Best of the Best: The 2020 Third Coast Broadcast

Series produced by Third Coast International Audio Festival

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Image by: artist Tara Aliya Kesavan 

Third Coast’s yearly ode to audio storytelling is back! Featuring the winners of the 20th annual Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition, the best audio stories of the year offer a beautiful, stirring portrait of 2020.

Best of the Best is a four-part broadcast. Each hour of the series can be aired independently or alongside the rest, and in any order.

This year's Best of the Best broadcast showcases the winners of the 20th annual Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition. These stories were meticulously selected from more than 700 entries by 20 judges from across the world. Over the course of four episodes, host Palace Shaw guides listeners through 2020, seen through the lens of these eleven winning stories.

This year's series has an overall upbeat & celebratory tone, while navigating emotional, challenging, and knotty topics over the course of each episode. Each hour of Best of the Best is based around a theme. These four themes reflect four major lines of discourse in 2020: the coronavirus pandemic; identity; activism & civic engagement; and bodily autonomy.


5 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Announcing Best of the Best 2020
From: Third Coast International Audio Festival
Series: Best of the Best: The 2020 Third Coast Broadcast
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Third Coast’s yearly ode to audio storytelling is back! Featuring the winners of the 20th annual Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Compe...

Bought by WXXI Rochester, WUGA (part of GPB), KGOU, Michigan Radio, Georgia Public Broadcasting and more


  • Added: Nov 05, 2020
  • Length: 02:00
  • Purchases: 18
Best of the Best 2020: The Great Indoors
From: Third Coast International Audio Festival
Series: Best of the Best: The 2020 Third Coast Broadcast
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In this episode, three winning stories of the 2020 Third Coast/RHDF Competition each paint a unique portrait of survival and hope in the time of co...

Bought by WRVO Public Media, Prairie Public, New England Public Media, WGBH Radio Boston, WNMU-FM and more


  • Added: Nov 17, 2020
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 40
Best of the Best 2020: Towards a Better World
From: Third Coast International Audio Festival
Series: Best of the Best: The 2020 Third Coast Broadcast
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In this episode, we meet extraordinary people who are fighting the system, working to make transformative change and seeking a better world, for th...

Bought by WXXI Rochester, Prairie Public, WRVO Public Media, New England Public Media, WNMU-FM and more


  • Added: Nov 17, 2020
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 37
Best of the Best 2020: Of Bodies & Minds
From: Third Coast International Audio Festival
Series: Best of the Best: The 2020 Third Coast Broadcast
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This hour features three intimate stories that grapple with the messiness and the triumph of existing as a person, from the outside body to the ins...

Bought by WXXI Rochester, Prairie Public, WRVO Public Media, New England Public Media, KTSW 89.9 and more


  • Added: Nov 17, 2020
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 36
Best of the Best 2020: Letters to a Young Poet
From: Third Coast International Audio Festival
Series: Best of the Best: The 2020 Third Coast Broadcast
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In this episode, two young Black artists revisit memories to grapple with how they are seen by others, and how they see themselves.

Bought by WXXI Rochester, Prairie Public, WBEZ, WRVO Public Media, New England Public Media and more


  • Added: Nov 17, 2020
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 37

Playlists That Feature This Series: