Hearing Voices
-
Solidod
The Life and Times of Solidod Woods, the last remaining member of her village of Mescalero Apache who lived on the edge of Death Valley.
-
Homeless
The voices of people who were or are homeless: Carmen Delzell takes "Crazy John" into her home. Scott Carrier spends a night in DC "Gospel Mission" shelter. The "Land of 10,000 Homeless" is a Minneapolis music/audio documentary project. Dmae Roberts interviews a young homeless girl in "Miracle on the Streets." The Homeless Writers Coalition performs poetry put to music. Homeless people tell their stories to StoryCorps. And the Kitchen Sisters visit with street and low-income people whose...
-
Prisoners of War
In December 1944 the Allies were closing in on Germany. HHitler had a desperate plan to save the Third Reich, a massive assault he believed would so demoralize that the Allies, they would seek a separate peace, leaving only the Russian army on the eastern front. On December 16 the Germans unleashed an offensive that would become the most brutal battle of the European war: the Battle of the Bulge. Nineteen thousand Americans were killed, about the same number were taken prisoner. We hear from...
-
Ayahuasqueros
In May 2012, Soundwalk Collective traveled into the heart of the Peruvian Amazon to document the ancient chanting rituals of the Ayahuasquero, the Master Shaman and practitioner of plant medicine. The shaman consumes a potent brew made from the Ayahuasca, a sacred vine of the Amazonian jungle, the "vine of the souls". The brew induces a powerful psychedelic experience that causes visual and auditory hallucinations. This hour we present a radio essay by anthropologist Jeremy Narby, a...
-
John Cage
A tribute to the composer on his 100th birthday: We listen in on a 1942 John Cage radio play, "The City Wears a Slouch Hat." We have a vox-pop asking "Who's John Cage?"; an audio illustration by Jay Allison of a "John Cage and Merce Cunningham" collaboration; an excerpt from the film "John Cage: Ecoute (Listen)"; and, from the series Echoes, "Thoughts in Sound: John Cage- Imaginary Landscapes." Laurie Anderson and Ken Nordine offer homages to the composer. And we hear Cage's "In a...
-
Sports Report
Producer Scott Carrier's wife learned early, in her "Swimming Lessons," to skim beautifully across the water. The National Track and Field Hall of Fame commissioned sound-artist Ben Rubin to make audio art from interviews with athletes, who tell themselves "We Believe We Are Invincible." Like many gay men, Mark Allan, didn't appreciate "Football," until the day he watched and learned. Producer Katie Davis kept a "Basketball Diary" as she coached the kids in her downtown DC team, part of her...
-
Hiker/Biker
Self-propelled travels: We walk five thousand miles with a Fanatic Reactionary Pedestrian. We pedal thru Yellowstone and Teton Parks. And we trek with the Queen of Bhutan to remote villages, promoting what-they-call Gross National Happiness. ("The Queen's Trek" is an Outer Voices production — they were first foreign journalists allowed to accompany a Bhutanese monarch on the trek, and the first to interview the Queen.)
-
Native America
A tour of our nation's First Nations: NPR's Alex Chadwick rides into the Bitterroot Mountains with Natives and Forest Service workers. We paddle the Pacific Coast with the Canoe Nations of the Northwest. And native poets Henry Real Bird, Joy Harjo, John Trudell and Keith Secola sing us the stories of their homes and ancestors.
-
Mushroom Cloud
In "Enola Alone" Antenna Theater interviews bomber pilots, bombing victims, and Colonel Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay. Political speeches and popular songs chart our changing attitudes towards the "Atomic Age." Residents recall the 1950s Nevada and Utah nuclear bomb tests in Claes Andreasson series "Downwinder Diaries." Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti has "Wild Dreams of a New Beginning." Americans across the country answer Scott Carrier's question: "What Are You Afraid Of?" The band Lemon...
-
Mormon Fringe
Practicing polygamy, finding pockets of Polynesian Mormons, and converting the lost Native-American Israelites: "Saints and Indians," a Homelands Production, on the Latter-Day Saints school for Navaho children — restoring their original place as the lost Kingdom of Isreal. A "Utah Luau" with displaced Hawaiians. And Scott Carrier's sound-portrait of the "Last Days" plural marriage sects of Manti, Utah.
-
Musical Memory
The Soundtrack of Our Lives: Selected stories from the series "Musicians in their own words" and "Song and Memory", which asks the musical question: What one song do your remember most from your childhood? Also Melissa Block interviews musician Abigail Washburn about her project Afterquake: creating sound poetry with the children who survived China's 2008 earthquake.
-
Heat
Symptoms of heat fatigue: A sound-poem for "Dead of Summer" in the city by Marjorie van Halteren & Lou Giansante. Tuscon residents reflect the desert "Heat," with author Charles Bowden, poet Ofelia Zepeda, and music by Steve Roach; produced by Jeff Rice. The perfection of family, a crippled man on a blind man's back, and a collective scream of "I'm not dead," sweat it out in Joe Franks's "Summer Notes." Cats pulling pianos are "The Little Heroes" in John Rieger's Dance on Warning series. And...
-
Out of the Blocks
One hour of radio, one Baltimore city block, everybody's story: What does an city block sound like? Aaron Henkin of WYPR-Baltimore and electronic/hip hop musician Wendel Patrick hit the streets, and spent several months documenting the stories, voices, and people who populate the 3300 block of Greenmount Avenue, in Baltimore. We go inside the hair salon, the tattoo parlor, and the check cashing business. We talk to a street preacher and homeless street people. This part of the city is a...
-
Stars and Bars
Celebrating America with Flags and Festivals, featuring: Recitations and reflections on "The Pledge" of Allegiance and "War vs. Peace." The annual "Rainbow Family" migration into the Montana forest on July Fourth — their day of prayer for peace. A town that covets their title of the "Armpit of America" — welcome to Battle Mountain, Nevada. Mississippi moonshine, barbecued goat and old-time Fife & Drum at "Otha Turner's Afrosippi Picnic." Stories by Joe Frank, Barrett Golding, host Larry...
-
In the Mountains
Heading towards the summit: NPR's Alex Chadwick finds the "Ah Toy" Chinese Gardens hidden in the mountains of Idaho's Payette National Forest. Scott Carrier scales Utah's Wasatch Range for some spring skiing. Quiet American gathers sounds in Nepalese mountain Towns. Joe Frank attempts an ascent of K2, the planet's second tallest peak — not all our treks are successful.
-
Father Figures
Paternal praise, pride, disappointment and love, hosted by Jay Allison (This I Believe): Scott Carrier gives his son Milo a "Ski Lesson." From Animals and Other Stories, we hear "Reflections of Fathers," aka, Bugs & Dads. Comic strip artist Lynda Barry wishes her divorced dad a "Happy Father's Day." A doctor tells his daughter about her granddad in "Story Corps- Dr. William Weaver." Jay Allison describes his daughter's questions about his love life as "Grilling Me Softly". Dan Robb's family...
-
Old School
Richard Paul follows "School VP," Asst. Principal Irasema Salcido, through her hectic multi-lingual morning at DC's Bell Multicultural High School. Host Katie Davis finds she "Got Carried." Slam poet and history teacher Taylor Mali schools us on "What Teachers Make." Producer Hillary Frank gets the shy "Quiet Kids" to speak up. ChicagoTribune columnist Mary Schmich's commencement speech advises "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)," with music from filmmaker Baz Luhrman. Host Katie Davis...
-
Where Wild Things Are
A memorial to recently departed cultural innovators: Beastie Boy bassist and rapper Adam Yauch — aka, "MCA," British hairdresser Vidal Sassoon, pioneer FM rock n’ roll disc jockey Pete Fornatale, and mostly we hear mostly we hear children's literature author/illustrator Maurice Sendak, along with all the music and movies inspired by his 1963 classic, "Where the Wild Things Are."
-
For the Fallen
Green Beret and poet, Major Robert Schaefer, US Army, hosts the voices of veterans remembering their comrades: We talk with troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, reading their emails, poems, and journals, as part of the NEA project: "Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience." We hear interviews from StoryCorps, an essay from This I Believe, and the sounds of a Military Honor Guard, recorded by Charles Lane. And we attend the daily "Last Post" ceremony by Belgian veterans...
-
Strange Days
Way beyond the norm: Host Larry Massett has an audio essay on the life and literature of Paul Bowles (December 30, 1910 - November 18, 1999). The original mock man-on-the-street interviews, Coyle & Sharpe turn the everyday into the extremely strange. Producer John Rieger is enveloped in an Amazonian Ayahuasca expedition, a tale of ritual drugs and tourism.
-
All Mom Radio
For Mother's Day, maternal tales from producers around the country: "Travels with Mom" follows Larry Massett and his mother to the Tybee Island, Georgia of today and of the 1920's, as recalled by Mrs. Massett. Writer Beverly Donofrio joins her mom for "Thursday Night Bingo," produced by Dave Isay of Sound Portraits. In Nancy Updike's "Mubarak and Margy," a gay man returns home to care for his mom, and to the "cure" his family plans for his homosexuality. And comedian Amy Borkowsky shares her...
-
Courage to Create II
The conclusion of this 1978 NPR/CBC radio classic, featuring interviews with artists on the origins of the creative impulse. Interviewees include psychologist Rolly May (author of The Courage to Create), scupltor Ernst Neizvestny (translation read by Mike Waters), jazz violinist Joe Venuti, composer Harry Somers, classical guitarist Larry Snitzler, dancer Francesca Corkle (Joffrey Ballet), actor/director Jeanne Moreau, stained glass artist Rowan LeCompte, photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson.
-
Courage to Create I
A 1978 NPR/CBC radio classic, featuring interviews with artists on the origins of the creative impulse. This first of two hours includes psychologist Rolly May (author of The Courage to Create), classical guitarist Larry Snitzler, actor/director Jeanne Moreau, pianist Loren Hollander, photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, stained glass artist Rowan LeCompte, mezzo-soprano Fredericka von Stade, painter Harold Town, novelist Marie Claire Blais, flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal, folk guitarist Leo...
-
The Earth Sings
Host Dmae Roberts of Stories1st.org, for Earth Day, presents Sounds for and from Mother Earth: The Quiet American takes an audio trek through Nepal"s "Annapurna" Circuit. Host Dmae Roberts records Maori music and culture. We hear Pulse of the Planet's "Extraordinary Sounds From the Natural World." The band Pamyua mimics creature calls. And from Gregg McVicar and the "Earthsongs" series: Sioux Soprano Bonnie Jo Hunt layers opera over insects (on Robbie Robertson’s Music for the Native...
