Radio Diaries
Radio Diaries & RadiotopiaRadio Diaries
First-person diaries, sound portraits, and hidden chapters of history from Peabody Award-winning producer Joe Richman and the Radio Diaries team. From teenagers to octogenarians, prisoners to prison guards, bra saleswomen to lighthouse keepers. The extraordinary stories of ordinary life. Radio Diaries is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX. Learn more at radiotopia.fm
Copyright © 2017. All rights reserved.
First-person diaries, sound portraits, and hidden chapters of history from Peabody Award-winning producer Joe Richman and the Radio Diaries team. From teenagers to octogenarians, prisoners to prison guards, bra saleswomen to lighthouse keepers. The extraordinary stories of ordinary life. Radio Diaries is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX. Learn more at radiotopia.fm
Copyright © 2017. All rights reserved.
Bridgette McGee grew up knowing nothing about her grandfather, Willie McGee. Now she is on a quest to unearth everything she can about his life – and his death.
In the 1960s, Joe Pyne was "the ranking nuisance of broadcast" with a hit show broadcast to millions.
Elder Michaux was once "the best known colored man in America." But during the civil rights movement, his reputation took an unlikely turn.
Conspiracy theories are nothing new in American society. Back in the 1960s, an organization built a movement around them.
The story of a woman who was part of one of the largest migrations in American history.
A special, hour-long episode featuring four stories from our series The Unmarked Graveyard.
This month marks 30 years since Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first democratically elected president. But Mandela's journey from prison to presidency wasn't all that simple.
50 years ago, radio broadcaster Studs Terkel went around the country with a tape recorder, and asked people what they did for a living. The book, "Working," became an unexpected bestseller — but the recordings of these interviews went unheard for decades.
Paul Alexander, one of two people in the U.S. still relying on an iron lung to survive, died recently. Today, we revisit the stories of Paul Alexander and Martha Lillard.
We're revisiting one of our favorite stories from years ago — with a new twist. Laura Rothenberg lived with cystic fibrosis, and knew she would die young — she documented this in her audio diary 20 years ago. But that diary wasn't all she left behind.
In 1921, a man named Harry Pace started the first major Black-owned record company in the U.S., launching the careers of hitmakers like Ethel Waters. But then, Pace's own life took a mysterious turn.
The story of when invasive parakeets spread in New York City, and the government decided to kill them all. From Pushkin's The Last Archive.
Max Roach is considered one of the most important drummers in history. Sam Pollard and Ben Shapiro have a new, award-winning film about his life and music.
A behind the scenes look at The Unmarked Graveyard, as told by our producers and our story subjects — live from WNYC's Greene Space.
There are many photos from the day JFK was assassinated, but one image in particular resonated with people: a photo of a man jumping onto the presidential limousine.
A missing persons case that fell through the cracks of the NYPD, while a mother desperately searched for her son.
Hisako Hasegawa lived in a Manhattan hotel room for more than 40 years. It's also where she died.
Angel Irizarry is a former detective who has been trying to track down a missing member of his own family.
Dawn Powell was a well-known writer, admired by Ernest Hemmingway. Then her books — and body — disappeared.
Melinda Hunt has spent 30 years documenting Hart Island and advocating for families with loved ones buried there.
Annette Vega has been searching for her biological father for 30 years. That search is coming to the end.
Before Noah Creshevsky died, he had to decide where his body would end up. He chose Hart Island.
Untangling mysteries from Hart Island, America's largest public cemetery.
Untangling mysteries from Hart Island, America's largest public cemetery.
In the spring of 1981, two teams met for a standard minor league baseball match. They didn't know they'd be playing the longest game in baseball history.
In July, 1963, at least 15 Black teenage girls were jailed for protesting segregation.
One day in 1947, an NYC bus driver showed up for his daily bus route, but instead of turning right, he turned left.
A year after the racist mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, a group of girls from a local cheer team share their stories.
