Strangers Archives

To hear this episode (and 80+ other archival episodes, plus brand new episodes of our 2019/20 season) join us on Patreon for just $1 per month.

 

This is a story of mothers, love, regrets and redemption, and of secrets from many years passed that cast long shadows in our lives. It’s about how Deborah Jiang-Stein came to be pulled over by two highway patrolmen at 19 years-old, with a trunk load of dope, a .38 revolver and a 10” switch blade…and that’s only the beginning.

Deborah Jiang-Stein is the founder of The unPrison Project, empowering women and girls in prison: www.unprisonproject.org and she is the author of PRISON BABY: A Memoir. 

To hear this episode (and 80+ other archival episodes, plus brand new episodes of our 2019/20 season) join us on Patreon for just $1 per month.

April is the cruellest month. At least it can be. If you are depressed or heartbroken, there is nothing worse than the thaw and the blossoms and the girls in short dresses and the lovers on park benches licking melting ice cream off each other’s faces and fingers. It makes your heart ache more because you remember the times when you felt like that, when spring made your heart sing as your rode your bike through the woods with the wind in your hair to meet friends on the shore, and the sun shone through the leaves in playful patterns. And there was a slight chill in the air down there in the shade of the trees, which might have warned you that age and experience would bring darker times in springs ahead, if you hadn’t been too innocent or just happy to notice. But you don’t understand the true cruelty of April until you are freshly heartbroken or terribly depressed, just like you don’t understand the true beauty of April until you’ve experienced a magical spring, and what’s more magical than being in love?

On this episode we’re honoring spring with a couple of very small stories about the quest for love, and the way it sometimes works out and sometimes does not. The first story, Copenhagen Laundry, was recorded and edited by Danish radio producer Christine Runøe. The second story, Looking for Love in El Paso, features Dave Kessler and first appeared on Strangers in February 2012.

(more…)

To hear this episode (and 80+ other archival episodes, plus brand new episodes of our 2019/20 season) join us on Patreon for just $1 per month.

Adrian is 25 and losing his eyesight. He’s in a race against time. He’s also in a battle between humility and pride. When is it stubborn, perhaps even foolhardy, not to make concessions to one’s disability? When is it the only way out? And where do you find wisdom to know the difference?

(more…)

To hear this episode (and 80+ other archival episodes, plus brand new episodes of our 2019/20 season) join us on Patreon for just $1 per month.

We revisit Jenni Rowell from the episode “Life, Interrupted” to see where things stand, and learn some sh*t about life.

To hear this episode (and 80+ other archival episodes, plus brand new episodes of our 2019/20 season) join us on Patreon for just $1 per month.

Sharon Houston has worked as a booker for TV court shows for more than 13 years. She shares highs and lows from the merry-go-round (and the sometimes not-so-merry-go-round) of daytime justice. She recently created a web series about the experience at youtube.com/daytimejustice. Her website is www.iamsharonhouston.com and you can follow her on Twitter at sharon_houston.

(more…)