By Design

On PurposeEverything around you was decided by somebody.24 episodes · 2h 32m

Close to Home

Good DogEvery town has a dog that everybody knows.12 episodes · 1h 19m Made by HandHe has spent his life making things by hand.12 episodes · 1h 16m Recipe BoxShe keeps the recipe box on the kitchen counter, the same tin box her mother kept, with the cards gone soft and spotted from a lifetime of use.12 episodes · 1h 18m The Home PlaceAlvina was born in nineteen thirty on a quarter section her grandfather broke by hand, nine miles from town on a road the county graded twice a year.12 episodes · 4h 38m

Dark

Dead AirLate night on a small station, and the request line is open.5 episodes · 2h 11m Sold As IsAn appraiser prices everything three ways. None of the three is what it was worth to the dead.6 books · 32h 35m of listening

Found Again

Lost and FoundFrom nineteen fifty-three to nineteen eighty-eight, Vesta ran the lost-and-found window at the bus depot in a county-seat town in northern Iowa.12 episodes · 4h 35m

In Confidence

The Party LineVera ran the switchboard in a town of eleven hundred people from nineteen forty-six until the dial exchange came in nineteen sixty-three.12 episodes · 4h 46m

Kindly Meant

House CallsDoc Bragg practiced in one county from nineteen fifty-one to nineteen eighty-six, and for the first nine years of it he was the only doctor for six hundred square miles.12 episodes · 4h 48m Letters Never SentAlmost everybody has one: a letter they wrote and never mailed.20 episodes · 1h 59m Porch LightShe has lived in the same small town all her life, and she has sat on her porch long enough to know how most of its little mysteries came out.20 episodes · 1h 57m The BookmobileFrom nineteen fifty-four to nineteen seventy-nine, Imogene drove the county bookmobile in a Minnesota farm county: a used bread truck with shelves on both walls12 episodes · 5h 5m Worth the DetourSomewhere off the highway, there is a hill covered in forty windmills.12 episodes · 1h 13m

Known By Heart

What The Job IsA working interview show.12 episodes · 5h 0m

Lights Low

Open All NightFrom nineteen fifty-eight to nineteen eighty-six, Arlette worked the night counter at the Crossroads Café, where a U.S.12 episodes · 4h 52m Slow RoadSome nights you need more than a few minutes to let the day go.12 episodes · 4h 46m Wind DownSome stories are for the end of the day.20 episodes · 2h 6m

Paper & Law

Check StationA check station was a table where neighbors looked at what you brought. Now it's a phone call.5 books · 24h 37m of listening Low WaterFirst in time, first in right — and the oldest right on the Wilder sits at the bottom of it.5 books · 25h 9m of listening Service ConnectedService connected is a finding, not a description. Somebody in Des Moines decides it, on paper.5 books · 25h 1m of listening The Country CourtAdverse possession: a fence can beat your deed. Ash County has one lawyer you can hire.5 books · 25h 29m of listening The Kinship ReportA kinship report is a document proving nobody is standing in front of you. That is the job.5 books · 24h 42m of listening

Plain Dealing

Going OnceGarth called farm sales in eastern South Dakota for forty-four years, from nineteen fifty-two to nineteen ninety-six.12 episodes · 4h 49m

Quiet Work

Becoming AvionHe came home to sell the house. The field behind it is a door the town agreed to forget.1 book · 7h 7m of listening DaytimerA daytimer is a station the government switches off at sunset. Half the county goes with it.5 books · 24h 46m of listening Intelligent DisobedienceA guide dog is trained to refuse you. This is the school where that gets taught, and graded.5 books · 26h 32m of listening Neck ResetA neck reset takes the neck off. The neck was never the problem; it is the only end you can reach.5 books · 23h 8m of listening RootstockAn apple never comes true from seed. Every named variety is one tree copied by hand ever since.5 books · 25h 5m of listening The Farm TeamMakeup: the one line on a scouting form that is a word, where every other line is a number.6 books · 28h 37m of listening The Ride-AlongSome jobs you only get to see if you do them.1 episode · 28 min The RouteVerna Tolliver carries the mail on Rural Route Two, and she knows more about the people out here than anybody alive — not because she asks, and not because she 24 episodes · 2h 33m The Larkspur VetEvery ranch has a card. The herd on the front, the family on the back. The back is the heavy side.6 books · 30h 8m of listening The Mail RunThe cheap path opens on the sun's schedule and shuts on it. The mail is never late anyway.6 books · 30h 24m of listening

Stay a While

Wait With MeEvery other story you have ever been told was told afterward, by somebody who already knew how it came out.12 episodes · 4h 38m

Straight Face

Tall TalesAn old storyteller tells you one impossible thing at a time, and he tells it the way a county clerk reads the minutes.20 episodes · 1h 59m

The Long Way Round

Told BackwardA different woman every episode, and one thing she can tell you the whole of: a ring, a house, a friendship, a café, a pupil, a garden.12 episodes · 4h 36m

The Swap Shop

The Swap ShopSunday morning in Tallow, Alabama.4 episodes · 1h 33m

The Why of It

The Old CaseFor thirty years he was the sheriff of a quiet county, which is not the same thing as a county where nothing happened.12 episodes · 4h 32m Told Three TimesEvery man has a story he has told all his life.12 episodes · 4h 55m

Uncredited

Nobody You KnowTrue stories about the people whose work you touch every day and whose names you have never once said out loud.23 episodes · 2h 8m

Under Pressure

Cause and OriginThe ignition source is what got hot. The first fuel is what was there to catch. Not the same thing.5 books · 27h 1m of listening Hold FastHe has spent his life around the people who go out when everyone else is told to stay in.12 episodes · 4h 39m Probable CauseThe company under investigation sits at the table by right. The word for that is party.5 books · 25h 23m of listening UpboundA gauge at Memphis decides how much freight a boat may carry. Nobody gets to argue with it.5 books · 23h 22m of listening Signal TraceSeventeen Cold War listening doctrines. Each book spends one, and names the next.4 books · 29h 16m of listening Deep SalvageIn admiralty you sue the ship herself. Finding a wreck first buys you nothing at all.6 books · 36h 54m of listening The Harbormaster MysteriesPassive sound gives you a bearing, never a range. Kettle Harbor's harbormaster has no badge.6 books · 36h 39m of listening GridworkOn a control-room board, green means dead. Get that backwards and a man puts his hands on it.5 books · 28h 37m of listening The Long ColdWe don't make two: a rescue may not become a second casualty. That rule has cost this county a boy.6 books · 28h 35m of listening

Weather Permitting

Fair and WarmerElden farmed in north-central Kansas and kept the weather for the government from nineteen forty-seven to two thousand one.12 episodes · 4h 43m

Word Kept

High LonesomeHe rode for the big outfits when the West was still open, and he has stories that take a while to tell.12 episodes · 4h 25m Signed ForArdell drove a tractor-trailer out of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, from nineteen sixty-one to nineteen ninety-eight.12 episodes · 5h 7m