In 2004, a racial controversy erupted at a small, mostly white performing arts high school in rural Massachusetts. There were protests. TV news crews. A tense all-school assembly. And then, an announcement: the school would stage an iconic American musical that no one saw coming. This is the story of that production. Coming June 2025.
Radiotopia Presents premiers short multi-episode series in one podcast feed, unified by bold, inclusive storytelling pushing the boundaries of audio. Learn more at radiotopiapresents.fm and discover more shows from across the Radiotopia network at radiotopia.fm.
Best of Radiotopia 2024 - Radio Diaries - “The John Birch Society”. Radiotopia’s fall fundraiser is here! Donate today to support audio with vision . Thank you! Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Best of Radiotopia 2024 - Normal Gossip - “The Suite Life of Rachelle and Kelsey”. Radiotopia’s fall fundraiser is here! Donate today to support audio with vision . Thank you! Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Best of Radiotopia 2024 - The Mortified Podcast - “The Origin Story”. Radiotopia’s fall fundraiser is here! Donate today to support audio with vision . Thank you! Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Best of Radiotopia 2024 - The Memory Palace - “Lost Jobs”. Radiotopia’s fall fundraiser is here! Donate today to support audio with vision . Thank you! And you can buy The Memory Palace book here . Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Best of Radiotopia 2024 - The Kitchen Sisters Present - “Tupperware”. Radiotopia’s fall fundraiser is here! Donate today to support audio with vision . Thank you! Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Best of Radiotopia 2024 - Hyperfixed - “Casey Wants to Believe”. Radiotopia’s fall fundraiser is here! Donate today to support audio with vision . Thank you! Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Best of Radiotopia 2024 - The Heart - “EPILOGUE | Letter to Gaza”. Radiotopia’s fall fundraiser is here! Donate today to support audio with vision . Thank you! Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Best of Radiotopia 2024 - Hang Up - “Speed Dial”. Radiotopia’s fall fundraiser is here! Donate today to support audio with vision . Thank you! Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Best of Radiotopia 2024 - Ear Hustle - “What's Up, Michael Freeman?”. Radiotopia’s fall fundraiser is here! Donate today to support audio with vision . Thank you! Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Best of Radiotopia 2024 - Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything - "Not All Propaganda is Art" episode 1. Radiotopia’s fall fundraiser is here! Donate today to support audio with vision . Thank you! Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Best of Radiotopia 2024 - Articles of Interest - “Nudity”. Radiotopia’s fall fundraiser is here! Donate today to support audio with vision . Thank you! Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
From our friends at Personal Best (CBC) — Personal Best from CBC celebrates small ambitions, half-wins and the quiet satisfaction of getting less bad at things. Each week they help ordinary people work through the little things they’d never bring to a life coach — like having the courage to dine alone at a fancy restaurant or getting less awkward at handshakes. Let them be your self-improvement sidekicks! In this episode, you’ll meet Will who likes the simple things in life, but is haunted by a ...
From our friends at the LAist — In 2023, North Hollywood’s Star Garden reopened as the only unionized strip club in the U.S. LAist Producer Emma Alabaster tells us the behind-the-scenes story of the workplace conditions that pushed the dancers into action. CONTENT WARNING: This episode includes sensitive content about sexual assault. For sexual assault and harassment support and resources, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 , which is a service of RAINN (Rape, Abuse, &...
Back in 2017, Shocking, Heartbreaking, Transformative host/producer Jess Shane made “Perfect Woman” , an episode of Love Me , the CBC podcast. In 2018, Nick van der Kolk made “ Points of Egress ” for his show, Love + Radio , inspired by “Perfect Woman” . Today, we come full circle to share “Points of Egress” with you. Listen to the end for Jess’s version of the credits. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices...
After Jess receives feedback that throws a major wrench into her production schedule, she has to make some tough decisions. Shocking, Heartbreaking, Transformative is written, hosted and produced by Jess Shane. Sara Nics is the story editor. Sound design, mix/mastering by Michelle Macklem. Production support from Mona Hassan. Cover art is by Justin Broadbent. Jess’s bibliography is available here . This reporting was supported in part by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Howard G.Buff...
With only a few months till launch, Jess plays a draft of the series for her subjects and gives them an opportunity to request major changes. Shocking, Heartbreaking, Transformative is written, hosted and produced by Jess Shane. Sara Nics is the story editor. Sound design, mix/mastering by Michelle Macklem. Production support from Mona Hassan. Cover art is by Justin Broadbent. Jess’s bibliography is available here . This reporting was supported in part by the International Women’s Media Foundati...
Jess makes a deal with Judy, an unhoused senior. Judy will let Jess document her, and Jess will help Judy resolve some of her ongoing life problems. As Jess gets sucked into Judy's crises, the rest of the series starts to slip and Jess’ relationships with her other subjects get messy. Jess starts to doubt the premise of this entire undertaking. Shocking, Heartbreaking, Transformative is written, hosted and produced by Jess Shane. Sara Nics is the story editor. Sound design, mix/mastering by Mich...