-
Shades of Gray
An hour-long audio mosaic about abortion in America: Pro-choice. Pro-life. Most people have already chosen sides in the ongoing debate, so why revisit the issue? Shades of Gray shares a range of stories told by people young and old who have been directly affected by abortion, instead of the polemics of irreconcilable extremes. It's a carefully crafted audio mosaic and a stark portrayal of the intensely personal nature of our relationship with abortion. Winner of the 2004 Golden Reel for...
-
Wordshakers
Host Andrei Codrescu's "Poetry" redux. Lord Alfred Tennyson leads "The Charge of the Light Brigade." Thomas Edison waxes Walt Whitman's "America." Denise Levertov knows "The Secret." Carl Sandburg wonders "What is Poetry?" (by Barrett Golding). Scott Carrier wonders about "Alex Caldiero- Poet?" Ed Sanders (fmr Fugs) poses "A Question of Fame." In New Orleans a hot-dog vendor, barkeep, and stripper are in the "Poetry Combine (by Larry Massett). Jan Kerouac responds to her father's poetry and...
-
Making Music
Making Music, For a Living, For a Life: 1930s Florida folk music in the turpentine camps — a WPA project with Zora Neale Hurston and Stetson Kennedy. The Maddox Brothers and Rose, a California country star. A North Carolina preacher's son plays everything on guitar. And a whistler on the streets of Mexico City.
-
Close to Death
People near the process of death and dying: It takes "Four Seconds" to hit the water from the Golden Gate Bridge — producer Jake Warga's friend took that fatal jump. NPR's Josh Darsa interviews "The Man with the White Cane," a blind man who fell under a subway train. Carmen Delzell's 89-year-old "Grandmother's Hip" is broken. Scott Carrier talks to the family, the doctors, even the grave digger, to everyone affected by "The Death of Ruth Tuck. And we hear an answering machine "Kaddish" for...
-
Political Party
Let's rev-up this election process with a Political Party, crisscrossing the county collecting opinions: Scott Carrier in Salt Lake City watches his mayor debate Fox News host Sean Hannity, as the audience prepares for battle. Oregon kids brief us on the Constitution. Chicago college students discuss politicians. Montana pols talk politics. Howard Dean screams. We hear two opposing musical messages about the Obama administration. And we Auto-Tune the News, turning speeches info songs.
-
Destination Unknown
Getting Nowhere, Slow: Producer Scott Carrier hitchhikes cross-country. Tony Joe White give directions to the swamp. Ben Walker brings books to a Balkan war criminal. Donna, a supermarket check clerk, dreams of faraway places, in the ZBS radio soap, Saratoga Springs. And People Like Us find an Arkansas Explorer.
-
Her Stories
Host Dmae Roberts of Stories1st.org, for Women's History Month, presents Stories By, For, and Of Women: The Kitchen Sisters go to "Tupperware" parties. A supermarket checker checks out her life, in ZBS's radio soap Saratoga Springs. Jenifir returns "Home From Africa" with all 13 Symptoms of Chronic Peace Corps Withdrawal. Host Dmae Roberts has a collage of and about "Sisters." In a new syntax of whispers and words Susan Stone tells the story of "Ruby" and her husbands. And Sonia Sanchez,...
-
Stories of Transformation
Two audio diaries about character and change: a street kid who decides to wise-up and a person born in the wrong body. We hear two people documenting their own personal transformation. "Finding Miles" is the story of a person named Megan who began a slow and difficult transition into manhood, into becoming Miles. "Running from Myself" is the story of of boy who used to rob people, and his decision to stop.
-
Musicality of Speech
A history of what composer Steve Reich call "speech-melodies:" We start with Riech's 1965 tape-compositions, then move to Reich Remixed, sampled and mashed-up several decades later. Composer Adam Goddard makes music from his grandfather's stories of "The Change in Farming." We hear David Byrne and Brian Eno's spoken-word experiments and a collage called "Fundamentals: Musical Preachers." And we replay the classic Radiolab story on unintentional music, "Sometimes Behaves So Strangely."
-
Love's Labors
Lovelorn letters to an advice columnist. Women's tales of true but tainted "Cringe Love," from producer Nancy Updike. A "Valentine" from Kevin Kling. "Love & Marriage Atop the Towers," stories of weddings at the World Trade Center, collected by The Kitchen Sisters. Host Amy Dickinson and hundreds of other "Leftover Brides," lining up for mass Moonie marriages. And a "Parent and Child" discussion between Jessica and Scott Carrier on what makes a good marriage.
-
Circus Blood
A world-class troupe of audio daredevils and media magicians: SF Chronicle journalist Jon Carroll interviews his daughter Shana as she swings thru the air on her flying "Trapeze", from the Life Stories series by Jay Allison. Joe Frank loves the lady "Lion Tamer," an excerpt from his hour "The Dictator." Adam Rosen mixes a medley of the many versions of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." And Elizabeth Eck returns to the circus family she ran away to join, in Larry Massett's "Circus in the Blood."
-
Voices from Tahrir
January 25, 2011. One year ago, a revolution began in Cairo’s Tahir Square. For the next eighteen days, millions of Egyptians across the country would demonstrate in the streets, demanding the end of their 30-year dictatorship. They were inspired by Tunisians, whose protests, that same month, had forced out the authoritarian regime of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Now it was time for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to go. A few weeks after the protests, the advocacy group Human Rights...
-
Crossing Borders
Marcos Martinez, (formerly) of KUNM Alberquerque, hosts A Tale of Two Countries, from Mexico to US: In "Sasabe," a Sonora, Mexico border town, Scott Carrier talks to immigrants on their hazardous, illegal desert crossing, and to the border patrol waiting for them in Sasabe, Arizona. Luis Alberto Urrea reads from "The Devil"s Highway," his book about death in the desert. Guillermo Gomez-Pena imagines "Maquiladoras of the Future," fantasy border factories. "And I walked...", by Ann Heppermann...
-
Shortcuts 2011
Speeches, songs, events, and people who past last year: We hear Queen Elizabeth, Occupy Wall Street, The Arab Spring, Osama Bin-Laden's death, Japan's nuclear accidents, North East floods, Texas fires, GOP presidential candidates, Michael Moore, and Charlie Sheen. Music includes: PJ Harvey, Ry Cooder, Fleet Foxes, Bright Eyes, The Coasters, John Barry. Tributes to: Steve Jobs, Jerry Leiber, Andy Rooney, Joe Frasier, Gil Scott Heron, Hubert Sumlin, Wild Man Fischer, Amy Winehouse, Clarence...
-
Polk Street Stories
An oral history of San Francisco's premiere queer neighborhood, told by those who've called it home: Public Historian Joey Plaster spent a year gathering 70+ interviews from people experiencing Polk Street's transition from a working class queer neighborhood to an upscale entertainment district. Polk Street's scene predates the modern gay rights movement. It was a world unto itself, ten blocks of low rent hotels, bars and liquor stores, all sandwiched in between the gritty Tenderloin, City...
-
Prime Candidates
Politicians who fancy themselves president tromp thru the New Hampshire mill town of "Claremont," produced by Larry Massett, Art Silverman and Betty Rogers. The media spin myths out of misquotes in "Democracy and Things Like That" by Sarah Vowell and This American Life. The Language Removal Service concocts the world's first wordless political debate in their "California Recall Project." And all this years primary losers re-appear in "Super Tuesday Mixdown," from Peter Bochan's series...
-
HannukahCristmashup
Christmas at a Bagram Air Base hospital, Afghanistan; a tour of the Holy Land, Hannukah military history; a visit to a toy store; and musical Chrismashups.
-
Prisoners of War
In December 1944 the Allies were closing in on Germany. HHitler had a desperate plan to save the Third Reich, a massive assault he believed would so demoralize that the Allies, they would seek a separate peace, leaving only the Russian army on the eastern front. On December 16 the Germans unleashed an offensive that would become the most brutal battle of the European war: the Battle of the Bulge. Nineteen thousand Americans were killed, about the same number were taken prisoner. We hear from...
-
Behind the Beat
Music makers on making music: French vocalist Camille, Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista, a Hidden Kitchen at a Mozart Festival, and a high school sax player with immigration issues. Stories from the Kitchen Sisters, Long Haul Productions and the series Musicians in Their Own Words
-
Portrait of a Plague
Sister Agnes Ramashiga's Radio Diaries of "Just Another Day At the World's Biggest Hospital," Soweto — 2000 patients check in daily, half HIV positive. A teenager documents her HIV "Positive Life- Tanya," by American RadioWorks. Poet Lisa Buscani is "Counting" on her mom's health advice. "And Trouble Came: An African AIDS Diary" is Laura Kaminsky's compositon for viola, cello, piano, and stories of Tamakloe: warrior, tailor, AIDS victim. Life-saving meds brought Krandall Kraus back from the...
-
Inside the Adoption Circle
First-person voices from all sides of adoption. Stories about living with questions and searching for answers. We hear from birth families (mothers, siblings and a father), adoptees (both kids and adults), and various adoptive families including open adoption and international adoption (China). Producers for Transom.org by Samantha Broun and Viki Merrick with help from Jay Allison.
-
Joe Frank
An hour under the influence of radio maestro and master storyteller Joe Frank, featuring many of Joe's sonic co-conspirators, including David Cross (Fox "Arrested Development"), Laura Esterman (ZBS "Ruby"), Larry Block (PBS "Sesame Street"), and Grace Zabriskie ("Twn Peaks," HBO "Big Love"). Deep and dark does not begin to describe the solitary, ponderous melancholia that is a Joe Frank story.
-
Veteran's Day
Voices from the Armed Forces: "Project Healing Waters" teaches wounded warriors, including amputees, to fly-fish; we spend a day catching trout at Rose River Farm in Virginia. "Operation Homecoming" is an NEA book project featuring writings and readings by vets returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. "Winter Soldiers" is testimony by soldiers and marines at the Iraq Veterans Against the War hearings. "Swords to Plowshares" follows a member of the Farmer-Veteran Coalition: farmers...
-
City of Angels
Joe Frank talk to a homeless man on the streets of Los Angeles. David Greenberger visits Senior Centers in East LA. Pastor Michael Cummings patrols the grounds of at Jordan High School, Watts, California. And we hear excerpts from Tom Russell's "Hotwalker," an Americana ode to old LA, the music and the culture, with beat outsiders, religious revivals, and L.A. poet Charles Bukowski.
-
Bloody Hell
An hour of horror for All Hallows' Eve, the first half is bloody, the second goes to hell: ESP, dreams and intuition drip "Blood on the Pulpit" by David Greenberger. La Llorona, the crying woman, is Mexico's bogeyman. ZBS adapts Cherokee writer Craig Strete's "The Bleeding Man." FM Einheit delves in Dante's DivineComedy in a "Radio Inferno." A woman narrates her found-sound trip to hell with Jesus. Shel Silverstein introduces us to "Monsters I've Met." And the 90 Second Cellphone Chillin'...
