203 episodes

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.

Radio Diaries Radiotopia

    • Society & Culture
    • 4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

Listen on Apple Podcasts
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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.

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

    Guest Spotlight: Buffalo Extreme

    Guest Spotlight: Buffalo Extreme

    This week we’re featuring a story from NPR’s Embedded podcast. It’s the first episode in a new series called Buffalo Extreme, which follows a cheer team from Buffalo, New York, during the year after a racist mass shooting in their neighborhood.

    On May 14, 2022, the world changed for residents of Buffalo when a white man approached the Jefferson Street Tops supermarket and started shooting. He murdered ten and injured three people, almost all Black. That day, teenagers and children from a Black cheer team called BASE were at their gym around the corner. “Buffalo Extreme” is their story: a 3-part series that hands the mic to the girls, their moms, and their coaches as they navigate the complicated path to recovery.

    • 43 min
    The Gospel Ranger

    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.

    • 17 min
    The Longest Game

    The Longest Game

    In the spring of 1981, the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings met for a minor league baseball game of little importance. But over the course of 33 innings – 8 hours and 25 minutes – the game made history. It was the longest professional baseball game ever played. This is an excerpt of a story in collaboration with ESPN's 30 for 30.

    If you liked this episode, vote for us in the Webby Awards! The Webby’s celebrate the best of the internet, andThe Longest Game has been nominated for Best Documentary. You can vote at https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2023/podcasts/individual-episodes/documentary.

    • 19 min
    Meet Miss Subways

    Meet Miss Subways

    Beauty pageants promote the fantasy of the ideal woman. But for 35 years, one contest in New York City celebrated the everyday working girl.

    Each month starting in 1941, a young woman was elected “Miss Subways,” and her face gazed down on transit riders as they rode through the city. Her photo was accompanied by a short bio describing her hopes, dreams and aspirations. The public got to choose the winners – so Miss Subway represented the perfect New York miss. She was also a barometer of changing times.

    Miss Subways was one of the first integrated beauty pageants in America. An African-American Miss Subways was selected in 1948 – more than thirty years before there was a black Miss America. By the 1950s, there were Miss Subways who were black, Asian, Jewish, and Hispanic – the faces of New York’s female commuters.

    In this episode of the Radio Diaries Podcast, meet the Miss Subways. This episode originally aired on NPR in 2012.

    • 10 min
    The Ski Troops of WWII

    The Ski Troops of WWII

    This week we’re bringing you a story about the 10th Mountain Division, a World War II military experiment to train skiers and climbers to fight in the mountains. The men of the 10th led a series of daring assaults against the German army in the mountains of Italy. Though the division fought in WWII for only four months, it had one of the highest casualty rates of the war.

    After they returned home, many of the soldiers helped to create the modern ski industry.

    This story originally aired on NPR’s All Things Considered in 2007.

    • 24 min
    Sofia's Choice: A Ukrainian Diary, One Year Later

    Sofia's Choice: A Ukrainian Diary, One Year Later

    Sofia Bretl has lived in New York City for the last decade. But she was born and raised in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, about 25 miles from the Russian border. The city has received some of the worst shelling so far in the war. That’s where her mother lived when war broke out. As conditions in Kharkiv worsened, they faced a difficult choice.

    Music in today’s episode includes the Ukrainian band Dakha Brakha — playing at San Francisco Jazz Center on March 14th. Proceeds and donations go to organizations supporting Ukraine. Other music from Blue Dot Sessions and Dakh Daughters.

    • 12 min

Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5
1.1K Ratings

1.1K Ratings

Shortcake1987 ,

Quarantine

I started radio diaries last week from the beginning and have loved every moment of it.
I have gotten to the quarantine episodes and I just remember living with my ex and his family. We saved for a house, broke up a month before quarantine and got Stuck. I’m glad that others had better experiences 🖤

dateeverynight ,

Laugh, Cry, Repeat

I love Radio Diaries but one episode really struck me. I just listened to the episode from April 30, 2021 ‘25 Years of Radio Diaries’ (with Amanda from Teenage Diaries) and I just want to say: I want to be the kind of parent that Amanda’s parents are. I cried all the tears; happy, sad, relief, joy. It was a beautiful episode with two “all loving all the time”parents and their brave beautiful daughter. ❤️ Thank you Radio Diaries.

Snow Biscuit ,

Would be 5 stars if not for repeats

Many of the same episodes over and over and over. I could live with that if they warned you in the title when an episode is a rerun. (Many podcasts are HONEST and label their repeats.) They even CHANGE THE TITLE sometimes so I can’t even rely on scanning the titles of episodes I’ve already listened to in order to determine if one is a repeat!

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