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The Lemon Tree
by Sandy Tolan
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Bashir was six during the height of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war ,
when his family was forced to flee his stone home in old Palestine and live as
refugees in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Three months later, six-month-old
Dalia, whose Bulgarian family had survived the Holocaust, arrived by boat in
the new nation of Israel. Two decades later Bashir crossed the threshold of his
old house and rang the bell. Dalia answered. (38:30)
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Producer Sandy Tolan talks about The Lemon Tree, and a new project
Behind the Scenes.
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Road Scholar
by Andrei Codrescu
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You might recognize Andrei Codrescu's voice from his insightful
commentaries on NPR, but Codrescu has also brought his unique perspective on
American culture to the silver screen, via the movie Road Scholar. Released in
1992, the film tells the story of his cross-country road trip, taken in a 1968
cherry-red Cadillac. In this audio excerpt from the film, Codrescu shares his
impressions of America through a lyrical blend of scrutiny, criticism, and
respect. (21:44)
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Andrei Codrescu shares some thoughts about his cultural impressions of America,
Behind the Scenes.
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Basketball Diary
by Katie Davis
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Katie Davis takes her microphone along when she is drafted to
"coach" a high school basketball team in her neighborhood, allowing us to
listen in as she stumbles through the season. This piece is from an ongoing
series called Neighborhood Stories, about Davis’ Washington, DC neighborhood
(13:00)
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Katie Davis talks about her role as the neighborhood ‘tournament lady,’
Behind the Scenes.
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Knoxville: Summer
of 1995
by Alan Hall
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This piece is an audio homage on three levels: first, to James
Agee's poetic memoir of the sounds and smells of Knoxville, Tennessee in the
summer of 1915, shortly before his father died; secondly, to Samuel Barber's
1947 orchestral setting of this text for the soprano Eleanor Steber, and
finally to the modern city of Knoxville. (31:53)
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Alan Hall makes a case for the power of audio to evoke a visual response in
listeners, Behind the Scenes.
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The Stans (Part
2)
by Benjamin Adair
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Here’s the story of a group of Americans seeking adventure, new
experiences, and maybe a little bit of extra-marital sex, while traveling
through Central Asia, into Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
So far on this trip, only one thing has made itself clear: all of their
well-laid plans and pre-conceptions about what to expect were terribly
mistaken. (19:48)
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Benjamin Adair shares some insider information about the controversy this piece
stirred up, Behind the Scenes.
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Jarman's Garden
by Sherre DeLys
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Producer Sherre DeLys' visited English filmmaker Derek Jarman’s
unique and rugged garden, which he put an extraordinary amount of passion and
physical labor into during his long illness, and then made this impressionistic
rendering of her journey there. (14:12)
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Read more about Sherre DeLys’ visit and experience in Jarman’s garden,
Behind the Scenes.
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Healing the Wound
of Wounded Knee
by Hal Cannon and Taki Telonidis
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Leonard Little Finger is the great-great grandson of Chief Big
Foot, whose band of Lakota Sioux Indians were killed at Wounded Knee, South
Dakota, in 1890. This radio documentary follows Little Finger as he repatriates
a lock of hair taken from Chief Big Foot's corpse after the battle, from a
small museum in Barre, Massachusetts, to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South
Dakota.(15:05)
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Producers Hal Cannon and Taki Telonidis talk about working with the Lakota
community to make this story, Behind
the Scenes.
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Face of Mercy,
Face of Hate
by Michael Montgomery and Stephen Smith
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Predrag Bundalo was a Serbian fighter in Sarajevo, who everyone
called by his nickname, "Gaga." On the eve of his 36th birthday, Gaga stopped
to visit an elderly Muslim woman in her apartment. He planned to leave the war
zone the next day, but never emerged from the apartment alive. Here is the
story of what happened to Gaga, or at least what producers Montgomery and Smith
found out about their friend. (21:55)
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Radio Rookies:
English
Karla Saavedra ,17, moved to Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood from Mexico two
years ago. She’s struggling with learning English, but nonetheless tells this
story about her difficulties and adventures as a Spanish speaker in New York
through interviews with her principal, English teacher, friends and mom.
