Category: Adair, Ben/Archives

HV076- Small Town

Hearing Voices from NPR®
076 Small Town: Rural Routes
Host: Larry Massett of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2009-11-03 (Originally: 2009-11-11)

“Small Town” (52:00 mp3):

Spending time in some shrinking American townships:

The postmistress of describes her Mississippi River community’s dwindling population. Music: Larry Massett.

Four former Massachusetts municipalities were flooded to make room for a reservoir. But the villages live on in the former residents’ minds. A ShortDocs winner, from Third Coast Festival.

This town in California never did exist, though it’s full of folk who live there: an unofficial RV Park and home to the homeless thrives in culture and community.

Little Talcott, West Virginia has a big claim to fame: It’s home to a famous story and song.

Slab City photo © DesertDutch.org.

HV066- Desert Air

Hearing Voices from NPR®
066 Desert Air: Audio from the Arid Regions
Host: Ben Adair of American Public Media
Airs week of: 2011-09-28 (Originally: 2009-08-05)

“Desert Air” (52:00 mp3):

Hot & dry stories and soundscapes (see Dave’s Deserts for photos from the American West):

Coyotes, owls, frogs and songbirds are part of Desert Solitudes, recorded by Bernie Krause and Ruth Happel in the Sonoran and Chihuauan deserts, part of New Mexico’s panhandle.

Host Ben Adair heads down to the ghost towns, Opera Houses, century-old abandoned mines, and billion-year old boulders along Death Valley’s “Mojave Road.”

Kraut-rockers Faust dial in “Long Distance Calls in the Desert,” from their album Rien.

The Quiet American (Aaron Ximm) sound-captures the forbidding warning signs rattling in a harsh wind and “Desert Sun” outside the nuclear Nevada Test Site north of Las Vegas.

Back in the early 1990s, SLC producer Scott Carrier found the Basin & Range, near Nevada”s “Battle Mountain,” beautiful, lonely, dreary, and full of sagebrush, solace and stories. And more Desert Solitudes.

Desert Gallery

Photos by David Matherly’s of deserts in the American West:

Sand Dunes in Death Valley, California (© Dave Matherly)

Death Valley sand dunes in California (© Dave Matherly)

Arches in the Utah Desert (© Dave Matherly)

Century plant, Mojave Desert in California (© Dave Matherly)

Fly Geyser, Black Rock Desert in Nevada (© Dave Matherly)

The Joshua tree, a conspicuous inhabitant of the Mojave Desert

Joshua tree, Mojave Desert in Nevada (© Dave Matherly)

Native California Fan Palm oasis, native to California found in Borrego Palm Canyon in Anza Borrego State Park

Mojave Desert in Nevada (© Dave Matherly)

Ocotillo in bloom, Sonoran Desert in Arizona (© Dave Matherly)

Prickly Pear cactus, Great Basin Desert in Nevada (© Dave Matherly)

Indian Paintbrush in sage (Great Basin Desert, Nevada), one of the first desert wildflowers to bloom (© Dave Matherly)

Teddy Bear Cholla cactus, Sonoran Desert in Nevada (© Dave Matherly)

Yuccas just west of Las Vegas, Mt. Charleston (11,918 feet), the highest in the Spring Mountains (© Dave Matherly)

Great Basin Desert in Nevada (© Dave Matherly)

HV058- Motherly Love

Hearing Voices from NPR®
058 Motherly Love: Moms, Young and Old
Host: Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2011-05-04 (Originally: 2009-05-06)

“Motherly Love” (52:00 mp3):

For Mother’s Day:

Muriel & Walter Murch compose “A Mother’s Symphony” from womb sounds.

In 1996 Radio Diaries producer Joe Richman gave “Melissa Rodriguez from New Haven: Teen Mom” a microphone and tape recorder. Melissa was 18 and pregnant. Joe asked her to make an audio journal of her life, for the series Teenage Diaries.

Amy Jo, single mother of two toddlers, is “Surrounded by Lights,” by producer Erin Mishkin of Public Radio Redux and SALT Institute for Documentary Studies.

Myra Dean tells StoryCorps of the day her son was killed by a reckless driver.

Ben Adair takes his mom in search of her mom and “Family Baggage.” Ben heads American Public Media‘s Sustainability and Global Climate Change Reporting Initiative.

Katie Davis admits “I Live with My Mother,” part of her DC Neighborhood Stories.

Toronto musician Charles Spearin with his neighbor “Mrs. Morris,” from The Happiness Project.

Seattle producer Jake Warga‘s “Far Side” calendars make metaphor and memories of his mother’s life and death.

And HV wishes all moms, especially ours, a happy Mother’s Day.

Natural Sound

Ben Adair has unearthed a treasure trove of online audio at his new Natural Sound site. It’s an audio archive, blog, and podcast featuring works by dozens of producers on the several series Ben has helmed, the dearly departed Pacific Drift & Savvy Traveler, and the still-going-strong Weekend America.

Ben posted every piece from PacDrift’s two seasons and 26 episodes. This one’s by Ben himself, from Pacific Drift 03: The Markings of Culture, correctional officer “D.J. Vodicka Takes on the Most Dangerous Prison Gang of All” (7:56 mp3):

And do check Ben and wife Shoshanna’s new baby pix.

HV018- Flags and Fireworks

Hearing Voices from NPR®
018 Flags and Fireworks: For Fourth of July
Host: Larry Massett of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2012-06-27 (Originally: 2008-07-02)

“Stars and Bars” (52:00 mp3):

Celebrating America with Festivals and Flames, featuring:

Recitations and reflections on “The Pledge” of Allegiance” and “War vs. Peace” (by Joe Frank).

The annual “Rainbow Family” migration into the Montana forest on July Fourth — their day of prayer for peace (produced by Barrett Golding, photos by Chad Harder).

A town that covets their title of the “Armpit of America” — host Larry Massett welcomes you to Battle Mountain, Nevada.

Mississippi moonshine, barbecued goat and old-time Fife & Drum at “Otha Turner’s Afrosippi Picnic” with producer Ben Adair.