A Grain of Sand

Series produced by Charles McGuigan

Caption: PRX default Series image
PRX default Series image 

Weekly series featuring real stories that spring from the well of memory. Every narrative illuminates our shared human experience. At least that's the hope of producer Charles McGuigan.

I want to achieve the effect of a short story but told in a way that makes the listener feel part of evolving action.I love stories and believe narrative that flows directly from the well of experience illuminates like arc light, strikes with the force of iron.


159 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Piece image
Billed as the world's shortest woman, Gloria Rhoden, who was working the Virginia State Fair, talked about the nature of true beauty.

  • Added: Mar 10, 2009
  • Length: 27:08
Piece image
Ethel-Barnett Johnson became Lady E sixteen years ago when her son Bubbie died unexpectedly.

  • Added: Mar 11, 2009
  • Length: 28:08
Piece image
Second part of the Lady E story, how tragedy transformed this woman sixteen years ago.

  • Added: Mar 11, 2009
  • Length: 28:06
Piece image
Peter Wolf Toth of Edgewater, Florida has spent more than thirty years carving giant statues of Indians across America.

  • Added: Mar 11, 2009
  • Length: 28:52
Caption: Maureen and Lucky Cole, Credit: Charles McGuigan
Maureen and Lucky Cole are two of the only two human inhabitants of the Everglades. They've carved out their own Eden. And fig leafs, at least for ...

  • Added: Apr 03, 2009
  • Length: 29:13
Caption: Comedian Steve Moore, Credit: John K. MacLellan
AIDS survivor Steve Moore was one of the first comedians in the international limelight to bring laughter to this devastating illness.

Bought by KVSC, WTJU, KRCB 104.9, and KVSC


  • Added: Apr 03, 2009
  • Length: 28:41
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Comedian Steve Moore, Credit: John K. MacLellan
Steve Moore is a comedian and after contracting AIDS he started laughing at the disease which propelled him into the international limelight. He la...

Bought by KRCB 104.9 and KVSC


  • Added: Apr 03, 2009
  • Length: 28:39
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Jay Ipson in front of the Virginia Holocaust Museum., Credit: John K. MacLellan
Jay Ipson is the original survivor. He and his mother and father escaped selections in the the Kuvna ghetto in Lithuania. When Nazis tightened the ...

Bought by Remix Radio


  • Added: Apr 09, 2009
  • Length: 27:52
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Jay Ipson in front of the Virginia Holocaust Museum., Credit: John K. MacLellan
Jay Ipson and his family escaped Nazi persecution often by the skin of their teeth. But after liberation they had to contend with the Soviets. And ...

Bought by Remix Radio


  • Added: Apr 09, 2009
  • Length: 28:05
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Jay Ipson in front of the Virginia Holocaust Museum., Credit: John K. MacLellan
The Ip family had escaped both the Nazis and the Soviets. Once in the United States, Israel Ip carved out a life for his family. Jay married, took ...

Bought by Remix Radio


  • Added: Apr 09, 2009
  • Length: 27:47
  • Purchases: 1
Piece image
Rolanda Scott is a glass sculptor. But she also molds young minds as an art instructor. About eight years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer ...

  • Added: Jun 19, 2009
  • Length: 28:20
Piece image
Rolanda Scott, an art teacher and glass sculptor, has had one bout of cancer after another for the past eight years. When her time comes Rolanda's ...

  • Added: Jun 22, 2009
  • Length: 29:23
Caption: PRX default Piece image
Richmond Virginia's Folk Festival led to the creation of a sister city relationship with Segou, Mali. In time, these two cities will be exchanging ...

  • Added: Oct 30, 2009
  • Length: 27:41
Caption: Mattie River
Mattie River looked like a puppy when we first found her. She was small and frightened, could barely stand on her own paws. Her wants seemed so ins...

  • Added: Jun 30, 2011
  • Length: 25:56
Caption: PRX default Piece image
Edward Harden Peeples V was a racist practically from birth. But once out of the orbit of Richmond, Virginia, he went through a transformation whic...

  • Added: Feb 15, 2012
  • Length: 55:38
Caption: PRX default Piece image
A bell tower that has been mute for 70 years at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia is about to get a voice thanks to Diane Watkins.

  • Added: Feb 16, 2012
  • Length: 55:55
Piece image
Page Wilson was a singer and a song writer and host of the most popular music show in Richmond, Virginia. Called the Out of the Blue Radio Revue, i...

  • Added: Mar 06, 2012
  • Length: 55:45
Caption: Abbie Waters
Abbie Catherine Waters was just nine years and two days old when she left this world. I have heard men and women who knew Abbie refer to her as an ...

Bought by WHCP-LP Cambridge


  • Added: Apr 11, 2012
  • Length: 55:07
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Jay Ipson in front of the Virginia Holocaust Museum., Credit: John MacLellan
Jay Ipson, the youngest Holocaust survivor living in Virginia today, lived in an underground lair for six months during the Nazi occupation of his ...

  • Added: Oct 14, 2011
  • Length: 59:14
Caption: Brendan Angus McGuigan, Credit: Charles McGuigan
this week’s episode contains two parts. The first act is called Weather or Not. Act Two is titled Life Among The Immortals. They’re about my two s...

  • Added: Jan 29, 2013
  • Length: 28:11