New French soda carries Obama's name.
Republican Caucus insists it be referred to as "Freedom Fizz."
But seriously, this story segues into some really interesting things about French society.
Producer: Eleanor Beardsley
Program: Morning Edition
Playtime: 4 minutes 42 seconds
Date: December, 2008
Story of a guy who composes music to be played by volunteers on a whole bunch of boom boxes.
Producer: Jonathan Mitchell
Program: Studio 360
Playtime: 7 minutes
Date: December, 2005
I never knew there was a term for the banging that steam raditors do. Steam Hammer. If you don't know what the steam hammer is count yourself lucky. Here is a link to what many of us New Yorkers get to hear in the middle of the night.
The New Yorker's Ben McGrath talks about how the financial collapse relates to the end of the world as we know it...and he feels fine.
Program: New Yorker
Playtime: 10 minutes 20 seconds
Date: January, 2009
Weekend America (on it's second to last week) reaches back into their vault for this nugget about an Indian hugging saint. Seems appropriate in these days when lots of us need a hug.
Producer: Krissy Clark
Program: Weekend America
This is a fascinating interview from the New Yorker Out Loud about African immigrants in China and the impact of that - intermarriage etc. They also mention that one of the them - married to a Chinese women - is Obama's half brother.
Program: New Yorker
Date: February, 2009
Check out the pronunciation of the phrase "Son of a Bitch" from Merriam-Webster.com. Keep an eye on the interns, people...
Soundprint.org brings "a portrait of the ebb and flow of life within the Alfred Hospital's Trauma and Emergency Department in Melbourne, Australia."
This piece is done in a cool "kaleidoscopic style" instead of the straight narrative style. Check it out. It one of two stories from SP this week. Title: "Trauma." Alternative link.
Playtime: 28 minutes 29 seconds
Studio 360 story from 2007 about the inevtor of the Hoberman Sphere.
Playtime: 8 minutes 29 seconds
Date: August, 2007
Studio 360 story from 2007 about the inventor of the Hoberman Sphere.
Producer: Lu Olkowski
Program: Studio 360
Playtime: 8 minutes 29 seconds
Nude! This Soundprint episode is about being NAKED and NUDE. Listen and hear lots of talk about NUDITY and being NUDE. NUDE. NAKED.
Thanks to Third Coast international Audio Festival for turning us on to this. With appoligies to Daniel Johnston, an audio project that simply asks the question. Anyone can call and contribute. They have a podcast on iTunes and a Facebook page, too.
Studio 360 finds out what growing up with the Wizard of Oz was like in Russia.
From the Duke Center for Documentary Studies, a cautionary tale about exotic pets.
Connor Walsh sends AD this unbelievable story from the BBC about the constoversial history of the foreskin of Jesus Christ. Incredible.
[Note: Fast Forward 18:00 minutes for the Jesus's foreskin Story.]
Came across this BBC doc. Not sure when it is from. A secret meeting of world movers and shakers is held every year in various locations around the world. What's the big secret? Is it okay for big wigs to meet and not say what they talk about? Do these meetings have some secret, undemocratic sway over world events?
A short experimental feature on New Orleans, by Alfred Koch. Made for the International Features Conference, and symmetrically bi-lingual, English-German.
- Audio Documentary London Bureau.
Playtime: 3 minutes 46 seconds
Taking performance art to the level of a stunt, as much as a project. Ronan Kelly details provocative arts works that caused a public stir, in Sweden, Ireland, and the UK.
- Audio Documentary London Bureau
Playtime: 16 minutes 18 seconds
The successful struggle of an immigrant doctor to the town of Twillingate, New Foundland. Dr. Mohamed Iqbal Ravalia is profiled delightfully by the CBC.
– Audio Documentary London Bureau
Playtime: 19 minutes 15 seconds
After hosting the UK's most popular breakfast programme for 27 years, Sir Terry Wogan called it a day, on 18 December 2009. He says goodbye to his hugely loyal and involved listenership, on BBC Radio 2.
- Audio Documentary London Bureau
Playtime: 52 minutes 43 seconds
Date: December, 2009
A rich feature in the European tradition, blending vérité, drama, and music. A lake in the Norwegian mountains. Fish, family, friends, strangers. If the audio link above doesn't play for you, try here.
- Audio Documentary London Bureau
(Photo: Martin Williams)
Producer: Martin Williams
Playtime: 54 minutes 32 seconds
An American artist goes to Ireland to fight time. From the classic Radiolab Beyond Time, starting 10 minutes in.
