Al and Willie wrap up the season right where they started – with each other. After 30 years of friendship, their origin story is finally revealed. Errthang is produced and hosted by Al Letson, with co-host and music supervisor Willie Evans Jr., show systemizer Brie Burge and actor Jason Stephens. Check out season one here . S2 of Errthang is a production of Showcase , from PRX’s Radiotopia. Find out more and listen to the previous series, Ways of Hearing , The Polybius Conspiracy and Secrets , a...
May 13, 2018•42 min•Season 4Ep. 8
In this second half of Errthang ’s original radio drama: John Coffey doesn’t want to be Magical Negro anymore and the universe trembles in the aftershock of his decision. All John wants is a story all his own; a history deeper than him just saving white people. John sets out to find that story with the help of his fellow Magical Negroes and his creator, Stephen King. Errthang is produced and hosted by Al Letson, with co-host and music supervisor Willie Evans Jr., show systemizer Brie Burge and a...
May 04, 2018•53 min•Season 4Ep. 7
In this episode, Errthang takes on radio drama: John Coffey waits to play his part in The Green Mile in the room of Magical Negroes. With him are other Magical Negroes: Mother Abigail, Bagger Vance, and God (with a Little g). When John learns the nature of his power, he doesn’t want to be magical anymore and refuses to go. But everyone has to play their part, or the universe might fall apart. John Coffey and the rest of the Magical Negroes wrestle with question; are we all destined to play the r...
Apr 27, 2018•59 min•Season 4Ep. 6
This episode features Kiese Laymon’s memoir about growing up as a young black man in the South. The piece is performed by a small group of young black men who Al mentored in their youth. Errthang is produced and hosted by Al Letson, with co-host and music supervisor Willie Evans Jr., show systemizer Brie Burge and actor Jason Stephens. Check out season one here . S2 of Errthang is a production of Showcase , from PRX’s Radiotopia. Find out more and listen to the previous series, Ways of Hearing ,...
Apr 20, 2018•40 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Al goes deep exploring the "good guy’s” relationship to the #MeToo movement, through a story about his old friend, Louis. After the story, Al sits down with feminist commentator Kimberly Foster of For Harriet , to talk about the story, Rape Culture, and how to move forward. Errthang is produced and hosted by Al Letson, with co-host and music supervisor Willie Evans Jr., show systemizer Brie Burge and actor Jason Stephens. Check out season one here . S2 of Errthang is a production of Showcase , f...
Apr 13, 2018•34 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Al and Willie tell stories about fatherhood. Al’s story is about being a black father to a white kid, while Willie recounts teaching his son how to handle a bully. Errthang is produced and hosted by Al Letson, with co-host and music supervisor Willie Evans Jr., show systemizer Brie Burge and actor Jason Stephens. Check out season one here . Season 2 of Errthang is a production of Showcase , from PRX’s Radiotopia. Find out more and listen to the previous series, Ways of Hearing , The Polybius Con...
Apr 06, 2018•38 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Al recounts when he went to a protest to report the news, but became the news. Letson saved a right-wing protester from a vicious beating by Antifa. This episode is about why he did it, how it all happened, and how he felt afterwards. Errthang is produced and hosted by Al Letson, with co-host and music supervisor Willie Evans Jr., show systemizer Brie Burge and actor Jason Stephens. Check out season one here . Season 2 of Errthang is a production of Showcase , from PRX’s Radiotopia. Find out mor...
Mar 30, 2018•41 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Al Letson and Willie Evans Jr. are back with season two of Errthang! After a long hiatus, the dynamic duo returns to tell stories, and have a good time. This season Letson and Evans focus on stories and interviews about fatherhood, the political unrest in the country, and ruminations on love. It’s a wild, fun ride with a lot of heart and depth. In episode one, Al tells the stories of three excruciating heartbreaks that will leave you laughing. Errthang is produced and hosted by Al Letson, with c...
Mar 23, 2018•42 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Coming up next on Showcase: Errthang Errthang is just that: everything that’s percolating in journalist/storyteller Al Letson’s brain; stories told with a lot of heart, interviews with a lot of thought, music with a funky beat, and a good time with co-host Willie Evans Jr. Stay tuned for eight weekly episodes starting March 23. Find out more at radiotopia.fm/showcase . Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices...
Mar 09, 2018•4 min
Secrets is a show about the secrets we all carry inside of us. What happens when you face those secrets? In the final episode of our series, Mohamed’s secret sister Maria finally agrees to meet. Mohamed brings his daughter Samira with him to the meeting at Maria’s house a few hours drive outside Stockholm. They finally meet and talk, and try to understand together why Maria became a secret for the rest of the world. Also in episode six: We meet the former MI-5 agent Annie Machon, who was forced ...
