Selects
Selects is a show that brings you unearthed audio works we’ve found buried in web archives, radio streams, and old podcasts. They’ve come to us through the recommendations and inspirations of some of the most talented audio creators working today.
Every two weeks we release a new episode right here and it is going to be something that you definitely want to hear. The works that we are going to feature are going to be some of the most compelling and exciting and ambitious works in audio.
You can find the whole library of exclusively curated works and bonus content at selects.fm or on our Apple Podcasts channel.
This week, we offer a bittersweet Pride tradition from the memory palace. This episode of the Memory Palace was written and produced by Nate DiMeo with engineering support from Kath Tu and research assistance by Andrea Miln. It was originally released in 2016 in the days after the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. It is re-released every year on the anniversary of the incident.
Today we're sharing a classic from the WNYC Archives - an unnamed reporter goes on the hunt to interview Beat poets in the Village, but has a hard time finding anyone willing to admit to being one. Selects Live at Tribeca Festival (Limited seating, RSVP Required): eventbrite.co.uk/e/radiotopia-and-selects-present-new-york-stories-tickets-1989237542037 ******** The original WNYC Municipal Archive discs of this program are missing. The old catalog indicates there were 2 - 16" discs. The recording on CD 993 was taken from a Rhino Records reissue of an excerpt of the longer work. Municipal Archives # LT 9089. Based on the Peabody archive # this dates from February 8, 1959. WNYC archives id: 12099
Today we're sharing a piece from our Early True Crime collection, an early podcast from KRCC (now Colorado Public Radio) in 2015. The story follows a retired detective corresponding with a suspected serial killer while looking back at his own career. The Gods Must Be Bewildered was produced Jake Brownell and Noel Black. With voice acting by Kurt Bunch and Mike Percell. The Production Assistant was Amelia Whitmer and the Intern was Emily Frogen. Music by Jake Brownell. SELECTS LIVE AT TRIBECA! RSVP Here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/radiotopia-and-selects-present-new-york-stories-tickets-1989237542037
Today we're featuring a selection from an episode of the groundbreaking show Hearing Voices. With Montana-based producer Barrett Golding at the helm, the show was known for cross pollinating with performance and poetry to create a space for audio producers to experiment and grow. Each episode was adventurous, unpredictable and exciting. We've also got a whole collection of Hearing Voices episodes available to subscribers ($20 for the whole year!).
Today we're sharing a classic Sean Cole work from his time on the documentary team at WBUR's Inside Out. It's a beautiful work of scene and memory, taking listeners to a reunion for a town that hasn't physically existed for generations.
Today we're featuring a excerpt of a work that explores the relationship of art, documentary, and history through a search for class struggle in Appalachia. Beyond the limited academic concept of oral history, I Can Almost See the Lights of Home: A Field Trip to Harlan County, Kentucky is a essay-in-sound that weaves the words and stories of Harlan County residents with the sounds and music of the place itself. The result is documentary art, and a deeply compelling listen. Original Series Credits: "I Can Almost See the Lights of Home ~ A Field Trip to Harlan County, Kentucky An Essay-In-Sound" Writers: Charles Hardy III and Alessandro Portelli Interviews: Alessandro Portelli Musical recordings: Alessandro Portelli and Charles Hardy III Producer/Engineer: Charles Hardy Financial assistance provided by the Columbia University Oral History Research Office, the West Chester University Faculty Development Program, the English Department of the Univerity of Rome "La Sapienza," and a grant from the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. Special thanks to Annie Napier, Ron Grele, Mary Marshall Clark, Stig Hornshøf-Møller, Steve Rowland, and the participants of the 1997 Oral History Research Office Oral History Summer Institute. More of Hardy's and others' writing on these works and others can be found here: Aural History, The Digital Revolution, and the Making of I Can Almost See the Lights of Home: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137322029_4 “Authoring in Sound: Aural History, Radio, and the Digital Revolution,” The Oral History Reader, 2nd edition, editors Rob Perks and Alistair Thomson, (Routledge, 2006): 393-406. “Oral History in Sound and Moving Image Documentaries,” (with Pamela Dean) Handbook of Oral History, editors Thomas Charlton et. al., (AltaMira Press, 2006): 510-62. Reprinted in Thinking About Oral History: Theories and Applications, (AltaMira Press, 2008). Painting in Sound: Aural History and Audio Art,” Oral History: The Challenges of Dialogue. Marta Kurkowska-Budzan and Krysztof Zamorski, eds. (John Benjamins Publishing, 2009): 147-67 https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/hist_facpub/14/ Oral History in the Digital Age: https://ohda.matrix.msu.edu/about/authors/hardy/
This week we're featuring a super interesting conversation with Eleanor McDowall, creator of Radio Atlas, about the world of the radio feature and the artistry of audio works that aren't in English.