-
Walk in the Park
National Parks, Neighborhood Parks: Scott Carrier climbs Angel's Landing in Zion National Park. Jay Allison goes deep into the Everglades with Lance Corporal James McMullen, author of "Cry of the Panther." Katie Davis introduces us to her neighbors in William Pierce Community Park, DC. And Yellowstone's geyser guy, geologist Rick Hutchinson, gets us up close and personal with the Park's hydrothermal features.
-
Home Team
For the weeks leading to the World Series, baseball stories from the Public Radio Hall of Fame: Host Gwen Macsai takes a swing at singing the National Anthem. Composer Phillip Kent Bimstein plays ball with the St. Louis Cardinals' "Bushy Wushy Beer Man." Barrett Golding spends a season with the Rookie League. Singer/playwright Terry Allen defines the many meanings of Dug-Out, amid the emerging early 1890s sport of professional baseball.
-
Cystic Fibrosis
Laura Rothenberg audio-documents two years of her life with CF, in the classic Radio Diaries story "My So-Called Lungs." A new piece by Catie Talarski of WNPR, Connecticut Public Radio, "Four Failings Lungs," follows two other CF patients; one wants a lung transplant, the other does not. And StoryCorps brings us one of the longest-surviving lung-transplant recipients, Howell Graham, who had both lungs replaced in 1990.
-
Desert Air
Hot & dry Summer soundscapes: Coyotes, owls, frogs and songbirds are part of "Desert Solitudes," recorded by Bernie Krause and Ruth Happel. Host Ben Adair (APM Global Climate Change Initiative) heads to the ghost towns, abandoned mines, and billion-year old boulders along Death Valley's "Mojave Road." Kraut-rockers Faust dial in "Long Distance Calls in the Desert." The Quiet American sound-captures a nuclear Nevada Test Site warning sign rattling in a "Desert Sun." In the early 1990s, SLC...
-
Lost Critters
Some Dogs, Some Cats, One Pig, and a Million Camels: Camel racers ride the wild herds of Australia. Leo Grillo's DELTA Rescue locates lost pets in Los Angeles. Piggles eavdes the butcher block, and wanders the backwoods near Washington DC. And the mythical Mama Chaos leads the feral dogs of Los Alamos.
-
Predator
For hunting season: Hillary Frank's tale of a teenage babysitter who's siblings think he's a werewolf. Mark Allen fears a toy poodle — the most evil entity known to man. Matmos mixes music with North American Mammals. Long Haul Productions witness a PA Spillway, where tourists toss bread, and the carp amass so thickly that ducks walk the fish's backs for a slice. Norman Strung demonstrates the shrill sound and thrill found in calling for elk. A father and son provide a hunter's perspective...
-
Prisoner of Zion
Shortly after the World Trade Center fell in autumn 2001, it became clear the United States would invade Afghanistan. Producer Scott Carrier decided he ought to go there too. Why? To see for himself: that's what writers do. Who are these fanatics, these fundamentalists, the Taliban and the like? And what do they want? For the weekend of 9/11/11, Hearing Voices from NPR presents "Prisoner of Zion." Carrier narrates his trip to Afghanistan. With his young guide and translator, Najibulla, they...
-
Working Class
What we do for a living: Mohawk ironworkers on the Twin Towers; a Radio Dairy from a scissors sharpener; exercises for existential overworked, undervalued employees; percussive postal clerks in Ghana; a man with 800 jobs; and what happens when there is no work... anywhere: the 1940 Great Depression "Voices from the Dust Bowl."
-
Engine Overdrive
Engine Overdrive: Ode to Internal Combustion. We talk to people with oversized engines: on Harley's, and Low Riders, at race tracks and drag strips. Music from Big Stick (aka, Drag Racing Underground) and an opera, "The Miracle of Cars," by Robert Ashley. Off to the races at the Long Beach Grand Prix and the Bonneville Salt Flats. Some classic comedy car ads, and hanging with Hog riders.
-
Crow Fair II
The final part of this two-hour special: A century ago the six Crow Reservation Districts came together for a cultural gathering with other Great Plains tribes. The Crow Fair honors that tradition with a "giant family reunion under the Big Sky." Every August is now Crow Fair in southeastern Montana, with a parade, a Pow Wow, and a rodeo. In 1977 a team of NPR producers and recordists spent a week collecting sounds and interviewing people at this annual event with the Crow people: the...
-
Crow Fair I
A century ago the six Crow Reservation Districts came together for a cultural gathering with other Great Plains. The Crow Fair honor that tradition with a "giant family reunion under the Big Sky." Every third weekend of August is now the Crow Fair in southeastern Montana, with a parade, a Pow Wow, and a rodeo. In 1977 a team of NPR producers and recordists spent several days collecting sounds and interviewing people at this annual event. This early ambient sound-portrait breathes with the...
-
Dear Diary
Audio documents of daily life: From Radio Diaries a Teenage Diary of "Nick In Salt Lake City, from Home School to High School." Recording an ascent of "Cho Oyo, 8201m," the sixth highest mountain in the world. A transgender tells her mother she's gay, in "Dia's Dairy." And in "Carmen's Diaries" a woman rediscovers what she wrote as a girl.
-
Working with Studs
A Transom.org tribute to the great broadcaster and author Studs Terkel (1912-2008): For many years, Transom.org editor, Sydney Lewis, worked side by side with Studs on his radio show and his books. For this remembrance, a blend of documentary and reminiscence, she brings together a crew of Stud's co-workers. They share great stories and wonderful previously-unheard tape of Studs himself.
-
Trouble
From Bad to Worse: A private investigator empathizes with the criminal element. Katie Davis hunts the vermin of her rat-infested DC neighbor. Joe Frank read the nightly news: no wonder we're all so depressed. And somehow a KGB-led road trip thru the Republic of Georgia has gone wrong.
-
Outer Space
The first moon man, launched July 16, landed July 20 1969: Astronauts communicate from beyond earth in "Zero G, & I Feel Fine" and "Last Man on the Moon." President LBJ and Commander Scott Carpenter have a helium-infused confusing phone conversation. Sonic transmissions from deep in our solar system are sent back by Voyager I and II. The Sun and "space weather" emit "Natural Radio" sounds. Christine Lavin laments the loss of planetary status of "Planet X." And Laurie Anderson relates a...
-
Hiker/Biker
Self-propelled travels: We walk five thousand miles with a Fanatic Reactionary Pedestrian. We pedal thru Yellowstone and Teton Parks. And we trek with the Queen of Bhutan to remote villages, promoting what-they-call Gross National Happiness. ("The Queen's Trek" is an Outer Voices production — they were first foreign journalists allowed to accompany a Bhutanese monarch on the trek, and the first to interview the Queen.)
-
Lincoln Monument
For Lincoln's birthday bicentennial year and Independence Day, Old Abe, the Civil War, and its still-present aftermath: NPR recreates the "Gettysburg Address." An archival recording of Walter Rathvon, who heard that speech live. Musings by poets Langston Hughes and Carl Sandburg. In the 1950s Tony Schwartz recorded an NYC voxpop "Portrait of Lincoln." Radio Diaries of the last "Civil War Widows," one Union, one Confederate. Producer Jake Warga goes to battle with "Civil War Re-enacters."...
-
Bad Trip
Obscure tours and offbeat retreats thru Americana: Filmmaker Tony Buba takes the Long Haul Productions team around his hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania, a once thriving steel town, now one-tenth the town it was in population. Scott Carrier transports visiting Tibetan monks around the U.S. West. The town of Boonville, California has it's own language: Boontling, a story by Ginna Allison. And writer Mark Allen tours Universal Studios and pretty much loses his mind.
-
Talking Dads
Sons daughters, and dads: Storyteller Kevin Kling shares pancakes with his "Dad." Sarah Vowell has her story of a gunsmith's daughter, "Shooting Dad." Joe Frank lets us eavesdrop on a father-son phone call between Larry and Zachary Block. Host Larry Massett and several other sons try to get to know their "Lost and Found Fathers."
-
War Torn
A weapons-grade hour of wartime radio: The people who start the fight, and the people who pay the price. The words of Churchill, Bush, Rumsfeld, LBJ, MacNamara, J. Robert Oppenhiemer, and a Hiroshima survivor. Carl Sandburg reads his poem "The Unknown War." Scott Carrier reports from an Afghan battlefield in November 2001. Ryuichi Sakamoto has a musical contemplation of "War & Peace." And "Prayer Circle: Path to Zero," a CD for global nuclear disarmament.
-
Homeless
The voices of people who were or are homeless: Carmen Delzell takes "Crazy John" into her home. Scott Carrier spends a night in DC "Gospel Mission" shelter. The "Land of 10,000 Homeless" is a Minneapolis music/audio documentary project. Dmae Roberts interviews a young homeless girl in "Miracle on the Streets." The Homeless Writers Coalition performs poetry put to music. Homeless people tell their stories to StoryCorps. And the Kitchen Sisters visit with street and low-income people whose...
-
War Memorial
For Memorial Day, two stories recorded in Vietnam: In 1966, a young Lance Corporal carried a reel-to reel tape recorder with him. He made tapes of his friends, of life in fighting holes, of combat, until, two months later, when he was killed in action. His friend and fellow marine remembers him in "The Vietnam Tapes of Michael A. Baronowski" (by Jay Allison for Lost & Found Sound). And host Alex Chadwick's first trip to Southeast Asia was as a soldier in the Sixties. Two decades later, as a...
-
On Horseback
A couple equestrian classics from the NPR archives: Olympian Bruce Davidson shares his techniques for training equine athletes, with NPR's David Molpus. Josh Darsa and a team of sound-recordists are at Belmont Stakes for the third leg of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. And a poem by singer Annie Gallop about the poem that unleashed her love of horses.
-
Refugees
The journeys of people driven from their homeland by war, disaster, and religious and political persecution: We travel "From Afghanistan to Amarillo," "From Sudan to Omaha," "From Burma to Indianapolis," and "From Iraq to Detroit" (stories in the One Thing series). Mountain Music Project records "Blues for the Karen" in a Thai/Burma border refugee camp. A "Cargo Flight to Somewhere" starts in the Congo and ends in an airport detention center (a song/story for Crossing the BLVD project,...
-
Motherly Love
For Mother's Day: The Radio Diaries of "Melissa, Teen Mom" move her from foster home to starting her own family. Muriel & Walter Murch compose "A Mother's Symphony" from womb sounds. Amy Jo, single mother of two toddlers, is "Surrounded by Lights" (producer: Erin Mishkin). Myra Dean tells StoryCorps of the day her son was killed. Ben Adair takes his mom in search of "Family Baggage."?Toronto musician Charles Spearin with his neighbor "Mrs. Morris," in The Happiness Project.?Katie Davis...
