The Little Engine That Couldn't Decide What To Do

Nobody likes a tattletale. Running to tell the teacher every time your friend looks at a phone in class isn’t cool. Or maybe it’s the right thing to do. To tell, or not to tell: THAT is the question we face on Pickle today.   Should Carl Tell On Shumita? Carl caught Shumita eating someone else's birthday cake! Carl thinks he should tell-- it's wrong to take someone else's cake without asking! Shumita thinks he shouldn't-- she only took a little bit, what's the big deal? What do YOU think? Write to us! We want to hear from you! Click here to send us feedback.

Ambika the elephant sure looks happy. She’s lived to the ripe old age of 70, and she pees gleefully when she sees her friend. She must like living in a zoo. And yet...a nearly 7,000-pound elephant cooped up in a zoo her whole life? Would YOU like that? Wait, don’t answer. Not until you hear what Ambika has to say about this doozy of a pickle. We want to hear from you! Click here to send us feedback.

You see a train in the distance. But oh no! There are five people on the tracks, and they’re about to get hit! You run to pull the lever so the train will switch tracks -- and then, you notice something else: There’s another person standing on THAT track. Do you do nothing and risk five lives, or pull the lever, and deliberately cause the death of one? Talk about a pickle. We want to hear from you! Click here to send us feedback.

They gave the world Latin! Aqueducts! Really cool architecture! But the Romans also put on shows where they killed people (and animals) for sport and had a decidedly gross substitute for toilet paper! Does that make them bad people? Or should they get a pass because they lived 2,000 years ago and the world was a different place? Hmm. This IS a pickle. We want to hear from you! Click here to send us feedback.

Do you have a best friend? Are you your best friend’s best friend? Do you know why your best friend is your best friend? What is best? What is friend? Do you want me to stop asking you questions? Fine, then listen to this episode about what real friendship is. I’ll give you a hint: It’s a pickle. What makes a friend? Carl really wants to be Shumita's friend but she isn't so sure. Shumita wonders what true friendship is all about. What kinds of things do YOU look for in a friend? Write to us!  We want to hear from you! Click here to send us feedback.

Is it ever okay to tell a lie? What makes a real friend? And here’s a question: How much is a person’s life worth? Yikes, that’s a tough one! Join the cast of Pickle as we explore life’s stickiest wickets, with the help of curious kids --and the occasional elephant. It’s philosophy, made fun. WNYC Studios is a listener-supported producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more. We want to hear from you! Click here to send us feedback.