Category: Carrier, Scott/Archives

Scott Carrier’s radio work has been published in Harper’s Magazine, and compiled as a public radio fundraising CD by This American Life. He writes for Esquire, Rolling Stone, and GQ. His first book is Running After Antelope, for which he was interviewed by NPR Morning Edition and Salon.com. He lives in Salt Lake City.

HV047- Snow and Ice

Sledders on hill, photo by TabbymomHearing Voices from NPR®
047 Snow and Ice: Winter Weather Advisory
Host: Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2010-02-03 (Originally: 2009-01-21)

“Snow and Ice” (52:00 mp3):

Gliding, sliding, and speed (photo cc Tabbymom):

“Sledding Party” (21:08 / 1987) Alex Chadwick

NPR Alex Chadwick invites America to share their stories of Flexible Flyers and downhill runs in a cross-USA audio Sledding Party, produced by Katie Davis. (Music: “Come to the Meadow” Roger Kellaway Cello Quartet (1974).)

“Avalanche” (19:29 / 1993) Scott Carrier

Seven skiers go into the back-country, only six return; the story from the perspective of the survivors: Dave Carter, Dwight Butler, Alan Murphy, Chris Larson, and Larry Olson; in memory of Greg McIntyre.

“Olympic Speed-Skaters” (7:59 / 1991) Barrett Golding

A training day in the life of three women at the U.S. High Altitude Sports Center in Butte, Montana; with skaters Chantelle Bailey, Tara Laslo, and Mary Doctor, and trainers Michael Crowe and Susan Sandvig.

“Vatnajökull” (excerpts /2003) Chris Watson

And the sounds of Iceland’s largest glacier, captured by field-recordist Chris Watson, on his CD Weather Report (Touch Music).

Watson’s Vatnajökull sounds were also used in this Sigur Rós film, “Heima” (trailer):

HV on NPR

Had a slew of HV stories on NPR recently, and no time to post ’em. We’ll put up photos and more info soon, but for now…

The first of Scott 3-part Juarez stories:

A couple by Jake Warga:

And this ZBS 2 Minute Film Noir:

Winter Soldiers video

“Winter Soldiers”- Iraq Veterans Against the War testimony (warning: includes picture of the dead):

Boots-on-the-ground soldiers and marines testify in March 2008 “giving an accurate account of what is really happening day in and day out.” Winter Soldiers is a project of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Winter Soldiers Testimony from former Marines: Jon Turner and Michael LeDuc and former Army Soldiers: Clifton Hicks, Garrett Reppenhagen.

Photos and video from veterans: Jon Turner, Scott Ewing, Kristofer Goldsmith, Daniel Fanning, Lars Ekstrom, Mike Totten, Andrew Duffy, Hart Viges, Clifton Hicks, Steven Casey, Steve Mortillo, Jesse Hamilton, Adam Kokesh, Abby Hiser.

Video produced by Max Darham, audio produced by Scott Carrier & Barrett Golding for Hearing Voices. Music by Jeff Arntsen. More Winter Soldiers audio…

El Pastor

Scott Carrier and videographer Lisa Miller visit “El Pastor.” José Antonio Galván is a born-again preacher in Juárez, Mexico, who cares for homeless drug-addicted, mentally ill street people with no place to live but El Pastor’s shelter (Albergue Para Discapacitaros Mentales), out in the desert just south of the U.S. border.

“El Pastor” (Part 1 of 2)

“El Pastor” (Part 2 of 2)

HV038- Let’s Eat

Hearing Voices from NPR®:
038 Let’s Eat— For Thanksgiving
Host— Larry Massett of Hearing Voices
Airdates— 11/19/2008 – 11/26/2008

Let’s Eat (53:00 mp3):

A Thanksgiving audio feast. We binge on fattening stories, then purge with a documentary on refusing food:

Joe Frank describes a typically twisted family “Thanksgiving Dinner” (from his program “Pilgrim“).


detail of painting “First Thanksgiving” by Jean Louis Gerome Ferris (1863-1930)
courtesy Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection

Scott Carrier tours a “Turkey Ranch,” following the gobbler from farmyard to frozen food.


photo by Harry M. Rhoads (1880-1975)
courtesy Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library

Dean Olscher of The Next Big Thing goes “Chowhounding in St. Paul,” searching for Hmong food, with cellphone assistance from the Chowhound, Jim Leff.


Sarah J. Hale, Editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, led a campaign through
the 1850s-1860s to establish Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday

And Annie Cheney offers a touching document of her eating disorder, “Concerning Breakfast” from Jay Allison’s Life Stories series.

