audiodocumentarydotorg

New Yorker Audio: Africans moving to China's "Chocolate City." One is Obama's Half Brother.

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.

More Lesbian Separatists

A couple weeks ago we linked to the NY Times audio slide show about a lesbian-only community.  This week the New Yorker takes on the the lesbian separatists of the 70's.  I guess covering radical dykes is suddenly en vogue in the New York press??

Planet Money Controversy

This is audio of part of an interview Planet Money's Adam Davidson did with TARP watchdog Elizabeth Warren.  It features Warren and Davidson going at it pretty heatedly about what Warren's role should be.  The interview subsequently illicited this apology (at about 1:50) in which someone hinted that Davidson's interview was sexist ( he wouldn't have spoken with Tim Geithner like that) and then this scolding by NPR's Ombudsman.  All of which made the interview all that much more interesting and people.  I am sure it is the most even listened to Podcast from Planet money.

Iranians debate on BBC

This is a really fascinating dialogue from the BBC between a group of Iranians -- both inside and outside Iran -- about the election "protests" going on there.

New Yorker on Savage

New Yorker audio interview with Kelefa Sanneh, who profiled the bombastic, enigmatic talk show host Micheal Savage for the magizine.  This piece is unique for the New Yorker in that it uses multiple clips from Savage's radio show.

Mike Seeger Interview

Interview with Dylan hero and Pete half-brother who passed away Aug. 7.

Here is the NPR rememberance.

Mike Judge on Fresh Air

Hey Beavis, this like a really funny interview and stuff.  Mike Judge has a new movie out.

Studio 360 goes to Theremin School

Did Texas Execute an Innocent Man?

There has never been a proven case of an innocent person getting the death penalty.  The case of Cameron Todd Willingham, executed in Texas in 2004, may become the first.

In Verse

An MQ2 project receiving funding from the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB),  "In Verse is a collaboration between poets, photographers and radio producers to create a new model of storytelling in journalism. "

The project will be  featured in  Virginia Quarterly Review and on Studio 360. 

Here is an audio slide show sneak peak.  It's one of three that can be found here.

 

Studs Terkel

Apropos to nothing, really.  I like this 2000 Transom interview with the late Studs Terkel. 
"I'd gone to law school and it was a bleak horrendous experience.  Under no circumstances would I ever practice law."

WUNC's "The Story"

This is a great show from WUNC.  This episode features a story (about 3/5 of the way through) from a son who witnessed his father, in order to support the family, getting the heck beat out him, in a carnival boxing match, for $25.  Talk about hard times.

New Orleans – Alfred Koch

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.

Beam Me Up Darling

Get to know avid Star Trek fans – who also happen to be both Irish and gay.

- Audio Documentary London Bureau

The Perfect Job

Oleg Kalugin was a KGB agent in Washington DC. And he really lived the life.

- Audio Documentary London Bureau

The Drill Sergeant's Karma

A Radio New Zealand tale of motorcycles, romance, and reflexology. Plus ghosts. 

The weekly documentary Spectrum profiles a woman who moved from a trailer in Australia and and her corporate job, to New Zealand and a life in alternative therapies. 

This story goes many places – all via one woman.

 

- Audio Documentary London Bureau

In His Sights

A revealing and upsetting interview with a woman who has been stalked by one man for fifteen years. The story, which includes aggression and threat, starts in June 1994, and continues up to today. 

 

- Audio Documentary London Bureau 

26 July – Revolt in Cuba

An old-school radio feature, with actorly presentation and interviews with Fidel Castro, from 1958. Brought to us by CBC's archive programme, Rewind.

- Audio Documentary London Bureau

My Mom Wants to Get a Haitian

Lots in the news about the controversial adoption of Haitian children.  AD listener Kevin Bolger sent this really "on-the-ground" personal story from a 25 year-old whose mom really wants a couple Hatian kids.

"brief interview with my friend about a possible change to his family. His mother is considering adopting children from Haiti."

A Simpler Time

An American artist goes to Ireland to fight time. From the classic Radiolab Beyond Time, starting 10 minutes in.

 

- Audio Documentary London Bureau

Street Cred

And indie podcast out of Montreal submitted by an AD user.

