The Updates
When Sophie Townsend’s husband was diagnosed with lung cancer, she started the Russell Updates, a weekly email that laid it all bare for friends and family.
2015 / Sophie Townsend / ABC RN, AUS
When Sophie Townsend’s husband was diagnosed with lung cancer, she started the Russell Updates, a weekly email that laid it all bare for friends and family.
The news she had to give them was never good. The updates were not just a way to keep everyone informed, but Sophie’s way of working things out in her own head, and keeping herself afloat.
The Updates was written and produced by Sophie Townsend for 360documentaries on ABC RN.
How did Sophie make this very personal story resonate widely? And what does it mean to be "played by a tall, gorgeous, blonde" on the radio?
Be sure to read the Behind-the-Scenes interview, below.
The Updates was read by Gabrielle Rogers, with the voices of Russell, Claire and Anna Stendell. The sound engineer was Louis Mitchell, and the supervising producer was Natalie Kestecher.
produced by
Sophie Townsend (@sophietown) (she/her) is a senior producer and editor at ABC Audio Studio. She also works internationally as an audio features maker and writer. Her podcast for the BBC, Goodbye To All This, made with Falling Tree Productions, was one of the New York Times's best podcasts for 2020. In 2015 she won the HearSay International Audio competition with her piece “Mr Fix-it.” Her works “Stories and Driving” and “The Updates” were featured at Third Coast in 2015, and she was a speaker at Third Coast in 2019. Through her personal stories for radio, she explores relationships, loss and family, and her work has been played on the BBC's Short Cuts, Radiotopia's The Heart and the CBC's Love Me.
Featured in
May we recommend…
-
![]()
Sight Unseen
2015 / 27:51
In December of 2009, photojournalist Lynsey Addario was embedded with a medevac team in Afghanistan. After days of waiting, one night they got the call - a marine was gravely wounded.
-
![]()
Ghetto Life 101
1993 / 30:20
In 1993, LeAlan Jones (age 13) and Lloyd Newman (age 14) collaborated with public radio producer David Isay to create an audio diary of life on Chicago's South Side.
-
![]()
Somebody
2020 / 28:43
When Shapearl Wells's son Courtney is found outside a Chicago police station with a fatal bullet wound, Shapearl immediately distrusts the official narrative.