Library of Congress- Thanksgiving in American Memory
US Census Bureau- Thanksgiving Day, 2007

Juarez Journalist

[Scott Carrier is working on an HV Hour about the murders in Juárez, Mexico, starting with his NPR series, then moving onto the current much, much worse situation. The following are some emails from Scott…]

Yesterday Armando Rodriguez, the journalist who’d written most of the stories (901) on this year’s executions in Juárez Mexico, was himself executed:

Armando Rodriguez (Photo courtesy of El Diario de Juarez)

Juarez journalist slain

El Pasa Times staff report 11/13/2008

A Juarez journalist known for his work as a crime reporter for El Diario de Juarez was gunned down Thursday morning in front of his home, the newsapaper’s Web site reported.

Armando Rodriguez was preparing to take his daughter to school in Juarez when a gunman approached his car and fired several shots at point-blank range, according to accounts provided by the newspaper. Rodriguez reportedly died at the scene.

The assailant then fled to a waiting car carrying other men and sped off in an unknown direction.

Rodriguez was the police beat reporter for El Diario de Juarez and had become an expert on the brutal drug cartel violence that has gripped Juarez for the last several years.

“He was a good person and a good reporter,” said KINT-TV (Univision Ch. 26) reporter Pedro Villagrana, who has worked closely with Rodriguez for more than a decade.

Word of Rodriguez’ slaying quickly spread throughout the Juarez and El Paso journalism community. Some members of the Juarez media including his colleagues at El Diario de Juarez gathered at the crime scene to mourn his death, according to the newspaper Web site.

Juárez has always been a violent place. No rule of law. People get killed and nobody is arrested, not even an investigation. What’s new now is the rate of murders. There are more than 100 executions each month in Juárez, 1300 this year alone. Last year there were about 300.

Paula Flores attends the burial of her daughter Sagrario Gonzalez, a maquiladora worker abducted and killed in April 1998.
Paula Flores attends the burial of her daughter Sagrario Gonzalez,
a maquiladora worker abducted and killed in April 1998.
(Photo © Julián Cardona)

More…

Insane in Juarez

Juarez Insanity,” a TV story by Scott Carrier and videographer Lisa Miller, aired on PBS Religion and Ethics Newsweekly series. Scott and Lisa spent time with José Antonio Galván, a born-again preacher in Juárez, Mexico, who cares for homeless drug-addicted, mentally ill street people with no place to live but El Pastor’s shelter (Albergue Para Discapacitaros Mentales) out in the desert just south of the U.S. border.

I’ve got 110 patients, my “childs,” that are my childs, not my patients, my childs, and this is a mental institution, especially for the person of the streets. For the people who they lay down on the streets like trash, nobody wants them except Jesus Christ and your server, his servant.


Photo © Julián Cardona

Mt Kailash

A photo-audio-essay gallery of Scott Carrier’s story on Mount Kailash in Tibet, one of the world’s most venerated holy sites.

HV034- To War

UH1 Helicopters flying in Vietnam at sunriseHearing Voices from NPR®
034 To War: Getting In and Getting Out
Host: Scott Carrier of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2009-11-18 (Originally: 2008-10-22)

“To War” (52:00 mp3):

We get out of one conflict and into another:

“Ready for War?” (22:20) Scott Carrier

Our show host travels the country in early October 2001, asking everyone the same question: “Are You Ready for War?”

“Goodbye to Saigon” (21:30) narrator: Noah Adams, producer: Art Silverman.

An NPR chronicle leading up to the last day of US flights out of the Vietnam War, 30 April 1975: the fall of Saigon, with original recordings by one of the helicopter pilots.

U.S. Helicopters at dawn
UH1 helicopters at sunrise in Vietnam, photo by Lowell Eneix, 121st Assault Helicopter Company, US Army (from Vietnam Helicopter online gallery).

HV032- Soapbox

Hearing Voices from NPR®:
032 Soapbox— Sampling 20th Century Political Speech
Host— Sarah Vowell of This American Life
Airdates— 10/8/2008 – 10/15/2008

Soapbox (53:00 mp3):

Thomas and his signs in Lafayette SquareWe hang with the mostly homeless protesters, and Scott Carrier, in “Lafayette Square” across from the White House.

“Memory Waltz” is from composer Oliver Nelson’s LP: The Kennedy Dream; A Musical Tribute to John Fitzgerald Kennedy., with musicians Phil Woods, Hank Jones, George Duvivier and Grady Tate.