-
Musicians' Minds
Musicians minds sometimes work differently. So interviews with musicians sometimes take unexpected turns: Host Lynne Neary's interview with David Byrne ends up with her answering his questions. Mickey Hart takes us on an audio tour of his extensive worldwide percussion collection. Negativland turns their NPR interview into audio art. Musicians In Their Own Words surveys the sonic spectrum of musicians warming up for a performance.
-
Psychological
States Of Mental Health, in three diagnoses: Depression, Amnesia, and Mental Breakdown. Cameron Ledoux talks with his dad about his father's depression. Scott Carrier goes looking for amnesia victims. And a sonic journey into the depths of mental breakdown — a first-person account told by the person losing grip on reality, and her friends who witnessed the descent.
-
Psychological
States Of Mental Health, in three diagnoses: Depression, Amnesia, and Mental Breakdown. Cameron Ledoux talks with his dad about his father's depression. Scott Carrier goes looking for amnesia victims. And a sonic journey into the depths of mental breakdown — a first-person account told by the person losing grip on reality, and her friends who witnessed the descent.
-
Scene of the Crime
There will be blood: An archival interview with 1950s NYC crime scene photographer, Weegee; then excerpts from old time radio's "Casey, Crime Photographer" and "Dragnet." Nancy Updike of This American Life spends the day with professional "Crime Scene Cleaners." A sound-portrait of a convicted "White Collar Criminal," by Adam Allington. And host Jake Warga does a good deed, for which he ends up assaulted, bleeding, and hospitalized.
-
Thumb and Thumber
Is hitchhiking the great American adventure sport or just a risky last resort for folks who can't come up with bus fare? Producer Jonathan Mitchell offers a "Beginner's Guide to Hitchhiking". Scott Carrier relates a hitchhiking adventure involving "New Shoes" and a letter to the Dalai Lama. And host Larry Massett drives a battered Olds 88 from New Mexico to Florida, picking up every hitchhiker on "The Road" he sees — no matter how dangerous-looking.
-
Hippies
Tuned in and turned on: Interviews with Merry Pranksters (Carolyn Garcia and George Walker). The Beautiful People remixes Jimi Hendrix. Johhny Depp conjures Hunter S Thompson. And a walk down Haight Street, looking for the lost generation of the 1960s.
-
Protest
We hear crowds and confrontations at the "Town Halls 2009" collective cross-country chaos. "Protest 1968-2008" is four decades of marches and musics, montaged by Ann Heppermann and Kara Oehler. Scott Carrier introduces a junta-threatening Burmese rock band, Iron Cross. Tea Partiers and single-payer proponents shout outside a Presidential health care whistle stop; there's debate, division and a "Day of Democracy". NPR's Jeff Kamen takes to the DC streets amid a police crackdown on an anti-war...
-
Native America
A tour of our nation's First Nations: NPR's Alex Chadwick rides into the Bitterroot Mountains with Natives and Forest Service workers. We paddle the Pacific Coast with the Canoe Nations of the Northwest. And native poets Henry Real Bird, Joy Harjo, John Trudell and Keith Secola sing us the stories of their homes and ancestors.
-
WHER-Memphis
The first all-girl radio station in the nation, WHER-Memphis, went on-air in 1955. It was the brainchild of sound legend Sam Phillips, who created the groundbreaking format with money he raised from selling Elvis Presley's Sun Studios contract. Women almost exclusively ran the station. They read the news, interviewed local celebrities, and spun popular records. They sold and produced commercials, directed and engineered programming, and sat at the station's control boards. "WHER: 1000...
-
Vietnam Vets
The sounds of Saigon, 1972: in combat, on the radio, in the streets, were recorded by Claude Johner for the Folkways recording "Good Morning, Vietnam. Doug Peacock, former Green Beret medic, deals with the PTSD of vets, including himself (interviewed by Scott Carrier). Rich Kepler's war experiences were bottled up and about to burst, until he released them in his poetry (producer: Larry Massett). And producer Katie Davis talks with African American vets, a sound-portrait based on the book...
-
Guitar Heroes
Pickers, Pluckers, Players: The bad man of blues guitar, Charley Patton. A Master Class with classical guitarist Christopher Parkening, narrated by Susan Stamberg. Bass and steel guitarist Musicians In Their Own Words. Learning to play with Lemon Jelly and Birdsongs of the Mesozoic. And Asian stringed instruments recorded by the Mountain Music Project.
-
Mormon Fringe
Practicing polygamy, finding pockets of Polynesian Mormons, and converting the lost Native-American Israelites: "Saints and Indians," a Homelands Production, on the Latter-Day Saints school for Navaho children — restoring their original place as the lost Kingdom of Isreal. A "Utah Luau" with displaced Hawaiians. And Scott Carrier's sound-portrait of the "Last Days" plural marriage sects of Manti, Utah.
-
Ranchers
Life, Death, Land, and Livestock: We spend a year on a sheep ranch, lambing, shearing, selling and "Counting Sheep." Musician Phillip Bimstien bases his classical composition, "Garland Hirschi's Cows," on the voice of a Rockville, Utah cattle-man. And 97-year-old rancher is "Holding His Ground" (produced by Jesikah Maria Ross for Stories from Heart of the Land and Saving the Sierra).
-
Musical Memory
The Soundtrack of Our Lives: Selected stories from the series "Musicians in their own words" and "Song and Memory", which asks the musical question: What one song do your remember most from your childhood? Also Melissa Block interviews musician Abigail Washburn about her project Afterquake: creating sound poetry with the children who survived China's 2008 earthquake.
-
Place Your Bets
We play keno, cards, and craps in Sin City: Scott Carrier stays up all night in America's gambling Mecca: "Vegas", baby. "Casino Suite" is three pieces for strings, winds, and Vegas dice table worker, composed by Phillip Kent Bimstein. Jazz bassist Kelly Roberti lost his bass to the "Keno Machines". NPR host Alex Chadwick pits his wits against the casino regular playing "Poker at the Ox". Joe Frank's "Old Gambler" gets on the wrong side of Sin City's collection crew. And playwright John...
-
Making Music
Making Music, For a Living, For a Life: 1930s Florida folk music in the turpentine camps — a WPA project with Zora Neale Hurston and Stetson Kennedy. The Maddox Brothers and Rose, a California country star. A North Carolina preacher's son plays everything on guitar. And a whistler on the streets of Mexico City.
-
Sacred Places
Host Alex Chadwick charts "The Geography of Heaven" from the holy Hindu city of Vrindavan, India. Barrett Golding finds "Sacred Spaces" around Montana in a Buddhist woman's home, a Methodist prairie church, a Soiux Sundance, and a sculptor's ranch. Dmae Roberts climbs to a "Temple in Taiwan" with 100 people singing. Judith Sloan gathers "Incantations" in Queens, New York, prayers from churches, mosques, synagogues, apartments, and public gatherings. And Hammad Ahmed get's "Lost in Ritual"...
-
Elvis Aaron Presley
Elvis Presley (Jan 8 1935 - Aug 16 1977), a Birthday Party for the King: Long Haul Productions rides the bus to Graceland, talking to the EP pilgrims. Producer Adam Allington rides along with a policeman and Elvis impersonator. The Residents storytell the allegorical "Baby King." Knonos Quartet performs "Elvis Everywhere". Gillian Welch expounds her biographical song "Elvis Presley Blues". Go Home Productions mashes up a "Strung-Out King" on-stage meltdown. And from Joyride Media & Sony's...
-
Strange Days
Way beyond the norm: Host Larry Massett has an audio essay on the life and literature of Paul Bowles (December 30, 1910 - November 18, 1999) on his 100th birthday. The original mock man-on-the-street interviews, Coyle & Sharpe turn the everyday into the extremely strange. Producer John Rieger is enveloped in an Amazonian Ayahuasca expedition, a tale of ritual drugs and tourism.
-
Christmas Mashup
A mix of holiday stories, found-sound, and sampled songs: A bell-ringer at the Mall of America. Holiday history as told by second graders. A trip to the toy store. Carols sung by Zulu children in a South African orphanage. And holiday bits from Bing Crosby, George W. Bush, and The Beatles Fan Club Christmas messages.
-
Courage to Create II
The conclusion of this 1978 NPR/CBC radio classic, featuring interviews with artists on the origins of the creative impulse. Interviewees include psychologist Rolly May (author of The Courage to Create), scupltor Ernst Neizvestny (translation read by Mike Waters), jazz violinist Joe Venuti, composer Harry Somers, classical guitarist Larry Snitzler, dancer Francesca Corkle (Joffrey Ballet), actor/director Jeanne Moreau, stained glass artist Rowan LeCompte, photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson.
-
Courage to Create I
A 1978 NPR/CBC radio classic, featuring interviews with artists on the origins of the creative impulse. This first of two hours includes psychologist Rolly May (author of The Courage to Create), classical guitarist Larry Snitzler, actor/director Jeanne Moreau, pianist Loren Hollander, photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, stained glass artist Rowan LeCompte, mezzo-soprano Fredericka von Stade, painter Harold Town, novelist Marie Claire Blais, flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal, folk guitarist Leo...
-
Shopping for Santa
Holiday spirits and communal consumption: We go shopping at "City X," a history of America's malls and their creator, architect Victor Gruen, told by producer Jonathan Mitchell. And "T'is Season" is home recordings, a woman homesteader remembering brutal North Dakota 1920s winters, blues legend Brownie McGhee describing homemade Christmas presents, a father recounting St. Nick's the fire escape entry, and an grandfather employing a snow machine to enhance a plastic Christmas tree; from Ginna...
-
AIDS Diaries
Documenting a disease: "Thembi's Diary" follows a South African teenager as she records her life with AIDS, produced by Radio Diaries. In "LiveHopeLove" poet Kwame Dawes travels Jamaica talking to the many HIV/AIDS sufferers on his small island, produced by Outer Voices for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Barbara and Dori Bryon are a "Family with AIDS," the mother unknowingly passed the virus to her daughter in the womb. African children orphaned by AIDS store keepsakes of their...
-
Food Fight
A Chinese student shares his recipe for cooking "Carp" and escaping communism. Young Palestinian-American Rocky Tayeh fights food in "My Struggle with Obesity;" and later, surgically, he is "Saying Goodbye To Food" (from WNYC Radio Rookies). And Louisiana State Penitentiary inmates prepare "King's Candy: A Prison Kitchen Vision" and concessions for "The Angola Prison Rodeo" (part of the Kitchen Sisters series Hidden Kitchens).
