They’re saying I care about you and go away.” Opening the piece is a line about the function of foghorns that feels very apt for 2020: Interweaving the sounds of seagulls, the low moan of foghorns and stories of love, this piece is like an audio quilt stitched together by metaphor. More than that, this montage is an allegory in love and loss. Here I Am and Here Be Danger – Annie McEwenĪ classic in the audio world, Annie McEwen’s award-winning ‘Here I Am and Here Be Danger’ is a story about foghorns. This sweet exchange proves that love and a sense of humour never get old. Without any reporters to get in the way, the conversation is intimate and natural, giving us a snapshot of two people very much in love. He’s 107 and she’s just turned 100 and they’re engaged to be married. True to form, the Radio Diaries team sent two lovebirds (Joe and Anita) under lockdown in Florida a recorder to interview each other with.
If ever there was a tonic to this year, it is this award-winning audio gem from Radio Diaries. Listen on: Apple Podcasts, Radio Public, or any other podcast app or streaming service It is touching and heart-wrenching all at once, conjuring Cuban-American writer, Richard Blanco’s words: “What is home? It’s like asking, What is love? It changes, and it’s complex.”Ĭentenarians in Lockdown – Radio Diaries (Radiotopia) It’s a first-person account of the messy tangled threads of family and immigration and possibly the best audio piece of 2019. Saidu Tejan-Thomas, a poet and producer at Gimlet Media, pays homage to his mother, a woman from Sierra Leone trying to forge a life in the US. Not only is it literally constructed from lines of poetry, but it is poetic in the way that it renders the specific universal. The best way to describe this award-winning story is as poetry in sound. Listen on: Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or any other podcast app or streaming service