Prologue

Six million Syrians fled the country after the start of its civil war.

Producer Nancy Updike tells the story of the people of Venezuela trying to prove who won their recent presidential election beyond a shadow of a doubt. (22 minutes)

Host Ira Glass spent America’s presidential election in the swing state of Michigan, where he found very little dispute over the ballot count from Republican poll challengers in Detroit now that they are doing the counting themselves. (8 minutes)

Susan Burton introduces some of the many women who went to a Yale fertility clinic for IVF treatment, and charts their experience from hopeful beginning to excruciatingly painful egg retrieval.

Often bypassing logic, the women go to great lengths to construct elaborate stories to make sense of their inexplicable pain.

Susan Burton is a couple years into recovery from the eating disorder she’s had for decades.