Diaries We give people tape recorders and help them document their own lives in their own words
Juan: 16 Years Later
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. It looks a lot like the typical American dream: a house, 2 cars, 3 kids—except for the fact he’s still living illegally in the U.S.
ListenGoing Home: Cristel’s Diary
At 15, Cristel attacked a classmate with a razor blade. After 3 years of incarceration, she’s being released.
ListenPortraits Extraordinary stories from ordinary places
Centenarians in Lockdown
Winner of the 2020 Third Coast Festival Award! Joe Newman is 107 years old. He recorded himself and his fiancé, Anita Sampson on her 100th birthday.
ListenSelma Koch, Bra Saleswoman
94-year old Selma Koch runs the Town Shop, one of New York’s last old-style bra fitting shops.
ListenHistories Exploring the past to tell the History of Now.
Last Witness: The Kerner Commission
Former Senator Oklahoma Fred Harris is the last surviving member of the Kerner Commission, a group appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to investigate the root causes of the violence and civil unrest that swept the nation in the late ’60s.
ListenIdentical Strangers
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.”
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