Shortlists
05/2007

Shortlist of Shortlists

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About "Shortlists"

A Short List is made from your experience or research or daily life. You read it out loud for about 60 seconds and then tell us at the end what the list WAS. It's a story, with the title at the end. It might be funny, poetic, political... you decide. The grace of these bits is in the mystery.

A while back we initiated the Short List project with the WCAI, the public radio service on the Cape & Islands, and NPR's Day to Day. We asked people to send in contributions. Radio producers made elegant produced pieces with nice clear sound. Regular people just called the WCAI listener line and started talking when they heard the beep.

Our series was inspired by Monika Mueller's lists on Transom and by this "Sonic ID" from Chelsea Merz for WCAI.

The lists are alphabetical below by the list-maker's name. Unfortunately, we can't attach titles because it gives it all away. Click on a name to hear a shortlist.

If you're inspired to send in some of your own, it's not too late. The best way is to create a high quality audio file, post it on the web, then email us (info@transom.org) the URL. To learn how to create such audio and such files, look at the TOOLS section of Transom. It's all there. If you're a radio producer-type, as are many who visit Transom, feel free to produce your piece with music or sounds. If none of this is possible for you, you can phone it in. Call 1-866-TRANSOM (866-872-6766). Be sure to leave your name and a call-back number or email. Or, you can mail us your list on CD or other media at the address below.

Hans Anderson is a Internet programmer and hobbyist audio producer. He enjoys creating overly-produced, off-the-cuff short audio stories.

Krissy Clark is currently a staff reporter and editor for the public radio show Weekend America from American Public Media.

Sean Cole is a reporter for Weekend America and Marketplace. He is also the author of this bio and many others.

Beth Dunn phoned her shortlist in to WCAI.

Dan Gartzke practices law with his wife, Tracey Schwalbe, in Madison and New Glarus, Wisconsin. They have three children - Julia, Mara and David.

Melissa Harold phoned her shortlist in to WCAI.

Viki Merrick is an independent producer/editor for Transom.org, Atlantic Public Media and WCAI: the Cape and Islands NPR station. She is currently the Senior Editor for This I Believe.

Chelsea Merz is a producer for the new public radio show Open Source. Prior to that she worked at Atlantic Public Media/ Transom.org for nearly four years.

Monika Mueller is an independent producer who lives in Berlin, Germany.

Sarah Peters is a sculptor specializing in bronze public works, Sarah Peters Sculpture. She lives in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

Marianne Rahn-Erickson is a storyteller born in Brooklyn in another century. She lives on her precious ramshackle farm in Very Upstate New York. As a Mother-In-Pursuit-of-an-Honest-Living, she does freelance writing and audio production.

Benjamen Walker is the creator and host of the weekly radio program/podcast called Theory of Everything, which has aired on public radio stations around the country and was the first weekly public radio program to start podcasting. The list is from Kitchen Sister, Davia Nelson, of San Francisco.

Sarah Yahm is a graduate student in the new Social Documentation program at the University of California at Santa Cruz. In addition to making shortlists she's working on a radio documentary about a former insane asylum in rural New England.