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
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This year marks 30 years since we first worked with teenagers to record stories about their lives. Over the years, people have often asked us, whatever happened to them? What happened to Juan, Amanda, Melissa, Frankie, and Josh? We’re going to find out. In honor of three decades, we’re setting out to make a new series with our original teenage diarists. And we’re turning to you, our listeners, for help. If you donate now you’ll get an exclusive look behind the scenes as we make these stories. An...
When it comes to the space race, we all know names like Neil Armstrong and Yuri Gagarin. But in most moments in history, there are a few names that fall through the cracks. One of those names is Ed Dwight. When Ed Dwight was selected to train to become an astronaut, many thought he would become the first Black man to go to space. But Ed faced some unexpected hurdles. Today on the show, we bring you his story. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices...
This episode includes topics and archival audio that some people will find disturbing. Seventy-five years ago, on the night of May 7th, 1951, close to a thousand people gathered around the courthouse in the small town of Laurel, Mississippi. They came to witness an execution. Willie McGee was a young Black man who had been accused of raping a white woman and sentenced to death. Six decades later, Bridgette McGee-Robinson teamed up with Radio Diaries to find the truth about what happened to her g...
This episode delves into the U.S. Navy's little-known Sealab project, an ambitious 1960s experiment to establish human colonies on the deep-sea floor, paralleling the space race. It chronicles the aquanauts' lives in undersea habitats, the scientific breakthroughs of saturation diving, and the inherent dangers, culminating in a tragic fatality that led to the program's quiet cancellation. Despite its end, Sealab pioneered techniques still used today.
The podcast explores the life of William Parker, an escaped slave who organized a self-protection society in Pennsylvania against the brutal Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. It recounts the dramatic Christiana Resistance, where Parker and his community violently defended themselves against slave catchers, resulting in a slaveholder's death. This defiance sparked national outrage, a treason trial, and further inflamed tensions, fundamentally shaping the path toward the Civil War and leaving a lasting legacy.
This episode follows Leqaa Kordia, a young Palestinian woman, through her year-long ICE detention and immediate release. It details her controversial arrest after protesting a ceasefire in Gaza, the government's repeated appeals against her release, and the harsh realities she faced in detention. The episode culminates in her emotional homecoming and highlights the ongoing uncertainty regarding her green card and risk of deportation.
Radio Diaries explores the untold story behind the classic film Casablanca, revealing that many of its supporting actors were actual European refugees who had fled the Nazis. Their real-life struggles brought profound authenticity to the characters they portrayed, like Helmut Dantin's desperate gamble for passage. The episode also delves into how the film served as a powerful piece of wartime propaganda, subtly converting audiences and Rick Blaine's character from isolationism to a fight for freedom.
This is the final episode of our series about Isaac Woodard, a Black soldier who was beaten and blinded by a white police officer in 1946. In the last episode, radio host Orson Welles, who was investigating the case, learned the officer's identity. Isaac Woodard himself told a reporter, "Nothing they can do to the police officer will give me my eyes back, but if they punish him good and legal it may keep the same thing from happening to some more of our boys coming back home. I want him punished...
This episode continues the story of Isaac Woodard, a Black soldier brutally beaten and blinded by a white police officer. Orson Welles leverages his radio show to galvanize national attention and relentlessly search for the unnamed assailant, "Officer X." The narrative highlights Woodard's transformation into a civil rights symbol and the dangerous, painstaking efforts by investigators and brave eyewitnesses to identify the perpetrator, leading to the dramatic unmasking of Chief L.L. Shaw.
In 1946, a Black soldier returning from WWII was brutally beaten and blinded by a white police officer in South Carolina. Celebrity radio host Orson Welles, director of Citizen Kane, took to the airwaves, pledging to solve this mystery and bring the unnamed "Officer X" to justice. This episode details the horrific incident of Isaac Woodard and the beginning of Welles' groundbreaking national campaign that ultimately contributed to the desegregation of the U.S. military.
This podcast trailer introduces the compelling story of Isaac Woodard, an African American soldier brutally attacked and blinded by a white police officer upon returning home from WWII. With the officer's identity unknown, the renowned radio host Orson Welles took to the airwaves, vowing to uncover the truth and demand accountability. The new series explores how Welles' dramatic broadcasts galvanized public attention and ultimately contributed to the desegregation of the United States military.
A little over a decade ago, we went to interview a woman at her small one-bedroom apartment in a sprawling complex in the Bronx. She was living a quiet and somewhat anonymous life. But many years earlier, she had done something remarkable. The woman’s name was Claudette Colvin. In 1955, she was a 15-year-old girl growing up in Montgomery, Alabama. On March 2nd of that year, Colvin refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a public bus, and was arrested. This was nine months before Rosa...
Looking for love is an art, not a science. People have been trying to crack the code, with mixed success, for a long time. This week we're going back to the 1960s, when a couple Harvard students had an idea. Businesses had started using a new technology called the computer to process payroll or match a client with the right type of insurance. What if these same computers could be used to get a date? This is the story of the very first computer dating service, Operation Match. Learn about your ad...
Today on the show, we sit down with photographer Andrew Lichtenstein to discuss his new book, THIS SHORT LIFE, which combines photo essays with audio testimonies about 12 Americans, from a West Virginia coal miner to a Maine farmer, all united by how the struggles of their past have shaped their present. You'll hear audio testimony from some of the people in the book. Buy THIS SHORT LIFE here. If you liked this story, find more of our work at radiodiaries.org and follow us on Bluesky, Instagram ...
