Radio Diaries

Guest Spotlight: Phonograph

This week we're featuring an episode of Phonograph, a podcast that deconstructs the history and art of audio storytelling. The hosts of Phonograph recently invited Radio

My Iron Lung: Remembering Martha Lillard

A few years ago we did a story about Martha Lillard, a woman who had spent most of her life sleeping in a device called an iron lung. Martha had caught polio in the early

Soweto 1976

Fifty years ago, a group of schoolchildren in South Africa changed history. For decades, the whites-only government of South Africa had brutally enforced a policy of rac

30 Years of Teenage Diaries

This year marks 30 years since we first worked with teenagers to record stories about their lives.  Over the years, people have often asked us, whatever happened to them

The Almost Astronaut

When it comes to the space race, we all know names like Neil Armstrong and Yuri Gagarin. But in most moments in history, there are a few names that fall through the crack

Willie McGee and the Traveling Electric Chair

This episode includes topics and archival audio that some people will find disturbing. Seventy-five years ago, on the night of May 7th, 1951, close to a thousand people

Sealab: A Home on the Ocean Floor

From ancient myths of sea monsters lurking below to Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the ocean has long been both a source of fear and fascination. Fo

Guest Spotlight: William Parker's War on Slave Catchers

This week we're bringing you a story from our friends at History This Week, a podcast from the History Channel. April 3, 1951. A man who escaped slavery is grabbed off t

Detained: A Homecoming

Last week, Leqaa Kordia, young Palestinian woman from Paterson, New Jersey, walked out of an ICE detention center in Texas. Kordia had been held for more than a year.  R

The Real Refugees of Casablanca

When the Hollywood classic, Casablanca, was released in 1943, moviegoers were thrilled by the love story. Humphrey Bogart stars as the cynical owner of Rick’s Cafe, a nig

Orson Welles and the Blind Soldier 3: The Trial

This is the final episode of our series about Isaac Woodard, a Black soldier who was beaten and blinded by a white police officer in 1946. In the last episode, radio host

Orson Welles and the Blind Soldier 2: Officer X

Last week, we shared the story of Isaac Woodard, a Black soldier who was brutally beaten by a white police officer in South Carolina. No one knew the name of the police o

Orson Welles and the Blind Soldier 1: The Bus Ride

On February 12, 1946, a Black soldier was heading home from WWII when he was brutally beaten by a white police officer in South Carolina. No one knew the identity of the

TRAILER: Orson Welles and the Blind Soldier

On February 12, 1946, an African American soldier heading home from WWII was attacked by a white police officer somewhere in South Carolina. The soldier's name was Isaac

Remembering Claudette Colvin

A little over a decade ago, we went to interview a woman at her small one-bedroom apartment in a sprawling complex in the Bronx. She was living a quiet and somewhat anony

The First Computer Dating Service: Operation Match

Looking for love is an art, not a science. People have been trying to crack the code, with mixed success, for a long time.  This week we're going back to the 1960s, when

This Short Life

Today on the show, we sit down with photographer Andrew Lichtenstein to discuss his new book, THIS SHORT LIFE, which combines photo essays with audio testimonies about 12

Detained: The Last Columbia Protester

In April 2024, over 100 students were arrested during protests outside Columbia University, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Leqaa Kordia, a young Palestinian woman livin

Identical Strangers

Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein were both born in New York City and adopted as infants. When they were 35 years old, they met and found they were “identical strangers.”

The Gospel Ranger

This is the story of a song, "Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down." It was written by a 12-year-old boy on what was supposed to be his deathbed. But the boy didn't die