-
Vet Vox
Voices of Veterans: Vietnam, Korean, and World War Two vets, recorded by StoryCorps, along with a Marine Sergeant's recent "Don't Ask Don't Tell" discharge. And we hear plug into the iPods of active-duty troops in Iraq, aksing them what they're listening to, and what their lives are like.
-
Small Town
Spending time in some shrinking rural American townships: The postmistress of "Tomato, Arkansas" describes her community's dwindling population. "X-Town" is four former Massachusetts municipalities, now flooded to make room for a reservoir. "Slab City" in California never did exist, though it's full of folk who live there. And little Talcott, West Virginia has a big claim to fame as home of "The Legend of John Henry: Steel Drivin' Man."
-
Political Party
Let's rev-up this election process with a Political Party, crisscrossing the county collecting opinions: Scott Carrier in Salt Lake City watches his mayor debate Fox News host Sean Hannity, as the audience prepares for battle. Oregon kids brief us on the Constitution. Chicago college students discuss politicians. Montana pols talk politics. Howard Dean screams. We hear two opposing musical messages about the Obama administration. And we Auto-Tune the News, turning speeches info songs.
-
Lost Critters
Some Dogs, Some Cats, One Pig, and a Million Camels: Camel racers ride the wild herds of Australia. Leo Grillo's DELTA Rescue locates lost pets in Los Angeles. Piggles eavdes the butcher block, and wanders the backwoods near Washington DC. And the mythical Mama Chaos leads the feral dogs of Los Alamos.
-
Political People
Producer Barrett Golding found remnants of Jefferson's theories and Toqueville's writings still very much in play, as he followed Montana's two incumbents US Representatives, one Democrat, one Republican, in 1992. Due to re-apportionment, they were vying for the state's one remaining Congressional seat, on a yearlong statewide game of political musical chairs. We also hear college students in Chicago discuss Democracy.
-
John Ono Lennon
On Monday October 9, 2010, John Lennon would have turned 70 years old. "John Ono Lennon" is an hour public-radio memorial and celebration, much of it told in Lennon's own words and musics, from interviews, albums, outtakes, antics and poetics. The hour features: "All We Are Saying" by Barrett Golding- Lennon sings, talks, and testifies about peace, family, and art. And "The Day John Lennon Died" by Paul Ingles- Members of the generation jolted by Lennon's death recall how they heard the news...
-
Stories of Transformation
Two audio diaries about character and change: a street kid who decides to wise-up and a person born in the wrong body. We hear two people documenting their own personal transformation. "Finding Miles" is the story of a person named Megan who began a slow and difficult transition into manhood, into becoming Miles. "Running from Myself" is the story of of boy who used to rob people, and his decision to stop.
-
Polk Street Stories
An oral history of San Francisco's premiere queer neighborhood, told by those who've called it home: Public Historian Joey Plaster spent a year gathering 70+ interviews from people experiencing Polk Street's transition from a working class queer neighborhood to an upscale entertainment district. Polk Street's scene predates the modern gay rights movement. It was a world unto itself, ten blocks of low rent hotels, bars and liquor stores, all sandwiched in between the gritty Tenderloin, City...
-
Spirit World
A preacher/prank-caller conjures "Alice of the Spirits." Carmen Delzell samples the "Ritual Magic" of a voodoo Santera, soaks in a spirit bath, and prays for sex, adventure, and central heat. Ceil Muller visits "The Psychic Center of the World," the town of Cassadega, Florida. And host Larry Massett spends "A Night on Mt. Shasta."
-
Pen to Paper
Writer Charles Bowden reports from the US-Mexico border about the drug wars, the poverty, and the environment. His writing is harsh but unflinchingly accurate. Host Scott Carrier has a sound-portrait of Bowden, told by the people he has written about. Then Susan Stamberg revisits the world of Karen Blixen, aka, Isak Dinesen, when she wrote "Out of Africa." And poet Alex Caldiero ponders the writing and sounding of words, with music by Theta Naught.
-
Working Class
What we do for a living: Mohawk ironworkers on the Twin Towers; a Radio Dairy from a scissors sharpener; exercises for existential overworked, undervalued employees; percussive postal clerks in Ghana; a man with 800 jobs; and what happens when there is no work... anywhere: the 1940 Great Depression "Voices from the Dust Bowl."
-
Crow Fair II
The final part of this two-hour special: A century ago the six Crow Reservation Districts came together for a cultural gathering with other Great Plains tribes. The Crow Fair honors that tradition with a "giant family reunion under the Big Sky." Every August is now Crow Fair in southeastern Montana, with a parade, a Pow Wow, and a rodeo. In 1977 a team of NPR producers and recordists spent a week collecting sounds and interviewing people at this annual event with the Crow people: the...
-
Crow Fair I
A century ago the six Crow Reservation Districts came together for a cultural gathering with other Great Plains. The Crow Fair honor that tradition with a "giant family reunion under the Big Sky." Every third weekend of August is now the Crow Fair in southeastern Montana, with a parade, a Pow Wow, and a rodeo. In 1977 a team of NPR producers and recordists spent several days collecting sounds and interviewing people at this annual event. This early ambient sound-portrait breathes with the...
-
Inside the Adoption Circle
First-person voices from all sides of adoption. Stories about living with questions and searching for answers. We hear from birth families (mothers, siblings and a father), adoptees (both kids and adults), and various adoptive families including open adoption and international adoption (China). Producers for Transom.org by Samantha Broun and Viki Merrick with help from Jay Allison.
-
Working with Studs
A Transom.org tribute to the great broadcaster and author Studs Terkel (1912-2008): For many years, Transom.org editor, Sydney Lewis, worked side by side with Studs on his radio show and his books. For this remembrance, a blend of documentary and reminiscence, she brings together a crew of Stud's co-workers. They share great stories and wonderful previously-unheard tape of Studs himself.
-
Cowboy
Host Josh Darsa of NPR spends nine days with rodeo riders in a rural Wyoming town: Cheyenne Frontier Days is "The Daddy of 'em All." This classic 1980 radio doc from the NPR archives also presents the history of the "Cowboy," underscored by the wild-west symphonies of Aaron Copland.
-
Jean Shepherd 2
Part two of this two-hour tribute to Jean Shepherd, "A Voice in the Night." Marshall McLuhan called him "the first radio novelist." From 1956-1977 Shep spun his late night stories over WOR radio, New York City. PBS gave him a TV series, "Jean Shepherd's America." In 1983 he co-wrote and narrated the film version of his "A Christmas Story." He inspired a new generation of spoken narrative artists who tap into the American psyche. Among them was Harry Shearer, who hosts this two part tribute,...
-
Jean Shepherd 1
Jean Shepherd used words like a jazz musician uses notes, winding around a theme, playing with variations, sending fresh self-reflective storylines out into the night. Marshall McLuhan called Shepherd "the first radio novelist." From 1956-1977 Shep spun his late night stories over WOR radio, New York City. PBS gave him a TV series, "Jean Shepherd's America." In 1983 he co-wrote and narrated the film version of his "A Christmas Story." He inspired a new generation of spoken narrative artists...
-
Roof of the World
Tibet and Nepal: Walking a circuit alongside pilgrims, yaks and yogis, host Scott Carrier treks one of the world's most venerated -- and least visited -- holy sites, "Mount Kailash: Cricling the Center of Creation." And we climb to the Nepalese town of "Siklis," going up a mountain and back in time, produced by Larry Massett, narrated by Joe Frank.
-
Go By Train
Musician Calvin Johnson (Beat Happening, K Records) hosts train tales: An existential interaction with an automated Amtrak voice. The Kronos Quartet plays Steve Reich's "Different Trains." Singer Jules Shear recalls an on-board performance. A Sound Portrait of a Pullman Porter. A track-hopping hobo named Short Stop. Circus performer Little Jack Horton and poet Charles Bukowski stolen engine car. Segregated train-travel from StoryCorps. The world's largest model railroad. And Calvin's Great...
-
Lewis & Clark Trail II
Biking & Mic-ing the Lewis & Clark Trail; part two, down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean: Barrett Golding and Josef Verbanac, a radio producer and an English professor, a Jew and a Sioux, bicycle from mountains to the sea, looking for hidden histories.
-
Lewis & Clark Trail I
Biking & Mic-ing the Lewis & Clark Trail; part one, up the Missouri River into the Rocky Mountains: Barrett Golding and Josef Verbanac, a radio producer and an English professor, a Jew and a Souix, bicycle from Missouri to Montana, enduring floods, war, worms, mud, and myriad Lewis & Clark festivals.
-
Palestinian Dreaming
Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land: "Waking Up" from a nightmare in a city split by three religions, as dreamt by an Jewish soldier, an Arab bomber, and a Mississippi minister; from Joe Frank's hour Time's Arrow. And "The Lemon Tree," on the property of the same family home, in the same family homeland, shared by an Israeli and an Palestinian family; from Sandy Tolan of Homelands Productions.
-
Life on the Mississippi
A Tour of the River Towns: Hannibal, Missouri, birthplace of Mark Twain; a day on a tugboat; St. Louis showboats; and changing the course of mighty rivers. A downstream trip through the history and mystery of the Big Muddy, with Larry Massett and Scott Carrier.
-
Radio Dial
Radio stories about radio, then stories about radio stories: Jake Warga paints sound-portraits of "Urbana FM" in Uruguay and "Radio Gondor" in Ethiopia. The ShortWaveMusic blog records "Duelling Transmitters." Larry Masett interviews the "Language Removal Services." Recordist Steve McGreevey captures the solar sounds of space weather, the northern lights, and "Natural Radio." The Android Sisters lament the loss of great "Ray-Dee-Ohh." And Scott Carrier reports to work for "The Friendly Man."
-
Bad Trip
Obscure tours and offbeat retreats thru Americana: Filmmaker Tony Buba takes the Long Haul Productions team around his hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania, a once thriving steel town, now one-tenth the town it was in population. Scott Carrier transports visiting Tibetan monks around the U.S. West. The town of Boonville, California has it's own language: Boontling, a story by Ginna Allison. And writer Mark Allen tours Universal Studios and pretty much loses his mind.
-
On Horseback
A couple equestrian classics from the NPR archives: Olympian Bruce Davidson shares his techniques for training equine athletes, with NPR's David Molpus. Josh Darsa and a team of sound-recordists are at Belmont Stakes for the third leg of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. And a poem by singer Annie Gallop about the poem that unleashed her love of horses.
-
Getting Out
Go to school, keep your grades up, go to college. That's what we tell kids -- over and over. What if just leaving your apartment, and walking up the block is risky? What if it feels safer to stay home, keep a low profile. When you do go out, head somewhere safe, like the teen center. That was the world of African American teenager, Jesse Jean. He lived a half block from host Katie Davis in their DC neighborhood. Jesse was lucky enough to get a scholarship to a private boarding school. Katie...
