Transom

Jennie’s Secret

Robert DeBenedictis — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:58:20 +0000

For Memorial Day, Transom is featuring an unusual veteran's story. "Jennie's Secret" is about a woman who posed as a man during the Civil War and went on to live most of her life as a man in the tiny town of Saunemin, Illinois. Over the years the town has been ambivalent about their most famous citizen and is struggling to figure out how to honor the memory of Jennie Hodgers/Albert Cashier. Producer Linda Paul became "obsessed" with this story and tracked down all sorts of interesting people to talk to. It's the kind of piece that was once easy to place in a public radio magazine show, but it's eighteen minutes long and it's not news. That makes it an orphan these days. It's worth pondering what we should do with stories like this--when an obsessed producer and a fascinating story converge, and the story isn't news and doesn't fit the mold.

Prostate Diaries

sam — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:53:20 +0000

If this piece were about blood or bones or lungs, it would have aired on NPR. But because it is about the prostate, and includes a talking penis, it presented problems for broadcast. There’s no equal time for body parts. Barrett Golding of HearingVoices asked us if we at Transom would be interested. Yes. Cancer is cancer and it makes sense to talk about it openly and personally, wherever in the body it occurs. The piece also presents complex challenges of interest to radio producers. It is based on a stage presentation written by the patient himself, Jeff Metcalf, and performed by Paul Kiernan. It was recorded and produced for radio by the estimable Scott Carrier and Larry Massett. They are present on Transom to talk about this work, its style and content.

Killer Whales

sam — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:15:20 +0000

Ari Daniel Shapiro is following that well-worn career path from Killer Whale Biologist to Public Radio Producer. This piece is an homage to his former profession--a gentle paean to the passion field biologists feel for their work, and, in this case, for whales. It also confronts the quandary that plagues both journalists and biologists: What if your quarry doesn't show up? How do you still tell its story? Ari has been working with us at Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, and we're also featuring a bunch of the "Science Minutes" he's made, and an amazing ninety-second video tribute to cell division, with an unexpected musical soundtrack.

After The Forgetting

sam — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:23:26 +0000

This is a delicate story about love and dementia. It weaves memory and moments through the intertwined lives of Greg Sharrow, his mother Marj, and his husband Bob. And, if you’re wrestling with a tricky emotional story, producer Erica Heilman has written usefully on Transom about the process of making this meditation. As she says, she wanted to “offer people a picture of how one family is managing dementia in a really graceful, loving way. I wanted to achieve this without ever using words like ‘loving’ or ‘graceful’."

Curtis Fox

syd — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:25:25 +0000

Curtis Fox produces podcasts for The New Yorker, The Poetry Foundation, Parents Magazine and others. He got his start in public radio and it still resonates in what he does. In this issue of The Transom Review, Curtis lays out his podcast philosophy, plays samples, and answers all sorts of practical questions too. Come download the PDF of Curtis’s dispatch from this edge of the multi-dimensional new world of audio distribution.

Love & Radio

sam — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:18:35 +0000

Somewhere between NPR and a shockumentary special on Fox is alt.NPR’s Love & Radio–a surreal journey into a confusing world of ex-lovers, ex-cult members, and fruit. Lots of fruit. Love & Radio is what Ira Glass might make if he showed up to work drunk.

Dial-A-Stranger

sam — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:50:13 +0000

Dial-A-Stranger takes questions from random strangers (like you), and poses them to other strangers (like you) on the telephone. It’s a source of communication, assistance and entertainment. It is a community project, an anthology, and a hobby.

Studs Terkel 1912-2008

sam — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:35:51 +0000

Transom is again featuring Studs Terkel's Manifesto from 2001, his conversation with Sydney Lewis on radio, improvisation, fireside chats, ineptitude, jazz, Vox Humana, and dozens of other notions his mind leapt to.

Studs remains an inspiration to us--always listening, sending out stories.

When asked what his ideal broadcast day would be, he said, "I'd want the human voice. Expressing grievances, or delight, or whatever it might be. But something real." Something Real.

Frickin Circus

sam — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:26:20 +0000

Part audio blog, part travel show, and part behind-the-scenes at the circus.

Fake City, Real Dreams

sam — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:40:34 +0000

Zak Rosen is a radio producer. Neil Greenberg is a map-maker. They're both from Detroit, but their hearts are in a different city, a city they think is possible--at least in the imagination and maybe in reality.

The radio piece they made together treats this place as if it were real. It is a creative exercise that hints at a plausible future. Fake City, Real Dreams is unlike any "arts feature" you've heard before.