This is the story of a song, "Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down," and of a pentecostal preacher who helped inspire the birth of Rock & Roll.
In the spring of 1981, two youthful baseball teams met for a standard minor league baseball match. They didn't know they'd be playing the longest game in baseball history.
Most beauty pageants promote a fantasy of the 'ideal' woman. But for 35 years, one contest in New York City celebrated the everyday working girl.
A story about the 10th Mountain Division, a World War II military experiment to train skiers and climbers.
Sofia Bretl's mother lived in Kharkiv, Ukraine when war broke out. Now their family faces a difficult choice, whether to leave their homes and loved ones behind.
On Valentine's Day 2020, Peter Fodera's heart broke. Peter and his daughter Juliana share that story on today's podcast.
In 1921, a man named Harry Pace started the first major Black-owned record company in the U.S., launching the careers of hitmakers like Ethel Waters. But then, Pace's own life took a mysterious turn.
Eighty years after the release of Casablanca, we look back at its refugee actors who played characters much like themselves.
Taking a look back at stories from the past year.
On November 23, 1936, a cello prodigy and a legendary blues artist made recordings that would change music history.
In 1872, almost 50 years before women would get the right to vote, the first woman ran for president of the United States: Victoria Woodhull.
100 years ago, George F. Johnson ran the biggest shoe factory in the world: the Endicott-Johnson Corporation. But Johnson wasn't only known for his shoes - he had an unusual idea about how a boss should treat his workers.
In October 1968, a peaceful student protest ended up being one of the darkest days in Mexico's history.
A story from our fellow Radiotopia show, Ear Hustle, about how being incarcerated can mess with your senses.
Revisiting interviews by Studs Terkel for his 1974 bestseller, "Working."
In the spring of 1981, two youthful baseball teams met for a standard minor league baseball match. They didn't know they'd be playing the longest game in baseball history.
A story from the Rumble Strip podcast about death, life, and a teenager named Finn Rooney.
The story of how Ed Dwight went from being an Air Force captain to almost becoming the first Black astronaut in the world.
On June 15, 1904, more than 1,300 New York City residents set out for a church outing on Long Island. They would never make it.
The story of the last case of the deadliest form of smallpox.
Before Roe v. Wade, thousands of women turned to the Jane collective for abortions.
You probably don't know her name, but you definitely know her songs. Rose Marie McCoy would've turned 100 years old today. On this episode of the Radio Diaries Podcast, we’re remembering the woman behind smash hits by Tina Turner, Elvis Presley, and more.
What would happen if, at age 35, you found out you had an identical twin?
Close to 4 million people have fled Ukraine over the last month. Sofia Bretl's mother, however, refused to leave, even while living in one of the hardest hit cities.
This week the Senate unanimously passed antilynching legislation for the first time, so we're revisiting the story of Clinton Melton, who was murdered in Mississippi in 1955.
Nine months before Rosa Parks, a 15-year-old girl refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, AL. 66 years later, she wants her criminal record cleared for good.
In this Valentine's Day special we bring you some of the earliest voicemails, about matters of the heart.
We first met Majd when she was 19, juggling school and marriage proposals. In the last 8 years, her life has taken some giant leaps.
A journey back to the beginning of recorded sound and the strange, random, beautiful things people captured. This episode is a collaboration with World According to Sound.
A new movie version of West Side Story is hitting theaters this week. We bring you a story about the real youth gangs of 1950s Manhattan.
On November 23, 1936, Pablo Casals and Robert Johnson both made recordings that would change music history.
Sometimes, we make mistakes. Human error. It happens all the time. It just doesn’t always happen in a nuclear missile silo.
Martha Lillard is one of only two people in the U.S. who still depends on an iron lung to survive.
Stories from a shifting Rio Grande, and what happens when — instead of people crossing the border — the border crosses the people.
Asa Carter and Forrest Carter couldn't have been more different. But they shared a secret.
