As I mentioned the other day, you’re probably drowning in “best of 2011” lists right now. I don’t want to pile on, but let me just offer this one thing that I think was the very best thing you could find on the web this year.

It was on the air in January. I’ve listened to it over a dozen times since then. Ira Glass called it the best radio story he’s ever heard.

As the year closes out and you’re hopefully spending some time with loved ones, set aside 20 minutes for Radiolab’s “Finding Emilie”, from the “Lost & Found” episode. Their summary:

In this segment, we take an emotional left turn to a story of a very different kind of lost and found. We begin with a college student, Alan Lundgard, who fell in love with a fellow art student, Emilie Gossiaux. Emilie’s mom, Susan Gossiaux, describes her daughter, and the terrible phone call she recieved from Alan nine months after he became Emilie’s boyfriend. Together, Susan and Alan tell Jad and Robert about the devastating fork in the road that left Emilie lost in a netherworld, and how Alan found her again.

It’s flawless: the people, the writing, the pacing, the music, the twists, the I-can’t-believe-they-got-this-on-tape tape. They even stick the landing. Enjoy.

(The very best thing this year, period, for me, was marrying my best friend. But that’s between the two of us. This one’s for everyone else.)