Transformers

People deciding to make very big changes. Prologue: Bob Carlson and his 10-year-old daughter, Tess, were driving by Six Flags Magic Mountain when she told him about one of her biggest fears: roller coasters. So they decided to try and take one on. This story is excerpted from the KCRW show Unfictional. (3 minutes) Optimus ... Way Past Her Prime.: Anthony DeVito recently observed his grandmother go through a metamorphosis no one in the family ever imagined they'd see. (17 1/2 minutes) Streetwise: Most big grand transformations we go through really come down to a hundred little things that we change about ourselves. This recently happened for a refugee from Afghanistan, now living in Detroit. She rode the bus for the first time and took Ira along. (8 1/2 minutes) Afterburner: There are things lots of us think we might fix about ourselves, you know, someday. When we get around to it. When things calm down around here for a minute. And then for some of us, that day arrives and we try to rise to the occasion. Keith O'Brien met a guy like that at a prison. (12 minutes) Trailbreaker: It's not just that deciding to change your life completely can be momentous. Telling people about the decision can be a big deal too. Andrew Greer talked to producer Sean Cole about an unexpected reaction to something he told his parents when he was a teenager. Andy is the author of "The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells." (12 1/2 minutes)