Listen
Featured story: The Working Tapes
In the early 1970’s, author Studs Terkel went around the country with a reel-to-reel tape recorder interviewing people about their jobs. Our new series, “Working: Then & Now” airs this week on NPR and The Radio Diaries Podcast.
Listen
Featured story: From Flint to Rio
How much does an Olympic gold medal really change things for a teenager in Flint? Listen to Claressa Shields’ story.
Listen
Featured story: Contenders: The ‘Veep’
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,” and the remarkable circumstances of his death.
Diaries We give people tape recorders and help them document their own lives in their own words
Josh: 16 Years Later
In high school, Josh documented his life with Tourette’s Syndrome, a neurological disorder that causes uncontrollable tics and involuntary verbal outbursts. Today, Josh has overcome Tourette’s enough to become a NYC public school teacher. But it hasn’t been easy for him. Josh’s new diary is about trying to live a normal adult life with a brain that often betrays him.
Listen
My So-Called Lungs
Laura Rothenberg tried to live a normal life, with lungs that betrayed her and the awareness that she might not live to see her 30th birthday.
ListenPortraits Extraordinary stories from ordinary places
Selma Koch, Bra Saleswoman
94-year old Selma Koch runs the Town Shop, one of New York’s last old-style bra fitting shops.
Listen
The Last Man on the Mountain
In the 1990s, Arch Coal began mining Pigeonroost Hollow. Now Jimmy Weekley is the last person left there.
ListenHistories Weaving together oral histories and archival tape to bring the past to life
March of the Bonus Army
In 1932, 20,000 WWI veterans set up a tent city in Washington. They called themselves the Bonus Army.
Listen
The Gospel Ranger
Outside the Appalachian mountains, his name was barely known. But Claude Ely influenced some of the pioneers of rock & roll.
Listen
