Category: Allison, Jay/Archives

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

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.

HV021- Tony Schwartz

Tony Schwartz recording childrenHearing Voices from NPR®
021 Tony Schwartz: Documenting Life in Sound
Host: Barrett Golding & Kitchen Sisters of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2009-10-07 (Originally: 2008-07-23)

“Tony Schwartz” (52:00 mp3):

Tony Schwartz, media pioneer, audio documentarian, and the most famous radio person you probably never heard of, died June 2008. We hear:

The Kitchen Sisters‘ Lost & Found Sound-portrait, “Tony Schwartz, 30,000 Recordings Later.”

And the Tony Schwartz-inspired verite documentary of the town he lived in and loved, “New York City: 24 Hours in Public Places” (thanks to Transom.org).

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.

HV009- Shoah

Hearing Voices from NPR®:
009 Shoah— For Holocaust Remembrance Day
Host— Rabbi Samuel Cohon of Temple Emanuel, Tucson
Airdates— 4/30/2008 – 5/7/2008

Shoah (53:00 mp3):

Men in campsRabbi Samuel Cohon of Too Jewish Radio, presents stories of survivors, for Holocaust Remembrance Day:

In “Descended from the Holocaust” Dr. Alan Berkenwald records his trip with his parents to the Holocaust Museum — it was first time they talked openly about their experience in the concentration camps; this audio diary is of Jay Allison’s Life Stories.

“Yom Hashoah 1994” is Shoah services in Billings MT and Cleveland OH, survivor interviews, and the story of the Billings communities united “Not in Our Town” response that stopped a series of anti-Jewish crimes. The Rhino Records documentary project “Voices of the Shoah: Remembrances of the Holocaust” is drawn from interviews with 180 survivors.

Also survivors sing Hebrew, for the first time in years, in a live May 1945 BBC report by Patrick Gordon Walker from the just liberated “Belsen Concentration Camp.”

HV002- Visiting Hours

Hospital bedHearing Voices from NPR®:
002 Visiting Hours— In Hospital
Host— Ceil Muller of KQED Public Radio
Airs week of— 2009-03-11 (Originally: 2008-03-12)

Visiting Hours (52:00 mp3):

“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.