Saavedra is part of the WNYC’s
Radio Rookies, team of youths who learn to use radio to tell true
stories about themselves, their families and their communities. (7:54)
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Prom
Queens
by Tom Truss
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Tom Truss, working as a producer and reporter for Outright Radio,
chaperones a gay high school prom in Silicon Valley, CA. Listen as protesters
line up to shame the prom-goers, as they enter under the protective eye of
straight clergy and parents.(29:31)
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Silence
by Joan Schuman
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Tripura and Om took temporary vows of silence when they first met
almost twenty years ago. Joan Schuman produced this sound portrait of their
experience, by weaving together their vocal memories with an ambient narrative
of chalk scratching on slate. (12:22)
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Remembering Kent
State, 1970
by Mark Urycki
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When thirteen students were shot by Ohio National Guard Troops
during a war demonstration on the Kent State University Campus in May, 1970,
four young lives were ended and a nation was stunned. More than 30 years later,
that incident remains scorched into an Ohio hillside. Through archival tape and
interviews, Remembering Kent State tracks the events that led up to the
shootings. (59:34)
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Swim
Lesson
by Scott Carrier
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In Scott Carrier’s family, learning to swim means spending a few
weeks at Al and Betty Switzer's Aquatic School, in Center Sandwich, NH. Al
works with youths ranging from sobbing, hysterical four-year-olds to confident
young teenagers, and seven years ago he helped Alyce Carrier earn her official
Beginner 1 Level card. (8:10)
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The Malling of
America
by Barbara Bernstein
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Everybody talks about the problems of exponential growth in the
West—pollution, congestion, traffic—but inquire about solutions, and many
Westerners give you a blank stare or argue that you're messing with their
private property rights. Oregon-based producer Barbara Bernstein sets out on a
road trip through the mountains and canyons of Colorado and Utah, looking for
what's left of the West’s open space and rugged wildlands. (54:10)
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Tupperware
by The Kitchen Sisters
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In this nostalgic documentary, tag along with Tupperware Dealer
Lucky Laurel into the world of Tupperware conventions, regional meetings, and
of course, those signature Tupperware parties. (5:35)
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The Change in
Farming
by Adam Goddard and Steve Wadhams
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This story brings together a young Toronto composer, Adam Goddard,
whose passion is music, and his 90-year-old grandfather, Henry Haws, whose
passion is farming. Adam used recorded interviews with his grandfather about
the “good old days” to create a modern musical composition. (13:02)
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We're Here to
Work!
by Sandra Sleight-Brennan and Doug Partusch
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This documentary, part of a series called America's Women: A Legacy
of Change, examines how women's lives have changed since they won the
vote in 1920’s, focusing on the period from World War II through the 1950's.
(29:28)
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Voices From the
Dust Bowl by Barrett Golding
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In the 1930's, the Great Depression and Dust Bowl drove farmers
and their families from the central states to California. In 1940, two speech
professors from City College in New York went to California, lugging a 50-pound
"portable" Presto disc recorder, to make sound-recordings of these farmers for
the Library of Congress. (22:09)
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Nostalgia
by Paul McCarthy
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The first Johnny Rockets opened in 1986 on Melrose Avenue in Los
Angeles, a concept restaurant embodying the epitome of retro culture. But why
is it that in the year 2001, people are still eating lunch at a 1950's
hamburger stand? Three audio vignettes explore the way we constantly
reconstruct history, even at the most personal level. (36:46)
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The Century in
Sound: An American's Perspective
by Adam Phillips
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Voice of America’s The Century in Sound is a radio
documentary that chronicles the entire 20th century without narration. The
montage gives VOA's millions of non-American listeners an experience of the
century's historic sweep. (38:25)
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See a transcript of the sounds included.
