Re:sound #9: The South Side of Japan Show
This hour: we head to the south side of Chicago and Japan.
2004 / TCF / WBEZ 91.5, USA
This hour: we head to the south side of Chicago and Japan.
Another Lousy Day
by Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister (Chicago Public Radio, 2003)
A few years ago writer David Kodeski found two diaries from the early 1960s in the back of a dusty Chicago thrift store. The author -- a single, working woman living on the city's south side -- wrote meticulously about her everyday life. She documented how she flirted with her coworkers, fought with her dad, and searched for happiness while worrying about everything from her weight to her hairdo. Kodeski set out to find the woman, meeting her friends and neighbors, solving mysteries, and reflecting on her life along the way.
Big in Japan
by producer Robin Hilton (Soundprint, 2000)
Every year thousands of Americans pack their bags and move to Japan, hoping to make it big by teaching English. Desperate to learn English, Japanese schools, businesses, and government agencies offer small fortunes to just about anyone who can help teach the language. While some who answer the call are well-educated and have the best intentions, others are drawn to Japan by the low qualifications and high pay. Regardless of what motivates them, they all leave Japan with unique and often surreal stories of their experiences there. Robin Hilton was no exception.
produced by
Together with his life and radio partner Elizabeth Meister, Dan Collison produces audio documentaries and song/stories that detail everyday life in America, work that has consistently garnered radio's top awards.
Elizabeth Meister quit her job at the phone company to volunteer for public radio show This American Life in 1998, when she started their award-winning website in exchange for a chance to learn how to make radio documentaries.
Robin Hilton is a producer for the popular NPR Music show All Songs Considered and host of NPR Music's Second Stage, a daily online feature and podcast presenting unsigned artists and bands. Hilton joined All Songs Considered as its producer after co-founding Small Good Thing Productions, a non-profit production company for independent film, radio and music in Athens, GA. Before that, he lived and worked in Japan as a translator for the government, and taught English as a second language to junior high school students.
Julie Shapiro (@jatomic) is the executive producer of Radiotopia from PRX - a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven podcasts. She is also the executive producer of Ear Hustle .