Note: this week's episode is a video podcast because it is a celebration of audio subtitles. You'll need to experience it on a platform that supports video files. This week we're sharing a choice work from our new collection celebrating ten years of Radio Atlas, an English-language home for subtitled audio from around the world. A place to hear inventive documentaries, dramas and works of sound art that have been made in languages you don’t necessarily speak. Radio Atlas has subtitled stories from over 30 countries, and has been an instrumental part of audio festivals and awards since its inception (and it's won several awards itself). We're sharing one feature from the collection today: The Woman on the Ice produced by Rikke Houd for Third Ear in 2014. A young woman walks out onto the ice in Greenland, under a full moon, and disappears. It's haunting, super compelling and will reshape your expectations for documentary. ********* Original Series Credits from Radio Atlas: Produced by Rikke Houd for Third Ear (11th March 2014) “In 1932 a young, Danish woman went as the first Danish nurse to the sparsely populated Greenlandic east coast. She trained as a nurse with the sole purpose of going to Greenland, but she didn’t get to live there for a year. One night she went out into the frozen landscape. She walked out on towards the sea, to the edge of the ice. Here the story ends with her footprints…” Deep beneath the Greenlandic ice, lies a hidden history. The Danish feature-maker Rikke Houd travels in the footsteps of Karen Roos, who disappeared on the ice outside the small East Greenlandic town of Tasiilaq in 1933. Winner of the 2015 In The Dark award for audio documentary presented at Sheffield Doc/fest. Produced with support from the Danish Arts Council. thirdear.dk
Today we share a prescient work by Ross Sutherland from his long running, award winning show Imaginary Advice. It's a darkly funny spiral and a fantastic listen. ******* S.E.I.N.F.E.L.D. originally aired in 2016 on Imaginary Advice. It was written, produced and voiced by Ross Sutherland and a robot voice.
This week we're sharing a piece from The Big Read, a book club for public radio from the National Endowment for the Arts. This episode is about Ernest Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying. Set in the fictional community of Bayonne, Louisiana, in the late 1940s, A Lesson Before Dying tells the story of Jefferson, a twenty-one-year-old Black field worker wrongfully accused and convicted of the robbery and murder of a white man, and sentenced to death by electrocution. It's an incredible story of friendship and what it means to resist and defy one's fate Original Series Credits: This program was created by the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services. It was hosted by Dana Gioia and written and produced by Molly Murphy and Dan Stone, and mixed by Molly Murphy. Readings from A Lesson Before Dying were by KenYatta Rogers. "Were You There?," "Guitar Man," "John Henry," "Piedmont Medley" and "Amazing Grace" by NEA Heritage Fellow Cephas and Wiggins used courtesy of John Cephas, Phil Wiggins and Joe Wilson."Cotton Fields," "Leaving Blues," "Let it Shine on Me" and "Moanin'" performed by Lead Belly. Plus "Death is Awful" by Doc Reed, all used with permission of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Original sound effects by Brent Finley at Sonic Magic Studios. Production Assistant: Adam Kampe. Administrative Assistants: Pepper Smith and Erica Koss. Special thanks to Ken Hoffman, Louise Herras, Keith Cornell, Sister Margaret, Luthetha Martin, Angie Knorwood and to our contributors: Warden Burl Cain, Ruby Dee, Ernest J. Gaines, Ash Green, Romulus Linney, Sister Helen Prejean and Cicely Tyson.
Today we're featuring one of our favorite series, American Icons, on a true work of art: I Love Lucy. It's a hilarious and bittersweet documentary, exemplary of the incredibly thoughtful work that Studio 360 bestowed upon listeners for twenty years until its end in F2020. Original Series Credits: American Icons: I Love Lucy was produced by Jenny Lawton, with production assistance from Chloe Plaunt and Claes Andreasson. David Krasnow edited the show. Peabody Award-winning Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen is public radio’s smart, fun, and provocative window on pop culture and the arts. Listen to surprising conversations, performances, and stories from across the spectrum of art and culture.
