Radio Diaries

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Guest Spotlight: Buffalo Extreme May 12, 2023

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This week we’re featuring a story from NPR’s Embedded podcast. It’s the first episode in a new series called Buffalo Extreme, which follows a cheer team from Buffalo, New York, during the year after a racist mass shooting in their neighborhood.

On May 14, 2022, the world changed for residents of Buffalo when a white man approached the Jefferson Street Tops supermarket and started shooting. He murdered ten and injured three people, almost all Black. That day, teenagers and children from a Black cheer team called BASE were at their gym around the corner. “Buffalo Extreme” is their story: a 3-part series that hands the mic to the girls, their moms, and their coaches as they navigate the complicated path to recovery.

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The Gospel Ranger Apr 25, 2023

Show notes

This is the story of a song, “Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down.” It was written by a 12-year-old boy on what was supposed to be his deathbed. But the boy didn’t die. Instead, he went on to become a Pentecostal preacher, and later helped inspire the birth of Rock & Roll.

The boy’s name was Brother Claude Ely, and he was known as The Gospel Ranger.

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The Longest Game Apr 17, 2023

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In the spring of 1981, the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings met for a minor league baseball game of little importance. But over the course of 33 innings – 8 hours and 25 minutes – the game made history. It was the longest professional baseball game ever played. This is an excerpt of a story in collaboration with ESPN's 30 for 30.

If you liked this episode, vote for us in the Webby Awards! The Webby’s celebrate the best of the internet, andThe Longest Game has been nominated for Best Documentary. You can vote at https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2023/podcasts/individual-episodes/documentary.

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Meet Miss Subways Mar 30, 2023

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Beauty pageants promote the fantasy of the ideal woman. But for 35 years, one contest in New York City celebrated the everyday working girl.

Each month starting in 1941, a young woman was elected “Miss Subways,” and her face gazed down on transit riders as they rode through the city. Her photo was accompanied by a short bio describing her hopes, dreams and aspirations. The public got to choose the winners – so Miss Subway represented the perfect New York miss. She was also a barometer of changing times.

Miss Subways was one of the first integrated beauty pageants in America. An African-American Miss Subways was selected in 1948 – more than thirty years before there was a black Miss America. By the 1950s, there were Miss Subways who were black, Asian, Jewish, and Hispanic – the faces of New York’s female commuters.

In this episode of the Radio Diaries Podcast, meet the Miss Subways. This episode originally aired on NPR in 2012.

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The Ski Troops of WWII Mar 16, 2023

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This week we’re bringing you a story about the 10th Mountain Division, a World War II military experiment to train skiers and climbers to fight in the mountains. The men of the 10th led a series of daring assaults against the German army in the mountains of Italy. Though the division fought in WWII for only four months, it had one of the highest casualty rates of the war.

After they returned home, many of the soldiers helped to create the modern ski industry.

This story originally aired on NPR’s All Things Considered in 2007.

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Sofia's Choice: A Ukrainian Diary, One Year Later Mar 06, 2023

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Sofia Bretl has lived in New York City for the last decade. But she was born and raised in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, about 25 miles from the Russian border. The city has received some of the worst shelling so far in the war. That’s where her mother lived when war broke out. As conditions in Kharkiv worsened, they faced a difficult choice.
Music in today’s episode includes the Ukrainian band Dakha Brakha — playing at San Francisco Jazz Center on March 14th. Proceeds and donations go to organizations supporting Ukraine. Other music from Blue Dot Sessions and Dakh Daughters.

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Living with Dying Feb 13, 2023

Show notes

On Valentine’s Day 2020, Peter Fodera’s heart broke. It stopped working. He collapsed in the middle of teaching a dance class. Someone performed CPR, someone called an ambulance. EMT’s showed up and he lay motionless. Many people in the class thought they had just witnessed the death of their favorite teacher. But later at the hospital, Peter’s heart started beating again. On the anniversary of Peter’s brush with death, he sat down with his daughter Juliana who has Noonan Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder. While Peter’s experience may seem miraculous to some of us, it doesn’t to Juliana. By her count, she’s died 21 times.

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Music this week from Podington Bear, Blue Dot Sessions, Man Man, and Gotan Project.

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The Rise and Fall of Black Swan Records Feb 03, 2023

Show notes

In 1921, a man named Harry Pace started the first major Black-owned record company in the United States. He called it Black Swan Records.

In an era when few Black musicians were recorded, the company was revolutionary. It launched the careers of Ethel Waters, Fletcher Henderson, William Grant Still, Alberta Hunter, and other influential artists who transformed American music.

But Black Swan’s success would be short-lived. Just a couple years after Pace founded the company, larger, wealthier, white competitors started to take an interest in the artists whose careers Pace had propelled. Then, Pace’s own life took a mysterious turn.

This episode originally aired on NPR’s All Things Considered in 2021.

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The Real Refugees of Casablanca Jan 23, 2023

Show notes

It’s been 80 years since the release of the Hollywood classic, Casablanca. When the film opened in 1943—just a year after the U.S. joined World War II—audiences were thrilled by its love story. Humphrey Bogart stars as the cynical owner of Rick’s Café, a nightclub in Morocco. Ingrid Bergman plays his old flame Ilsa, who’s married to a dashing Resistance leader hunted by the Nazis.

Many of the characters at Rick’s Café are European refugees trying to make their way to America. What most viewers didn’t know is that those characters were played by actors who themselves had recently fled the Nazis. This casting choice lent the film an authenticity that helped deliver its message: that a war far from our borders was a war worth waging.

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The History Of Now Dec 16, 2022

Show notes

One of the questions we often ask ourselves is: How can we produce stories about history that can air alongside the news of today? In 2022, answering that question was easy.

In this year-end episode, we’re taking a look back at some of our favorite stories from the past year.

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