Monster America (Travels With Mic, Part 1)

Emmett and Trayvon: There’s a long and painful history in the U.S. of white men killing black men and boys without punishment. In this episode, we listen in on “Dar He,” the one-man play by Mike Wiley that brings to life the story of Emmett Till. by Scene on Radio

16 min listen

Dick Move (MEN, Part 1): Launching our Season 3 series, co-hosts John Biewen and Celeste Headlee look at the problems of male supremacy. by Scene on Radio

38 min listen

The (High School) Mascot Wars: Two small towns, one in Idaho, the other in Upstate New York, try to decide whether to change the nickname of their high school sports teams: The Redskins. by Scene on Radio

26 min listen

An Athlete Inside and Out: Tal Ben-Artzi didn’t worry about being an out bisexual athlete at Penn State. Maybe she would have if she’d known the school’s history. How much have times changed? In Part 4 of “Contested,” our series on sports,... by Scene on Radio

22 min listen

Losing Ground: For Eddie Wise, owning a hog farm was a lifelong dream. In middle age, he and his wife, Dorothy, finally got a farm of their own. But they say that over the next twenty-five years, the U.S. government discriminated against them because of their race,... by Scene on Radio

51 min listen

El Nuevo South: Siler City, North Carolina used to be a typical Southern town. Everybody was white or black. Now the town’s population is half Latino. One community’s journey through the “five stages of grief” – all the way to acceptance? By John Biewen and... by Scene on Radio

39 min listen

Straight, No Chaser: A South Sudanese refugee and the music that cuts his heart to pieces. Thelonious Monk’s North Carolina roots. Music and home. Pieces by Nusaibah Kofar-Naisa and John Biewen. by Scene on Radio

21 min listen

A Level Playing Field?: Two families, both making big investments of time and money to involve their kids in sports. But the investments they’re able to make are very different. In Part 5 of “Contested,” our series on sports, society and culture: Sports and... by Scene on Radio

27 min listen

Hijabis: The surest way for a woman to declare herself a Muslim is to wear the head scarf — the hijab. In these two short pieces, young Muslim women explore the often unwelcome questions and perceptions that come with the scarf, and the deeply... by Scene on Radio

18 min listen

Hearing Hiroshima: The word “Hiroshima” may bring to mind a black-and-white image of a mushroom cloud. It’s easy to forget that it’s an actual city with a million people and a popular baseball team. How did the cataclysm of 1945 reverberate in the place where it... by Scene on Radio

33 min listen

No Santa: A father turns on a recorder while tucking in his 7-year-old, having no idea he’s about to capture a poignant growing-up moment in his son’s life. (Advisory: This episode is not suitable for some young children.) by Scene on Radio

14 min listen

That's Not Us, So We're Clean (Seeing White, Part 6): When it comes to America’s racial sins, past and present, a lot of us see people in one region of the country as guiltier than the rest. Host John Biewen spoke with some white Southern friends about that tendency. Part Six of our ongoing series,... by Scene on Radio

40 min listen

Friends and Basketball: More from suburban St. Louis, post-Ferguson, on the popular notion that sports unites communities. Can the camaraderie of a team sport make race and class status “disappear” for the kids involved or their parents? Scene on Radio host and... by Scene on Radio

26 min listen

Sports, the Great Uniter?: Can a winning baseball team bring St. Louis together post-Ferguson? John Biewen explores the question in the inaugural episode of Scene On Radio, a new podcast of audio stories from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. by Scene on Radio

13 min listen

The Dead Can't Do You Nothing: It waits for us all. A lot of people want to think about death as little as possible. Others want to dive right in and explore the mystery. Two short docs on the Big D. by Scene on Radio

23 min listen

The Right Note: Music can be a powerful gift – if you get the song right, or the right song. Two stories from North Carolina. by Scene on Radio

17 min listen

I Found No Strangers (Travels With Mic, Part 3): The last in our series exploring the spirit of America in the footsteps of one of its greatest writers, John Steinbeck. At key spots on Steinbeck’s 1960 journey across the country, we team up with artists to explore how things have changed, or not,... by Scene on Radio

24 min listen

Selected ShortDocs: Memory: A quartet of very short works exploring memory – most inspired by Third Coast Audio Festival ShortDoc Challenges. Pieces by Ligaiya Romero, Madeline Miller, Nan Pincus, and John Biewen. by Scene on Radio

18 min listen

Monster America (Travels With Mic, Part 1): First in a three-part journey into the soul of America, through the eyes of working people who happen to be artists. In this episode, David Slater in Sag Harbor, New York, and Kalamu ya Salaam in New Orleans. Retracing the 1960 journey by writer John... by Scene on Radio

22 min listen

Emmett and Trayvon (Rebroadcast): There’s a long and painful history in the U.S. of white men killing black men and boys without punishment. In this episode, we listen in on “Dar He,” the one-man play by Mike Wiley that brings to life the story of Emmett Till. by Scene on Radio

19 min listen

Rogue Chickens and Ratty-ass Radishes: A punk farmer. A tale of rogue chickens on the loose in the city. A pair of refreshing takes on the whole Food thing, in and around Durham, NC. Pieces by Emily Hilliard and Joseph Decosimo. by Scene on Radio

20 min listen

What Men Talk About When They Talk About Sports: Tens of millions of Americans, most of them men, tune in to sports talk radio. Is sports talk a haven for old-school guy talk, including misogyny and gay-bashing? For the final episode in our series on sports and society, “Contested,” host... by Scene on Radio

20 min listen

Losing Yourself: It happens. A happy, healthy young person suddenly gets a grave diagnosis. What does not usually happen: The patient rolls tape. By Ibby Caputo. by Scene on Radio

32 min listen

Things I'm Afraid to Say: A refugee from Bosnia. An NYC-born survivor who grew up poor, black, Muslim, and gay. And how one, and her music, saved the other. by Scene on Radio

21 min listen

My Dad and Me, in Three Songs: It can take a lifetime to make sense of a parent, or to get over him. Or, just maybe, to come to terms. By Ruxandra Guidi. by Scene on Radio

19 min listen

Close Relations: The people we love have power—the power to upend our lives, or at least to make things interesting. Two stories of surprises, curveballs thrown by family members. Pieces by Qathi Hart and John Rash. by Scene on Radio

17 min listen

Groundwork: People in two communities – one in Alaska, one in New York State – wrestle with questions about energy and the environment. We listen in on democracy close to home. Stories by John Biewen and Jon Miller, edited by Deb George. by Scene on Radio

24 min listen

Little War on the Prairie (Seeing White, Part 5): Growing up in Mankato, Minnesota, John Biewen heard next to nothing about the town’s most important historical event. In 1862, Mankato was the site of the largest mass execution in U.S. history – the hanging of 38 Dakota warriors – following one... by Scene on Radio

63 min listen

The Way It Is (Storymakers, Part 2): Three stories conceived and made by citizen storytellers Jamila Davenport, Roberto Nava, and Debby Bussel explore race, class, and gentrification in Durham, North Carolina. Part of Storymakers: Durham, a project of the national... by Scene on Radio

35 min listen

Made in America (Seeing White, Part 3): Chattel slavery in the United States, with its distinctive – and strikingly cruel – laws and structures, took shape over many decades in colonial America. The innovations that built American slavery are inseparable from the construction of... by Scene on Radio

34 min listen

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Monster America (Travels With Mic, Part 1)

Monster America (Travels With Mic, Part 1)

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