Before 9/11, and before the twin towers were built, the neighborhood now known as Ground Zero sparked a radio revolution.
Former Senator Fred Harris is the last surviving member of the 1968 Kerner Commission.
Long Binh Jail was a notorious American military prison during the Vietnam War, built to hold American soldiers who had broken military law. In the summer of 1968, the overcrowded jail erupted.
This is the story of a song, "Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down," and of a pentecostal preacher who helped inspire the birth of Rock & Roll.
The story of the first major Black-owned record company in the United States.
Josh has Tourette's Syndrome, a brain disorder that often causes physical and verbal ticks. This is his teenage diary from 1996.
On the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre, we revisit an interview with one of the last survivors.
We continue celebrating 25 years by catching up with Juan, one of our first diarists.
On our show's 25th anniversary we catch up with Amanda, our very first radio diarist.
In 1947, a NYC bus driver became the most famous bus driver in the country.
For the past year, assisted living facilities have been mostly closed to visitors. Today, we bring you audio diaries from inside one retirement home.
During WWII, 1,074 women were trained to fly planes as part of the war effort. They were called the Women Airforce Service Pilots... WASPs.
More than 30 years ago, university students in Burma sparked an uprising against the word's longest military dictatorship.
On Valentine's Day 2020, Peter Fedora died... briefly. His daughter knows what it's like to come back to life. She's done it 21 times.
Claressa Shields was a 16-year-old from Flint, Michigan, with a dream. Today, she's 25 and a two-time Olympian.
On March 1, 1954, four young Puerto Rican New Yorkers launched an attack on the U.S. Capitol.
A dispatch from the pizzeria + love from 6 feet apart... updates on our Hunker Down Diaries
8 months ago, Gali & Josh decided to quarantine together after their very first date. Today, we're checking back in.
An update from two centenarians in Sarasota, Florida where COVID cases are surging. This story has won a Third Coast Award for Best Documentary Short.
In 1896, William Jennings Bryan gave the first public concession speech and there's been one in every election since.
80 years ago, 20,000 American Nazis threw a party at Madison Square Garden.
In 1932, 20,000 WWI veterans set up a tent city in Washington. They called themselves the Bonus Army.
A murder in the shadow of Emmett Till
Over 50 years ago, Alabama Governor George Wallace delivered one of the most vehement rallying cries against racial equality in American history. A lot of people have commented on the similarities between that time and now. Congressman John Lewis was one of them.
Queens funeral directors take a moment to reflect and prepare for a second wave. Part of Hunker Down Diaries.
Francesca Montanaro is 11 years old and finished 5th grade at her father's pizza shop in the Bronx. Part of our series, Hunker Down Diaries.
The five largest clusters of coronavirus are in correctional institutions. Moe Monsuri shares his experience of the pandemic from behind bars. Part of our Hunker Down Diaries series.
Back in March, as the pandemic hit, Naida Lavon found herself living in her car on the streets of Portland, Oregon. Part of our Hunker Down Diaries seres.
Renault Robinson was one of Chicago's few black police officers in the 1970s. When you listen to his words from the 1970s, and from 50 years later, what's most striking is how much things haven't changed.
Gali and Joshua decided to quarantine together in NYC, after their very first date. Part of our series, Hunker Down Diaries.
Wendy is an ER doctor, her husband is immunocompromised. They live together, but six feet apart. Part of our series Hunker Down Diaries
Part of a new series Hunker Down Diaries. This week, we celebrate a 100th birthday in lockdown.
Soul Sister: The Limits of Empathy
The story of William Cimillo, the NYC bus driver who in 1947 went on a 1,300 mile detour to Florida.
You know the story of Rosa Parks. But have you heard of Claudette Colvin?
❤️Audio love letters from 1930s and 1940s ❤️
Laura Rothenberg spent most of her life knowing she was going to die young.
Back in the 1990s, Joe Richman gave tape recorders to a bunch of teenagers and asked them to report on their own lives. These stories became the series “Teenage Diaries.” 16 years later, in “Teenage Diaries Revisited,” we check back in with this group to see what’s happened in their lives.
Thembi Ngubane carried a tape recorder from 2004 to 2005 to document her life. She was willing to speak out at a time when few South Africans were willing to say, “I have AIDS.”
For this episode, Radiotopia gave all of us in the network a prompt: if we were to create another show, any show, what would it be? Well, we’d make an obituary show.
On November 13, 1969, Spiro Agnew delivered the most famous speech ever given by a vice president. His message: the media is biased.
On July 28, 1945 an Army bomber pilot on a routine ferry mission found himself lost in the fog over Manhattan. A dictation machine in a nearby office happened to capture the sound of the plane as it hit the Empire State Building at the 79th floor.
Sometimes, we make mistakes. Human error. It happens all the time. It just doesn’t always happen in a nuclear missile silo.
The forgotten story of an uprising at an American military prison in Vietnam.
In the early 1970's, author Studs Terkel went around the country with a reel-to-reel tape recorder interviewing people about their jobs.
It's not easy being last.
Today…there’s “The Squad.” But 50 years ago, there was only one woman of color in the U.S. Congress, and she was the first. Shirley Chisholm, of New York City, was elected to Congress in a historic victory in 1968. And like the squad...Chisholm made her voice heard.
Some people call it "Welfare Capitalism." George F. Johnson calls it "The Square Deal."
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, a turning point in the gay rights movement. Here at Radio Diaries we have our own small time capsule of how much has changed since then. The very first audio diary we ever did, with Amanda Brand.
Olivia Hooker was six-years-old during the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.
Many years ago, we gave Juan a recorder to document his life as an undocumented teenager. Almost two decades later, he documents his life again, as an undocumented adult.
In 1932, 20,000 WWI veterans set up a tent city in Washington. They called themselves the Bonus Army.
In the early 1970’s, author Studs Terkel went around the country with a reel-to-reel tape recorder interviewing people about their jobs.
In the decade before Roe vs. Wade, an underground collective of women in Chicago performed 11,000 abortions.
The men of the 10th Mountain Division led a series of daring assaults against the Nazis in the mountains of Italy. After returning home, many of these soldiers helped to create the modern ski industry.
80 years ago, 20,000 American Nazis threw a party at Madison Square Garden.
Audio love letters from 1930s and 1940s.
Stories about walls and borders, and what happens when – instead of people crossing the border – the border crosses the people.
Thembi Ngubane carried a tape recorder from 2004 to 2005 to document her life. She was willing to speak out at a time when few South Africans were willing to say, “I have AIDS.”
There’s an old saying that “sound is like touch from a distance.” We think it’s a perfect metaphor for what we do at Radio Diaries.
November 23, 1936 was a good day for recorded music. Two men – an ocean apart – sat before a microphone and began to play.
Our country is so politically polarized these days, it’s hard to remember a time when Republicans and Democrats could agree on anything at all. But once upon a time (80 years ago), there was a song that brought red and blue together.
Stories of three women who launched bids to be President of the United States: Victoria Woodhull, Margaret Chase Smith, and Shirley Chisholm.
Audio diaries from prison guards at Polk Youth Institution in North Carolina.
We gave Judge Jeremiah, a Rhode Island juvenile court judge, and Matthew, a 16-year-old repeat offender, tape recorders. Through their audio diaries, Matthew and the judge tell the same story from two different sides of the bench.
An uprising at an American military prison in Vietnam.
Russell Gackenbach is the only surviving crew member from the mission to bomb Hiroshima.
Award-winning audio series documenting the struggle against apartheid.
The story of William Cimillo, the NYC bus driver who went on a 1,300 mile detour to Florida.
Adele Wotherspoon is the last survivor of the General Slocum disaster of 1904.
Olivia Hooker is the last surviving witness to the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.
The story of the WASPs, Women Air Force Service Pilots.
James Cameron is the only known person to have survived a lynching in America.
There's a program in Richmond, CA that has a controversial method of reducing gun violence in their city: paying criminals to not commit crimes. Sounds crazy, but the even crazier part is...it works.
A guide to "traveling while Black" during Jim Crow. A story from our friends and fellow Radiotopians at 99% Invisible.
At 26-years-old, Jose William Huezo Soriano—a.k.a. Weasel—was deported back to his parents’ home country, El Salvador, a country he hadn’t seen since he was 5. This is his audio diary.
You've heard of Rosa Parks, but do you know about Claudette Colvin?
Audio love letters from the 1930s and 1940s.
Before Roe vs. Wade, an underground abortion service in Chicago helped women get abortions.
Sometimes, we make mistakes. Human error. It happens all the time. It just doesn’t always happen in a nuclear missile silo. A collaboration with This American Life.
Majd wants to be a scientist. Her family wants to arrange her marriage.
16 years after recording his teenage diary, Juan now lives in Colorado. He has a house, a good job, and three American kids. But...he’s still undocumented.
Juan crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally as a teen, and settled with his family in Texas. In 1996, he recorded an audio diary for our Teenage Diaries project. Now he tells his story live at The Moth.
Asa Carter and Forrest Carter couldn’t have been more different. But they shared a secret.
When you spend so much of your life getting to the next stage, thinking about the next move, what is it like to find yourself at...the Last Place? In this episode, we bring you audio diaries from a retirement home.
For Labor Day, we're bringing you a special, one hour episode of our series The Working Tapes of Studs Terkel.
A granddaughter's search for the truth.
Most beauty pageants promote the fantasy of the ideal woman. But this contest celebrated something different: the everyday working girl.
A Movement, a Massacre, and Mexico’s Search for the Truth
Meet the NYC teachers who are "doing time."
Gibsonton, Florida: Where the Sideshow went to Retire
For Mother's day, we're bringing you our diarist Melissa's story, as she told it live at The Moth.
Outside the Appalachian mountains, his name was barely known. But Brother Claude Ely influenced some of the pioneers of rock & roll.
Anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada served more than 2 decades in prison alongside Nelson Mandela. He died this week, at the age of 87.
In 1966, a young Marine took a reel-to-reel tape recorder with him into the Vietnam War.
At 26-years-old, Jose William Huezo Soriano—a.k.a. Weasel—was deported back to his parents' home country, El Salvador, a country he hadn't seen since he was 5.
Two of the last surviving Civil War widows.
What happens when, instead of people crossing the border, the border crosses the people.
British Singer Rebecca Ferguson wanted to sing the song "Strange Fruit" at Donald Trump's Inauguration. This is the story behind the song.
In 1947, a New York City bus driver who took his municipal bus on a 1,300 mile detour.
Three generations of father-son auto mechanics....a new story from our series, The Working Tapes.
In 1932, in the midst of the Great Depression, a group of World War I veterans set up an encampment in Washington D.C. vowing to stay until they received their government bonuses.
The story of a quirky song...that had the power to bring Democrats, Republicans, and Communists together in 1940.
A private eye, a jockey, a hotel piano player....voices from The Working Tapes.
A Chicago police officer, a female advertising executive, a gravedigger...voices from Studs Terkel's Working Tapes.
Stories from Studs Terkel's Working Tapes an auto union worker, a switchboard telephone operator, and a press agent.
Our new series "Working: Then & Now" runs from Sept 25 - October 2 on NPR, and in upcoming episodes of the Radio Diaries Podcast. This is a sneak peek of The Working Tapes.
Claressa Shields was a 17-year-old from Flint, Michigan, with a dream -- to become the first American woman to win Olympic gold in boxing. And she did just that.
