It's one of the most common and infuriating friend mysteries out there - a friend disappears into thin air. But where do these ghosts go? And why are we so haunted by them? If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.

It's one of the most common and infuriating friend mysteries out there - a friend disappears into thin air. But where do these ghosts go? And why are we so haunted by them? If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the <a href="http://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/">National Suicide Prevention Lifeline</a> at 1-800-273-8255 or the <a href="http://www.crisistextline.org/">Crisis Text Line</a> by texting HOME to 741741.

Invisibilia

A Friendly Ghost Story

Here’s a unique approach to the phenomenon of “ghosting”: The main story in this episode of Invisibilia gets into avoidant personality disorder, which I had never heard of before, but which can manifest in a way that from the outside might look like someone cutting you off. 

Imagine a TV show with no plot, no characters, no tension... and yet, it went viral! In this episode, we have a story that questions storytelling as we know it. Plus, co-hosts Kia Miakka Natisse and Yowei Shaw take a spectacularly unspectacular train ride.

The Great Narrative Escape

I'm here for this!!

Would you watch tv that was just the view out the window of a train for 5 hours? No commercials, no narrative, just you and whatever your brain comes up with while you're watching. 

It's interesting to think about the watcher or listener having to play an active role in creating their own narrative instead of being guided through one. 

Fascinating episode!

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. NOTE: The treatment in this episode is administered by trained professionals in a hospital setting (and should not be implemented without medical supervision).

The Fifth Vital Sign

Using pain to conquer pain?? Great episode. And music by Sleeping At Last too!

As a parent, what do you do when your four-year-old starts telling you about memories that can't possibly be his? Memories that he says are from a past life?

Back When I Was Older

Tell me you wouldn’t freak out if your kid started saying stuff like this. 

Let's get slow. Producer Abby Wendle picks up the gauntlet that was thrown down in the last episode "The Great Narrative Escape." Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

Let's get slow. Producer Abby Wendle picks up the gauntlet that was thrown down in the last episode "<a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/19/998228413/the-great-narrative-escape">The Great Narrative Escape</a>." Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

American Slow Radio

If you haven't listened to the last episode of Invisibilia, this one won't make any sense. I loved them both. This one was just the sounds and chats of people watching slow tv. 

I listened while I was cooking by myself and I was very relaxing. It was weirdly comforting.

Invisibilia explores a social experiment with money, focused around a contentious topic: reparations. What happens when you demand white people give up their wealth?

Eat The Rich

Loving the new hosts!! And this is an thought provoking episode about white people making reparations to black people. 
A lot of people get huffy about it, but idk, wealth redistribution is going to have to happen at some point right? 
Could you put a number on the amount due? Would you even try?

Invisibilia is seeking stories about discomfort with power.  Stories about leaders denying their power, organizations with supposedly flat power structures and invisible hierarchies, or personal relationships with difficult power dynamics.  If you have a story about power – at a workplace, in a band, on a high school basketball team, etc... – send a short summary with the subject line – POWER – to invisibiliamail@npr.org. The deadline is March 11th.

Uncomfortable with power? Tell us about it!

This week at Invisibilia, we're bringing you an episode from NPR's Throughline about an emotion you might be feeling a lot these days: nostalgia. Longing for 'simpler times' and 'better days', many of us have been turning to 90s dance playlists, TV sitcoms, and sports highlights. We're looking for comfort and safety in the permanence of the past, or at least, what we think the past was. But, when it first appeared, nostalgia itself wasn't considered a feeling; it was a deadly disease. This episode traces the history of nostalgia from its origins as an illness to the dominating emotion of our time.

This week at Invisibilia, we're bringing you an episode from NPR's Throughline about an emotion you might be feeling a lot these days: nostalgia. Longing for 'simpler times' and 'better days', many of us have been turning to 90s dance playlists, TV sitcoms, and sports highlights. We're looking for comfort and safety in the permanence of the past, or at least, what we think the past was. But, when it first appeared, nostalgia itself wasn't considered a feeling; it was a deadly disease. This episode traces the history of nostalgia from its origins as an illness to the dominating emotion of our time.

The Nostalgia Bone from Throughline

It's the end of the friendship season! We'll be back next year with more Invisibilia. In the meantime, if you're hungry for more friendship content, our friends over at Life Kit have done several episodes about it - from how to be a better listener, to what to do when a friendship changes. In this episode: practical tips on how to make new friends.

It's the end of the friendship season! We'll be back next year with more Invisibilia. In the meantime, if you're hungry for more friendship content, our friends over at Life Kit have done several episodes about it - from how to be a better listener, to what to do when a friendship changes. In this episode: practical tips on how to make new friends.

How To Make Friends from Life Kit

Would you ever consider going to therapy with a friend?Two best friends who call themselves brothers were drifting apart, so they asked psychotherapist Esther Perel to help — and we listened in. This episode was recorded in collaboration with Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel and a companion episode can be heard on her podcast.

Would you ever consider going to therapy with a friend?Two best friends who call themselves brothers were drifting apart, so they asked psychotherapist Esther Perel to help — and we listened in. This episode was recorded in collaboration with Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel and a companion episode can be heard on her podcast.

Therapy, with Friends

Sh*t happens. So why is it so hard to talk about? This week, the ways that poop divides and binds us in our friendships.

Poop Friends

A lot of us think that it's a bad idea to get physical with friends. We worry it'll get messy, maybe even ruin the friendship. But if physical intimacy between friends weren't so taboo, what could our friendships look like? In this episode, we explore the gray zone of sex and friendship, following a man who deliberately kept his friendships with women hazy and now wants to apologize, and a pair of BFFs who became close through sex.

Friends with Benefits

You know the old saying--keep your friends close and your enemies closer. But what if you can't tell the difference? In this episode, the story of two friends who got caught up in a Top Secret operation that tested their assumptions about trust, betrayal, loyalty, and power.

International Friend of Mystery

It's a basic tenet of friendship that you get to choose your friends. We look at two institutions that took away that choice: convents circa the 1960s and a summer program with unusual rules. What do we lose and what do we gain when we give up our preferences and try to make friends with everyone equally?

Nun of Us Are Friends

Friendship gets the Invisibilia treatment.

The Friendship Season

Alix Spiegel and Hanna Rosin take the audience on ever exciting adventures revolving around the unseen things that shape the seen world. What do the words “karma” and “fate” mean? Is there any truth to their meanings? Are there things that defy science? Here's where to have a field day. Join the two friendly podcast hosts for an exploration of all things unseen and supernatural. Lock all doors first!

Unseeable forces control human behavior and shape our ideas, beliefs, and assumptions. Invisibilia—Latin for invisible things—fuses narrative storytelling with science that will make you see your own life differently.

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