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Mucho Corazon
by Chris Brookes and Michelle Ernsting
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Mucho Corazon tells the story of Leon Perlee, who builds and
restores antique street organs in Holland’s oldest surviving street organ
business, and Milades Sosa, who works at a Cuban organ factory. Perlee traveled
to Cuba for a visit, where he and Sosa met and fell in love, and this was when
the trouble began. (42:30)
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In the Navy
by David Gilmore
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Meet Zoe Dunning, an open lesbian, and hear about her struggle
with the US Navy to stay in military ranks. Also meet Skippy the Sailor, who
used his sewing machine to win the hearts of his fellow sailors. Producer David
Gilmore talks with both, about their battles with the Armed Forces during the
"Don't Ask Don't Tell.” era. (28:27)
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Big in Japan
by Robin Hilton
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Desperate to learn the language, Japanese schools, businesses and
government agencies offer small fortunes to just about anyone who can help
teach English. Every year thousands of Americans pack their bags and move to
Japan, with the hope of cashing in on this lucrative industry. Here’s a look
into the subculture of these teaching communities, and an exploration into the
surreal world that surrounds them in Japan. (29:00)
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The Fire Within
by Cecilia Vaisman and Katie Davis
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A growing number of African-American men are converting to Islam
while in prison. In this story, you'll meet several of them living in a
medium-security prison in Logan, Illinois, and hear about how, for many men,
the "call of Islam" fills a silence and a vacuum in their lives. (24:47)
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Educating Esme
by Esme Cordell
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Esme Cordell shares a year's worth of classroom anecdotes and
musings, culled from a journal kept throughout her first year teaching in
Chicago. Esme describes her triumphs and discoveries, while simultaneously
challenging some of the restrictions and formalities she faces daily within the
public school system. (56:30)
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The Graying of the
Convent
by Mary Beth Kirchner
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Documentarian Mary Beth Kirchner lived in a Chicago convent to
produce this intimate portrait of aging Catholic nuns, on subjects ranging from
feminism and retirement to spirituality and dying. The Graying of the Convent
was produced as one of Roman Catholicism's longest-lived traditions, the
communities known as women's religious orders, face extinction in the very near
future. (28:52)
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Picture Me Rolling
by Shirley Jahad and Cecilia Vaisman, with Shomari Kress
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Shomari Kress wants to live the American Dream: start his own
business, make lots of money, drive a fast car. But like many other young
African-American men in his south side Chicago neighborhood, he's not sure how
to realize that dream. Shomari's world seems to offer him two options:
low-paying service jobs or the lucrative, illegal drug trade. He finds himself
at a crossroads, choosing between selling drugs and a low-paying, entry level
job. (29 minutes)
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The Gods of Times
Square
by David Isay and Richard Sandler
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Times Square teems with people—hardened New Yorkers and wide-eyed
tourists, commuters and shoppers, theater-goers and merchants, prostitutes and
policemen. Amid the shimmering lights, flashing signs, towering billboards and
epileptic neon, walk the countless religious zealots who consider Times Square
their concrete pulpit. (20:00)
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"Diamond" Jimmy
Roy
by Dan Collison
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At one time “Diamond” Jimmy Roy owned half the businesses in
Braddock, Pennsylvania, a steel town just outside Pittsburgh. Braddock's
decline paralleled Roy’s; he now sells jewelry out of a family restaurant. But
somehow he's managed to remain optimistic with a self-styled philosophy that
keeps him rich and happy. (19:00)
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The Last Place
by Joe Richman and Radio Diaries
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A woman shares her secret concoction to relieve arthritis pain:
nine gin-soaked raisins daily. Down the hall, two residents meet, court and
decide to get married. Through audio diaries kept by residents of Presbyterian
Homes in Evanston, Illinois, this documentary offers a glimpse into the lives
of a community in retirement. (30:00)
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