Throughout American history, only 14 VPs have ever gone on to the presidency. The rest have been mostly forgotten. And not many people would remember the name Alben Barkley, except for two things: his nickname, the “Veep,
Throughout American history, one of the most important job qualifications for the office of President has been the ability to deliver a speech that will rally the people. This is Part 2 of our series, Contenders: Portraits of some of the most groundbre...
Portraits of some of the most groundbreaking and unusual presidential candidates -- who never won the White House. This is the first in our 3-part series: Contenders.
Majd wants to be a scientist. Her family wants to arrange her marriage.
We catch up with Melissa, who recorded a diary about being a teen mom in 1996.
20 years ago, NPR’s All Things Considered began running our occasional series, Teenage Diaries… which then grew up to become Radio Diaries. Today on the podcast, we check in with our very first diarist, Amanda Brand.
In 1906, New York's Bronx Zoo was the largest zoo in the world. That year, the zoo introduced a new exhibit that would quickly became its most popular attraction. In the monkey house, right next to an orangutan, there was a man...inside a cage.
Nine months before Rosa Parks, a 15-year-old girl refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, AL.
Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein were both born in New York City and adopted as infants. When they were 35 years old, they met and found they were “identical strangers.”
Frankie is hoping for a second chance.
Football, Frankie said, had completely changed him. He was no longer seen as a loser. Although the same couldn’t be said for the Valley Head Tigers.
The Skiers Who Fought the Nazis
Four years after Nelson Mandela was released from prison, he became president of South Africa. And yet, those 4 years were among the bloodiest and most painful for all South Africans – black and white – as they struggled toward the transition to majori...
When you spend so much of your life getting to the next stage, thinking about the next move, what is it like to find yourself at...the Last Place? On this episode of the Radio Diaries Podcast, we bring you audio diaries from a retirement home.
November 23, 1936 was a good day for recorded music. Two men – an ocean apart – sat before a microphone and began to play. One was a cello prodigy who had performed for the Queen of Spain; the other played guitar and was a regular in the juke joints of...
How a ten minute operatic folk cantata managed to unite Democrats, Republicans and Communists.
Audio diaries from officers who work behind bars at North Carolina's Polk Youth Institution.
In this golden age of podcasting, a conversation about the past and future of public radio with the author of the original NPR mission statement.
This month's podcast is about what it takes to get people to change. We focus on a group of people that might be the hardest to change - or at least they’ve had the most money thrown at them in hopes of change: Criminals.
An eerie photograph, a famous song, and the man who lived to tell the story.
Chapter 3 of our documentary (and 2015 Audiobook of the Year) Mandela: An Audio History.
Do you remember the first podcast you ever fell in love with?
Audio diaries from a repeat offender, and his judge.
The true story of the untrue story of The Education of Little Tree.
As a teenager, Kamari Ridgle was a drug dealer and drive-by shooter until a near-death experience led him to his true love…accounting.
Meet George F. Johnson, one of America's first 'welfare capitalists.'
In the early 1940s, the government launched an experimental program to train women pilots. They were known as the WASPs, the Women Airforce Service Pilots.
"History had me glued to the seat."
Josh Cutler has Tourette’s syndrome, a neurological disorder that causes uncontrollable tics and involuntary verbal outbursts. In this episode, listen to his teenage diary about getting his first kiss.
You probably don't know her name, but you definitely know her songs. Rose Marie McCoy passed away recently at the age of 92. On this episode of the Radio Diaries Podcast, we’re remembering Rose and her music.
It was just a single line in an inauguration speech given 50 years ago. But Alabama Governor George Wallace’s ‘Segregation Now, Segregation Tomorrow, Segregation Forever’ is remembered as one of the most vehement rallying cries against racial equality ...
On July 28, 1945 an Army bomber pilot on a routine ferry mission found himself lost in the fog over Manhattan. A dictation machine in a nearby office happened to capture the sound of the plane as it hit the Empire State Building at the 79th floor.