Leqaa Kordia, a young Palestinian woman, was detained by ICE months after participating in Columbia University protests calling for a Gaza ceasefire. Despite two judicial orders for release, ICE has appealed, accusing her of supporting Hamas—a claim her family refutes by providing evidence of sending money to relatives for essential needs. This episode features a phone call with her cousin, Hamza Abushaban, revealing the challenging conditions of her seven-month detention and her fight for freedom and asylum.
Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein, identical twins adopted as infants and raised apart, recount their emotional reunion at 35. They soon discover their separation was part of a controversial, secret "nature versus nurture" study by Dr. Peter Neubauer. The episode explores the ethical implications of the study, the twins' confrontation with its architect, and their profound reflections on genetics, environment, and the unique bond they now share, raising questions about what truly shapes our identities.
This is the story of a song, "Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down." It was written by a 12-year-old boy on what was supposed to be his deathbed. But the boy didn't die. Instead, he went on to become a Pentecostal preacher, and later helped inspire the birth of Rock & Roll. The boy's name was Brother Claude Ely, and he was known as The Gospel Ranger. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
In the early 1970s, author Studs Terkel interviewed the owners of Duke & Lee's Auto Repair in Geneva, Illinois, for his bestselling book, Working . He went to talk to them about fixing cars. What he found was a story about fathers and sons working together, and the tensions within a family business. We went back to Duke & Lee's four decades later and found the family business still intact—tensions and all. That was nine years ago. Recently, we heard that the family, and the auto shop, ha...
When you spend so much of your life moving around, getting to the next chapter, what's it like to find yourself in the last place? This week, we revisit audio diaries from a retirement home. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
This episode recounts the dramatic 1945 plane crash into the Empire State Building, where a U.S. Army bomber, lost in dense fog, slammed into the 79th floor. It details the harrowing experience of an elevator operator who survived a 79-story fall, as well as the chaos, fire, and desperate rescue efforts faced by those trapped inside the world's tallest building. The story captures the human resilience and tragedy of that fateful day.
Explore the remarkable life of Majd Abdulghani, who, at 19, began an audio diary in restrictive Saudi Arabia, documenting her resistance to arranged marriage and dreams of science. Nine years later, the episode revisits Majd as she reflects on her Oxford doctorate, successful career, and unique partnership, alongside the significant societal changes for women in Saudi Arabia, including newfound freedoms and career opportunities.
This episode revisits the global effort to eradicate smallpox, contextualized by recent vaccine news. It delves into the history of the devastating disease and focuses on the dramatic search for the last known case in Bangladesh in 1975, the story of toddler Rahima Banu, and the intensive containment efforts that led to the disease's official eradication.
This episode delves into a little-known chapter of American history: the use of the Alien Enemies Act during World War II to detain thousands of German, Japanese, and Italian nationals taken from Latin America. Forced from their homes and families, they were brought to internment camps in the U.S., like Crystal City, Texas, often to be exchanged for American prisoners of war. Survivors share their harrowing personal stories of arrest, life in the camps, and the struggles they faced even after the war ended.
Fifty years after the Vietnam War, hear the story of Long Binh Jail (LBJ), a US military prison for American soldiers who broke the law. Discover the harsh, overcrowded conditions, the significant racial tensions, and the catalysts, including the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., that led to a violent riot by inmates in August 1968. The episode explores the prisoners' experiences, the guard's perspective, and the military's hesitant response to the prolonged standoff that followed.
Author James Baldwin once wrote, "I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually." On this episode, we go back to 1932 when a group of World War I veterans set up an encampment in Washington, D.C., and vowed to stay until their voices were heard. It was a remarkable chapter in American history, and a demonstration of the power of citizens to come together for a cause. This is the story of the Bonus Army. Le...
On July 19, 1963, at least 15 Black girls were arrested while marching to protest segregation in Americus, Georgia. After spending a night in jail, they were transferred to the one-room Leesburg Stockade and imprisoned for the next 45 days. Only twenty miles away, the girls' parents had no knowledge of their location. A month into their confinement, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) heard rumors of the girls' detention and sent photographer Danny Lyon, who took pictures of the...
This week we're featuring a story from a brand new audio magazine we've been listening to called Signal Hill . "Pie Down Here" features oral history interviews with farmworkers and Communist Party members who organized a sharecroppers' union in Alabama during the Great Depression. The interviews were recorded by historian Robin Kelley for his book, Hammer and Hoe . You can learn more about Signal Hill and check out the rest of their first issue—eight original stories—at signalhill.fm . Learn abo...
In 1939, Time Magazine called Dorothy Thompson a woman who “thinks, talks and sleeps world problems — and scares men half to death.” They weren’t wrong. Thompson was a foreign correspondent in Germany in the years leading up to World War 2, and she broadcast to millions of listeners around the world. She became known for her bold commentaries on the rise of Hitler. The Nazis even created a “Dorothy Thompson Emergency Squad” to monitor her work. She was an eloquent and opinionated advocate for th...
These days, we’re used to media that thrives on conflict and amplifies the most outrageous voices in the room. It's something we often trace back to shock jocks, like Howard Stern, and in-your-face talk show hosts like Tucker Carlson and Rush Limbaugh. But before all those guys, there was Joe Pyne. At the height of his career in the 1960s, the New York Times called him “The ranking nuisance of broadcasting.” Today, episode two of our series Making Waves: The Original Angry Talker. Learn about yo...
In 1934, the Washington Post called Elder Lightfoot Solomon Michaux, the “best known colored man in America.” He was known as the Happy-Am-I Preacher. His Sunday services were broadcast to over 25 million listeners on CBS radio. Black America saw Michaux as a leader for racial harmony and progress. But during the civil rights movement, his reputation took an unlikely turn. This is episode 1 of our new miniseries Making Waves, three profiles of people who pushed the boundaries of radio. They used...