This week we share a story from the front lines. Literally, from the front lines of a brutal war. But also figuratively, from the front lines of a change in technology that would shape how civilians understand war: personal recording. We've got two additional episodes in a new collection for subscribers including a special from Hearing Voices that is actually six individual pieces. It's great listening for the long night. Original Series Credits for The Vietnam Tapes: The Vietnam Tapes of Lance Corporal Michael A. Baronowski was produced by Christina Egloff with Jay Allison. It won the Best Documentary: Gold Award in the 2001 Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition. It was originally produced for the Lost and Found Sound series. The original series also included special thanks to: the Family of Michael A. Baronowski, including his sister, Lorraine “Cookie Meckley; Tim Duffie, Art Silverman, Darcy Bacon, Deb George and Bill Deputy of NPR; Phil Prince, Mike’s squad leader; Ray Borowski and Tom Mosher, Mike’s comrades; Brent Runyon and Viki Merrick of Atlantic Public Media; Barbara McQuiston; public radio stations WGBH, WCAI and WNAN in Massachusetts. More about the story can be found here: https://transom.org/2013/the-vietnam-tapes-of-lance-corporal-michael-a-baronowski/
In this episode, we offer a few of our favorite shorts as sonic gifts. We've got the humble farmer, an early work by Arlie Adlington, and one of the most formative works of contemporary audio: CAT NAMES.
This week we bring you a rare longform piece by Radio Diaries featuring Bridgette McGee, our narrator as she uncovers the truth about her grandfather's death, through uncomfortable interviews, original reporting, and some of the most arresting archival tape. We are with Bridgette for every step of her process, and in doing so, we share a history that could have otherwise been erased. Photo courtesy of Bridgette McGee. ***** Original Series Credits: Our story was narrated by Bridgette McGee-Robinson and produced Joe Richman and Samara Freemark of Radio Diaries, with help from Anayansi Diaz-Cortes, Deborah George and Ben Shapiro.
This week we're sharing a banger documentary from Kelly McEvers which may leave you standing, staring at a wall by the end. The podcast version of a driveway moment. Ten years before McEvers' show Embedded hit the air, you can hear the idea for it beginning to form. Diary of a Bad Year is a bold and compelling look at why journalists risk it all for the story. ***** Jay Allison financed, produced, edited and mixed this series for Transom.org. More about the piece can be found at Transom: https://transom.org/2013/diary-of-a-bad-year-a-war-correspondents-dilemma/ Original Thank You and Music Credits for Diary of a Bad Year are here: I dedicate this piece to the lost members of the tribe and to their families. I stand forever in salute to Chris Hondros, Tim Hetherington, Gilles Jacquier, Anthony Shadid, Marie Colvin, and Remy Ochlik. A huge thanks to those who participated in this project by agreeing to talk to me: Mark Brayne, Anthony Feinstein, Paul Wood, Anna Blundy, Jon Lee Anderson, Sebastian Junger, and Christiane Amanpour. Thanks again to the wonderful folks at Transom, who opened their houses and their hearts and reinforced my belief in the principle that if you listen, really listen, great things happen. Thank you to my true partners in crime — Lava Selo, Rima Marrouch, and Rasha Elass — who have been by my side on every Syria story. Thank you to my dear friend and editor, Doug Roberts, who let me try weird things on the radio despite the fact that I was breaking all the rules. I am forever in his debt. Thanks to the inimitable Loren Jenkins, for believing in me after all those years of trying. Thank you to Jonathan Blakley, who first put me in touch with Mark Brayne and who helped me understand it’s okay to talk to a counselor; to Barbara Surk and Hassan Jamali, who were with me as we were tear-gassed in Bahrain; to Noor Kelze, who first took me to the front line in Aleppo; to Manoli Wetherell, Jim Lesher, and Suzanne Lennon, who engineered and recorded interviews; to Jennifer Dargan, who helped arrange my interview with Christiane Amanpour; and to Tim Fitzsimons, Susannah George, and John Mangin, who provided early and very helpful feedback. And perhaps the biggest thanks of all goes to my family — Steve, Claudia, and Dave McEvers — whose support is unwavering despite the pain it causes them, and to Nathan Deuel, my collaborator, my best friend, and my one great love. Music Thank you to Matthias Bossi, Carla Kihlstedt, and Jon Evans for the original music they composed for this piece. You can find more of their music at: Lawless Music Rabbit Rabbit Radio Carla Kihlstedt Matthias Bossi Jon Evans
