk to a woman who suffers from a little known condition called "maladaptive daydreaming." She is who is so addicted to her fantasy life that she's finding it hard to manage her real one.

Content Warning: This episode contains descriptions of sexual abuse.

A panel of judges sits to decide the fate of the young woman. She's the child of addicts and an ex-addict and ex-felon herself, and she's asking the court to trust her to become an attorney. The outcome of her case hinges on a question we all struggle with: are we destined to repeat our patterns, or do we generally stray in surprising directions? - a question increasingly relevant in an age when algorithms are trying to predict everything about our behavior.

In this episode, we talk to a 74-year old woman whose husband's death has led her to skydiving, and a beekeeper who thinks his hives have been stolen by mobsters. Then we travel to Mogadishu to learn about a reality show called "Inspire Somalia," which is trying to remind a country that's been terrorized by Islamic extremists that it could once again be the kind of place where people can sing in public.

Your aging mother lives in another country. Then a tenant moves into her house – he's clean, polite, helpful. At first you are relieved, until you begin to suspect that man has sinister motives. That's the situation two brothers found themselves in, in Taiwan. Then something happened between the tenant and the mother that unsettled the brothers' lives even more.

Special thanks to the following musicians:

In any relationship, there are always things we don't say, assumptions we make about people we love. But often those assumptions are wildly, even dangerously wrong. We tell the story of a Taiwanese spy who infiltrates a family, and exposes how little they understand each other. And we meet an extreme daydreamer who has decided to keep her fantasy life a secret from her husband and son.

Reality TV may be popular around the world, but it's also roundly mocked as formulaic and contrived. So, can that kind of fragile fantasy world meaningfully influence reality? We look at the goals and impact of a UN-backed reality show called "Inspire Somalia," that attempted to model democracy and freedom in a country racked by decades of clan warfare and oppression by extremist groups like al-Shabab.

Clips from Inspire Somalia courtesy of the U.N.

Special thanks to the following musicians:

A panel of judges sits to decide the fate of the young woman. She's the child of addicts and an ex-addict and ex-felon herself, and she's asking the court to trust her to become an attorney. The outcome of her case hinges on a question we all struggle with: are we destined to repeat our patterns, or do we generally stray in surprising directions? - a question increasingly relevant in an age when algorithms are trying to predict everything about our behavior.

In this episode, we talk to a 74-year-old woman who decides the only way to get over her husband's death is to jump out of an airplane. And to a third generation beekeeper whose entire collection of hives has been stolen - he believes by Russian mobsters. After losing so much can they tell themselves new stories about themselves that allow them to function?

Special thanks to the following musicians: