The Kitchen Sisters Present

In this evocative, sound rich, audio essay, writer Lou Cornum and Signal Hill producers bring to life the synchronicity and deep parallels of two historic US events that happened within days of each other—the landing of men on the moon, and the occupation of Alcatraz by Native American activists. "Images of these two landings were beamed into living rooms across the continent and the globe," writes Lou Cornum. The story interweaves historical facts and analysis with archival voices and sounds from the time — broadcasts from Radio Free Alcatraz, voices from Apollo moon landings, news reports, and oral histories done during the 19-month occupation of Alcatraz. The story delves into issues of ownership and exploration of land and celestial bodies, invasion, conquest, treaties, the power and right to protest. On Another Rock was written and reported by Lou Cornum, a writer, NYU professor, and enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. It was produced and sound designed by Jackson Roach, with help from Lou, and edited by Jackson Roach and Annie Rosenthal. Additional editorial support from Liza Yeager, Omar Etman, Lio Wong, and the Issue Three cohort. Music in this story is from Blue Dot Sessions. Fact-checking and research assistance by Sydney Chan. Additional thanks to Madeline Bank.  Oral history interviews with Dr. LaNada War Jack, Eloy Martinez, Geneva Seaboy, and Jonny Bearcub are from the Oral History Collections of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Recordings of broadcasts from Radio Free Alcatraz are held by the Pacifica Radio Archive. Archival news footage came from the Bay Area Television Archive and elsewhere.The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. We are part of Radiotopia from PRX, a curated podcast network of independent producer.

Noah Adams, the longtime host of NPR’s All Things Considered, died on October 16 at his home in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He was 84.A postman’s son from Kentucky, Noah was the host of ATC for some 18 years. His quiet Appalachian baritone, the warmth of his voice, his curiosity and empathy for the lives of working people was a part of the fabric of public radio for decades.Noah’s wife Neenah Ellis, whom he met when she was a producer on All Things Considered and who was station manager at WYSO, the community radio station in Yellow Springs, where the two have lived for some 20 years, said this about Noah: “He was looking for who was yearning, who was in pain, who needed help out in the country.”With Deborah Amos and James Reston Jr, Noah produced one of the most important, powerful radio documentaries of the 20th century: “Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown” about Jim Jones and the mass cult suicide and murder in Jonestown, Guyana in 1978. Nikki and I heard the story when we were just beginning our nearly 40-year collaboration with NPR and it opened our eyes to the power of the medium and the possibilities of scorching storytelling through sound and archival audio. At the turn of the millennium, The Kitchen Sisters and Jay Allison produced the series, Lost & Found Sound with All Things Considered, a big, sprawling nationwide collaboration with NPR, radio producers and listeners across the nation to mark the turn of the century in sound. The series ran every Friday afternoon for nearly two years. Noah was one of the hosts of the show at the time and often read the intros to our stories and produced a beautiful story for the series himself, West Virginia Steam Trains. As the pieces piled up across the year we put together a two-disc CD collection for listeners. Noah was the obvious choice as host. Today, in honor of Noah Adams and all he gave to public radio, to his friends and the country, The Kitchen Sisters and Jay Allison Present: Lost & Found Sound: Vanishing Voices, a radio special produced in the year 2000. Our host is Noah Adams.Lost & Found Sound: Vanishing Voices was produced by The Kitchen Sisters and Jay Allison. Mixed by Jim McKee. Special thanks to Art Silverman, Robert Siegel, Linda Wertheimer, Ellen Weiss, Jeffrey Dvorkin, David Giovannoni, Sandra Wong Geroux and Laura Folger.Funding for The Kitchen Sisters Present... comes from our listeners. We thank you for your support and generosity. Funding for Lost & Found Sound came from NPR, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.The Kitchen Sisters Present… is part of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent, multi-layered, sound-rich podcasts that widen your world.Thank you for listening. Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for supporting non-commercial public media in these times.And thank you Noah Adams for your beautiful voice and your beautiful heart.  

Eleanor Raymond  (1887-1989), was a pioneering architect and historian of architecture and design. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she was an enthusiastic student at the first women's college of architecture, the Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. She founded an all-women commune behind a very proper Beacon Hill facade. She collaborated on the first solar house in America, the Dover Sun House, built in Massachusetts in 1948. She designed what was likely the first modern house in New England. In fact, it's hard to find a 20th century architectural movement that she didn't investigate. Even when faced with sexism and homophobia, she found a way to access and bring her compatriots along.This story was produced by Brandi Howell for New Angle Voice, a podcast from the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation. Editorial assistance provided by Jen Grosso. Hosted by Alexandra Lange. Special thanks  to Doris Cole, Alice Friedman, Nancy Gruskin, Maryanne Hunting, Jessica Raymond, Sonya Falkovskaia, Anthony Denzer, and Andrew Nemethy.  Funding for this podcast comes from Allegion.  The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson), with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. The Kitchen Sisters Present is part of Radiotopia from PRX. 

Producer Zoe Kurland's father, costume designer Jeffrey Kurland, talks about designing the iconic push up bra for actress Julia Roberts for the film Erin Brockovich. Zoe follows the story interviewing the real Erin Brockovich and examining her own relationship to body image, confidence and identity. This story was written and produced by Zoe Kurland for Signal Hill, and edited by Liza Yeager and Jackson Roach. Sound design and additional production by Liza Yeager. Additional editorial support from Omar Etman, Annie Rosenthal, and the Issue Two cohort. Signal Hill is an independent, listener-funded, nonprofit publication.Zoe is a writer and audio documentarian based in Texas. She has produced three award-winning podcasts, most recently reporting, producing and hosting A Whole Other Country (named one of the 20 best podcasts of 2025 by The Atlantic and featured in the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival). She started her career in audio working for The Kitchen Sisters, and later joined LAist as a producer. Her work has appeared in outlets such as New York Magazine, Signal Hill, Articles of Interest, and on APM’s Marketplace. She holds a national Edward R. Murrow Award for innovation in audio, twelve regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, and three Signal Awards.The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. We're part of Radiotopia from PRX, a curated network of independent producers.Find out more at kitchensisters.org, radiotopia.fm, signalhill.fm 

To mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11, we present the Peabody Award winning Sonic Memorial Project with a post script recorded on the 10th Anniversary by our narrator, Paul Auster. The Sonic Memorial Project began in October 2001 as part of the Lost & Found Sound series. We opened a phone line on NPR for listeners to call in with their stories and audio artifacts relating to the September 11 attacks and the history of the World Trade Center.Hundreds of people called with testimonies and remembrances, music and shards of sound, joining a national collaboration chronicling the life and history of the World Trade Center and its surrounding neighborhood. Combining interviews, voicemail messages, audio contributions from listeners, oral histories, home videos and recorded sounds of all kinds, the Sonic Memorial Project team created a series of stories for broadcast on NPR’s All Things Considered, and this hour long special narrated by author Paul Auster.The Sonic Memorial Project was produced by The Kitchen Sisters and Jay Allison,  in collaboration with NPR, independent radio producers, artists, writers, archivists, historians and public radio listeners throughout the country.