How Are You Who You Are?

sam — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:32:23 +0000

The Nadeaus were, to most eyes, an ideal family--enlightened, brilliant, prosperous. But then things turned upsidedown. In a remarkable series of events, Doug and Lynn Nadeau were forced to re-define their identities, to confirm the foundation of their love.

Creature Comforts

sam — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:46:13 +0000

In case you haven't seen them already, we thought we'd post these animation gems. They are the work of our current Guests - the team behind Creature Comforts. All the voices come from interviews with real people. Watch. Enjoy. And then come join the conversation at Transom.org.

Creature Comforts

sam — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:18:34 +0000

Creature Comforts part 2 (interview with Transom)

sam — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:25:36 +0000

Transom is proud to welcome the creative team behind our favorite animated series, Creature Comforts. If you haven't seen it, get thee quickly to their Transom pages and catch up. This series comes from Aardman Animation in England (home of Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, etc.), and is inhabited by claymation animals whose identities are derived from audio interviews with real people. There's a kinship between radio and animation, because we all imagine the source of voices we hear, and if our imaginations are free-ranging and whimsical, the voices might look like this.

Kit Boss, Richard "Golly" Goleszowski, and Dan Sinclair talk to Transom's Samantha Broun. The conversation is transcribed, illustrated with audio/video, and is downloadable in MP3. There's also a "Making Of" video, and all sorts of background and technique, including interviewing. And you can ask questions. This is good stuff. You'll like it.

Creature Comforts (interview with Transom)

sam — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:44:29 +0000

Running From Myself

sam — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 14:25:34 +0000

There's something about Louis' voice; it's both wise and callow. It feels like he has the answers while he's searching for them. Louis used to rob people on the street, but he stopped. Now, he's trying to reconcile the person he was with the person he is and wants to be. Louis worked with Anthony Mascorro at 826NYC to tell this powerful, complicated story. (By the way, it was nice for us to learn that Anthony acquired his editing chops at Transom.) We all hope you'll visit Transom to listen, and talk to Louis and Anthony about their piece.

An Evening of 75 Laughs with Jonathan Katz

sam — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:19:33 +0000

Transom wants talented people to try public radio. When we first featured Jonathan Katz's audio work, he was making funny little pieces in his attic studio. Then, we helped him produce a fake call-in show , with his friends--David Cross, Sarah Silverman, Al Franken, David Mamet, et. al.--playing the callers.

Now, we've produced a radio hour from Jonathan's stand-up performance at Jimmy Tingle's Off-Broadway Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It features Tom Snyder, Bill Braudis, Tom Leopold, H. Jon Benjamin and others. It also features lots of jokes about Multiple Sclerosis, a disease which Jonathan has had for many years. Don't worry, it's funny... funny enough that you didn't have to be there. Judge for yourself.

Voice of Youth: The Night I Met Cornel West

sam — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 16:58:42 +0000

In this piece Laquoia Simmons, a self described at risk teenager," meets and briefly interviews renowned academic and public intellectual Cornel West. In this insightful piece, Laquoia reflects on her trip to Sonoma State University, and discusses what it was like to be an 'at-risk' young woman meeting a writer who writes so much about the so-called 'at-risk' population. In this personal and intellectual piece, she talks about family, betrayal, humiliation, and inspiration.

Voice of Youth: This New Game

sam — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 23:40:00 +0000

This piece addresses the recent phenomenon of "cutting" from the inside perspective of a teenager, Amanda Wells, who believes that no one is really getting at the heart of the problem or explaining what it feels like to cut your own body. In this sound collage, she focuses on the fundamental urge to self-mutilate and what it would take for someone to stop, while hinting at some secrets from her own life.

Voice of Youth: Our Name is Rogelio Bautista

sam — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 23:55:30 +0000

A piece chronicling the life and death of 16 year old, Rogelio Bautista.

Twenty One

sam — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 18:18:38 +0000

"What would you do if somebody told you to make a movie about your life?"

The Tomato & the Big Apple

sam — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 00:43:21 +0000

This high-concept trip follows a tomato from Florida to New York... and, well, sort of back again.

“KROCK Lives!”

sam — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 23:53:10 +0000

Adventures in bad-ass commercial rock radio studios too early in the morning. Jen Trynin shares a day in the life of a would be up & coming pop star.

Girl Detectives

sam — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 02:06:44 +0000

Sue Mell is an artist and writer and she's also been a stand-up comedian. This is her first radio piece. It's not funny. It's about the aftermath of a friend's murder, and the desire for resolution.