- Audio Documentary London Bureau
Playtime: 10 minutes 10 seconds
Resonance FM's Voice on Record programme features an hour of Irish storytelling. Part two of three.
– Audio Documentary London Bureau
Playtime: 59 minutes 53 seconds
A simple, engaging tale of war-time Britain, told by Documentally. Just one of the curios to be found on AudioBoo.fm.
- Audio Documentary London Bureau
Playtime: 1 minute 43 seconds
Date: March, 2010
Every Sunday, BBC Radio 4 presents a 45 minute selection of the week's best speech output. Most of it comes from three of the domestic networks, so provides a snapshot of BBC content largely unknown to listeners outside the UK. The usual mix includes factual, music documentary, comedy, and drama. For contractual reasons, each episode stays online for just one week.
– Audio Documentary London Bureau.
Playtime: 45 minutes
Sound Tourism maps places worth a visit because they sound so good. In this example, curator Trevor Cox, Professor of Acoustic Engineering at the University of Salford, UK, introduces the great Stalacpipe Organ in Virgina, USA. By tapping stalactites with mallets, it claims to be the world's largest natural musical instrument.
– Audio Documentary London Bureau
Playtime: 15 seconds
If it isn't T-shirt vendors that stop the next terror attack maybe it will be 'shrooms... Piece sent to us by an AD user. Thanks Matt!
Frequencies is a four part series that celebrates the power of sound, as represented by radio, in the arts.
Audio Documentary Europe.
While the furrowed brows of the BBC World Service are on holidays, they've let the creatives loose, with great effect. Two engaging documentaries about UK citizens who have been put somewhere difficult. Philip McTaggart's son committed suicide, changing his life. Mary Thida Lun's mom fled the Khmer Rouge, and now has a daughter serving in war zones as a British civil servant. Big topics, in a manner more full of human contradiction and personality than we usually hear on the BBC World Service.
Audio Documentary Europe
Playtime: 22 minutes 29 seconds
Interview, History, Death, Gender, Violence, Immigration, Health and Beauty, Interesting
The first in a series from “Hearing is Believing II,” the advanced summer workshop at The Duke Center for Documentary Studies. During the intensive course, budding audio artists receive personal guidance from seasoned radio documentary producers to craft and polish their piece. "Lost in the Mail" is by Samara Freemark, whose day job is at Radio Diaries.
Playtime: 11 minutes 40 seconds
Inside the world of bail bonds. Should you ever get arrested, they come to your rescue. Produced by Jeanette Woods at the Duke Center for Documentary Studies Summer Workshop.
Playtime: 8 minutes 57 seconds
Creative audio types from North America get Hackneyed. Award winning British radio producer Francesca Panetta interviews Award winning American radio producers Ira Glass and Jad Abumrad, along with Third Coast Festival directors Johanna Zorn and Julie Shapiro. It's a passionate sound love-in!
From The Guardian's Media Talk podcast.
Connor Walsh for AD, Brussels.
Playtime: 24 minutes 8 seconds
From AD for Veteran's Day (U.S.): In war there are winners and losers -- often on the same side. A good example from two comrades fighting to survive a Viet Nam War battle; helping to mark U.S. Veterans Day (Nov. 11).
Playtime: 10 minutes 36 seconds
A three-year old girl struggles for every breath as her parents discover strength they never knew they had. The latest in a series from the Duke Center for Documentary Studies Summer Workshop.
Playtime: 9 minutes 22 seconds
An octogenarian East Londoner tries to teach a twenty-something to dance. The delightful Heel, Toe, Step Together is one of the most acclaimed British documentaries of 2010.
Connor Walsh for AD, London.
Playtime: 27 minutes 30 seconds
Music Planet is an eight hour series recorded in the field, hearing the music that ties people to their local traditions. Designed to accompany a landmark BBC TV series, episode one of Music Planet includes much recording in canoes, including a shark hunt. The musicians are interviewed and perform in context, rather than a studio or off CD. The result is engaging and vivid.
Two more episodes are due to be broadcast.
Connor Walsh, AD, London
Playtime: 59 minutes
A road trip with no agenda leads to discovery and a peaceful ending. The last in a series from the Duke Center for Documentary Studies 2010 Summer Workshop.
