Category Archives: Audio Projects

Nostalgia

36:46

This episode of Inside Out originally aired in the fall of 2000.

As Providence prepared for its second Johnny Rockets, Inside Out contemplated what makes us revisit the past with such a Vaseline coated lens. Featuring an interview with nine time World Yo-yo champ Larry Sayco; hiring a ghost writer to write your autobiography; and finally, war stories. How veterans use them to live in the past, or turn away from them completely.

Hosted by Nathan James. Executive Produced by Paul McCarthy. Contributors include Elana Berkowitz, Dana Turken, Melissa Brough, Bart Green, and Cassie Theringer. Oversight by Beth Taylor

Old School, New School: Life at the Met

28:36

This episode of Inside Out originally aired in the spring of 2001.

The Met is a charter school in Providence that made its mark with an unconventional approach to education: no teachers, no classes, no grades. Only internships, mentors and “real world” experiences outside the classroom.

In 2000, Inside Out devoted an entire episode to exploring whether a school like the Met could serve its students better than a traditional public school.

Host: Molly Messick
Executive Producer: Paul McCarthy
Producers: Samm Tyroller-Cooper, Melissa Brough, Robin Amer, Caroline McCaughey, Megan Hall, Rachel Terp, Marshall Clement, Elana Berkowitz, Anna Goldman, and Carlos David.
Oversight: Beth Taylor

(Bert’s) Barbershop Pt. 1

There have been a lot of changes in my work life since the fall. In October I left my stint as a Host/Producer for Vocalo.org to take a different job, still at Chicago Public Radio. Now I’m doing multimedia production to support our work with various “internal” audiences, like our board of directors and foundation funders. (As opposed to producing content for public consumption in our broadcast or on the web.)  I’m pretty sure it’s a temporary gig, as I want to go back to producing story content asap, but I’m enjoying the work for now.

I’m definitely enjoying my current project. I’m working on a series of video portraits of people who have been dedicated and impressive members of the Vocalo community. I’m trying to get a sense of who these people are, what their lives are like, and explore why they would want to be part of an experimental media community like the one we were trying to build.

I’m starting with Bert Downing, the owner of Carter’s Barbershop in North Lawndale.

Bert and a really cute kid

North Lawndale is a historically black neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side, and was briefly home to Dr. King when he settled there to launch the northern campaign of the civil rights movement in the late ‘60s. When he was assassinated in 1968, residents of North Lawndale rioted, destroying much of the neighborhood’s business core and physical infrastructure. Common perception is that the neighborhood has never fully recovered from the riots – after the riots is a common refrain among older residents – although there have been efforts to redevelop the neighborhood, attract new businesses, and provide better access to basic services.

A lot of what people will tell you about North Lawndale now are the stereotypes that apply to many urban ghettos (a word I’ve heard several people from North Lawndale use to describe their own neighborhood). Poverty. High rates of incarceration. Unemployment that is two or three times the national average, even when the economy is bad.

But inside the barbershop I’ve seen something different: a strong, functioning community, talking with itself. I guess it’s a cliché that barbershops are where the “real talk” happens, but I’ve seen it and heard it there again and again. And Bert is the conversation impresario, calling his friends and telling them to get down there if they don’t want to miss out on the good talking, excited to turn his barbershop into a radio station for the day.

Here are some clips that came from the various live remote broadcasts we’ve staged at Carter’s Barbershop over the past two years. (We includes fellow producers Dan Weissmann and Luis Perez.) The first is Bert, describing an incident with a customer/cop that went down in the shop some years back.  It’s called Get ‘Em! Or, You Picked the Wrong Barbershop and features probably my favorite Bert-ism of all time.  See if you can guess what it is.

3:17

This second clip comes from another live broadcast, and an interview with a patron named Mr. Heywood. It’s sad and funny at the same time.  When three neighborhood teens drowned at a school retreat after sneaking out paddle boats in the middle of the night, we discussed who was at fault: the adults chaperoning the trip, or the teens themselves. The conversation turned into an in-depth discussion of parenting, with people, including Mr. Heywood,  sharing stories of their own teen misadventures. This piece is called Mr. Heywood Climbs the Tracks. Intro read by Delaney Hall, music by Hauschka and Zoe Keating.

3:42

Finally, here is some raw video of Kastaway from the shoot we did at the barbershop last week. Kastway is AWESOME!! Carter, the original owner of the barbershop, was his mentor, so he basically grew up in the shop. He’s a super talented MC and one of the funniest people I know. I’m really glad to have an excuse to hang out with him again, because he’s really fun to talk to. He’s going to take me around the hood some time next week so I can get some contextualizing footage for the video piece. My favorite part of this video is where he describes Bert as “the uncle I never asked for.” Heehee!