Carrie’s Letters From Jail

sam — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 01:43:09 +0000

Producer Mark Moran created this audio portrait of Carrie, a repeat criminal offender and prison inmate - all through her own reflections and letters written to loved ones while behind bars.

Seafood Joint, Garbage & Stress Test

sam — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 00:53:00 +0000

When we first received Hans' work, the editors didn't know what to make of it. Once they figured it out, they decided he was brilliant and "dangerously ambiguous." Listen to this excerpt called "Stress Test."

Of a Piece

sam — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 01:07:50 +0000

How do you maintain family traditions, or build new ones, after a divorce? Would an 8,000-piece jigsaw puzzle help? Michelle Orange thinks so. In fact, she'd even go 12,500.

Jimmy and Jewel: A Love (?) Story

sam — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 01:40:51 +0000

At his grandfather's funeral, a woman he'd never met gave Jason Rayles a rose. In his first piece for radio, he tries to find out who this woman was... and a little more about his grandfather.

Buffalo Turkey Tail

sam — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 05:36:54 +0000

Andy Raskin left his CEO job at his dotcom, and began taking his chances on telling some radio stories. This was his first. It's about his friendship with an old man named Hollister, a street person who introduces Andy to the conceptual delicacy, Turkey Tail, as well as other lessons.

If You Were Thomas’ White Girlfriend

sam — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 02:30:56 +0000

This story is about Thomas William, a young Sudanese immigrant in Maine, and what it might be like if you were his white girlfriend. The producer Terry Farish, in a lovely use of the subjunctive, describes some possibilities for bridging culture, language and worlds. For July 4th, an immigrant perspective on growing up and discovering one's self in the strange new world that surrounds you.

The West Desert

sam — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 07:59:03 +0000

A revived piece by independent producer Scott Carrier about an area outside of Salt Lake City, Utah that, over time, has become a main dumping ground for toxic materials and other poisons. His stance on the issue, as you might expect from Scott, is not what you would expect.

Radio ~ Sound ~ Art

sam — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 06:34:29 +0000

Sound art, audio art, radio art... it's probably old stuff to the crowd reading this discussion board, but to most Americans, it's pure arcana. Joan Schuman made this short feature piece in 2001 celebrating and bemoaning the state of Sound Art. Does public radio have a role to play in bringing this work forward? Is our hearing ultimately unchallenged by what the radio gives us?

Knitting With Doghair

sam — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 03:05:23 +0000

This piece, from the wonderfully eccentric Australian producer Natalie Kestecher, made its American debut on Transom in July, 2002. It plays at the boundary of documentary and imagination. Your task: decide which is which, and if it matters.

The Imaginary Village

sam — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 04:33:04 +0000

This piece is a two-fer. Producer Sandy Tolan came to us with an idea, and we asked only that he try something he hadn't tried before: find a new way of telling, not to think of it as fitting in with existing styles. He teamed up with new producer Melissa Robbins (Salt Institute graduate) and the two of them built this piece about home and loss with a style somewhere between journalism and impressionism, with delicate treatment of that international radio impediment, translated interviews.

Deviation

sam — Tue, 24 May 2005 01:00:36 +0000

A piece recorded in the woods at the time of full moon, produced with a folding and unraveling technique, full of forward motion.

Darth Vader Impersonator Impersonator

sam — Tue, 17 May 2005 05:38:22 +0000

To commemorate the final(?) chapter of George Lucas' epic sci-fi adventure, Transom is proud to present "Darth Vader Impersonator Impersonator," a show from our 2002 archives that explores the true nature of the dark side, its power over 32 year old men living with mom -- and why being known as "The Master-Vader" may not command the fearful respect you seek.

Family Sentence

sam — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 05:38:02 +0000

"My dad spent 23 years in prison. He started off as a Cuban Revolutionary and later ended up a convicted felon in the United States. We only talked once in the last 16 years. Then, out of the blue I got an email from him. He wrote, 'I'm home. Your biological father, Hector.' "

Perfect Hearing

sam — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 04:18:07 +0000

Nubar Alexanian is a Documentary Photographer, but this story could not be told well in pictures. It's about impaired hearing. And acceptance, and love, and endurance, and other messages hidden beneath the surface.

Sweet Phil from Sugar Hill

sam — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 22:30:39 +0000

A refugee from the Dot-Com bust makes her debut in long form radio. Full of clever production, it is the story of a large, difficult and remarkable personality, Phyllis Fletcher's father, and it's told with great care and no blame.