<p>When the best—and perhaps only—way to say something is to write it down.
</p><p>Visit <a href="https://thisamericanlife.supercast.com">thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners</a> to sign up for our premium subscription.</p><ul><li>Prologue: Ira goes out with a letter carrier, ‘Grace,’ as she delivers mail on her route. He learns about the people who bring us our mail and also how people treat their mail. (11 minutes)</li><li>Act One: Writing a letter decades after an event that shaped her life was the only way that Nicole Piasecki could make some sense of it. (18 minutes)</li><li>Act Two: Yorkshire, 1866. A farmer overcomes his timidity and writes a very important letter to a local beauty. (3 minutes)</li><li>Act Three: When senior editor David Kestenbaum was still a rookie reporter, he wrote an email to a legend. Then he waited...and waited...for a reply. (6 minutes)</li><li>Act Four: A woman writes an unusual letter on behalf of her husband. (1 minute)</li><li>Act Five: Producer Zoe Chace compares the letters a person gets and the letters they wish they got. (12 minutes)</li></ul><p>Transcripts are available at <a href="https://www.thisamericanlife.org/838/transcript">thisamericanlife.org</a></p><p><a href='https://www.thisamericanlife.org/page/privacy-policy'>This American Life privacy policy.</a><br /><a href='https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices'>Learn more about sponsor message choices.</a></p>