More updates on this project as it progresses!

Girls on the Gridiron: Life with the Chicago Force

Girls on the Gridiron 1

20:15

I half  laughed, half cringed when I saw this recent Time Out Chicago cover story about lingerie football.  It wasn’t that long after I had finished talking to several players from the Chicago Force about how they wish ESPN would drop their coverage of this fake, sexist “sport” in favor of actual women’s football.

Because the women of the Chicago Force do play football.  Real football, with tackling, and hitting, and all the brutality and passion you’d expect from the sport. There are over forty players on the Force of all ages, races and backgrounds, none of whom are paid to play the game but all of whom play at the highest levels of competition.

In this piece, four members of the team describe what it’s like to be a woman in a man’s game.

Three Proposals

14:47

Damali Ayo is an incredible artist, an incredible talker, and frankly, an incredible person. I’ve never met anyone with her particular combination of energy, humor, insight and charisma. Also, she has, how you say, balls. (Co-Jones, as my friend Luis would say.) She’s the kind of person I’m frankly a little intimidated by because I’m also a little in awe of her, which is dumb because she’s also super nice and approachable. But so it goes.

When we put out calls for the lists people had created under the Facebook meme “25 Random Things About Me,” I was really glad to hear back from her. We met at the Third Coast Festival a few years back, discovered we were both Brown alumni and kind of hit it off, I think. I interviewed her a few years ago for the Open Source show I produced on race and class in America from the perspective of black artists, and this was a welcome excuse to talk to her again. While we were chatting pre-interview, I took not of at least two or three other things I wanted to interview her about at some point. She’s really interesting.

In this story, Damali describes how she has proposed marriage to three different men over the course of her life, once in her teens, once in her 20s and once in her 30s. And, why she will never propose to another man ever again.

This story was produced as part of Vocalo.org‘s initiative Your Digital Life: Stories from the Web.

My First Taste of Freedom

10:56

Kate moves to Chicago from Michigan City, Indiana at age 18 and suddenly finds herself pregnant. Things go from bad to worse when she goes into labor four-and-a-half months early and gives birth in an unexpected place.

The story comes from Kate Ainsworth’s Facebook List “25 Random Things About Me Which You May or May Not Find Interesting.”  It was recorded as part of Vocalo.org’s initiative Your Digital Life: Stories from the Web. All this month, we’re combing the dark corners of the internet for the stories behind your status updates, tweets, blog posts, and texts. Have your own interesting “25 Things” list? Know the compelling story behind your friend’s last text? Email us at info@vocalo.org or call the Vocalo.org Hotline at 888-635-1112.

Inside Out: Sleep

Originally produced for BSR circa 2003. Full list of Inside Out episodes here.

Normal sleep is not what this episode is about.  Instead we bring you stories gasping for breath, visions in the night, the town that couldn’t sleep, and why 8 hours and 24 minutes is probably a good idea. Hosted by Adeline Goss. Featuring pieces by Robin Amer, Rielle Navitski, Jenny Asarnow, Jess Jones, Laura Vitale, and Molly Messick. Executive producer, Rachel Terp.

In this episode:

Addie interviews Hyacinth DaCosta, an aide at the Sleep Lab at Brown University, on what we can consider “normal” sleep patterns.

Robin Amer interviews musician Christopher Smith, who suffers from sleep apnea. The disorder causes him to wake up as many as 25 times an hour. After a full night’s sleep, he’s still not well rested.

Jenny Asarnow presents perspectives on night terrors. Physiological glitch or portal into another dimension? You decide.

An excerpt from Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, in which a sleeping plague descends on the town of Macando. Produced by Jess Jones and Laura Vitale, read by Seth Bockley.

Most students sleep less than 6 hours on weekdays. Molly Messick takes a look at the downsides of the average college sleep cycle.

Thanks to Beth Taylor.

Inside Out

Real stories from Rhode Island and beyond.

“Real stories are hidden in the midst of every day life. Inside Out uncovers them.” With that tag-line, Inside Out was BSR’s flagship radio documentary program that ran from 2000-2004 and showcased some of the finest student made work around. The program was created by Paul McCarthy and shepherded by Beth Taylor, and helped establish Brown as a radio powerhouse known for cranking out first-rate producers. During its time on the air the program garnered attention from Transom.org and The Third Coast International Audio Festival, and hosted guest critiques from Ira Glass, Jay Allison and Joe Richman.

