Hearing Voices from NPR®:
020 The Old Country— The Homeland
Host— Neenah Ellis of If I Live to Be 100
Airdates— 7/16/2008 - 7/23/2008

Three hearts searching for home: Going back to Vietnam makes Nguyen Qui Duc realize “Home is Always Somewhere Else,” from Crossing East; host Neenah Ellis goes looking for her family in Croatia, where “The Old Country is Gone.” And Andrei Codrescu returns to his Romanian home town and stares into the “Eyes of Sibiu.”

The Old Country (53:00 mp3):

Hearing Voices from NPR®:
017 No Place Like Home— Shifts in Time and Towns
Host— Scott Carrier of Hearing Voices
Airdates— 6/25/2008 - 7/2/2008

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.

No Place Like Home (53:00 mp3):

Father and son spend a week together traveling and hiking America’s Grand Canyon. Aired on NPR Day to Day; by producer Scott Carrier, “Walking Grand Canyon” (4:07 mp3):

HV015- Father Figures
Hearing Voices from NPR®:
015 Father Figures— For Father’s Day
Host— Jay Allison of This I Believe
Airdates— 6/11/2008 - 6/18/2008

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 “Story Corps- 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.

Father Figures (54:00 mp3):

Hearing Voices from NPR®:
010 All Mom Radio— For Mother’s Day
Host— of Hearing Voices
Airdates— 5/7/2008 - 5/14/2008

For Mother’s Day, maternal tales from producers around the country: “Travels with Mom” follows Larry Massett and his mother to the Tybee Island, Georgia of today and of the 1920’s, as recalled by Mrs. Massett. Writer Beverly Donofrio joins her mom for “Thursday Night Bingo,” produced by Dave Isay of Sound Portraits. In Nancy Updike’s “Mubarak and Margy,” a gay man returns home to care for his mom, and to the “cure” his family plans for his homosexuality. And comedian Amy Borkowsky shares her hilarious phone “Messages from Mom.”

All Mom Radio (53:00 mp3):

A day-in-the-life of Rabbi Arik Ascherman with Rabbis for Human Rights in Jerusalem. He interacts with Arabs and Jews, and intercedes when he can during Palestinian home demolitions. He looks for common ground amongst the the rubble and rocks, the M-16s and tanks, and the two religions that started as one. (Photos by Jake Warga.)

Aired on PRI The World; by producer Jake Warga, “Rabbi for Human Rights, Israel” (6:57 mp3):

Here’s another entry in our What NPR Was category: In the late 70s & early 80s Keith Talbot produced several series for NPR; among them was The Radio Experience. One episode, “Death in Venice” by Larry Massett, was mainly interviews with Venice FL retirees.

The half-hour is like a swim in the ocean, soothing, stimulating, but watch for the rocks and rip tides — it pulls you in. The piece told us then what non-fiction creative radio could be. Almost thirty years later, it still does.

Larry Massett wrote the narration, produced, and played his original music; Joe Frank narrated. From June 1981, “Death in Venice” (29:01 mp3):

Larry sez:

“I had no idea what was doing. And so I didn’t have any questions for anybody. I just stood on the beach in Venice with a microphone. If anybody asked I just said I was recording.

All I knew was is it was a retirement area, and there were a lot of fossils on the beach. Certain people saw the mic and came up and started talking. It was only after I got home and started to paw thru the tape that I realized what they had chose to talk about was the love of their life.”

The piece will be in an upcoming HV hour on Memory. Another Massett/Talbot experience, “Ocean Hour,” is up at Third Coast (with an KeithT interview on the NPR days of yore).

Concord Monitor photojournalist Preston Gannaway won a Pulitzer for her shots in a series of articles which “chronicle the death of Carolynne St. Pierre, a Concord NH woman who wanted to leave her children with a record of her final months.” The online version is this beautiful photo-audio slideshow called “Remember Me.”

via Bill Slammon- WVEW