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Radio Diaries

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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

  1. The First Computer Dating Service: Operation Match

    18/12/2025

    The First Computer Dating Service: Operation Match

    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 choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

    12 min
  2. This Short Life

    20/11/2025

    This Short Life

    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 and Facebook @radiodiaries. To support our work, go to www.radiodiaries.org/donate.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

    16 min
  3. Detained: The Last Columbia Protester

    03/11/2025

    Detained: The Last Columbia Protester

    In April 2024, over 100 students were arrested during protests outside Columbia University, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Leqaa Kordia, a young Palestinian woman living in Paterson, New Jersey, was one of them. Kordia was let go after the protests. But months later, ICE officials took her into custody and put her on a plane to a detention facility in Texas. Kordia has now been detained there for more than seven months. She is the last Columbia protestor still in detention. Kordia's cousin, Hamzah Abushaban, talks to Kordia through a detention phone line almost every day. Today on the show, we'll hear one of those phone calls. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

    12 min

  4. 23/10/2025

    Identical Strangers

    Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein were both born in New York City and adopted as infants. When they were 35 years old, they met and found they were “identical strangers.” This story originally aired on NPR in 2007.  Liked this story? Donate and find more of our stories at www.radiodiaries.org. Follow us @radiodiaries on Bluesky and Instagram.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

    17 min
  5. The Gospel Ranger

    02/10/2025

    The Gospel Ranger

    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

    17 min
  6. The Working Tapes, Revisited

    18/09/2025

    The Working Tapes, Revisited

    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, had gone through some big changes. So we got back in touch. This week, the story of a family and their business at three moments in history. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

    17 min
  7. The Last Place

    07/08/2025

    The Last Place

    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

    30 min
  8. The View from the 79th Floor

    28/07/2025

    The View from the 79th Floor

    Eighty years ago, on July 28, 1945, an Army bomber pilot on a routine ferry mission found himself lost in the fog over Manhattan. A dictation machine in a nearby office happened to capture the sound of the plane as it hit the Empire State Building at the 79th floor. Fourteen people were killed. Debris from the plane severed the cables of an elevator, which fell 79 stories with a young woman inside. She survived. The crash prompted new legislation that—for the first time—gave citizens the right to sue the federal government. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

    17 min
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Hosts & Guests

About

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

Information

  • Channel
    Radiotopia
  • Creator
    Radio Diaries & Radiotopia
  • Years Active
    2006 - 2025
  • Episodes
    256
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    Copyright © 2017. All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Radio Diaries
  • Provider
    PRX

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