Feb 16, 2018•46 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Secrets is a show about the secrets we all carry inside of us. How do you know if you ever truly know someone? Mohamed’s father abandoned Mohamed, his mother and his sisters and moved back to Morocco. There he started a third family. He told Mohamed’s mother nothing of this, and told the new family in Morocco that his family in Sweden had died. Mohamed’s father died of brain cancer in 1998, carrying all of these secrets with him into the grave. Also in episode five: We meet Swedish comedian Tobi...
Feb 09, 2018•30 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Secrets is a show about the secrets we all carry inside of us. How is it to be the one kept in the dark? When Mohamed’s mom was left alone with her six children, she worked herself to death and eventually collapsed at home with a heart attack. Mohamed was 12 years old. Now, 25 years later, there is no one to answer the questions he would like to ask: How much did she know about Maria, the secret sister? How much did his father lie to her? Also in episode four: Andrea Hunter and her boyfriend had...
Feb 02, 2018•36 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Secrets is a show about the secrets we all carry inside of us. What happens when you’re too ashamed to face the truth? Mohamed’s parents both worked as cleaners, trying to earn enough money to feed six children. When Mohamed was just a year old, his father left his mother in Sweden and travelled back to Morocco, leaving her alone to raise their children. She continued to work day and night to make ends meet. Since Mohamed’s childhood, thousands more immigrants have arrived in Sweden with dreams ...
Jan 26, 2018•28 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Secrets is a show about the secrets we all carry inside of us. What happens when a secret becomes larger than life? When Mohamed’s mother was a young teenager in Morocco, she entered an arranged marriage with his father, Ben Assai. When Mohamed’s father eventually travelled to Sweden to start a new life for his family, he met another woman and with her conceived a secret daughter, Maria. In episode two, we also travel deep into the forest to meet the Norwegian nature photographer Terje Hellesö, ...
Jan 19, 2018•29 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Secrets is a show about the secrets we all carry inside of us. When Mohamed El Abed found out that he had a secret sister, it was 25 years before he could start putting the pieces together. Across six episodes of Secrets , you’ll hear Mohamed’s story, and meet both people who live every day with a significant lie, and people affected by the lies of others. How is it to live with a secret that no one can know about? What happens when that secret is exposed? In episode one we meet Neil Woods who, ...
Jan 12, 2018•33 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Greetings from Showcase , a podcast from PRX’s Radiotopia featuring original series of all stripes. Coming up first in the new year on Showcase: Secrets , by Swedish producers Mohamed El Abed, Martin Johnson and Åsa Secher, explores the secrets we keep in our lives, and the overwhelming complexities of being human. Stay tuned for six weekly episodes starting January 12. Find out more at radiotopia.fm/showcase . Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices...
Dec 22, 2017•4 min
In The Polybius Conspiracy , producers Jon Frechette and Todd Luoto investigate the decades-old urban legend of Polybius, a mysterious arcade game from the '80s whose alleged existence in the Pacific Northwest is fueled by myth and an obsessive online fan base, and which may have factored in the abduction of two teenage boys. Told as a hybrid documentary/fictional story, the series is an artful meditation on how urban legends take hold and spread, and an exploration into how we consume and perpe...
Nov 17, 2017•36 min•Season 2Ep. 7
In The Polybius Conspiracy , producers Jon Frechette and Todd Luoto investigate the decades-old urban legend of Polybius, a mysterious arcade game from the '80s whose alleged existence in the Pacific Northwest is fueled by myth and an obsessive online fan base, and which may have factored in the abduction of two teenage boys. Told as a hybrid documentary/fictional story, the series is an artful meditation on how urban legends take hold and spread, and an exploration into how we consume and perpe...
Nov 10, 2017•26 min•Season 2Ep. 6
In The Polybius Conspiracy , producers Jon Frechette and Todd Luoto investigate the decades-old urban legend of Polybius, a mysterious arcade game from the '80s whose alleged existence in the Pacific Northwest is fueled by myth and an obsessive online fan base, and which may have factored in the abduction of two teenage boys. Told as a hybrid documentary/fictional story, the series is an artful meditation on how urban legends take hold and spread, and an exploration into how we consume and perpe...
Nov 03, 2017•28 min•Season 2Ep. 5
In The Polybius Conspiracy , producers Jon Frechette and Todd Luoto investigate the decades-old urban legend of Polybius, a mysterious arcade game from the '80s whose alleged existence in the Pacific Northwest is fueled by myth and an obsessive online fan base, and which may have factored in the abduction of two teenage boys. Told as a hybrid documentary/fictional story, the series is an artful meditation on how urban legends take hold and spread, and an exploration into how we consume and perpe...