Playtime: 12 minutes 1 second
Doctors in one Southern California town are making house calls on the homeless. Diane Bock joins healthcare pros who make the streets a little less mean for their patients.
Playtime: 5 minutes 22 seconds
Week in week out, Definitely Not the Opera on CBC Radio 1 engages with two hours of stories and music. This episode is particularly strong. It's all about… sound. Sound sound sound. And no music! You'll hear some familiar voices and names from AudioDocumentary.org entries too. The stories told vary from funny though to quite upsetting.
Connor Walsh, AD, London
Playtime: 1 hour 11 minutes 16 seconds
Interview, Science, Sound Rich, Environment, Health and Beauty, Interesting
A living volcano, the edge of the American tectonic plate, a glacier, boiling mud, Sigur Ros, writers, painters, and Britain's finest natural sound recordist. Jules Verne's Volcano goes to Iceland with Chris Watson, a man who loves the sound of the place.
There's drama, humour, and bucket loads of awe, in the finest BBC radio feature of 2011 so far. Must-listen.
Connor Walsh, AD, London
Playtime: 30 minutes
You know sometimes they do radio stories about restaurants where you eat in complete darkness? This one actually gives you an idea of what it's like. Lyric FM's CultureFile visited this restaurant in Israel.
Playtime: 6 minutes 17 seconds
Despite a dwindling membership, the Hebrew Union Congregation in America's Bible Belt still serves up a yearly feast for Jews and Gentiles alike.
Playtime: 7 minutes 50 seconds
Serious musicians reveal the price they pay for a life of dedication to their instruments. Is it worth it? Beautiful music mixed with a sometimes discordant counterpoint.
Playtime: 9 minutes 30 seconds
Trailers… portable booths… studios that don't look typical for public radio… and fantastic radio. StoryCorps is such a treasure that the recordings get sent to the Library of Congress. The idea has travelled not just across the US but across the world – the BBC says they want a British version, and the Together Liberia project brings us this selection.
Playtime: 2 minutes 40 seconds
Why do some people insist on more than their fair share of healthcare? Karen Brown explores the real cost of imagined illness.
Playtime: 26 minutes 55 seconds
Join the climb all the way up and back down Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro. Beyond the scenery, the human story is the porters: paid servants' wages for a priceless job, they remained cheerful and tireless throughout. This piece, by producer Will Rogers, is the first in a series of featured work from the Duke Center for Documentary Studies 2011 summer workshop, with thanks to program director John Biewen.
Playtime: 11 minutes 13 seconds
The story of an Irish woman who married an Egyptian and a woman from Egypt who's wed to an Irishman. Both are struggling to adapt to life in their spouse's homeland. It's like culture clash in stereo.
Playtime: 22 minutes 4 seconds
It's a new world of complex relationships in this cutting edge piece from down under. Winner of Australian Broadcasting's "My Tribe" audio competition. Producer Robbie McEwan was a student at the time, and now produces radio and video documentaries in Australia and New Zealand.
Playtime: 10 minutes 30 seconds
SR c is an outlet for experimental and creative radio, nestled in the heart of Sweden's public radio broadcaster, which is called Swedish Radio. The main site has an enormous amount of content, but also a link in the top left that asks for "Less Swedish, please!", which opens this new page – other languages, including English, Non-verbal, and, of course, Sound Carpets. There's much to enjoy here. Dive in.
Weird, Sound Rich, Multimedia, Interesting, Hearing, Environment
From the Canadian National Film Board and included on the Association of Independants in Radio's (AIR) list of top transmedia projects of 2011, Pine Point is hard to catagorize -- video, photos, sound, text, both temopral and not... It is interactive documentary.
This American Life's gutsy and thorough, 1-hour redaction of their wildly popular episode "Mr. Daisey Goes to the Apple Factory." An insightful and probing meditation on the difference between fact and fiction. TAL lays out its own mistakes nakedly and outlines everything they can discern about the story's truth or falsity.
You can hear the original story (removed from the TAL website) here.
The BBC clones the popular StoryCorps series, listening in on intimate conversations with interesting people. Beryl and Graham's chat is a good place to start eavesdropping.
Playtime: 3 minutes
This 3-minute audio hors d'oeuvre is an entry in the Third Coast Festival's 2012 Short Docs Challenge.
Playtime: 3 minutes
A startling moment of compassion amidst the horrors of war. But that's just the beginning of this story with a 20-year arc and suprising conclusion.
Playtime: 43 minutes 40 seconds