Bonus audio: The Kennedy Dream “A Genuine Peace” (2:35 mp3):

We hear excerpts from All the Presidents’ Inaugurations:
• Calvin Coolidge— Inaugural Address, Wednesday, March 4, 1925
• Franklin D. Roosevelt— First Inaugural Address, Saturday, March 4, 1933
• Harry S. Truman— Inaugural Address, Thursday, January 20, 1949
• Dwight D. Eisenhower— First Inaugural Address, Tuesday, January 20, 1953
• John F. Kennedy— Inaugural Address, Friday, January 20, 1961

And from John McCain and Barack Obama’s September 26 2008 Presidential Debate, Oxford MS.

Writer Dave Eggers helps his brother Bill run for State Representative as a Republican — blood proves thicker than politics, from This American Life.

Slam poet Taylor Mali tells us “How to Write a Political Poem” (CD: Conviction).

Host Sarah Vowell digs “The Garden for Disappointed Politicians,” from The Future Dictionary of America. Music by Jeff Arntsen of Racket Ship.

Thomas and his signs, from Carrier's Lafayette Square radio story
Thomas in Lafayette Square; © 1983 Scott Carrier

Audio artist Jesse Boggs choreographs a bipartisan “WMD Waltz.”

And more Presidents’ Inaugurations
• Lyndon B. Johnson— Inaugural Address, Wednesday, January 20, 1965
• Richard M. Nixon— Second Inaugural Address, Saturday, January 20, 1973
• Gerald Ford Remarks— On Taking the Oath of Office, Friday Aug. 9, 1974
• Jimmy Carter— Inaugural Address, Thursday, January 20, 1977
• Ronald Reagan— Second Inaugural Address, Monday, January 21, 1985
• George H. W. Bush— Inaugural Address, Friday, January 20, 1989
• Bill Clinton First— Inaugural Address, Thursday, January 20, 1993
• George W. Bush— Inaugural Address, Saturday, January 20, 2001

Audio by Jesse Boggs; video by Trent Harris, “Bushisms” (the cryptomusicology of Presidential patter):

HV028- Vox Pop

Hearing Voices from NPR®:
028 Vox Pop— For 9/11
Host— Jay Allison of Transom
Airdates— 9/10/2008 – 9/17/2008

Statue of soldierThe stars of this show are Americans, expressing their opinions, participating in our democratic discussion.

We roam the streets of New York City in the hours during and weeks after 9/11, hitting “Golf Balls” and spending our “Last Night in New York.”

We travel 8000 miles of America gathering “Vox Pop.”

And “Amber” provides an illegal alien p.o.v. via a radio call-in line.

Works from Transom.org by producers Scott Carrier, Christopher Lydon, Matt Lieber, and Australian Wednesday Kennedy.

Vox Pop (53:00 mp3):

Music: Bela Fleck and the Flecktones- “Stomping Grounds” Live Art, Keith Jarrett- “Americana” Dark Intervals, and Ry Cooder- “Dark End of the Street” Boomer’s Story.

HV025- Heat

Sun in the desertHearing Voices from NPR®
025 Heat: Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer
Host: Scott Carrier of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2012-07-11 (Originally: 2008-08-20)

“Heat” (52:00 mp3):

Five symptoms of heat fatigue:

A sound-poem for “Dead of Summer” in the city by Marjorie Van Halteren and Lou Giansante, read by Russell Horton.

Tuscon residents reflect the desert “Heat,” with author Charles Bowden, poet Ofelia Zepeda, and music by Steve Roach; produced by Jeff Rice.

The perfection of family, a crippled man on a blind man’s back, and a collective scream of “I’m not dead,” sweat it out in Joe Frank‘s “Summer Notes.”

Cats pulling pianos are “The Little Heroes” in John Rieger‘s Dance on Warning series.

And host Scott Carrier takes a long hot cross-country drive down “Highway 50,” the loneliest road in America.

Music by The Lovin’ Spoonful and Flying Lizards.

HV023- This Is Insanity

Howard Dully receiving his Hearing Voices from NPR®
023 This is Insanity: Disturbed Mental States
Host: Scott Carrier of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2010-03-03 (Originally: 2008-08-06)

“This is Insanity” (52:00 mp3):

A survey of disturbed mental states:

“This is Insane” (1:42 excerpt) William S Burroughs

With the music of Disposable Heroes of Hiphopcracy (rapper Michael Franti and percussionist Ron Tse), from the 1993 CD Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales.

“Electroshock” (3:42) Anon.