Oct 27, 2017•22 min•Season 2Ep. 4
In The Polybius Conspiracy , producers Jon Frechette and Todd Luoto investigate the decades-old urban legend of Polybius, a mysterious arcade game from the '80s whose alleged existence in the Pacific Northwest is fueled by myth and an obsessive online fan base, and which may have factored in the abduction of two teenage boys. Told as a hybrid documentary/fictional story, the series is an artful meditation on how urban legends take hold and spread, and an exploration into how we consume and perpe...
Oct 20, 2017•29 min•Season 2Ep. 3
In The Polybius Conspiracy , producers Jon Frechette and Todd Luoto investigate the decades-old urban legend of Polybius, a mysterious arcade game from the '80s whose alleged existence in the Pacific Northwest is fueled by myth and an obsessive online fan base, and which may have factored in the abduction of two teenage boys. Told as a hybrid documentary/fictional story, the series is an artful meditation on how urban legends take hold and spread, and an exploration into how we consume and perpe...
Oct 13, 2017•31 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Introducing our new Showcase series! In The Polybius Conspiracy , producers Jon Frechette and Todd Luoto investigate the decades-old urban legend of Polybius, a mysterious arcade game from the '80s whose alleged existence in the Pacific Northwest is fueled by myth and an obsessive online fan base, and which may have factored in the abduction of two teenage boys. Told as a hybrid documentary/fictional story, the series is an artful meditation on how urban legends take hold and spread, and an expl...
Oct 06, 2017•36 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Introducing our new Showcase series! In The Polybius Conspiracy , producers Jon Frechette and Todd Luoto investigate the decades-old urban legend of Polybius, a mysterious arcade game from the '80s whose alleged existence in the Pacific Northwest is fueled by myth and an obsessive online fan base, and which may have factored in the abduction of two teenage boys. Told as a hybrid documentary/fictional story, the series is an artful meditation on how urban legends take hold and spread, and an expl...
Sep 29, 2017•3 min
Ways Of Hearing has looked at how digital technology has changed our world: our sense of time, of space, of intimacy and exchange. In the final episode, Damon lays out an essential choice: between a world enriched by noise, and a world that strives toward signal only. Guests include: Dr. Alicia Quesnel of Harvard Medical School and Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary; audio engineers/musicians Steve Albini and Bob Weston (Electrical Audio, Shellac) This is the sixth and final episode of Ways of Hearing, ...
Sep 22, 2017•22 min•Season 1Ep. 6
When you go into a bookstore, or record store, or library, you enter another world that you have to learn to navigate. You adapt to it . But today’s digital corporations have created a musical universe that adapts, predictably, to you. Guests include: Jimmy Johnson, owner/founder of music distributor Forced Exposure; Paul Lamere, director of developer platform for Spotify; and Elaine Katzenberger, executive director of City Lights Books. This is the fifth episode of Ways of Hearing, a six-part p...
Sep 08, 2017•24 min•Season 1Ep. 5
In the 20th century, music seemed like an object — bought and sold like any other product. But digital technology has dematerialized music, separating it from money and revealing its real terms of exchange. Guests include: Artist and writer Jace Clayton, also known as DJ /rupture; Victoria Ruiz and Joey DeFrancesco of the Providence punk band Downtown Boys. This is the fourth episode of Ways of Hearing, a six-part podcast hosted by musician Damon Krukowski (Galaxie 500, Damon & Naomi), explo...
Sep 01, 2017•23 min•Season 1Ep. 4
On the hit podcast Song Exploder , we learn the digital secrets behind some of today's best songs. But we hardly ever hear the voice of the show's creator, Hrishikesh Hirway. In a special bonus episode to Ways of Hearing , Damon Krukowski interviews Hrishikesh — and explodes Song Exploder . This is a bonus episode of Ways of Hearing, a six-part podcast hosted by musician Damon Krukowski (Galaxie 500, Damon & Naomi) that explores the nature of listening in our digital world. Credits: Produced...
Aug 25, 2017•16 min•Season 1Ep. 4
You don't have to be the son of a jazz singer to recognize the voice of a loved one as music, made up of sounds so basic to our understanding that they precede language. And yet our digital devices strip much of that away, trading intimacy for efficiency. But what is the essential part of our voices, and what isn’t? Guests include: jazz singer (and Damon's mom) Nancy Harrow, Roman Mars of 99% Invisible , and musicologist Gary Tomlinson. This is the third episode of Ways of Hearing, a six-part po...
Aug 18, 2017•24 min•Season 1Ep. 3
In Tokyo, people on crowded trains pretend they’re asleep, to avoid eye contact. But in modern-day New York – richer, neater, just as noisy – count the headphones: it’s like we’re avoiding ear contact. In this episode, Damon examines how digital technology is privatizing public space. Guests include writer/activist Jeremiah Moss and historian Emily Thompson. This is the second episode of Ways of Hearing, a six-part podcast hosted by musician Damon Krukowski (Galaxie 500, Damon & Naomi), expl...
Aug 11, 2017•23 min•Season 1Ep. 2