Today we're presenting a documentary about an icon, Tony Schwartz, and made by icons, The Kitchen Sisters. For thirty years (1945-1976), Schwartz created and produced a radio program for WNYC featuring the people and sounds of New York City. He amassed an archive of recordings (now housed in the Library of Congress) that are expertly mixed together in this documentary so listeners can hear the world as Tony Schwartz did. ***** Tony Schwartz: 30,000 Recordings Later’ was produced by The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva with help from Tim Berbee, Nina Ellis and Jim Anderson mixed by Jim McKee at Earwax Productions in San Francisco. Tony Schwartz: 30,000 Recordings Later was created as part of a Peabody Award-winning series heard on NPR’s All Things Considered, exploring American life through recorded sound. Created in 1999 by The Kitchen Sisters with Jay Allison, this Peabody, Clarion and Webby award-winning series brought together some of the most respected producers and storytellers in public radio with artists and NPR to create this imaginative series. Liberace & the Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band; French Manicure: Tales from Vietnamese Nail Shops in America; Cigar Stories, WHER: 1000 Beautiful Watts; Tony Schwartz: 30,000 Recordings Later — more than 80 stories make up this series. Lost & Found Sound was supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
This week we're sharing the story "A Level Playing Field" from John Biewen's series Contested, the first season of his iconic show Scene on Radio. Contested considers the American relationship to sports, and this episode looks at the way money permeates sport and how it distorts reality to create unrealistic expectations for young athletes and communities of color. Original Series Credits: Scene on Radio is a two-time Peabody Award–nominated podcast that dares to ask big, hard questions about who we are—really—and how we got this way. Produced and hosted by John Biewen, Scene on Radio comes from the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University and is distributed by PRX. Seasons 1-5 were produced and supported by the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University.
Today we present a documentary by The Heart that is astonishing. "When I was younger, someone took a knife to my clitoris and cut out a small, but significant part of me." Based on writer Mariya Karimjee's 2015 essay "Damage," we hear a deeply intimate portrait of Mariya's a journey from her childhood in Pakistan, to her adolescence in Texas, through college, all the way to where she is now, back in Pakistan as she navigates family, love, her body and her personal relationships, all despite the physical and emotional trauma that she has suffered. ***** Original Series Credits: Mariya Karimjee is a writer based in Karachi, Pakistan. Read her original essay here. Editorial support from Brendan Baker, Allen Watts, Kelsey Padgett, Samara Breger and Nadia Bajwa. Additional support from Kari June. Another version of this story can be heard on This American Life. Image art by Jen Ng
Today we're sharing the 1998 documentary The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan, as well as the 2006 documentary The Imaginary Village by Sandy Tolan and Melissa Robbins. The Lemon Tree explores the relationship between a Palestinian man named Bashir and Dalia, a Bulgarian-born Israeli who moved into his childhood home in the West Bank. The piece was turned into an award-winning book of the same name. The Imaginary Village explores the longing for land and home by Palestinian refugees. They were released together in a 2008 special to mark the 60th anniversary of the Arab-Israeli war and the creation of the state of Israel.
Today we present an all time favorite of the team at Selects. This iconic work by Dave Isay and Stacy Abramson is a vivid portrait of New York City’s Bowery, before it got swallowed by a museum and high end retail and luxury real estate. In the late 90’s The Sunshine Hotel remained one of the last flophouses left on the Bowery, New York’s skid row. As you meet the cast of characters at the Sunshine hotel you will be transported to another time in New York City history. This small collection of oral histories from one Bowery hotel became catalyst for StoryCorps, a collection of over 630,000 oral histories now stored in the Library of Congress. ***** Original Series Credits: This documentary comes from Sound Portraits Productions, a mission-driven independent production company that was created by Dave Isay in 1994. Sound Portraits was the predecessor to StoryCorps and was dedicated to telling stories that brought neglected American voices to a national audience. Produced By: David Isay, Nathan Smith, Stacy Abramson, and Suzanne Clores