-
Juarez, Mexico
Four years of reports on life in the Mexican border-town of Ciudad Juarez, with poverty and corruption, with daily drug-cartel murders and military violence. Told by photographer & Juarez resident Julian Cardona, along with author Charles Bowden, and host Scott Carrier.
-
Musicians' Minds
Musicians minds sometimes work differently. So interviews with musicians sometimes take unexpected turns: Host Lynne Neary's interview with David Byrne ends up with her answering his questions. Mickey Hart takes us on an audio tour of his extensive worldwide percussion collection. Negativland turns their NPR interview into audio art. Musicians In Their Own Words surveys the sonic spectrum of musicians warming up for a performance.
-
Memory Book
Recollections, remembrances, and mnemonics for marking time: Lester Nafzger recalls his life as a litany of "Lynchpins" (as told to Joe Frank, excerpted from his Hour Performer). Host Ceil Muller takes us on a tour of her own memory palace, made bits of unsued of tape recordings she's gathered over the years, in "Persistence of Memorex." "Death in Venice" roams the beach with retired folk in Venice, Florida, finding seashells, shark's teeth and distant memories (written and produced by Larry...
-
Dog Tales
Man's beast friend: Tony Schwartz documents the entire first year in "A Dog's Life." Lawrence Ferlinghetti performs his poem "Dog." Scott Carrier encounters a frisbee-catching "Blind Dog." "Dogs in the Yard" is musician Steven Vitiello's multi-bark composition. Jay Allison collects some possible "Dog Dreams." A man and his dog, "John and Nippy," share a rancher's life, and musical duets. Laura Silverman (Sarah's sister) calls about her canine into Jonathan Katz's talk show, "Seeing is...
-
Scene of the Crime
There will be blood: An archival interview with 1950s NYC crime scene photographer, Weegee; then excerpts from old time radio's "Casey, Crime Photographer" and "Dragnet." Nancy Updike of This American Life spends the day with professional "Crime Scene Cleaners." A sound-portrait of a convicted "White Collar Criminal," by Adam Allington. And host Jake Warga does a good deed, for which he ends up assaulted, bleeding, and hospitalized.
-
Thumb and Thumber
Is hitchhiking the great American adventure sport or just a risky last resort for folks who can't come up with bus fare? Producer Jonathan Mitchell offers a "Beginner's Guide to Hitchhiking". Scott Carrier relates a hitchhiking adventure involving "New Shoes" and a letter to the Dalai Lama. And host Larry Massett drives a battered Olds 88 from New Mexico to Florida, picking up every hitchhiker on "The Road" he sees — no matter how dangerous-looking.
-
Prison
John Mills is "Doing Time" and Sergeant Furman Camel is "Serving 9 to 5;" two Prison Dairies from an inmate and a guard at Polk Youth Institution, North Carolina. (John Mills is out now and co-hosts our hour with Prison Dairies producer Joe Richman.) Voices and sounds of youth in "Lockdown!" at Utah's Washington County Crisis Center, a techno tone poem by composer Phillip Kent Bimstein. Payton Smith calls her mom in prison to discuss "Not All Bad Things," produced by Chana Joffe-Walt and...
-
WHER-Memphis
The first all-girl radio station in the nation, WHER-Memphis, went on-air in 1955. It was the brainchild of sound legend Sam Phillips, who created the groundbreaking format with money he raised from selling Elvis Presley's Sun Studios contract. Women almost exclusively ran the station. They read the news, interviewed local celebrities, and spun popular records. They sold and produced commercials, directed and engineered programming, and sat at the station's control boards. "WHER: 1000...
-
This is Insanity
Disturbed Mental States: "This is Insane," says William S Burroughs to the music of Disposable Heroes of Hiphopcracy. An anonymous reporter describes his "Electroshock." The Avalanches mashup a "Frontier Psychiatrist." Host Scott Carrier takes "The Test" for schizophrenia. Joe Frank is pathologically challenged by time. And Sound Portraits helps Howard Dully recount "My Lobotomy," documenting the experimental procedure of "ice pick" surgery.
-
Protest
We hear crowds and confrontations at the "Town Halls 2009" collective cross-country chaos. "Protest 1968-2008" is four decades of marches and musics, montaged by Ann Heppermann and Kara Oehler. Scott Carrier introduces a junta-threatening Burmese rock band, Iron Cross. Tea Partiers and single-payer proponents shout outside a Presidential health care whistle stop; there's debate, division and a "Day of Democracy". NPR's Jeff Kamen takes to the DC streets amid a police crackdown on an anti-war...
-
Place Your Bets
We play keno, cards, and craps in Sin City: Scott Carrier stays up all night in America's gambling Mecca: "Vegas", baby. "Casino Suite" is three pieces for strings, winds, and Vegas dice table worker, composed by Phillip Kent Bimstein. Jazz bassist Kelly Roberti lost his bass to the "Keno Machines". NPR host Alex Chadwick pits his wits against the casino regular playing "Poker at the Ox". Joe Frank's "Old Gambler" gets on the wrong side of Sin City's collection crew. And playwright John...
-
All Happy Families
Tolstoy?wrote, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." But sometimes it's hard to tell who is and isn't happy:?After decades together, the Nadeaus find their husband/father is a "Crossdressing Family Man" (told by family friend Eric Winick). "After the Forgetting" (produced by Erica Heilman) is an evolution of relationships revealed in conversations between Greg Sharrow, his mother Marjorie, and Greg's husband Bob Hooker, as Marjorie's dementia...
-
Snow and Ice
Gliding, sliding, and speed: NPR's Alex Chadwick invites America to share their stories of Flexible Flyers and downhill runs in this cross-USA audio "Sledding Party" (produced by Katie Davis). Seven skiers go into the back-country, only six return in this "Avalanche" survivors' story (told to producer Scott Carrier). And host Barrett Golding documents a training day in the life of three women "Olympic Speed-Skaters."
-
Shortcuts- 21st Century III
The final part of our three hour-long retrospective of the 21sy Century's first decade. A sonic survey of Christ's passion, Clinton's impeachment, planetary climate change, presidential contenders, Ponzi schemes, collapsing economies, and all the stories and celebs of 2006-2009. (Produced by Peter Bochan of All Mixed Up, WBAI-NYC and WPKN-Bridgeport CT.)
-
Shortcuts- 21st Century II
The second of our three hour-long retrospective of the Aughties. The Iraq war, the missing WMDs, the Indian Ocean tsunami, the Katrina flood, and sounds, speeches and songs from 2003 thru 2005. (Produced by Peter Bochan of All Mixed Up, WBAI-NYC and WPKN-Bridgeport CT.)
-
Shortcuts- 21st Century I
The first of a three hour-long retrospective of the first decade, of the century, of the millennium. Beginning with the 2000 election and recounts, from Bush, Gore, Bill and Hill; thru 911, Homeland Security, and Afghanistan. A survey of selected speech, song, and soundbites from 2000 thru 2002. (Produced by Peter Bochan of All Mixed Up, WBAI-NYC and WPKN-Bridgeport CT.)
-
AIDS Diaries
Documenting a disease: "Thembi's Diary" follows a South African teenager as she records her life with AIDS, produced by Radio Diaries. In "LiveHopeLove" poet Kwame Dawes travels Jamaica talking to the many HIV/AIDS sufferers on his small island, produced by Outer Voices for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Barbara and Dori Bryon are a "Family with AIDS," the mother unknowingly passed the virus to her daughter in the womb. African children orphaned by AIDS store keepsakes of their...
-
To War
We get out of one conflict and into another. "Goodbye to Saigon" chroncicles the day of the last US flights out of the Vietnam War, narrated by Noah Adams and produced by Art Silverman. And Scott Carrier travels the country in early 2003 asking people "Are You Ready?" for war.
-
To War
We get out of one conflict and into another. "Goodbye to Saigon" chroncicles the day of the last US flights out of the Vietnam War, narrated by Noah Adams and produced by Art Silverman. And Scott Carrier travels the country in early 2003 asking people "Are You Ready?" for war.
-
Small Town
Spending time in some shrinking rural American townships: The postmistress of "Tomato, Arkansas" describes her community's dwindling population. "X-Town" is four former Massachusetts municipalities, now flooded to make room for a reservoir. "Slab City" in California never did exist, though it's full of folk who live there. And little Talcott, West Virginia has a big claim to fame as home of "The Legend of John Henry: Steel Drivin' Man."
-
Veteran's Day
Voices from the Armed Forces: "Project Healing Waters" teaches wounded warriors, including amputees, to fly-fish; we spend a day catching trout at Rose River Farm in Virginia. "Operation Homecoming" is an NEA book project featuring writings and readings by vets returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. "Winter Soldiers" is testimony by soldiers and marines at the Iraq Veterans Against the War hearings. "Swords to Plowshares" follows a member of the Farmer-Veteran Coalition: farmers...
-
Bloody Hell
An hour of horror for All Hallows' Eve, the first half is bloody, the second goes to hell: ESP, dreams and intuition drip "Blood on the Pulpit" by David Greenberger. La Llorona, the crying woman, is Mexico's bogeyman. ZBS adapts Cherokee writer Craig Strete's "The Bleeding Man." FM Einheit delves in Dante's DivineComedy in a "Radio Inferno." A woman narrates her found-sound trip to hell with Jesus. Shel Silverstein introduces us to "Monsters I've Met." And the 90 Second Cellphone Chillin'...
-
Home Team
For the weeks leading to the World Series, baseball stories from the Public Radio Hall of Fame: Host Gwen Macsai takes a swing at singing the National Anthem. Composer Phillip Kent Bimstein plays ball with the St. Louis Cardinals' "Bushy Wushy Beer Man." Barrett Golding spends a season with the Rookie League. Singer/playwright Terry Allen defines the many meanings of Dug-Out, amid the emerging early 1890s sport of professional baseball.
-
Predator
For hunting season: Hillary Frank's tale of a teenage babysitter who's siblings think he's a werewolf. Mark Allen fears a toy poodle — the most evil entity known to man. Matmos mixes music with North American Mammals. Long Haul Productions witness a PA Spillway, where tourists toss bread, and the carp amass so thickly that ducks walk the fish's backs for a slice. Norman Strung demonstrates the shrill sound and thrill found in calling for elk. A father and son provide a hunter's perspective...
-
Tony Schwartz
Tony Schwartz, media pioneer, audio documentarian, and the most famous radio person you probably never heard of, died June 2008. We hear The Kitchen Sisters Lost and Found Sound-portrait, "Tony Schwartz, 30,000 Recordings Later," and the Tony Schwartz-inspired verite documentary of the town he lived in and loved, "New York City: 24 Hours in Public Places."
