The Selects Podcast

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.MusicThank 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 MusicRabbit Rabbit RadioCarla KihlstedtMatthias BossiJon 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. 

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

This week we're featuring one episode of The Big Read, a series that is essentially a national book club for the radio.  In 2007, America decided it was having a literary crisis (and Sold a Story wouldn’t come out for another 15 years).  So, in response, the National Endowment for the Arts launched The Big Read, a program to bring people together to read some of the most acclaimed works of fiction by American authors.  Alongside grassroots local events, the NEA produced a series of audio documentaries for The Big Read, each featuring writers, actors and luminaries discussing a particular book – what it’s about, why it’s important, and how it moved them.  *****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 written and produced by Adam Kampe and Dan Stone.Readings for The Joy Luck Club were by Ming-Na.Instrumental Chinese music performed by Music from China.Cup of Happiness arranged by Zhou Long.“The Lost Lamb” and “Song of the Traveling Daughter,” currently playing in the background, taken from Abigail Washburn’s full-length album, Song of the Traveling Daughter, used with permission of Nettwerk Productions.Special thanks to Philip Brunelle, Susan Cheng, JT Griffith, Erika Koss, Kate Kaiser and Ted Libbey.For the National Endowment for the Arts, I’m Dana Gioia.Jo Reed: For more information, please go to www.neabigread.org, that's www.neabigread.org

Today we're publishing a new collection for subscribers featuring three eyewitness accounts to historical events we often know solely through images or history books. These Radio Diaries are gripping and immersive, with incredible tape that transports a listener from a cursory understanding to one that is rich with individual experience.  We're sharing one of those here: a personal account of surviving the Tulsa Race Riot. The art of unscripted audio documentary has been perfected by Joe Richman and the team at Radio Diaries.  For 30 years, this team has encouraged and empowered individuals to report on their own lives.  They work closely with everyday people to document their experience in diary form, and listeners hear actual histories unfiltered by the forces that shape how we collectively remember.  Check out the full Eyewitness collection at selects.fm or on our channel on Apple Podcasts.******Original Series Credits:This story was produced by Nellie Gilles of Radio Diaries, along with Joe Richman, Sarah Kate Kramer, edited by Deborah George and Ben Shapiro. To hear more stories from Radio Diaries, you can find the podcast at radiodiaries.org.

This week, we follow Dmae Lo Roberts and her mother, Chu-Yin, as they travel to Taiwan together.  Dmae seeks an opportunity to grow closer with her mother, but the trip ends with them not speaking.  First produced in 1989, Roberts’ Peabody Award-winning documentary is highly personal and groundbreaking -- weaving interviews and dramatizations to tell the story of a conflicted daughter and her mother who suffered abuse, starvation and the horrors of World War Two.*****Original Series Credits:Mei Mei: A Daughter?s Song was written, produced and designed by D. Roberts. Music compositions and engineering by David Patchke with additional music by Trey Gunn. Technical Assistance by Ron Royer.Featured voices were: D. Roberts, Chu- Yin Roberts, Lucinda Wong, and Mei Jen with songs by the children;'s choir. Mei Mei was mixed at WJHU-FM, John Hopkins University.Funding was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Oregon Arts Commission, and SoundPrint.

This week we've got a new collection for subscribers and we're excited to share one of them with you today.   Tossing Away the Keys is a documentary by Dave Isay and Sound Portraits, and a masterclass in audio documentary.  It expertly uses the medium to take listeners somewhere they may never be, and let them hear something they'll never forget.  Give it a listen and check out the whole Early True Crime collection with a free trial of the Selects channel.*****Original Series Credits:Produced ByDavid Isay, Wilbert Rideau, and Ron Wikberg

This Pride, we're proud to present a pointed and spicy documentary about fractures in the LGBTQ movement over the fight for gay marriage. This piece offers a nuanced and passionate analysis of something you rarely see put forward for public consumption: internal debate within a civil rights movement.  This is a classic driveway moment, but one of those driveways that the city painted in a rainbow flag...****Original Series Credits:Beyond Gay Marriage was hosted and produced by Lisa Dettmer and co-produced bt Elena Botkin-Levy. Financial support was provided by Astraea Foundation and Making Contact at the National Radio Project. Lisa Dettmer is a radio producer with the feminist radio show "Women’s Magazine" at KPFA Radio in Berkeley, California, which can be heard at kpfa.org/program/womens-magazine.  You can contact Lisa Dettmer at lisa@kpfa.org.  If you want to read an article based on this radio documentary go to www.academia.edu/11699431/Beyond_Gay_Marriage_Assimilation_within_the_Queer_community?sm=b

Mitra speaks with Sonja Williams, one of the producers of Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was about her career in audio, and in particular her relationship with archival audio and scholarship.  

It’s the first thing you learn as a radio reporter. Check your levels by asking an interview subject the question “what did you have for breakfast?” It’s disarming. But it’s also revealing.  In this piece by Annie Cheney and Jay Allison, the question becomes the story vehicle and we're treated to a story about the complicated relationship between food, eating, family, and friendship.More about Concerning Breakfast can be found on Transom: https://transom.org/2015/concerning-breakfast/Concerning Breakfast was part of a series of pieces produced by Jay Allison with Christina Egloff called The Life Stories Collection. 

At the end of last month, we lost an audio icon: Larry Massett.  As a sort of tribute, we want to share one of the Four Stories About Travel we just put on the Selects Channel.  This piece originally aired on Hearing Voices.  Larry is a legendary producer and host who describes himself as being present at the inception of public media. It's a trip down memory lane, literally and figuratively, with a fun payoff at the end.  

We have got four stories about travel for you. However, these are not your typical travel stories - we've got a story from Outer Voices about nomadic sheep herders in Mongolia, the diary of a foul mouthed teenager on a camping trip read live on Mortified, Producer Larry Massett on traveling with his mother, and an early work by Arlie Adlington featuring a watchmaker considering time travel.  These are transportive, funny and endearing works of audio. As summer approaches, maybe these stories will inspire you to take a visit to…somewhere…

This month we're proud to present one episode of the six-part series Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was (1996), created by PRX and the Smithsonian telling the story of radio’s role in the 20th century transformation of the African American community.*****Original Series Credits:Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was was a 12-episode radio series hosted by Lou Rawls and produced for the Smithsonian in 1996. Series Producer: Jacquie Gales Webb. Episode Producers: Sonja Williams and Lex Gillespie. Production Manager: John Tyler. Post-Production Engineers: John Paulson and Matthew Sakakeeny. EP: Wesley Horner. Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was was made possible in 1996 by a major grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with additional support from the James Smithson Society and the Public Radio International Program Fund, whose contributors included the Ford Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.PRX reformatted and redistributed Black Radio in 2021 for its 25th anniversary. Re-formatting by Genevieve Sponsler and Se'era Spragley-Ricks

We've got a new show available for Selects members!  These four selections of the American Icons series are astounding listens, and made by some of the most influential audio producers working (and not working) today.  You can listen on our Apple Podcasts Channel or by going to Selects.fm

For our inaugural episode of Selects, we're proud to present Sean Cole's piece Call NOW! originally created for Life of the Law.  ******Original Credits for the Series:Production Credits:Reporter/Producer: Sean ColeProducer: Kaitlin PrestMusic: Kyle Kaplan, Todd MacDonald, Matthew DarrAdditional Production: Shannon Heffernan, Ashleyanne KrigbaumAdditional Music – Andrea HendricksonSocial Media Editor – Rachael CainExecutive Producer – Nancy MullaneExecutive Director – Tony Gannon