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.


157 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: Didi Tremblay, Credit: Rebecca D'Angelo
Five women over a couple of weeks and in a number of different locations shared their stories of micro-aggressions, sexual assault, abuse, molestat...

  • Added: Oct 16, 2022
  • Length: 27:05
Caption: #metoo, Credit: Catherine McGuigan
The day after Alyssa Milano tweeted the hashtag ‘me to’, my Facebook page lit up like a nuclear Christmas tree. Dozens of Facebook friends responde...

  • Added: Oct 16, 2022
  • Length: 27:52
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America has a long, long, long history of embracing immigrants one day, generally because it needed them for economic reasons, a variation of slave...

Bought by KVSC


  • Added: Jun 01, 2017
  • Length: 27:50
  • Purchases: 1
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A Nation of Immigrants is what we are, always have been, and always will be, as long as we remain the United States of America. Bans on immigrants ...

Bought by KVSC


  • Added: May 18, 2017
  • Length: 27:58
  • Purchases: 1
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My son Charles was so severely bullied in middle school he is currently being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder. The bullies came in many ...

  • Added: Apr 28, 2017
  • Length: 23:54
Caption: Charles climbing the summit of Cadillac Mountain., Credit: Charles McGuigan
The schools claim there is zero tolerance for bully, but one school system practices bullying against students and parents alike.

  • Added: Apr 18, 2017
  • Length: 21:35
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Rolanda Scott can take a chunk of solid glass, drop it in a flower pot then super heat it in her kiln, turning it into liquid, which she then pours...

  • Added: Oct 18, 2011
  • Length: 53:46
Caption: Kaity Kasper, Credit: Rebecca D'Angelo
Kaity Kasper vdoes not wear her heart on her sleeve. But her right arm tells a tale. From wrist to shoulder, this appendage bears a polychromatic n...

  • Added: Mar 10, 2017
  • Length: 27:11
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BLEEP loved the city of his birth, the pearl of the west, Guadalajara, second largest city in Mexico. He wandered its streets as a boy visited the...

Bought by KVSC


  • Added: Feb 17, 2017
  • Length: 28:07
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Karla, Lula and Jamie, Credit: Rebecca D'Angelo
Karla Helbert is many things. An accomplished writer and veteran therapist. Wife, mother, artist. A seeker, too. Libertine in matters spiritual. A...

  • Added: Dec 08, 2016
  • Length: 27:11
Caption: Steve Moore
He left the East Coast for the West Coast to become an actor. Instead he became a comedian. And just as his career was taking off, he was diagnosed...

  • Added: Nov 25, 2016
  • Length: 26:34
Caption: Steve Moore
Steve Moore is a slight man, drawn somewhat by the disease he lives with. I’d put him at about 140 pounds. But that might be a little much. Steve’s...

  • Added: Nov 25, 2016
  • Length: 26:08
Caption: Karla Helbert, Credit: Rebecca D'Angelo
Karla Helbert is many things. An accomplished writer and veteran therapist. Wife, mother, artist. A seeker, too. Libertine in matters spiritual. A...

  • Added: Nov 04, 2016
  • Length: 27:06
Piece image
Witch-hunts are curious phenomena, and thoroughly reactionary in nature. They generally begin with an inexplicable event of one kind or other—cows ...

  • Added: Oct 25, 2016
  • Length: 26:55
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The Miracle Workers of Holton Elementary School are Christal Mark, Ricky Gay, Mary Pace, Robin Barber, Cheryll Hughes and Latonya Brown-Oliver. Wha...

  • Added: Oct 21, 2016
  • Length: 23:46
Caption: Lester Blackiston
Pirates love the water. It’s their sustenance, it’s their highway, it’s their haven. Lester Blackiston loved the water. As a matter of fact, I didn...

  • Added: Aug 25, 2016
  • Length: 27:08
Caption: Lester Blackiston
Blackbeard the pirate may have had as many as 14 wives, the last one being a 16 year old girl who he gave to his crew after he deflowered her. It w...

  • Added: Aug 18, 2016
  • Length: 25:45
Caption: Lester Blackiston
Pirates and their deeds become legend. Blackbeard, Lester’s personal favorite, did this thing with canon fuses, or so the legend goes. Just as his...

  • Added: Aug 11, 2016
  • Length: 26:15

  • Added: Aug 03, 2016
  • Length: 24:46
Caption: Lester Blackiston
Lester Blackiston was the pirate of Shockoe Bottom. He was a minor Beat poet, a questionable inventor, a man who avoided work at all costs. He had ...

  • Added: Jul 27, 2016
  • Length: 23:27