Many of the producers who worked on Inside Out continue to make memorable radio even now, garnering awards from the Associated Press, Makers Quest 2.0, and the Society for Professional Journalists among others. Over time the staff and contributors included Rawaan Alkhatib, Robin Amer, John Arcici, Jenny Asarnow, Rebecca Birnbaum, Elana Berkowitz, Melissa Brough, Marshall Clement, Doug Fretty, Adeline Goss, Anna Goldman, Ian Gray, Bart Green, Megan Hall, Leanne Hegg,  Ian Henderson, Nathan James, Jessica Jewell, Jess Jones, Selena Juneau-Vogel, Rachel Katzman, Louisa Lombard, Alice Lovejoy, Paul McCarthy, Caroline McCaughey, Molly Messick, Rielle Navitski, Danielle Posen, Matt Puntigam, Cassie Tharinger, Rachel Terp, Dana Turken, Samm Tyroller-Cooper, Gabriel Wildau, Emily Witt, and Laura Vitale.

I am trying to put together a definitive archive of all existing Inside Out episodes. It’s a labor of love. Currently they’re scattered about, but I will post them here as I am able to collect them. I’ve tried to recreate a list of episodes and staff from memory, but I may have made significant mistakes or omissions, so don’t be afraid to let me know if you spot them. If you have copies of any of these episodes, or if you know of episodes I’ve inadvertently left out, please let me know!

Season 1 – Fall of 2000

Hosted by Nathan James with Executive Producer and creator Paul McCarthy.

Town and Gown

The Real Cachupa: Cape Verdeans in Rhode Island

Spook City

Nostalgia

Season 2 – Spring of 2001

Hosted by Nathan James with Executive Producer Paul McCarthy.

Junk

The Rigors of Mortis

Modern Nomads

Personal Ads

Old School, New School: Life at the Met

Season 3 – Fall of 2001

Hosted by Molly Messick with Executive Producer Robin Amer

Identity Crisis Parts 1 & 2

Baseball

Food

Harvest

Season 4 – Spring of 2002

Hosted by Gabriel Wildau with Executive Producer Robin Amer

Mall Pts 1 and 2

Work

Flying

Season 5 – Fall of 2002

Hosted by Adeline Goss with Executive Producer Rachel Terp

Public Space Pts 1 and 2

Sleep

Season 6 – Fall of 2003

Hosted by Adeline Goss with Executive Producer Anna Goldman

Vision

Risk Parts 1 and 2

Names

Season  7 – Spring of 2004

Hosted by Rielle Navitski with Executive Producer Adeline Goss

Pirates!

Against the Grain

Invisible Source

No Soap Radio

A half-hour experiment in audio collage.

No Soap Radio was a weekly radio program broadcast on BSR in the spring of 2004. A collaboration between Robin Amer and Adeline Goss, the program was designed to showcase experimental and non-narrative sound art and radio pieces. The seven episodes featured work by both Robin and Addie but mostly showcased the work of artists they admired, woven together with unusual interstitial audio designed to highlight the main pieces.

Audio Collage


In the pilot episode of No Soap Radio we explore the idea of audio collage. Featuring pieces by Luke Fischbeck (Lucky Dragons), Sarah Kessler, Mat Greenleaf, and Arthur Gregg Sultzberger. Originally broadcast February 3, 2004.

Voices

Contributors to this show include Amy Chang, Jasper Speicher, Robin Amer, Erin Rosenthal, Luke Fischbeck (Lucky Dragons), Adeline Goss, a Tuvan throat singer, a field of tulips and a colorful assortment of accents. Originally broadcast February 17, 2004.

Truth Eater Theater Presents

Time Dies when You’re Fun Fun is a strange and touching audio play by Providence based collaborative Truth Eater Theater. Full of screeching cats, strange gods and talking trees. Originally performed in June 2003 on the Woonasquabadasstucket.  Originally broadcast March 3, 2004.

Places and Landscapes

Doors, Destinations and Arrivals. A bicycle’s voyage through Providence, a kickball field full of instruments, a pond full of ducks, and three million bats returning home, before they disappear into a hole in the ground. Featuring work by Robin Amer, Jenny Asarnow, Jasper Speicher, Manbeard, Leah Beeferman, and Jo Dery. Thanks to Free Matter for the Blind. Originally broadcast March 16, 2004.

Radio Plays

Three radio plays from the lighter side of the spectrum. Two plays by Joelle, Will and Sonny of Club Foot Radio Theater, and one by Ethan Hayes-Chute. Originally broadcast April 4, 2004.

Audio Hysteria

Featuring work by three of our favorite female audio artists: Anna Friz, Khaela Maricich (The Blow), and Laurie Anderson. We bring you the work of three amazing women working in the spaces between audio, narrative and performance. Originally broadcast April 20, 2004.

Hot Streaming Live

A special live finale. Mike Taylor tells the sober but hilarious story of how he found Jesus in his first kiss, only to be interrupted by the stylings of Jacob Berendes and many inexplicable noises. Originally broadcast May 5, 2004.