Kind World

Series produced by 90.9 WBUR - Boston's NPR News Station

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Stories about the profound effect one act can have on a life.

Stories about the profound effect one act can have on a life.

Listen and learn more at WBUR.org/KindWorld, or subscribe to the podcast.


18 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: Sasha Chanoff stands next to a hired armed guard in the safe compound outside Kinshasa.
Sasha Chanoff was in his mid-20s when he faced an urgent decision unlike any he’d encountered before — and more than 100 lives depended on it.

Bought by PRX Remix and KALW


  • Added: Dec 16, 2015
  • Length: 07:49
  • Purchases: 2
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Max Evans lived on the streets of Boston, making his bed between two jersey barriers each night.

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 04:23
  • Purchases: 1
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Janne Vanessche and her boyfriend were fighting. The argument was over something trivial, but, to an outsider, things may have looked serious. When...

  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 04:01
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By her estimates, Sister Sue has handled over 2,000 bond cases. And she has no intention of slowing down. Produced by Zack Ezor.

Bought by WAMC Northeast Public Radio and PRX Remix


  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 04:10
  • Purchases: 2
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Nearing the end of her hike of the Pacific Crest Trail, Brittany Goodson began to panic. Days of unrelenting rain had soaked her gear, and hypother...

  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 05:36
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As Parkinson’s disease worsened for Bernard Michaels, his family took him on a final trip to Europe. Early in the trip, a slip landed him in the ho...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 05:36
  • Purchases: 1
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Jen Turner had always wanted to be a mom. But when she developed macular edema, an eye disease, doctors warned her that pregnancy could result in p...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 05:36
  • Purchases: 1
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Everything seemed to be going wrong in Maureen Festa’s life. Her mother was dying, her marriage was ending, she had to move out of her home, and fa...

  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 04:04
Caption: Heidi, Ben, and Oliver Johnston after transplant surgery.
Dr. Ferenc Jolesz’s kidneys were failing fast. The estimated wait time for a cadaver transplant was five to 10 years. He didn’t have that kind of t...

  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 04:04
Caption: From left - Michael Tambone, Frances Schmitz, and Vincent Schmitz pose at the 2013 Mother/Son Mass.
Michael Tambone lost his mom in middle school and took to skipping mother/son events. Then Frances Schmitz stepped in. Produced by Zack Ezor.

  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 05:04
Caption: Best friends Emily (left) and Samantha.
Emily Proctor was in tears at the airport. She had missed a connecting flight on her way to Florida, to visit her best friend in a time of need. Th...

  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 03:49
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When Maureen O’Rourke’s father was dying, she vowed to stay with him until the end. But days turned into weeks, and Maureen found herself utterly d...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 04:23
  • Purchases: 1
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Shelagh Gordon was another name in the obituaries, a woman who had died suddenly of a massive brain aneurysm at the age of 55. But something in the...

  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 06:56
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When Ron Jones got to know a young couple who were struggling, he made the decision that money alone would not be enough to make a difference in th...

  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 05:11
Caption: Scott looks at a painting of Stevie Wonder that came in one of his letters. His nephew had listed Stevie Wonder as one of Scott’s favorite musicians.
When Scott Widak became terminally ill, his nephew took to Reddit, asking the online community to send letters to his uncle with Down syndrome. Sco...

  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 08:57
Caption: A portrait of Karim by artist Susan Siris Wexler.
Karim Alagha worked for 25 years at a gas station in Cambridge. He was known for being immensely loving and deeply empathetic: a sort of "gas stati...

  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 06:10
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Reverend Nathan Detering tried an experiment with his congregation — “reverse offering,” where instead of members donating money to the church, the...

  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 04:28
Caption: David Hartsock at the airfield.
It was Shirley Dygert's first time jumping from a plane. When everything went wrong, skydiving instructor David Hartsock determined that there was ...

Bought by New Hampshire Public Radio and PRX Remix


  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 08:29
  • Purchases: 2