Prime Candidates
Fri, Sep 5
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...
Caregiver
Tue, Sep 2
"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...
Prime Candidates
Tue, Sep 2
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...
Heat
Tue, Aug 26
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...
This is Insanity
Mon, Aug 11
"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.
Mushroom Cloud
Wed, Aug 6
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...
Tony Schwartz
Fri, Aug 1
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."
The Old Country
Tue, Jul 22
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."
Life on the Mississippi
Thu, Jul 17
Life on the Mississippi: 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.
Stars and Bars
Mon, Jul 7
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...
No Place Like Home
Wed, Jul 2
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...
Bugs and Birds
Fri, Jun 27
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...
Father Figures
Tue, Jun 17
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...
Fans and Bands
Thu, Jun 12
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."
Crossing Borders
Mon, Jun 2
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...
For the Fallen
Wed, May 28
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...
Road Trip
Fri, May 23
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."
All Mom Radio
Tue, May 13
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...
Shoah
Thu, May 8
Rabbi Samuel Cohon of Temple Emanuel, Tucson, presents stories of survirors, for Holocaust Remembrance Day: In "Descended from the Holocaust" Dr. Alan Berkenwald records his trip with his parents to the Holocaust Museum — it was first time they talked openly about their experience in the concentration camps; this audio diary is of Jay Allison"s Life Stories. "Yom Hashoah 1994" is Shoah services in Billings MT and Cleveland OH, survivor interviews, and the story of the Billings communities...
About Aging
Fri, May 2
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...
The Earth Sings
Tue, Apr 22
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." Soprano Bonnie Jo Hunt layers opera over insects. The band Pamyua mimics creature calls.
Radio Dial
Thu, Apr 17
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."
Street Map
Wed, Apr 16
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.
Visiting Hours
Wed, Apr 16
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."
Her Stories
Wed, Apr 16
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,...
Comedy with a Beat
Wed, Apr 16
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.
Backroads
Wed, Apr 16
Audio excursions from the early eighties: Four traveling stories from public radio's past, hosted by the independent producers who made them, Scott Carrier attends a native service of "Navajo Pentacostalists." The Kitchen Sisters ride with the "Road Ranger," an American auto-mechanic hero. John Rieger samples small-town life "Fifty Miles Out of Gerlach." And Larry Massett takes a nitrous-oxide fueled "Trip To the Dentist."
005 Back Roads
Wed, Apr 9
Audio excursions from the early eighties: Four traveling stories from public radio's past, hosted by the independent producers who made them, Scott Carrier attends a native service of "Navajo Pentacostalists." The Kitchen Sisters ride with the "Road Ranger," an American auto-mechanic hero. John Rieger samples small-town life "Fifty Miles Out of Gerlach." And Larry Massett takes a nitrous-oxide fueled "Trip To the Dentist." (53:00)
Comedy with a Beat 004B
Wed, Apr 2
Last half: "Lenny Bruce Gets Busted" in Jonathan Mitchell's documentary. And we hear rare and classic bits from host David Ossman's Firesign Theatre. (29:00)
Comedy with a Beat 004A
Wed, Apr 2
First half: 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. (23:00)