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Radio Diaries

Radio Diaries & Radiotopia

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

society & culture documentary

All Episodes

23:49

The Rise and Fall of Black Swan Records

Radio Diaries ·

2023/02/03

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,

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12:50

The Real Refugees of Casablanca

Radio Diaries ·

2023/01/23

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

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31:10

The History Of Now

Radio Diaries ·

2022/12/16

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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17:13

A Guitar, A Cello and the Day that Changed Music

Radio Diaries ·

2022/11/23

November 23, 1936 was a good day for recorded music. Two men, an ocean apart, sat before a microphone and began to play. One, Pablo Casals, was a cello prodigy who had performed for the Queen of Spain. The other, Robert Johnson, played guitar and was a regular in the juke joints of the Mississippi Delta. These recordings would change music history. This episode originally aired on NPR in 2011.

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13:09

Banging on the Door: The Election of 1872

Radio Diaries ·

2022/11/04

Voting rights was just as hot an issue in 1872 as it is today. In 1872, Susan B. Anthony and 14 other women went to cast a ballot in the election - and Anthony ended up arrested and tried. But another woman named Victoria Woodhull took things even further. That same year, she ran for president of the United States - the first woman in American history known to do so.

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17:46

The Square Deal

Radio Diaries ·

2022/10/20

100 years ago, George F. Johnson ran the biggest shoe factory in the world. The Endicott-Johnson Corporation in upstate New York produced 52 million pairs of shoes a year. But Johnson wasn’t only known for his shoes. He had a unusual idea of how workers should be treated. Some people called it “Welfare Capitalism.” Johnson called it “The Square Deal.”

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25:17

The Massacre at Tlatelolco

Radio Diaries ·

2022/10/06

In October 1968, Mexico City was preparing to host the Olympics - the first Latin American country to do so. It was an opportunity to showcase the new, modern Mexico. However, at the same time, student protests were erupting throughout the city. On October 2, just days before the Olympics were supposed to begin, the Mexican army fired on a peaceful student protest in the Tlatelolco neighborhood. The official announcement was that four students were dead, but eyewitnesses said they saw

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32:04

Guest Spotlight: Ear Hustle

Radio Diaries ·

2022/09/23

This week we’re featuring an episode from our fellow Radiotopia show, Ear Hustle. Ear Hustle is produced inside San Quentin State Prison, in California. The show tells stories about what life is really like in prison, and after you get out. This episode is the first in Ear Hustle’s new season. It’s a beautiful, funny, and surprising story about the ways being incarcerated can mess with your sense of smell, and touch, and just about everything else. Episode artwork is by Richard Phillips,

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15:06

Working, Then And Now

Radio Diaries ·

2022/09/09

In the early 1970s, radio host and oral historian Studs Terkel went around the country, tape recorder in hand, interviewing people about their jobs. The interviews were compiled into a 1974 book called “Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do,” which became a bestseller. This week, we’re revisiting two of those conversations. The first is with Gary Bryner, an auto worker and union leader. The second is with Renault Robinson, a police officer. We

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19:04

The Longest Game

Radio Diaries ·

2022/08/23

In the spring of 1981, the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings met for a minor league 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.

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36:28

Rumble Strip: Finn and the Bell

Radio Diaries ·

2022/07/14

This week we’re bringing you a story from independent producer Erica Heilman, who makes the Rumble Strip podcast. The story is about a teenager named Finn Rooney who loved to fish and play baseball. It’s also about what happened in Finn’s community in Vermont after he took his life in January 2020. (A warning that this story discusses suicide) The story, “Finn and the Bell,” recently won a Peabody award. Special thanks to Finn’s mother, Tara Reese, and to the people of Hardwick, Vermont

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21:49

The Almost Astronaut

Radio Diaries ·

2022/06/29

In the 1960s, the U.S. was in a tense space race with the Soviet Union - and was losing. The Soviets had sent the first satellite and the first man into space. So, President Kennedy pledged to do something no country had done: send a man to the moon. This mission excited many white Americans, but many Black Americans thought the space program wasted money that could’ve helped Black communities. So, the U.S. embarked on a plan that could beat the Soviets and appease Black Americans: tapping

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13:42

The General Slocum

Radio Diaries ·

2022/06/03

On June 15, 1904, a steamship called the General Slocum left the pier on East Third Street in New York City just after 9 AM. The boat was filled with more than 1,300 residents of the Lower East Side. Many of the passengers were recent German immigrants who were headed up the East River for a church outing, a boat cruise and picnic on Long Island. They would never make it. We interviewed the last survivor of the General Slocum, Adella Wotherspoon, when she was 100 years old. Today, we’re

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22:42

The End of Smallpox

Radio Diaries ·

2022/05/19

Only one human disease has ever been completely eradicated: Smallpox. Smallpox was around for more than 3,000 years and killed at least 300 million people in the 20th century. Then, by 1980, it was gone. Rahima Banu was the last person in the world to have the deadliest form of smallpox. In 1975, Banu was a toddler growing up in a remote village in Bangladesh when she developed the telltale bumpy rash. Soon, public health workers from around the world showed up at her home to try to keep

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14:42

The Story of Jane

Radio Diaries ·

2022/05/05

Before the U.S. Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, abortion was illegal throughout most of the country. But that doesn't mean women didn't get them. In 1965, an underground network formed in Chicago to help pregnant women get abortions. At first, they connected women with doctors willing to break the law to perform the procedure. Eventually, they were trained and began performing abortions themselves. The group called itself “Jane.” Over the years, Jane performed more than 11,000 first and

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17:34

The Greatest Songwriter You've Never Heard Of

Radio Diaries ·

2022/04/19

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, Diana Ross and many others.

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18:44

Identical Strangers

Radio Diaries ·

2022/04/07

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.” This story originally aired on NPR in 2007. *** Today’s episode is supported by Green Chef. Visit GreenChef.com/diaries130 and use code diaries130 to get $130 off, plus free shipping.

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12:21

Sofia's Choice: A Ukrainian Diary

Radio Diaries ·

2022/03/30

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 lives. As conditions in Kharkiv worsened, they faced a difficult choice. ** If you’d like to show your support during this crisis, one organization that is helping settle refugees is HIAS. Find them at hias.org.

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16:32

The Forgotten Story of Clinton Melton

Radio Diaries ·

2022/03/10

This week, the Senate unanimously passed legislation that would make lynching a federal hate crime. It was a historic moment. Congress has tried and failed to pass antilynching legislation more than 200 times over the course of more than a century. The Emmett Till Antilynching Act is named for a 14-year-old boy whose murder 67 years ago shocked the nation. Till had traveled from Chicago to the Mississippi Delta to visit family when he was kidnapped, horribly beaten, and killed by white men

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16:57

Claudette Colvin: Making Trouble Then and Now

Radio Diaries ·

2022/02/24

Nine months before Rosa Parks, a 15-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, AL. 66 years later, Colvin’s fighting to get her record wiped clean. This episode is part of the 2022 Radiotopia Fundraiser! We are a proud member of this amazing network of independent, artist-owned, listener-supported shows. This week, we are all releasing episodes on a theme “Making Trouble.” Please show your support for our network by

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256 results

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