It's so short I couldn't possibly review while listening! It's almost too short to be satisfying. My ears wanted another breath of sound. But fine to fill 20 seconds if you have an empty 20 seconds to fill. sl

Gripping tape from the first. Beautifully mixed between real time and retrospect. It's a "no holds barred" tour of deportation - and the haphazard road to ganghood. Weazel's honesty reduces to simple fact what an "ordinary" listener might normally find enormously complicated, even unapproachable. It is this unencumbered revealment that is unusually wrenching.

Delight, irony, gratitude, resolve - fresh air gushing into a story that expects none of those elements. In a short 30 minutes, this young man evolves with all the dimension and exquisite complexity that could possibly be exposed without knowing him face to face.
The diary works on it's own, just for the sake of sharing good radio, or if need be, in a theme about youth.

vm

A great, if somewhat melancholy break from the chaos of our civilized lives. Native speakers, (and a few non-natives who study indigenous cultures) share their very different take on what it means to be on this earth. What we define and treat as sacred seems some kind of limited. Stop and look at the earth as a bible, at the woods as full of spirits, at animals as your brethren, at time as a circular phenomenon, and you’ll feel some connection to their way of life. Lovely native music is woven throughout. The producers wisely and respectfully refrain from narration. Wish there'd have been a few more female voices.
Could be aired during holiday times, or in connection with environmental or cultural programming. sl

I am thrilled to hear Gwen Macsai back on public radio. In her classic style, she draws smart comparisons between marriage and love of country. With Macsai wit.

This is a wonderful story from KUT in Austin about how immigrants in Texas find a voice in the political process, even when many of them struggle with English. If you are looking for a story to generate discussion about access to the levers of democracy, this is it. If you like this story, also try PAC Man about a Muslim man who has started his own political action committee; and Arab Americans: Democracy in a New Land.

I especially like this story from KUER in Salt Lake City because it focuses on only two people -- two women in the same city who have taken completely different paths to how they view citizenship. Anyone who has kids and works for a living, will identify with the hard choices and tradeoffs that these two adults make everyday. Your listeners will find themselves in this in depth story. It reminds me of a very engaging Sunday magazine piece. If you like this, also try Small Stuff Democracy; and Convenient Democracy.

Moe is Me is an interesting listen. If only because teenage angst is univeral to all of us, the play of the on again off again relationship with Moe's girlfriend is truthful in its hubris that it will last - this time.

The Voice is a unique and innovative piece with a Rocky and Bullwinkle feel to it. I'd definitely like to hear more radio like this, anywhere in the Public Radio day. I think radio needs more spice.

These are humorous short episodes. Maybe "The Voice" will become old, but this variety of radio should be encouraged.

[note from reviewer 12/11/03] I just heard "Poultry Slam" from TAL (I listen through Audible.com, so I'm a little behind). Ira Glass has an affinity for shows like this, too. So, now I'm convinced this sort of serial has a place on public radio. If people like it, why does it have to fit a 'certain sound'?

Ira's affinity was aimed at Chicken Man, which is better than The Voice, but the 1-5 rating doesn't ask me whether I really like this piece (although I do), it asks me how much I want to hear stuff like this on public radio. Maybe it's just me -- or me and Mr. Glass -- but I do want to hear stuff like this on my public radio.

I visited the Chicken Man web site and Famous Dick Orkin, the creator, says he isn't still doing them because it's hard to make money at doing a syndicated serial. Doesn't bode well for The Voice, but maybe he'll (and we'll) get lucky.

My wife and I are planning to home school our 4-year-old. Not positive, but leaning toward it. We have two older children who are basically A students in 4th & 8th grade. We don't really have anything to avoid, nothing we truly hate, but, it's something we want to do.

"We all turn out alright" is a good theme in this piece. I've thought that about adults, too. Sure, some are bad, some are good, some work at the DMV. But, with all the different ways you can raise a kid, basically all of them work okay. I'm just as well-adjusted -- good or bad -- as most of my friends. One was raised in Pittsburgh, one in Bogota, one in Paris, one in Mexico, one in Reno, etc. We all turned out.

So, is home schooling better than regular school? I know both of my kids excel in certain areas they really care about, but just get by in those that they don't. They still are taught the same things as everyone else, everyone who has a different interest or ability. There are good points. How do you know if you'll like math if you don't try math? What about science? School is good for that. But, once you find out what you like, if you do, school is a horrible waste of time. There should be a balance.

Gosh, this is a review! I liked it, I did. Would I have wrote all that other stuff if I didn't? I went back and chose "Thoughtful" for my first Tone, because it made me think again. Interviewee Josh didn't seemed programmed either for or against anything, and that's the kid I want. Someone who is free, and can and will make up his own mind.

Liked it. Where would this fit? Well, WKSU, for one. It's good enough to listen to in general. I like these sorts of stories, along Kevin Kling, or Tom Bodett. Instead of Alaska or Minnesota, it's Cleveland. Interesting. Any of these stories would fit on a TAL-like show, but maybe not TAL itself. I'm a public radio guy, but I don't really like classical music (okay, I don't like it at all, though I've tried. When you try to like music, if it doesn't sweep you away, you will fail. I failed.) Instead of Evening Edition plodding into another classical music show, it should go into a show that has lots of stories like this.

This can probably be classified as a soft-feature, but pieces like this give you such different perspective than your average "hard" story that they end up telling me more than another piece about this or that we are doing wrong in society or life.