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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13 Pieces

Weaving together oral histories and archival tape to bring the past to life.

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8 Pieces

Portraits of some of America’s most original presidential candidates.

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1 Piece

Surprising stories of people thrown together by the pandemic.

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4 Pieces

Portraits of history's last surviving witnesses.

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9 Pieces

The story of South Africa's struggle against apartheid.

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6 Pieces

Audio Portraits of a Vanishing City

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4 Pieces

Five inmates, four correctional officers and a judge were given tape recorders.

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17 Pieces

Since 1996, the Teenage Diaries series has been giving tape recorders to young people around the country to report on their own lives.

Caption: Josh Cutler in Teenage Diaries Revisited., Credit: David Gilkey/NPR
5 Pieces

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.

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1 Piece

The extraordinary stories of ordinary life.


Pieces

Caption: Amanda in 2013, Credit: David Gilkey/NPR
At the age of 17, Amanda knew she was gay. But her parents kept insisting she’d grow out of it. Today, a lot has changed in the country, and within...

  • Added: May 17, 2013
  • Length: 17:25
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Beauty pageants promote the fantasy of the ideal woman. But for 35 years, the Miss Subways contest in New York City celebrated the everyday working...

Bought by Georgia Public Broadcasting and PRX Remix


  • Added: Feb 26, 2013
  • Length: 08:26
  • Purchases: 2
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On the 50th anniversary of Wallace’s inaugural speech as the Governor of Alabama, Radio Diaries tells the story behind those infamous words, and th...

Bought by The Story and PRX Remix


  • Added: Feb 26, 2013
  • Length: 10:23
  • Purchases: 2
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Asa Carter and Forrest Carter couldn’t have been more different. But they shared a secret.

  • Added: Feb 19, 2013
  • Length: 01:13:55
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In the 1990s, Arch Coal began mining Pigeonroost Hollow. Now Jimmy Weekley is the last person left there.

Bought by Wyoming Public Radio, PRX Remix, West Virginia Public Broadcasting, and WXAV 88.3FM Chicago


  • Added: Feb 19, 2013
  • Length: 13:59
  • Purchases: 4
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George F. Johnson was the owner of the Endicott Johnson Corp. — at one time the country’s leading shoe manufacturer — and one of the nation’s leadi...

Bought by WXAV 88.3FM Chicago, KZMU Moab Community Radio, PRX Remix, and WXAV 88.3FM Chicago


  • Added: Feb 19, 2013
  • Length: 16:09
  • Purchases: 4
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Poet and songwriter Abel Meeropol wrote that lament after seeing a photograph of two black teenagers hanging from a tree.

Bought by PRX Remix, Marfa Public Radio, KUER, WMMT, KFAI Minneapolis and more


  • Added: Feb 19, 2013
  • Length: 14:35
  • Purchases: 6
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One of the last songs that Johnny Cash recorded before he died was called, “There Ain’t No Grave (Gonna Hold My Body Down).”

Bought by WXAV 88.3FM Chicago, KZMU Moab Community Radio, WABE, West Virginia Public Broadcasting, PRX Remix and more


  • Added: Feb 19, 2013
  • Length: 14:42
  • Purchases: 6
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November 23, 1936 was a good day for recorded music. Two men – an ocean apart – sat before a microphone and began to play.

Bought by WXAV 88.3FM Chicago, KFAI Minneapolis, PRX Remix, WABE, KALW and more


  • Added: Feb 19, 2013
  • Length: 14:40
  • Purchases: 8
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In the summer of 1932, a group of World War I veterans in Portland, Oregon hopped a freight train and started riding the rails to Washington DC.

Bought by WXAV 88.3FM Chicago, KPIK-LP, PRX Remix, WRPI, and WXAV 88.3FM Chicago


  • Added: Feb 19, 2013
  • Length: 11:56
  • Purchases: 5