World Clock from Poodwaddle.com.

You don’t want to think about prostate problems. What man over 50 would? Jeff Metcalf certainly didn’t; until the diagnoses in 2004: prostate cancer. That’s when Metcalf, an English professor at the University of Utah, began keeping a journal. His diaries open as a play this summer.

Here’s the HV radio version, written by Jeff Metcalf, performed by Paul Kiernan, recorded by Scott Carrier, produced by Larry Massett, music by Parazitii, “A Slight Discomfort: My Prostate Diaries” (53:00 mp3):

Jeff has assembled info & links on our Prostate Diaries page.

Host Doug Fabrizio of KUER-SLC Radio West debuted excerpts today from our upcoming HV hour “A Slight Discomfort - My Prostate Diaries.”

SALT LAKE CITY, UT (2008-05-20) Jeff Metcalf is a writer, so when he discovered he had prostate cancer, that’s how he worked his way through the experience. He set about organizing a clear story out of the more abstract jumble of desperation, humiliation and revelation. Today on RadioWest, we’re playing excerpts from the latest incarnation of Jeff’s story – it’s a piece of radio theater. Jeff will join us to talk about the piece.

“Radio West: A Slight Discomfort” (52:19 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

Two old friends Cedric Chambers and John Gallagher have been caring for each other into old age. After John’s wife passed away and his children moved across the country, John turned to Cedric when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Together they face the end of his life. Produced by Jen Nathan for the SALT. Broadcast today on NPR Day to Day, “A Square Meal, Regardless” (7:20 mp3):

It’s already had 1.7M views and was the YouTube 2007 Best Short Film, but I hadn’t seen it so maybe you haven’t either. If you know someone who has… well, you’ll see, “My Name is Lisa:”

Hearing Voices from NPR®:
002 Visiting Hours— In Hospital
Host— Ceil Muller of KQED Public Radio
Airdates— 2008.03.12-19

“The Kiss and the Dying” is host Ceil Muller’s (of KQED) etiquette list for those who may be dying, and for the soon-to-be survivors. “Fire and Ice Cream” is from Brent Runyan’s book “The Burn Journals,” and Jay Allison’s Life Stories radio series. Brent’s nurse in the burn unit asks the 14-year-old out for ice cream… and a date? In “Our Father” Brian Brophy documents his dad’s passing, with recordings of his family, the chaplain, the hospital and hospice staff, and the wake. Carmen Delzell helps heal her “Grandmother’s Hip.” And Nancy Updike watches patients pass the time with TV in “Channeling Health.”

Music by Pete Fountain, Brave Old World, Peter Ostroushko, Jimmy Smith, and Rotterdam Ska Jazz Foundation.

Visiting Hours (54:00 mp3):