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Playlist: O'Dark 30 episode 13

Compiled By: KUT

Caption: PRX default Playlist image

O’Dark 30 is an exploration of the world of independent radio production. It airs Sundays at midnight on KUT 90.5 Austin. Every week we present 3 hours of a little bit of everything from the world of independent radio production It's audio that deserves an audience.

Episode 13 pieces include Spring Skiing...The Rocks at Rock Bottom...StoryCorps Griot: Special Program...Linn Roath: Audio Portrait of a Piano Tuner...Don't Drive Like My Brother...lost pigeons...Snap Judgement: Something Ain't Right...Hairdressers of New York City...Snakes...Cemetery Expedition...Gentrification on Logan Circle...StoryCorps Griot: Nzingha Masani...This I Believe--Sarah Adams...Consider Amsu

Spring Skiing

From Hearing Voices | Part of the Scott Carrier stories series | 03:58

A day of spring skiing in the Wasatch Range.

Sc_scottwrite_small When most people are headed to the beach, our producer heads for the ski slopes near his home in Utah. Carrier explains that the combination of freezing and thawing in the late spring gives the mountain snow pack a special quality that makes for a unique skiing experience.

The Rocks at Rock Bottom

From Hillary Frank | 09:30

The story of a man who hits rock bottom when he's surrounded by a whole lot of rocks -- and how he uses those rocks to get over heartbreak.

Stone_skipping_small Jerry McGhee was living in Spain, near a beach full of flat rocks, when he and his wife spilt up. He started taking daily walks on the beach and hurling rocks into the water in anger. Throwing the rocks hard and watching them skip made him feel better. He thought of his rock skipping as a solitary activity -- until one day he skipped a stone over 50 times -- and found that had an audience of hundreds of people. This is the story of how Jerry McGhee became a world champion rock skipper...by accident. Originally aired on This American Life's "Desperate Measures" show.

Don't Drive Like My Brother

From Jonathan Menjivar | 15:10

The story of one man in desperate need of a job.

Default-piece-image-2 Charles Johnson was living in St. Louis, married with a young daughter, and he needed a job. He looked around, and decided he'd try trucking. This company was offering to train and hire drivers, so he signed up. They trained him and put him on the road. The only problem was, he couldn't read. Jonathan Menjivar reports on how Charles traveled all across the country making deliveries, without ever consulting a map. And without ever telling anyone – even his own wife and brothers – that he couldn't read. Originally aired on This American Life.

Hairdressers of New York City

From Laura Spero | 03:07

Hairdressers in New York City describe how things look from behind the chair

Default-piece-image-0 "She was an extremist. She was into extreme sports, and she liked to wear extreme hair." In this unnarrated montage of voices from behind the chair, New York City hairdressers talk about their strangest customers, most challenging and embarrassing moments, false expectations, and learning on the job.

Snakes

From Jay Allison | Part of the Animals and Other Stories series | 11:04

The worth, or worthlessness, of the legless reptile

Playing
Snakes
From
Jay Allison

Animals A vintage montage meditating on the worth, or worthlessness, of the legless reptile. Civilized and primitive man collide...in discussing the snake, the human is revealed. (NOTE TO STATIONS: Be sure to frame this piece as "vintage," produced in the 1980s. While the content holds up fine, you need to note the fact that this story was made about 20 years old, so that you don't unintentionally mislead your listeners into thinking these are contemporary voices.)

Cemetery Expedition

From Jake Warga | 04:04

Walking around a cemetery at night

Ir01_small Commentary: Halloween? Going on a Cemetery Expedition with a group of GHOST HUNTERS. Aired ATC 5-17-04

Gentrification on Logan Circle

From Big Shed Audio | 18:56

Profile of a DC neighborhood in transition by 8th grade students and teachers from The Cesar Chavez Public Charter School in Washington, DC.

Googlemaps-logancircle_small Producer Shea Shackelford worked with an 8th grade class at the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School in Washington, DC.  While studying the concept of "gentrificaiton," they spent a week interviewing neighbors and businesses of the Logan Circle area about the transitions occuring in their neighbornood. 

This I Believe - Sarah Adams

From This I Believe | 03:30

Sarah Adams shares four reasons why she believes it?s good to be cool to the pizza delivery dude.

Tiblogobluesmallrgb_small HOST INTRO: Sarah Adams told us she heard our invitation and liked the fact that everybody was included, not just heads of state and other famous Americans. She has never published or broadcast anything before, but this essay, she said, had been rattling around in her head--she just needed the assignment. Raised in Wisconsin, Adams is now an English professor at Olympic Community College in Washington. Here is Sarah Adams with her essay for This I Believe. ESSAY TEXT: If I have one operating philosophy about life it is this: "Be cool to the pizza delivery dude; it's good luck." Four principles guide the pizza dude philosophy. Principle 1: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in humility and forgiveness. I let him cut me off in traffic, let him safely hit the exit ramp from the left lane, let him forget to use his blinker without extending any of my digits out the window or towards my horn because there should be one moment in my harried life when a car may encroach or cut off or pass and I let it go. Sometimes when I have become so certain of my ownership of my lane, daring anyone to challenge me, the pizza dude speeds by me in his rusted Chevette. His pizza light atop his car glowing like a beacon reminds me to check myself as I flow through the world. After all, the dude is delivering pizza to young and old, families and singletons, gays and straights, blacks, whites and browns, rich and poor, and vegetarians and meat lovers alike. As he journeys, I give safe passage, practice restraint, show courtesy, and contain my anger. Principle 2: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in empathy. Let's face it: we've all taken jobs just to have a job because some money is better than none. I've held an assortment of these jobs and was grateful for the paycheck that meant I didn't have to share my Cheerios with my cats. In the big pizza wheel of life, sometimes you're the hot bubbly cheese and sometimes you're the burnt crust. It's good to remember the fickle spinning of that wheel. Principle 3: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in honor and it reminds me to honor honest work. Let me tell you something about these dudes: they never took over a company and, as CEO, artificially inflated the value of the stock and cashed out their own shares, bringing the company to the brink of bankruptcy, resulting in 20,000 people losing their jobs while the CEO builds a home the size of a luxury hotel. Rather, the dudes sleep the sleep of the just. Principle 4: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in equality. My measurement as a human being, my worth, is the pride I take in performing my job - any job - and the respect with which I treat others. I am the equal of the world not because of the car I drive, the size of the TV I own, the weight I can bench press, or the calculus equations I can solve. I am the equal to all I meet because of the kindness in my heart. And it all starts here. with the pizza delivery dude. Tip him well, friends and brethren, for that which you bestow freely and willingly will bring you all the happy luck that a grateful universe knows how to return.