-
Tony Schwartz
Tony Schwartz, media pioneer, audio documentarian, and the most famous radio person you probably never heard of, died June 2008. We hear The Kitchen Sisters Lost and Found Sound-portrait, "Tony Schwartz, 30,000 Recordings Later," and the Tony Schwartz-inspired verite documentary of the town he lived in and loved, "New York City: 24 Hours in Public Places."
-
Caregiver
"Bad Teeth at King Drew Dental Clinic" by Ayala Ben-Yehuda: the Dental Divide, South L.A.'s clinic of last resort. "The Breast Cancer Monologues- Three Woman" by Dmae Roberts: surviving breast cancer, perspectives of a Chicana, African America and Romanian immigrant. "A Square Meal, Regardless" by Jennifer Nathan: Two old friends caring for each other into old age. "Dialysis" by Joe Frank: kidney failure and a friend indeed. "Hospice Chronicles" (excerpt) by Long Haul Productions: Volunteer...
-
Vietnam Vets
The sounds of Saigon, 1972: in combat, on the radio, in the streets, were recorded by Claude Johner for the Folkways recording "Good Morning, Vietnam. Doug Peacock, former Green Beret medic, deals with the PTSD of vets, including himself (interviewed by Scott Carrier). Rich Kepler's war experiences were bottled up and about to burst, until he released them in his poetry (producer: Larry Massett). And producer Katie Davis talks with African American vets, a sound-portrait based on the book...
-
Poland
Poland battles against the Germans and then the Russians at the start of the Second World War. A German foot soldier and Polish townspeople recall, differently, the first days of the invasion of Poland in September 1939, and Poland's later battle to fight years of environmental poisoning during the Soviet era. All in a series of stories written by NPR's Alex Chadwick and produced by host Art Silverman.
-
Shortcuts Thru 1969
A 40th anniversary survey of the year in an hour: the Moon landing, Woodstock, Altamont, Stonewall, Vietnam. The year 1969 in speeches songs and soundbites. With comments and clips from John and Yoko, Iggy Pop, the Smothers Brothers, The Firesign Theater, Monty Python, Richard Pryor, Jagger and Richards, Roman Polanski, Richard Nixon, JFK, Buzz Aldren, Neil Armstrong, Walter Cronkite, Ted Kennedy, Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, Arlo Guthrie, Harry Reasoner, and The Black Panthers.
-
Nine to Five
The work we do, from Wall Street traders to taxi cab drivers. People who work with brassieres, with dead bodies, and off-the-books in an underground economy. A tone-poem by Ken Nordine, a podcast from Love and Radio, and sound-portraits from Radio Diaries, Toni Schwartz, Ben Rubin, David Greenberger, and hosts Ann Heppermann and Kara Oehler.
-
Pen to Paper
Writer Charles Bowden reports from the US-Mexico border about the drug wars, the poverty, and the environment. His writing is harsh but unflinchingly accurate. Host Scott Carrier has a sound-portrait of Bowden, told by the people he has written about. Then Susan Stamberg revisits the world of Karen Blixen, aka, Isak Dinesen, when she wrote "Out of Africa." And poet Alex Caldiero ponders the writing and sounding of words, with music by Theta Naught.
-
Jean Shepherd 2
Part two of this two-hour tribute to Jean Shepherd, "A Voice in the Night." Marshall McLuhan called him "the first radio novelist." From 1956-1977 Shep spun his late night stories over WOR radio, New York City. PBS gave him a TV series, "Jean Shepherd's America." In 1983 he co-wrote and narrated the film version of his "A Christmas Story." He inspired a new generation of spoken narrative artists who tap into the American psyche. Among them was Harry Shearer, who hosts this two part tribute,...
-
Jean Shepherd 1
Jean Shepherd used words like a jazz musician uses notes, winding around a theme, playing with variations, sending fresh self-reflective storylines out into the night. Marshall McLuhan called Shepherd "the first radio novelist." From 1956-1977 Shep spun his late night stories over WOR radio, New York City. PBS gave him a TV series, "Jean Shepherd's America." In 1983 he co-wrote and narrated the film version of his "A Christmas Story." He inspired a new generation of spoken narrative artists...
-
Desert Air
Hot & dry Summer soundscapes: Coyotes, owls, frogs and songbirds are part of "Desert Solitudes," recorded by Bernie Krause and Ruth Happel. Host Ben Adair (APM Global Climate Change Initiative) heads to the ghost towns, abandoned mines, and billion-year old boulders along Death Valley's "Mojave Road." Kraut-rockers Faust dial in "Long Distance Calls in the Desert." The Quiet American sound-captures a nuclear Nevada Test Site warning sign rattling in a "Desert Sun." In the early 1990s, SLC...
-
The Old Country
Going back to Vietnam makes Nguyen Qui Duc realize "Home is Always Somewhere Else;" host Neenah Ellis goes looking for her family in Croatia, where "The Old Country is Gone." And Andrei Codrescu's returns to his Romanian home town and stares into the "Eyes of Sibiu."
-
Cowboy
Host Josh Darsa of NPR spends nine days with rodeo riders in a rural Wyoming town: Cheyenne Frontier Days is "The Daddy of 'em All." This classic 1980 radio doc from the NPR archives also presents the history of the "Cowboy," underscored by the wild-west symphonies of Aaron Copland.
-
Outer Space
For the anniversary of Apollo 11, the first moon man, launched July 16, landed July 20 1969: Astronauts communicate from beyond earth in "Zero G, & I Feel Fine" and "Last Man on the Moon." President LBJ and Commander Scott Carpenter have a helium-infused confusing phone conversation. Sonic transmissions from deep in our solar system are sent back by Voyager I and II. The Sun and "space weather" emit "Natural Radio" sounds. Christine Lavin laments the loss of planetary status of "Planet X."...
-
No Place Like Home
Scott Carrier has a cultural history of the Great Salt Lake's "West Desert," a land of polygymists, bombing ranges, and toxic waste incinerators. There's chlorine gas in the air, anthrax stored underground, and people who call the place home. Sarah Vowell moves from rural Oklahoma to small-town Montana was for her a change from the middle ages to a modern metropolis. And two Stories from the Heart of the Land: NYC native Natalie Edwards hate grass, bugs, dirt, and trees, but attempts a walk...
-
Lincoln Monument
For Lincoln's birthday bicentennial year and Independence Day, Old Abe, the Civil War, and its still-present aftermath: NPR recreates the "Gettysburg Address." An archival recording of Walter Rathvon, who heard that speech live. Musings by poets Langston Hughes and Carl Sandburg. In the 1950s Tony Schwartz recorded an NYC voxpop "Portrait of Lincoln." Radio Diaries of the last "Civil War Widows," one Union, one Confederate. Producer Jake Warga goes to battle with "Civil War Re-enacters."...
-
Bugs and Birds
Jeff Rice of the Western Soundscape Archive hosts an hour of sounds for the start of Summer: an extinct woodpecker revives an Arkansas town, car alarms made from bird calls, breeding moths for their music, a morning walk with poet Jim Harrison, dancing with gnats, the seismic underground sounds of spiders, and the perspective of a pest controller. Stories by Long Haul Productions, M'Iou Zahner Ollswang, host Jeff Rice, and Scott Carrier; and recordings by Nina Katchadourian, Lang Elliot, and...
-
Talking Dads
Sons daughters, and dads: Storyteller Kevin Kling shares pancakes with his "Dad." Sarah Vowell has her story of a gunsmith's daughter, "Shooting Dad." Joe Frank lets us eavesdrop on a father-son phone call between Larry and Zachary Block. Host Larry Massett and several other sons try to get to know their "Lost and Found Fathers."
-
Educating Esme
While teaching fifth grade in a Chicago public school, Esme Codell kept a journal. This radio hour is based on her book Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher's First Year, produced by Jay Allison and Christina Egloff for their Life Stories series and Chicago Public Radio.
-
Getting Out
Go to school, keep your grades up, go to college. That's what we tell kids — over and over. What if just leaving your apartment, and walking up the block is risky? What if it feels safer to stay home, keep a low profile. When you do go out, head somewhere safe, like the teen center. That was the world of African American teenager, Jesse Jean. He lived a half block from host Katie Davis in their DC neighborhood. Jesse was lucky enough to get a scholarship to a private boarding school. Katie...
-
Road Trip
Host Larry Massett spends a "Long Day on the Road" with ex-KGB in the Republic of Georgia. Scott Carrier starts in Salt Lake and ends on the Atlantic in this cross-country "Hitchhike." Lemon Jelly adds beats to the life of a "Ramblin' Man." The band Richmond Fontaine sends musical postcards from the flight of "Walter On the Lam." And Mark Allen tells a tale of a tryst with a "Kinko's Crackhead."
-
War Memorial
For Memorial Day, two stories recorded in Vietnam: In 1966, a young Lance Corporal carried a reel-to reel tape recorder with him. He made tapes of his friends, of life in fighting holes, of combat, until, two months later, when he was killed in action. His friend and fellow marine remembers him in "The Vietnam Tapes of Michael A. Baronowski" (by Jay Allison for Lost & Found Sound). And host Alex Chadwick's first trip to Southeast Asia was as a soldier in the Sixties. Two decades later, as a...
-
Fans and Bands
Host Ian Svenonius, of the band Weird War, introduces "The Groupies," a 1969 album of interviews by producer Alan Lorber. We visit with the pilgrims at Pere LaChaise cemetery, come to see "Jim Morrison's Grave" (a sound-portrait by Mark Neumann and Barrett Golding). John Denver's anti-Christian conspiracy is exposed in the series "Song and Memory" from producers Ann Heppermann and Kara Oehler. And Bo Diddley blows up his mom's radio in David Schulman's series "Musicians in Their Own Words."
-
Motherly Love
For Mother's Day: The Radio Diaries of "Melissa, Teen Mom" move from foster home to starting her own family. Muriel & Walter Murch compose "A Mother's Symphony" from womb sounds. Amy Jo, single mother of two toddlers, is "Surrounded by Lights" (producer: Erin Mishkin). Myra Dean tells StoryCorps of the day her son was killed by a reckless driver. Ben Adair takes his mom in search of her mom and "Family Baggage". Megan Hall makes music of "Advice from a Grandmother". Katie Davis admits "I...
-
Roof of the World
Walking a circuit alongside pilgrims, yaks and yogis, host Scott Carrier treks one of the world's most venerated — and least visited — holy sites, "Mount Kailash: Cricling the Center of Creation." And we climb to the Nepalese town of "Siklis," going up a mountain and back in time, produced by Larry Massett, narrated by Joe Frank.