A first-person account from an anonymous reporter of his experience undergoing ElectroConvulsive Therapy.

“Frontier Psychiatrist” (1:24 excerpt) The Avalanches

Music from the Australian mashup/cut-up artists 2000 CD Since I Left You.

“The Test” (14:53) Scott Carrier

Our host travels the Utah backroads testing folk for schizophrenia.

“Keep Busy” (3:45) Joe Frank

The narrator is pathologically challenged by time, and the stories societies tell themselves, excerpted from the 2006 radio hour “Time’s Arrow.”

“My Lobotomy” (21:11) Sound Portraits

Howard Dully traces the reasons and repercusssions of his transorbital or “ice pick” lobotomy, a radical new procedure in the treatment of mental illness in this country, pioneered and performed by psychiatrist Walter J. Freeman.

Produced by Dave Isay and Piya Kochhar, with help from Larry Blood, Eliza Bettinger, Brett Myers, Jessica Tickten, Anna Goldman, Maisie Tivnan, Colin Murphy and Jonah Engle Narratored by Howard Dully; edited by Gary Covino. Jack El-Hai was project advisor. Special thanks to: Barbara Dully, Andrew Goldberg, Christine Johnson, Lyle Slovick & David Anderson at the GWU Gelman Library archives. Funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

HV022- Mushroom Cloud

Cartoon of man with atomic explosion in his eyesHearing Voices from NPR®
022 Mushroom Cloud: Tales of the Atomic Age
Host: Larry Massett of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2012-08-01 (Originally: 2008-07-30)

Documents of our changing perceptions of weapons of mass destruction:

Bomber pilots and bombing victims, and and Colonel Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay in “Enola Alone” by Antenna Theater, mixed by Earwax.

Political speeches and popular songs chart our changing attitudes towards weapons of mass destruction in the “Atomic Age.” Residents recall the Nevada and Utah nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s in their “Downwinder Diaries,” produced by Claes Andreasson.

Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti has “Wild Dreams of a New Beginning,” an excerpt from “One of These days (or Nights)” produced for radio by Erik Bauersfeld (Bay Area Radio Drama), with sound design by Jim McKee (Earwax), and original music by Wieslaw Pogorzelski.

Americans across the country answer Scott Carrier‘s question: “What Are You Afraid Of?”

The story of the Big Bang, with a beat, “Page One” by Lemon Jelly.

And selections from “Atomic Platters: Cold War Music from the Golden Age of Homeland Security” compiled by CONELRAD.com (including Slim Galliard’s “Atomic Cocktail” (1945), versions of “Jesus Hits Like an Atom Bomb” by Lowell Blanchard & The Valley Trio (1949) and by The Pilgrim Travelers, and 1950-60s Civil Defense public service announcements.

Mushroom Cloud (53:00 mp3):

HV019- Life on the Mississippi

Tugboat pilot Joe AdamsHearing Voices from NPR®
019 Life on the Mississippi: River Towns
Host: Scott Carrier of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2010-06-02 (Originally: 2008-07-09)

“Life on the Mississippi” (52:00 mp3):

A Tour of the River Towns:

“Life on the Mississippi” (1984 / 52:00) Larry Massett

Hannibal, Missouri, birthplace of Mark Twain; a day on a tugboat; St. Louis showboats; and changing the course of mighty rivers. We spend the whole hour on this 1984 downstream trip through the history and mystery of the Big Muddy, with Larry Massett and Scott Carrier.

HV017- No Place Like Home

Roy Tea Hastings Road, Utah's West DesertHearing Voices from NPR®
017 No Place Like Home: Shifts in Time and Towns
Host: Scott Carrier of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2009-07-08 (Originally: 2008-06-25)

“No Place Like Home” (52:00 mp3):

The places we live and the people who live there; a desert, a city, two small towns, and another country:

Scott Carrier has a cultural history of the Great Salt Lake’s “West Desert,” a land of polygymists, bombing ranges, and toxic waste incinerators. There’s chlorine gas in the air, anthrax stored underground, and people who call the place home.

Sarah Vowell‘s childhood move from rural Oklahoma to small-town Montana was, for her, a change from the middle ages to a modern metropolis.

And two Stories from the Heart of the Land: NYC native Natalie Edwards hates grass, bugs, dirt, and trees, but attempts a walk thru Brooklyn’s Prospect Park; and Carmen Delzell tells why she moved to and has stayed in Mexico.