A beauty pageant, for the working girl.
In West Virginia, people say that in the old days, communities turned into ghost towns when the coal ran out. Now, they turn into ghost towns when mountaintop mines move in.
The story of William Cimillo, a New York City bus driver who snapped one day in 1947, left his regular route in the Bronx, and drove his municipal bus down to Florida.
Jose William Huezo Soriano - aka Weasel - is a 26-year-old Los Angeles resident who gets deported to his parents' home country of El Salvador, which he has not seen since the age of five.
For more than four decades, the area around Cortlandt Street in lower Manhattan was the largest collection of radio and electronics stores in the world.
What happens when, instead of people crossing the border, the border crosses the people?
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Studs Terkel's "Working," we bring you two of the lost interviews that never made it into the book: Helen Moog, a taxi driver and grandmother of five who happened to drive Studs to the Youngstown,
An eerie photograph, a famous song, and the man who lived to tell the story.
Outside the Appalachian mountains, his name was barely known. But Brother Claude Ely influenced some of the pioneers of rock & roll.
When Jeff Rogers was 16 years old he started referring to himself as a “halfrican.” Jeff has a black father and a white mother. And like many teenagers, he was trying to figure out who he was.
Once there were thousands of seltzer men in New York City. Today, Walter Backerman is one of the last.
Asa Carter and Forrest Carter couldn't have been more different. But they shared a secret.
The moment Nelson Mandela really became Nelson Mandela was on April 20th, 1964 - fifty years ago today. It happened when he stood up in a stuffy South African courtroom and gave a speech.
"I went from being on the front page for football, representing my itty-bitty school, to being on the front page as a thief and a meth head." - Frankie Lewchuck
On the night of May 7th, 1951, in the small town of Laurel, Mississippi, close to a thousand people gathered around the courthouse. They came to witness an execution. Willie McGee was a young black man who had been accused of raping a white woman...
A lot of life happens in 16 years.
What would it sound like if one of the world's greatest classical cellists, and the most legendary blues guitarist of all time...jammed together?
The struggle against apartheid, told by the people who lived it.
A profile of the last man standing.
On July 28, 1945 an army bomber pilot on a routine ferry mission found himself lost in the fog over Manhattan. Stories from the day a plane crashed into the Empire State Building.
16 years ago, Juan reported on his life as a recent Mexican immigrant living in poverty in Texas. In his new diary, Juan takes us on a tour of the life he has built since he first crossed the Rio Grande.
25 years ago, university students in Burma sparked a countrywide uprising. They called for a nationwide strike on 8/8/88, a date they chose for its numerological power.
Melissa's Teenage Diary and her new 'grown-up' diary from Teenage Diaries Revisited.
Josh’s audio diaries about trying to live a normal life with a brain that often betrays him.
16 years after her Teenage Diary, Amanda goes back to her parents to find out how they came to accept having a daughter who is gay.
The Traveling Electric Chair
May 7, 201530min 40sec
Bridgette McGee grew up knowing nothing about her grandfather, Willie McGee. Now she is on a quest to unearth everything she can about his life – and his death.
In 1945, Willie McGee was accused of raping a white woman. The all-white jury took less than three minutes to find him guilty and McGee was sentenced to death. Over the next six years, the case went through three trials and sparked international protests and appeals from Albert Einstein, William Faulkner, Paul Robeson, and Josephine Baker. McGee was defended by a young Bella Abzug arguing her first major case. But in 1951, McGee was put to death in Mississippi’s traveling electric chair. His execution was broadcast live by a local radio station. Today, a newly discovered recording of that broadcast provides a chilling window into a lost episode of civil rights history. Narrated by Bridgette McGee, this documentary follows a granddaughter’s search for the truth about a case that has been called a real-life To Kill A Mockingbird.
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