HV Episodes
Hearing Voices from NPR weekly hours 2010 | 2009 | 2008
Coming
2010-03-31 088 Scene of the Crime: Victims, Cops, and Criminals
There will be blood: An archival interview with 1950s NYC crime scene photographer, Weegee; then excerpts from old time radio’s “Casey, Crime Photographer” and “Dragnet.” Nancy Updike of This American Life spends the day with professional “Crime Scene Cleaners.” A sound-portrait of a convicted “White Collar Criminal,” by Adam Allington. And host Jake Warga does a good deed, for which he ends up assaulted, bleeding, and hospitalized.
2010-03-24 087 Thumb and Thumber: The Joy of Hitchhiking
Is hitchhiking the great American adventure sport or just a risky last resort for folks who can’t come up with bus fare? Producer Jonathan Mitchell offers a “Beginner’s Guide to Hitchhiking”. Scott Carrier relates a hitchhiking adventure involving “New Shoes” and a letter to the Dalai Lama. And host Larry Massett drives a battered Olds 88 from New Mexico to Florida, picking up every hitchhiker on “The Road” he sees — no matter how dangerous-looking.
2010-03-17 037 Prison: Life Behind Bars
John Mills is “Doing Time” and Sergeant Furman Camel is “Serving 9 to 5;” two Prison Dairies from an inmate and a guard at Polk Youth Institution, North Carolina. (John Mills is out now and co-hosts our hour with Prison Dairies producer Joe Richman.) Voices and sounds of youth in “Lockdown!” at Utah’s Washington County Crisis Center, a techno tone poem by composer Phillip Kent Bimstein. Payton Smith calls her mom in prison to discuss “Not All Bad Things,” produced by Chana Joffe-Walt and Transom. And “Tossing Away the Keys” at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola Prison, is stories of lifers from Sound Portraits.
2010-03-10 086 WHER: All Girl Radio
The first all-girl radio station in the nation, WHER-Memphis, went on-air in 1955. It was the brainchild of sound legend Sam Phillips, who created the groundbreaking format with money he raised from selling Elvis Presley’s Sun Studios contract. Women almost exclusively ran the stations. They read the news, interviewed local celebrities, and spun popular records. They sold and produced commercials, directed and engineered programming, and sat at the station’s control boards. “WHER: 1000 Beautiful Watts” was produced by the Kitchen Sisters for their Lost and Found Sound series.
2010-03-03 023 This is Insanity: Disturbed Mental States
Disturbed Mental States: “This is Insane,” says William S Burroughs to the music of Disposable Heroes of Hiphopcracy. An anonymous reporter describes his “Electroshock.” The Avalanches mashup a “Frontier Psychiatrist.” Host Scott Carrier takes “The Test” for schizophrenia. Joe Frank is pathologically challenged by time. And Sound Portraits helps Howard Dully recount “My Lobotomy,” documenting the experimental procedure of “ice pick” surgery.
February
2010-03-24 085 Protest: From the National Mall to Town Halls
We hear crowds and confrontations at the “Town Halls 2009″ collective cross-country chaos. “Protest 1968-2008″ is four decades of marches and musics, montaged by Ann Heppermann and Kara Oehler. Scott Carrier introduces a junta-threatening Burmese rock band, Iron Cross. Tea Partiers and single-payer proponents shout outside a Presidential health care whistle stop; there’s debate, division and a “Day of Democracy”. NPR’s Jeff Kamen takes to the DC streets amid a police crackdown on an anti-war rally — from ATC’s first broadcast day (May 1971). Listen…
2010-02-17 084 Place Your Bets: What Happens in Vegas
We play keno, cards, and craps in Sin City: Scott Carrier stays up all night in America’s gambling Mecca: “Vegas”, baby. “Casino Suite” is three pieces for strings, winds, and Vegas dice table worker, composed by Phillip Kent Bimstein. Jazz bassist Kelly Roberti lost his bass to the “Keno Machines”. NPR host Alex Chadwick pits his wits against the casino regular playing “Poker at the Ox”. Joe Frank’s “Old Gambler” gets on the wrong side of Sin City’s collection crew. And playwright John Ridley’s “Lock It Up” is set inside the Hollywood Park Casino, which is neither in Hollywood nor a park. Listen…
2010-02-10 046 All Happy Families: Love and Loss
Tolstoy wrote, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” But sometimes it’s hard to tell who is and isn’t happy: After decades together, the Nadeaus find their husband/father is a “Crossdressing Family Man” (told by family friend Eric Winick). “After the Forgetting” (produced by Erica Heilman) is an evolution of relationships revealed in conversations between Greg Sharrow, his mother Marjorie, and Greg’s husband Bob Hooker, as Marjorie’s dementia progresses. Steve Fugate roams the roads of America, walking thousands of miles with a sign stuck over his middle-aged head that reads “Love Life” — because of what happened to his son (produced by Larry Massett). Listen…
2010-02-03 047 Snow and Ice: Winter Weather Advisory
Gliding, sliding, and speed: NPR’s Alex Chadwick invites America to share their stories of Flexible Flyers and downhill runs in this cross-USA audio “Sledding Party” (produced by Katie Davis). Seven skiers go into the back-country, only six return in this “Avalanche” survivors’ story (told to producer Scott Carrier). And host Barrett Golding documents a training day in the life of three women “Olympic Speed-Skaters.” Listen…
January 2010
2010-01-27 083 Shortcuts- 21st Century III: The First Decade
The final part of our three hour-long retrospective of the 21st Century’s first decade. A sonic survey of Christ’s passion, planetary climate change, presidential contenders, Ponzi schemes, collapsing economies, and all the stories and celebs of 2006-2009. (Produced by Peter Bochan of All Mixed Up, WBAI-NYC and WPKN-Bridgeport CT.) Listen…
2010-01-20 082 Shortcuts- 21st Century II: The First Decade
The second of our three hour-long retrospective of the Aughties. The Iraq war, the missing WMDs, the Indian Ocean tsunami, the Katrina flood, and sounds, speeches and songs from 2003 thru 2005. (Produced by Peter Bochan of All Mixed Up, WBAI-NYC and WPKN-Bridgeport CT.) Listen…
2010-01-13 081 Shortcuts- 21st Century I: The First Decade
The first of a three hour-long retrospective of the first decade, of the century, of the millennium. Beginning with the 2000 election and recounts, from Bush, Gore, Bill and Hill; thru 911, Homeland Security, and Afghanistan. A survey of selected speech, song, and soundbites from 2000 thru 2002. (Produced by Peter Bochan of All Mixed Up, WBAI-NYC and WPKN-Bridgeport CT.) Listen…
2010-01-06 080 Elvis Aaron Presley: Birthday Party
Elvis Presley (Jan 8 1935 – Aug 16 1977), a 75th Birthday Party: Long Haul Productions rides the bus to Graceland, talking to the EP pilgrims. Producer Adam Allington rides along with a policeman and Elvis impersonator. The Residents storytell the allegorical “Baby King.” Knonos Quartet performs “Elvis Everywhere”. Gillian Welch expounds her biographical song “Elvis Presley Blues”. Go Home Productions mashes up a “Strung-Out King” on-stage meltdown. And from Joyride Media & Sony’s Elvis 75 project, we hear Elvis’ friends and bandmates recall his righteous faith in both religion and rockin’. Listen…
