Diaries We give people tape recorders and help them document their own lives in their own words
Thembi’s AIDS Diary
Thembi Ngubane was willing to stand up and speak out at a time when few South Africans were willing to say, “I have AIDS.”
ListenJuan: 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.
ListenPortraits Extraordinary stories from ordinary places
Walter Backerman, Seltzer Man
Once there were thousands of seltzer men in New York City. Today, Walter Backerman is one of the last.
ListenCentenarians 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.
ListenHistories Exploring the past to tell the History of Now.
My Iron Lung (Revisited)
Paul Alexander, one of two people in the United States relying on an iron lung, died recently at 78 years …
ListenAdlai Stevenson: A Candidate in the Age of Television
The 1952 presidential campaign pitted the popular General Dwight D. Eisenhower against the intensely private Adlai Stevenson. It was an election fought on a new battleground: television.
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