Last Best Stories

After Nancy Reece Jones’ mom died, she realized she needed to talk more about death, about how to have a good one, about how to be kind to others who also need to talk. May...

  What makes a person screw up enough courage to try open mic night at a brewery, where people are there mostly to drink beer and not hear you sing? You might be surprised an...

The sign to Pray, Barbara Walker in the old post office and Madge Walker, one of its former, glorious postmasters. Barbara Walker owns a town in Paradise Valley, Montana, just nor...

In the backcountry of Glacier National Park, two seasoned trail-crew workers watched a couple of cute, fuzzy cubs cross their path. “And then you think, uh oh, where’s...

As it turns out, there’s a difference between Canadians and Americans and its name is hockey. Down here, we don’t worship at the temple of Don Cherry. Anna Cole, a rea...

When the pilot of a plane saw a fireball explode on Emigrant Peak, about 15 miles north of Yellowstone National Park, the dispatcher called out for another plane that was supposed ...

When Erwin Byrnes died, it was not exactly sad. That’s because his wife of 63 years and his family were ready when he picked the day and time to open the valve of his feedin...

David Poole woke up in the snow in Colorado, his lower half numb, and has been working since then to get back to his life outdoors near home: Townsend, Montana. It’s the long...

Ruth Eddy produced both of the stories featured in Episode 5. “I made you a mixtape!” Even though Hana Zimorino started dating the guy Mikki Lunda had been living with for three ye...

Jacob and Ben Cronin are brothers with parents who think God can show the path to the good life, which turns out to be the one straight people are on. Their stories about coming ou...