Jess begins by documenting Ernesto, a 20-year-old, newly sober fashion model. The plan is to pay Ernesto and let him be in charge of the story he wants to tell in the documentary. Things go sideways when Jess and Ernesto grapple with what will need to be cut out of Ernesto's life to turn it into a viable media product. More about Pooja Rangan’s book Immediations HERE . Shocking, Heartbreaking, Transformative is written, hosted and produced by Jess Shane. Sara Nics is the story editor. Sound desi...
Jess used to think making documentaries was good for her subjects and good for the world. But she’s not so sure anymore. With this series, she's throwing out the old rules of documentary production and trying out some new ones. Shocking, Heartbreaking, Transformative is written, hosted and produced by Jess Shane. Sara Nics is the story editor. Sound design, mix/mastering by Michelle Macklem. Production support from Mona Hassan. Cover art is by Justin Broadbent. Jess’s bibliography is available h...
Artist and documentarian Jess Shane posts a Craigslist ad: “Does your story need to be told? Tell it in a documentary! Seeking shocking, heartbreaking, and transformative stories for a new series about the documentary industry. Compensation provided.” After days of auditions, Shane casts four participants, each with varied relationships to why they want to share their stories, from Ernesto, a recovering addict and fashion model who dreams of making it big, to Judy, an unhoused senior who wants t...
Today, longtime Presents producer Ian Coss shares a new project with a simple premise. If you want to talk about music today, you need to talk about migration – the movement of people around this earth. “Movement with Meklit Hadero” is a podcast that lives at that intersection: stories of music and migration, remixed. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices...
Today, we’re introducing our Radiotopia Presents listeners to a brand new show out now from PRX. It’s called What’s Ray Saying?. In this first episode from the newest season, Ray Christian looks at the history of Black medicine and to better understand the treatment of the ills, injuries and minds of Black Americans, he reflects on his first experience of going to the doctor. What’s Ray Saying? is created, hosted, and written by Ray Christian and recorded in the great state of North Carolina. Ma...
Today, we are sharing an episode of Monumental , by our old friend Gisele Regatão, the producer/director of a hit dog will holler. For generations, Christopher Columbus has been glorified in monument after monument across the United States. And while Columbus statues have recently started coming down, including in cities like Columbus, Ohio, the largest one in the world is standing tall - very, very tall… in a U.S. territory – the beach town of Arecibo, Puerto Rico. In this episode, Gisele trave...
Borrowed & Banned is a podcast from Brooklyn Public Library about tells the story of America’s ideological war with its bookshelves. Over seven episodes, hosts Virginia Marshall and Adwoa Adusei talk to students on the frontlines, librarians and teachers whose livelihoods are endangered when they speak up, and writers whose books have become political battleground. With every episode, they’ll share steps you can take to combat censorship, no matter how old you are. Subscribe on BPL’s website...
From tenderfoot.tv comes a new compelling podcast about 24-year-old Alana Chen who disappeared from Boulder, Colorado in 2019. She left behind two dozen journals chronicling a deep faith, her love of the outdoors, and her dream of becoming a nun. Alana also kept a secret, one that put her dream at risk. In this first episode, Simon travels to Boulder to meet Alana’s mother, Joyce, and becomes determined to help her understand what happened to Alana. To hear more Dear Alana visit apple.co/dearala...
In this episode, we’re introducing our Radiotopia Presents listeners to a brand new show out now from Radiotopia. It’s called Weight For It . Weight For It unpacks the nuanced thoughts of fat folks, and of all folks who think about their weight all the time. Through narrative storytelling, and some memoir, host Ronald Young Jr. hopes to have the conversations that we tend to avoid when it comes to our bodies. We hope you’ll give Weight For It a try. If you like what you hear, subscribe to Weight...
Today we’re introducing our Radiotopia Presents listeners to a brand new dating game show, out now from Radiotopia. It’s called Hang Up . In each season, one person (the Star) is matched with six prospective love interests (the Callers). They go on dates over the phone and never see each other. After the dates, the Star chooses one person to “hang up” on and eliminate from the show. But there’s a twist— in the end, the final, remaining Caller makes their own choice: to either choose the Star bac...
Today we share the first episode of a new series, Dreamtown , from our friends at Crooked Media. Bug’s Plan. It’s 2014. Adelanto is a bankrupt city in the California desert known for its massive detention centers and not much else. Then, a stranger comes to town with a wild idea to make Adelanto great again: Become the first city in Southern California to legalize commercial weed cultivation. Subscribe to Dreamtown to hear episodes one through five right now wherever you get your podcasts. Adela...
We have a treat for you this Fathers Day—an episode from Radiotopia’s The Heart . In the latest season titled DAD , The Heart brings you a different kind of love story, one between a father and daughter. In this first episode, Kaitlin tells the story of her relationship with her dad from birth to adulthood. As she matures into adulthood, she grapples with the period of her life that the family calls 'World War 3' and what it means for her relationship with her dad. Trigger Warning: topics relate...
In honor of Mother's Day, we revisit the first episode of author Jason Reynolds’ audio memoir, My Mother Made Me , featuring (and celebrating) one of our favorite mothers–Isabell Reynolds. It’s a wonderful introduction to Jason and a love letter to his mother, Isabell. We hope you enjoy – and maybe share with a mother figure in your life. My Mother Made Me is a production of Radiotopia Presents , and is written and narrated by Jason Reynolds with his mother, Isabell Reynolds. The series is produ...
