Radio Diaries

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Founded by Joe Richman, Radio Diaries has been giving people tape recorders and working with them to report on their own lives and histories for almost two decades. We’ve collaborated with teenagers and octogenarians, prisoners and prison guards, bra saleswomen and lighthouse keepers….and along the way we’ve helped pioneer a new form of citizen journalism. Radio Diaries has won every major award in broadcast journalism and produced some of the most memorable documentaries ever heard on public radio. Our stories are broadcast on NPR’s All Things Considered, This American Life, BBC, and on The Radio Diaries Podcast. We also publish educational materials, including the Teen Reporter Handbook. Radio Diaries is a not-for-profit organization.

Subscribe to the Radio Diaries Podcast at http://www.radiodiaries.org/podcast
Contact us for more information: info [@] radiodiaries.org

Series

Teenage DiariesTeenage Diaries
Since 1996, the Teenage Diaries series has given tape recorders to young people around the country. They conduct interviews, keep audio journals, and record the sounds of daily life — usually collecting more than 30 hours of raw tape over the course of a year, edited into documentaries airing on NPR’s All Things Considered. Whether it’s the story of Amanda, a gay teen trying to understand her sexuality, or the story of Juan, who crossed the Rio Grande with his family illegally, these stories offer insight into the mysterious life of teenagers.


Teenage Diaries RevisitedTeenage Diaries Revisited
16 years ago, Radio Diaries gave a group of young people tape recorders to report on their own lives for our NPR series, Teenage Diaries. Five of the diarists return to chronicle their grown-up lives in Teenage Diaries Revisited. A lot of life happens in 16 years.



Mandela: An Audio History
"Mandela: An Audio History" is a groundbreaking project that weaves together an unprecedented collection of archival sound materials documenting and preserving the story of Nelson Mandela and the struggle against apartheid. Hear a rare recording of the 1964 trial that resulted in Mandela's life sentence; a visit between Mandela and his wife, Winnie, secretly recorded by a prison guard; marching songs of guerilla soldiers; government propaganda films; and pirate radio broadcasts from the African National Conference (ANC).



 
Contenders
There have been 43 presidents in American history. But the names of the hundreds who sought the office – and lost – are often forgotten. "Contenders" tells the stories of some of the most groundbreaking and unusual presidential candidates from elections past.



CristelPrison Diaries
Five inmates, four correctional officers and a judge were given tape recorders. For six months, the diarists kept audio journals and recorded the sounds and scenes of everyday life behind bars: shakedowns, new inmate arrivals, roll call, monthly family visits, meals at the chow hall, and quiet moments late at night inside a cell.




New York Works: Audio Portraits of a Vanishing City

94-year old Selma Koch runs one of New York's last old-style bra fitting shops. Walter Backerman still delivers seltzer along the same route worked by his father and grandfather. Frank Sabatino is one of two commercial fisherman left in Jamaica Bay. Charlie Zimmerman builds the rooftop water tanks that dot Manhattan's skyline. New York Works tells the stories of those who keep the city's past alive.



Willie McGeeAudio HistoriesThese audio documentaries weave together oral histories and archival tape to bring the past to life. From World War II to the Civil Rights movement, from the mining industry to the music industry, this series shares a rich, in depth look into our history. 


 

Series

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10 Pieces

The extraordinary stories of ordinary life.

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8 Pieces

Off the coast of the Bronx is a narrow strip of land where over one million people are buried. Hart Island is America's largest public cemetery. For over 150 years, the island has been mostly off limits. The Umarked Graveyard shares seven stories of individual buried there, the lives they lived and the people they left behind.

Caption: Studs Terkel
12 Pieces

In the early 1970’s, author Studs Terkel went around the country with a reel-to-reel tape recorder interviewing people for his book "Working." But until now, few of these interviews have ever been heard before.


Pieces

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Studs Terkel interviews Al Pommier, aka 'One Swing Al', a parking lot attendant in Chicago, Illinois. This story aired as part of a week long serie...

Bought by Troy Public Radio, Prairie Public, KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio, and PRX Remix


  • Added: May 04, 2017
  • Length: 01:27
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel interviews a female advertising executive in the 1970's for his book "Working."

Bought by Troy Public Radio, Prairie Public, and KZYX


  • Added: May 04, 2017
  • Length: 03:19
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Majd Abdulghani
Majd Abdulghani is a teenager living in Saudi Arabia, one of the most restrictive countries for women in the world. She wants to be a scientist. He...

Bought by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, WXAV 88.3FM Chicago, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Oct 17, 2016
  • Length: 30:45
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: William Jennings Bryan
Portraits of some of America’s most groundbreaking and unusual presidential candidates...who never won the white house.

Bought by WXAV 88.3FM Chicago, KPIK-LP, WXAV 88.3FM Chicago, WCQS, KALW and more


  • Added: Jul 19, 2016
  • Length: 53:25
  • Purchases: 22
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Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein share 100 percent of their DNA. Separated at birth, the twins were both adopted and raised by loving families. The...

Bought by WDBM, WXAV 88.3FM Chicago, American Voices, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Feb 19, 2016
  • Length: 15:05
  • Purchases: 4
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Four years after Nelson Mandela was released from prison, he became president of South Africa. And yet, those 4 years were among the bloodiest and ...

Bought by WXAV 88.3FM Chicago, KBUT Crested Butte, Colo., WDBM, WXAV 88.3FM Chicago, KHSU and more


  • Added: Jan 15, 2016
  • Length: 17:44
  • Purchases: 7
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One of the best mission statements I’ve read is the original NPR mission, which was written in 1969 by Bill Siemering. Bill is an amazing guy who, ...

Bought by Northwest Public Broadcasting, WXAV 88.3FM Chicago, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jan 15, 2016
  • Length: 19:24
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Kamari Ridgle
As a teenager, Kamari Ridgle was a drug dealer and drive-by shooter until a near-death experience led him to his true love…accounting.

Bought by KALW and PRX Remix


  • Added: Apr 29, 2015
  • Length: 08:25
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Claudette Colvin.
What makes a hero? Why do we remember some stories and not others? Consider Claudette Colvin. She was a 15-year-old girl in the segregated city of...

Bought by KUNM, WXAV 88.3FM Chicago, KAWC / Border Radio - KOFA, PRX Remix, and Troy Public Radio


  • Added: Mar 05, 2015
  • Length: 09:19
  • Purchases: 5
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For more than a century, the Rio Grande has been the border between the U.S. and Mexico. But rivers can move.

Bought by WXAV 88.3FM Chicago and PRX Remix


  • Added: Dec 01, 2014
  • Length: 13:25
  • Purchases: 2