Two friends endure a rent-free house of horrors to save money, testing their friendship. Challenges include no heat, mice, and an unfinished basement. Mistakes and delicate relationships strain their bond, but they ultimately show unity. They later face a subpar apartment, debt, and find inspiration for unconventional careers.

A talented clarinet player's dreams of a career in music are derailed when he is sabotaged. He uncovers the truth behind the sabotage and embarks on a legal battle. The consequences of the lawsuit have a lasting impact on his life. Find out where he is now and listen to financial confessions from listeners.

We have a special treat for you today! We’re sharing an episode of the new podcast from APM Studios and Chalk + Blade called “Tiny Huge Decisions.” This is a story about two best friends, Mohsin and Dalia, as they make a life-changing decision: Will Dalia be the gestational surrogate for Mohsin and his husband? It’s emotional, intimate and more than a little complicated. Here’s Episode 1!   Subscribe to “Tiny Huge Decisions” now to listen to the whole season.

The podcast explores the challenges of heartbreak and the financial toll it can take. It discusses one woman's unique coping mechanism of data tracking and how it helped her navigate the emotional turmoil. Listeners also share their post-breakup splurges and activities as a way to grow personally.

This is Uncomfortable wants your help: What question would you ask a financial therapist?    How can I stop feeling guilty about spending money? How do I start a hard conversation with my partner about debt? How can I talk to my friends about the difference in our salaries? Whatever your question is, send it our way. Reema’s going to sit down with a financial therapist and get you some answers.    Send us a voice memo at uncomfortable@marketplace.org or call us at ‪(347) 746-4848‬.

When Susan was a teenager, she set out to find answers about her birth parents. As an adoptee, she longed to know where she came from. When she eventually reunited with her birth parents as a teenager, she thought she’d finally feel at peace. She couldn’t have known that many years later, she’d find herself in a very similar position, only this time longing for her own child. We follow Susan’s deeply personal story, taking a look at the interplay of money and adoption, and how history can have a way of repeating itself. Get even more Uncomfortable by subscribing to our newsletter.

Who can you trust with your money? Your parents? Your spouse? Or do you really need to keep control every step of the way? This week on the show, two stories of what happens when people don’t have control of their own finances. Sally, a 79-year-old listener, wrote to us about an experience with her second husband that still haunts her to this day. And we revisit a previous guest on the show, Hayli McKnight, who told us back in season one about the time her father spent her college savings. It turns out, Hayli’s finances have only gotten more complicated since we last spoke, and not just because of her dad.  

When reality dating fans tune into their favorite shows like “The Bachelor,” they expect to see dramatic rejections, hateable villains—all the staple elements of the genre. These formulas keep audiences watching and keep the money rolling in for TV networks. And for a relatively small price—networks don’t have to pay teams of writers, and sometimes they don’t even pay the cast. But while corporations profit, there is a hidden cost for the people who make these shows so entertaining. On this episode, we’ll hear about the long-term costs of making reality dating shows from Nadia Jagessar, a contestant on “Indian Matchmaking,” as well as former “Bachelor” producers Jazzy Collins and Michael Carroll. 

What do you do when you find money? What if we’re talking about a lot of money? “This Is Uncomfortable” joins up with “Snap Judgment” to explore the ethics of finders-keepers.  To get even more Uncomfortable, subscribe to our newsletter.

When Kate Beaton graduated college, she had exactly one goal: get rid of her student debt as fast as possible. The goal took priority over everything else in her life, including the dream of trying to make it as an artist. But when she decided to take a job in the oil sands of Alberta, Canada, she didn’t know she would be entering a workplace that was a world of its own, where the ordinary rules of society would not always apply.