Choosing Castration

An extraordinary series of interview about men who've volunteered for chemical castration. In one possibly upsetting interview, a sex offender discusses how he chose it, and life now. Also, a man who was not a sex offender but physically castrated himself to reduce his testosterone fuelled aggression.  

 

– Audio Documentary London Bureau

Third Ear International

Danish features go North American – the Third Coast International Festival's Julie Shapiro guides a listening event in Denmark, with a selection of engaging radio from the USA and Canada. 

Third Ear is a Danish features project, and this is their first instalment entirely in English, under the banner of Third Ear International. 

 

Audio Documentary Europe.

Flower War

A World War II veteran, Gerald Flower, recalls candidly and vividly his time as a tail-gunner. The facts and emotions of bombing raids, and of falling behind the German lines.

From RTÉ's The Curious Ear.

 

Audio Documentary Europe

Ageing, living

The book Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives gets a radio reprieve with a new story specially commissioned for the BBC's One Planet programme about ageing. But this episode is most noteworthy as the one where the host makes an old lady cry.

 

Audio Documentary Europe

How they saw the radio

Frequencies is a four part series that celebrates the power of sound, as represented by radio, in the arts. 

 

Audio Documentary Europe.

Mine rescue, 1936

As the world's media watches the rescue of trapped miners in Chile, we look back to 1936, when the Canadian Radio Commission reported for six days the attempts to rescue three men trapped in a mine at Moose River, Nova Scotia. A selection of the reports, from the CBC Archives. 

 

Audio Documentary Europe

chick/lit + AD Exclusive Interview

chick/lit examines fan fiction – a particular type called Slash Fiction. It's a genre best known for bringing Harry Potter and his rivals… together.

AudioDocumentary.org spoke to the producer, Inez Tan, from Singapore. She says chick/lit is unlikely to get broadcast on the radio there, because of the homesexual inferences of Slash Fiction. Listen to the interview by clicking here. 

Music: Kämmerer A Final Year Project for the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore ©  Inez Tan, 2010

 

Connor Walsh, for AD, London

A Workin' on the Whalin' O

An engaging insight into the grim world of rural life and whaling in the mid-20th century. In the late 1980s, New Zealander Dan Bergin recounted his tough working life, to producer Jack Perkins. Perkins has himself recently retired, and this story is part of a retrospective on his work.

Connor Walsh, AD, London.

A Woman of No Consequence

Marking International Woman's Day, "A Woman of No Consequence" from the CBC. Told in a simple manner, this story is at times sad, at times reaffirming. The ordinarly-extraordinary story and sonic qualities of the protagonist's voice lift it above a straightforward interview, to something musical and moving.

 

Connor Walsh, AD, London. 

All About Sound

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

Listen to Raymond Carver

From the site: Listen to a 1983 interview with Raymond Carver (30 minutes) or a1986 interview (35 minutes), both conducted by radio broadcaster Don Swaim, courtesy of Wired For Books.

Listen to Raymond Carver reading seven poems ("In a Marine Light near Sequim, Washington", "The Meadow", "Venice", "The Fishing Pole of the Drowned Man", "Cadillacs and Poetry", "Luck" and "Alcohol", 10 minutes) in London, 1987, courtesy of The Bedside Crow.

The Dialogue Project

The Dialogue Project does what it says on the tin – dialogues, usually between the producer Karl James and one interviewee, on personal, passionate, or intimate topics. The results are beautiful, and span a range of topics from this French astronaut talking about our world, to two people's very different expereince of being caned, to the death of a child. 

RIP Christopher Hitchens

The indomitable contrarian Christopher Hitchens said "This profane marriage between tawdry media hype and medieval superstition gave birth to an icon which few have since had the poor taste to question," about MOTHER TERESA.  About his own cancer: "All of the cheer-up stories I'm afraid have made me an esophageal cancer snob."

Hitchens died yesterday at 62. Here is last year's All Things Considered interview.

the Scared is scared

Bianca Giaever asks a kid what she should make a movie about. [Via Transom.org]

Ebert On Dylan

via John Barth @PRX