HV016- Bugs and Birds

Jumping spider, Habronattus dossenusHearing Voices from NPR®
016 Bugs and Birds: Sounds of Summer
Host: Jeff Rice of Western Soundscape Archive
Airs week of: 2009-06-24 (Originally: 2008-06-18)

“Bugs and Birds” (52:00 mp3):

Jeff Rice of the Western Soundscape Archive hosts an hour of creeping, crawling, flying critter sounds for the start of Summer:

Sound artist Nina Katchadourian makes car alarms from bird calls.

Ken Nordine argues “For the Birds” on his 2001 CD A Transparent Mask, with music by Paul Wertico and Jim Hines.

Virginia Belmont’s Famous Singing and Talking Birds tweet the “William Tell Overture (Canary Sextet).”

Recordist Lang Elliot‘s CD Prairie Spring captures a “soundscape of prairie meadows and potholes in spring and early summer.”

An extinct woodpecker revives an Arkansas town; it’s “The Lord God Bird” by Long Haul Productions, with an original song composed for ther story by Sufjan Stevens.

Brian Eno’s music mimics some “Flies,” from the 2006 compilation Plague Songs.

Folk are buggin’, gettin bittin, swatting and swearing at “Mosquitos,” by M’Iou Zahner Ollswang (from the 1985 collection
Tellus #11: The Sound of Radio.)

Scott Carrier takes a morning walk with poet Jim Harrison.

Lang Elliot soaks up the sounds of “Sora Dawn” — “a pothole marsh at dawn with bittern, wrens, rails, and more (Prairie Spring).

Dr. Rex Cocroft, of the University of Missouri, attaches a phonograph needle to a blade of grass, plugged it into a tape recorder, to go “acoustic prospecting” for little-known suburban lawn sounds like “Leafhoppers,” rarely hard by humans.

Host Jeff Rice breeds bugs to make “Moth Music.”

Ken Nordine declares this “A Good Year for Spiders” (A Transparent Mask).

Entomologist Ian Robertson,, of Boise State University, does the “Gnat Dance” with host Jeff Rice and an outdoor chorale performance for insects.

And special thanks to Dr. Hayward Spangler of the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tucson for braving bugs between his teeth while “Listening to Ants.”

This hour produced with support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

HV015- Father Figures

Kids playingHearing Voices from NPR®
015 Father Figures: For Father’s Day
Host: Jay Allison of Transom.org
Airs week of: 2012-06-13 (Originally: 2008-06-11)
Father Figures (54:00 mp3):

Paternal praise, pride, disappointment and love:

Scott Carrier gives his son Milo a “Ski Lesson.”

From Animals and Other Stories we hear “Reflections of Fathers,” aka, Bugs & Dads (producers: Jay Allison & Christina Egloff, music: Ben Verdery & Rie Schmidt).

Comic strip artist Lynda Barry wishes her divorced dad a “Happy Father’s Day.”

A doctor tells his daughter about her granddad in “StoryCorps Dr. William Weaver.”

“Grilling Me Softly” is how host Jay Allison describes his daughter’s questions about his love life.

Dan Robb’s family remembers the day “Dad’s Moving Out” (from Jay Allison’s Life Stories).

Doc Merrick” and daughter Viki go through some girl problems.

David Greenberger tells David Cobb’s story “Because of Dad” (music performed by Bangalore, composed by Phil Kaplan).

Deirdre Sullivan’s father advises “Always Go to the Funeral” (from This I Believe).

And Dave Masch wants to be “A Better Father” (produced by Viki Merrick).. Photo © Scott Carrrier.

HV013- Crossing Borders

Women with children crossing desertHearing Voices from NPR®
013 Crossing Borders: From Mexico to US
Host: Marcos Martinez of KUNM-Alberquerque
Airs week of: 2012-01-18 (Originally: 2008-05-28)

“Crossing Borders” (52:00 mp3):

A Tale of Two Countries:

In “Sasabe,” a Sonora, Mexico border town, Scott Carrier talks to immigrants on their hazardous, illegal desert crossing, and to the border patrol waiting for them in Sasabe, Arizona.

Luis Alberto Urrea reads from his books Vatos and The Devil’s Highway, about death in the desert.

Guillermo Gómez-Peña imagines “Maquiladoras of the Future,” fantasy border factories.

“And I walked…”, by Ann Heppermann and Kara Oehler, is a sound-portrait of Mexicans who risk their lives to find better-paying jobs in the United States.

And sounds from the Quiet American’s one-minute vacation.

Photos © 2004 Julián Cardona from Sasabe, Sonora, Mexico :