-
About Aging
Host David Greenberger of Duplex Planet presents glorious moments and observations from people in the last years of their lives: Dave Alvin discusses the song he wrote about his dying father, "Man in the Bed," from the Western Folklife Center's What's in a Song? series. Comedians Bob & Ray are "Reuniting the Whirleys" in a Carnegie Hall performance. From StoryCorps comes a remembrance from Richard Craig of his days as a dance host on cruise ships. Radio Diaries presents the residents of...
-
An Hour of Earth
For Earth Day, Sounds from the Ground. Walk on the wild side with earthly tales of animals, environments, and outdoor adventure: We canoe Wyoming's "Green River" with Scott Carrier. Tom Lopez of ZBS records some samba "Singing Frogs" in Brazil, or are they toads? "Subtext: Communicating with Horses: is Jay Allison's inter-species conversation. Sarah Vowell has subterranean supper in the Carlsbad Caverns' "Underground Lunchroom.". And poet Andrei Codrescu composes a microcosmic "Environment"...
-
Comedy with a Beat
Host David Ossman of Firesign Theatre presents mixes of comedy bits with music beats, from Wally Cox yodeling to Peter Sellers singing while shaving, from Jack Kerouac crooning "Ain't We Got Fun" to Charles Mingus jazzing up Jean Shepherd's "The Clown" to comedian Greg Giraldo layered over Lazyboy. "Lenny Bruce Gets Busted" in Jonathan Mitchell's documentary. And we hear rare and classic bits from host David Ossman's Firesign Theatre.
-
Wordshakers
Host Andrei Codrescu's "Poetry" redux. Lord Alfred Tennyson leads "The Charge of the Light Brigade." Thomas Edison waxes Walt Whitman's "America." Denise Levertov knows "The Secret." Carl Sandburg wonders "What is Poetry?" (by Barrett Golding). Scott Carrier wonders about "Alex Caldiero- Poet?" Ed Sanders (fmr Fugs) poses "A Question of Fame." In New Orleans a hot-dog vendor, barkeep, and stripper are in the "Poetry Combine (by Larry Massett). Jan Kerouac responds to her father's poetry and...
-
Food Fight
A Chinese student shares his recipe for cooking "Carp" and escaping communism. Young Palestinian-American Rocky Tayeh fights food in "My Struggle with Obesity;" and later, surgically, he is "Saying Goobye To Food" (from WNYC Radio Rookies). And Louisiana State Penitentiary inmates prepare "King's Candy: A Prison Kitchen Vision" and concessions for "The Angola Prison Rodeo" (part of the Kitchen Sisters series Hidden Kitchens).
-
Ranchers
Life, Death, Land, and Livestock: We spend a year on a sheep ranch, lambing, shearing, selling and "Counting Sheep." Musician Philip Bimstien bases his classical composition, "Garland Hirschi's Cows," on the voice of a Rockville, Utah cattle-man. And 97-year-old rancher is "Holding His Ground" (produced by Jesikah Maria Ross for Stories from Heart of the Land and Saving the Sierra).
-
Visiting Hours
Host Ceil Muller of KQED presents "The Kiss and the Dying," her etiquette list for the dying and soon-to-be survivors. "Fire and Ice Cream" is from Brent Runyan's book "The Burn Journals." Brian Brophy documents the death of "Our Father." Carmen Delzell helps heal her "Grandmother's Hip." And patients pass time with TV in Nancy Updike's "Channeling Health."
-
Street Map
Scott Carrier walks around his Salt Lake City "The Neighborhood." Host Katie Davis, of Neighborhood Stories contemplates decades of changes at the "Corner Store" on her DC street. Larry Massett's friend bid "Goodbye, Batumi" to his Republic of Georgia hometown. And Romeo and Juliet plays out in "Oakland Scenes: Snapshots of a Community" by Youth Radio and poet Ise Lyfe.
-
Circus Blood
A world-class troupe of audio daredevils and media magicians: SF Chronicle journalist Jon Carroll interviews his daughter Shana as she swings thru the air on her flying "Trapeze", from the Life Stories series by Jay Allison. Joe Frank loves the lady "Lion Tamer," an excerpt from his hour "The Dictator." Adam Rosen mixes a medley of the many versions of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." And Elizabeth Eck returns to the circus family she ran away to join, in Larry Massett's "Circus in the Blood."
-
Dog Tales
Tony Schwartz documents the entire first year in "A Dog's Life." Lawrence Ferlinghetti performs his poem "Dog." Scott Carrier encounters a frisbee-catching "Blind Dog." "Dogs in the Yard" is musician Steven Vitiello's multi-bark composition. Jay Allison collects some possible "Dog Dreams." A man and his dog, "John & Nippy," share a rancher's life, and musical duets. Laura Silverman (Sarah's sister) calls about her canine into Jonathan Katz's talk show, "Seeing is Believing." And we end with...
-
Dog Tales
Tony Schwartz documents the entire first year in "A Dog's Life." Lawrence Ferlinghetti performs his poem "Dog." Scott Carrier encounters a frisbee-catching "Blind Dog." "Dogs in the Yard" is musician Steven Vitiello's multi-bark composition. Jay Allison collects some possible "Dog Dreams." A man and his dog, "John & Nippy," share a rancher's life, and musical duets. Laura Silverman (Sarah's sister) calls about her canine into Jonathan Katz's talk show, "Seeing is Believing." And we end with...
-
Love's Labors
Lovelorn letters to an advice columnist. Women's tales of true but tainted "Cringe Love," from producer Nancy Updike. A "Valentine" from Kevin Kling. "Love & Marriage Atop the Towers," stories of weddings at the World Trade Center, collected by The Kitchen Sisters. Host Amy Dickinson and hundreds of other "Leftover Brides," lining up for mass Moonie marriages. And a "Parent and Child" discussion between Jessica and Scott Carrier on what makes a good marriage.
-
Palestinian Dreaming
"Waking Up" from a nightmare in a city split by three religions, as dreamt by an Jewish soldier, an Arab bomber, and a Mississippi minister; from Joe Frank's hour Time's Arrow. And "The Lemon Tree" near the same family home, on the same family homeland, that an Israeli and an Palestinian family share; from Sandy Tolan of Homelands Productions.
-
Juarez, Mexico
Four years of reports on life in the Mexican border-town of Ciudad Juarez, with poverty and corruption, with daily drug-cartel murders and military violence. Told by photographer & Juarez resident Julian Cardona, along with author Charles Bowden, and host Scott Carrier.
-
Snow and Ice
Gliding, sliding, and speed: NPR's Alex Chadwick invites America to share their stories of Flexible Flyers and downhill runs in this cross-USA audio "Sledding Party" (produced by Katie Davis). Seven skiers go into the back-country, only six return in this "Avalanche" survivors' story (told to producer Scott Carrier). And host Barrett Golding documents a training day in the life of three women "Olympic Speed-Skaters."
-
All Happy Families
Tolstoy?wrote, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." But sometimes it's hard to tell who is and isn't happy:?After decades together, the Nadeaus find their husband/father is a "Crossdressing Family Man" (told by family friend Eric Winick). "After the Forgetting" (produced by Erica Heilman) is an evolution of relationships revealed in conversations between Greg Sharrow, his mother Marjorie, and Greg's husband Bob Hooker, as Marjorie's dementia...
-
Shortcut Thru 2008
An audio scan of Year 2008, from the the Olympics to oil prices, from?the elections to the economy. A memorial to those who passed, including Studs Turkel, Eartha Kitt,?George Carlin,?Bo Diddley, and?Paul Newman. And a tribute to the changing of the presidential guard. (Produced by Peter Bochan of MixedUp.com).?
-
Memory Book
Recollections, remembrances, and mnemonics for recalling time: Lester Nafzger recalls his life as a litany of "Lynchpins" (as told to Joe Frank, excerpted from his Hour Performer). Host Ceil Muller takes us on a tour of her own memory palace, made bits of unsued of tape recordings she's gathered over the years, in "Persistence of Memorex." "Death in Venice" roams the beach with retired folk in Venice, Florida, finding? seashells, shark's teeth and distant memories (written and produced by...
-
Go By Train
Musician Calvin Johnson (Beat Happening, K Records) hosts train tales: An existential interaction with an automated Amtrak voice. The Kronos Quartet plays Steve Reich's "Different Trains." Singer Jules Shear recalls an on-board performance. A Sound Portrait of a Pullman Porter. A track-hopping hobo named Short Stop. Circus performer Little Jack Horton and poet Charles Bukowski stolen engine car. Segregated train-travel from StoryCorps. The world's largest model railroad. And Calvin's Great...
-
Yes to God
At the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, NPR's Noah Adams talks to those who know Thomas Merton, the Catholic writer and Trappist monk. Host Beverly Donofrio, reads from her book, Riding in Cars with Boys; then goes on a cross-country quest, "Looking for Mary" in those who see visions of the Virgin, a Sound Portraits production.
-
Christmas Mashup
A mix of holiday stories, found-sound, and sampled songs: A bell-ringer at the Mall of America. Holiday history as told by second graders. A trip to the toy store. Carols sung by Zulu children in a South African orphanage. And holiday bits from Bing Crosby, George W. Bush, and The Beatles Fan Club Christmas messages.
-
Spirit World
A preacher/prank-caller conjures "Alice of the Spirits." Carmen Delzell samples the "Ritual Magic" of a voodoo Santera, soaks in a spirit bath, and prays for sex, adventure, and central heat. Ceil Muller visits "The Psychic Center of the World," the town of Cassadega, Florida. And host Larry Massett spends "A Night on Mt. Shasta."
-
Portrait of a Plague
Sister Agnes Ramashiga's Radio Diaries of "Just Another Day At the World's Biggest Hospital," Soweto — 2000 patients check in daily, half HIV positive. A teenager documents her HIV "Positive Life- Tanya," by American RadioWorks. Poet Lisa Buscani is "Counting" on her mom's health advice. "And Trouble Came: An African AIDS Diary" is Laura Kaminsky's compositon for viola, cello, piano, and stories of Tamakloe: warrior, tailor, AIDS victim. Life-saving meds brought Krandall Kraus back from the...
-
Let's Eat
An audio Thanksgiving feast. We binge on fattening stories, then purge with a documentary on refusing food. Scott Carrier tours a "Turkey Ranch," following the gobbler from farmyard to frozen food. Joe Frank describes a typically twisted family "Thanksgiving Dinner" (from his program "Pilgrim"). Dean Olscher goes "Chowhounding in St. Paul," searching for Hmong food, with cellphone assistance from Chowhound Jim Leff. And Annie Cheney offers a touching document of her eating disorder,...
Recommended Shows
PROGRAM INFORMATION
- Bozeman, MT
- Storytelling, Documentary, Public Radio
- NPR
- English
- 686 Canyon View Rd. Bozeman, MT 59715-1609
-
Visit the station website
Update show info
