2008 Third Coast Festival Broadcast : Hour 1


Except Me
Erin Davis - Producer, The Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
TCF Best New Artist Award

Except Me eavesdrops on the life of 15 year old Marissa Skillings, whose little brother, Andrew, has autism. The story unexpectedly moves the frame from Andrew to his sister and beautifully reveals how the effects of the condition can ripple outward.

Learn more about the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, the program from which Erin Davis recently hatched.

Dreaming of Osama
Pejk Malinovski - Producer, Falling Tree Productions
Alan Hall - Executive Producer
TCF Best Documentary - Honorable Mention

There's no question that the ever-shifting boundary of the "war on terror" has affected us all. And not just economically and militarily. It's also seeped into our collective unconscious in unexpected ways. Like... it turns out that Osama Bin Ladin has been appearing in bedrooms all of the world... in people's dreams.

Listen to Pejk's own dream of Osama Bin Ladin.

Searching for Farming's Future in its Past
Rachel Leventhal - Producer, The Natural Resource Defense Council's OnEarth Magazine Podcast
Daniel Hinerfeld - Executive Producer
TCF Best Documentary - Honorable Mention

When you can listen to a moo and differentiate between the bovine bray that means "I'm hungry" and the one that means "I'm lonely," you know that you have really, really gotten to know your cattle. But does that intimacy lead to better tasting cheese? Farmer Jonathan White thinks it does. He's trying to reinvent preindustrial agriculture for the postindustrial age.

See photos of Daisy, Petunia, and other Bobolink protagonists.

The Giant Pool of Money
Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson - Producers, This American Life and NPR News
TCF Best Documentary - Honorable Mention AND TCF Director's Choice Award

It turns out that you actually don't need a doctorate in economics to understand the basics of the mortgage crisis that has rocked the global economy. Even if you still think Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are the corn king and queen at the Iowa state fair, you've still got a chance. Together, This American Life and NPR News set out to explain the current financial mess through the stories of real people, from borrowers to lenders to investors. It's funny, it's frightening, you'll laugh, you'll cry... All the way to the bank.

Still freaked out about the economy? Let Alex and Adam break it all down for you on NPR's Planet Money. Listen and read to your heart's delight.

The Diary of Leanne Wolfe
Ciaran Cassidy - Producer, RTE Radio
Peter Woods - Production Supervisor
TCF Radio Impact Award

Leanne Wolfe, a young Irish woman, committed suicide. On the day of her funeral, her family found her diary, read it, and discovered that she'd been relentlessly bullied for many years by her classmates. Despite their own grief, her parents decided to share her story publicly, in an effort to help others. They told the story first to Ciaran Cassidy, a producer at RTE Radio in Ireland. Ciaran sat down with the family as they read through Leanne's diaries, which charted her transformation from a naive and sensitive young girl to a sad and tormented young woman. Then Ciaran found an actress to bring Leanne's diary entries to life.

Hear more from RTE Radio in Ireland.

Chris Brookes - 2008 Audio Luminary Award Recipient

Newfoundland-based producer Chris Brookes has been called a radio artist, a documentary novelist, a choreographer of sound, a poet, a composer, and a wizard. He's been producing radio for almost 40 years for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and his own production company, Battery Radio. Appropriately enough, Battery Radio is located at the foot of the hill in Newfoundland where inventor Guglielmo Marconi was stationed when he sent his first trans-Atlantic wireless transmission of sound. Chris received the 2008 Audio Luminary Award for his enduring work as a producer, teacher, mentor, and avid sound-recordist.

A Map of the Sea by Chris Brookes (15:00)

Listen to the The Wire, a radio masterpiece about electricity and sound, co-produced by Chris Brookes.

Featured Music:

Andrew Coleman, "Pi Two," Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt (Thrill Jockey, 2001)
Melodium, "Flacana 8," Flacana Flacana (Audio Dregs)
E*Rock, "Them What Do," Conscious (Audio Dregs, 2003)
Tone Traeger, "Elastic," This is Not Here (Subrosa, 2004)
Melodium, "I'm Not Already Dead," Music for Invisible People (Audio Dregs)
Noaro, Childish Music (Staubgold Germany, 2005)
Humidity of Mountains, Childish Music (Staubgold Germany, 2005)
Melodium, "We Are Alright Here," Music for Invisible People (Audio Dregs)
Eluvium, "Genius and The Thieves," An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death (Temporary Residence, '04)
Chihei Hatakeyama, "Towards a Tranquil Marsh," Minima Moralia (Kranky, 2006)
Hauschka, "Gingko," Room to Expand (Fat Cat, 2007)
Meloidum, "Weird Voices Inside My Head," There is Something in the Universe (Audio Dregs)

2008 Third Coast Festival Broadcast : Hour 2


Shattered School
Melissa Block and Andrea Hsu - Reporter and Producer, All Things Considered
TCF Best News Feature

In an odd stroke of serendipity and uncanny circumstance, All Things Considered host Melissa Block happened to be in China, reporting on the country in the weeks leading up to the Olympics, when a devastating earthquake hit the Sichuan province. When she came to a collapsed school where hundreds of children were feared lost under the rubble, she reported Shattered School.

Hear a full interview with Melissa Block about Shattered School.

Hearts, Lungs, and Minds
John Wynne - Sound Artist, Falling Tree Productions
TCF Best Documentary - Bronze Award

John Wynne spent a year as an artist-in-residence at Harefield Hospital in the UK, one of the world's leading centers for heart and lung transplants. There he recorded the sounds of life-support machines and the hospital environment, along with the patient's intensely personal stories. He then wove those elements into a dense soundscape which lives somewhere between a story and a symphony.

Check out John Wynne and photographer Tim Wainwright's "transplant log", an audio-visual diary of their time at the Harefield Hospital.

Growing Up in the System
Shirley 'Star' Diaz and Melissa Robbins - Reporter and Producer, WNYC's Radio Rookies
with help from Marianne McCune, Kaari Pitkin, and Sanda Htyte
TCF Best Documentary - Silver Award

Shirley 'Star' Diaz invites listeners into a tumultuous time in her life, as she prepares to turn 21 and age out of the New York City foster care system. Without parents, a job, or a home, it's unclear exactly where Star will go and what she will do.

Hear more from Radio Rookies past and present at WNYC.

Dr. Phil
Starlee Kine - Producer, This American Life
Alex Blumberg - Editor

We've all been through break-ups. Painful break-ups. Brutal break-ups. Break-ups that grind your heart into mince meat, leaving you functionally disabled for months, maybe years. But not all of us handle romantic disappointment the way Starlee Kine did. She funneled her heartache into a story for This American Life called Dr. Phil . Oh, and it's probably not the Dr. Phil you're thinking of.

This American Life invited listeners to remix Starlee's break up song. The result? 129 different versions of heartbreak. Listen here.

Featured Music:

Melodium, "Kribi," Vilnius (Audio Dregs)
Air, "Night Sight," Pocket Symphony (Astralwerks, 2007)
Melodium, "I'm Not Already Dead," Music for Invisible People (Audio Dregs)
Mum, "Faraway Swimmingpool," Finally We Are No One (Fat Cat, 2002)
Melodium, "You're Gone," Vilnius (Audio Dregs)
Melodium, "Weird Voices Inside My Head," There Is Something In the Universe (Audio Dregs)