Transom Pieces
So what is Transom?
A small hinged window above a door, allowing light and ventilation into hallways of older buildings. At magazine and newspaper offices, unsolicited manuscripts were submitted "over the transom."
It's also an experiment in channeling new work and voices to public radio through the Internet, for discussing that work, and encouraging more. Learn about how Transom works and how you can submit your work for consideration. While you're at it, here's list of Transom-featured work available on the Public Radio Exchange.
Are we missing your piece? Email editor@prx.org.
How Are You Who You Are
Eric Winick, 21:13
In 1995, Doug Nadeau underwent a "pallidotomy", an operation designed to eradicate neurons in his brain that no longer responded to dopamine, the naturally-created chemical that facilitates movement. Nine years earlier, while on a business trip, Doug had been bitten by an insect and developed strange, Parkinsonian-like symptoms, such as the inability to keep his eyes open while talking. These caused numerous problems for Doug, a high-powered corporate lawyer in Boston. Over time, the symptoms worsened until Doug lost his mobility at night and was reduced to a hospital bed. Following the procedure, in which Doug practically walked off the operating table, he found he was unable to inhibit certain antisocial tendencies that, prior to the surgery, he'd kept repressed. To make matters worse, his surgery turned out to be a failure, and his symptoms returned one by one. The next nine years tested the boundaries and limits of love, marriage, and tolerance, both within the family and in the Nadeaus' wide circle of friends and acquaintances.
See the piece on Transom.
Blunt Youth Radio Project
Blunt Youth in Maine, 3 pieces
Let's Talk About Sex, 03:16
Johanna Greenberg says parents, including her own, are falling down on the job when it comes to "the talk." So she makes the first move. We Are Lane One, 06:30
Emily LaFond can't handle the shame of not being the best. But an embarrassing stint on the school swim team helped her lose her ego. Joey's Phone Call Home, 05:04
Joey, an incarcerated teen, calls home.
Not Guilty: Life After Exoneration
Evan Roberts, 15:04
Rick Walker was a self-employed auto mechanic living in East Palo Alto. A single father, Walker spent much of his time with his extended family. Many of them called him "Mr. Fix-it" or "The trouble-shooter." But in January of 1991, Walker's work-a-day life changed forever. The body of his ex-girlfriend Lisa Hopewell was found bound, gagged and mutilated. Fingerprints on the duct tape led to Rahsson Bowers, a 21 year old East Palo Alto drug dealer. Bowers fingered Walker, his former mechanic, as an accomplice. The two stood trial as co-defendants. During the trial, Bowers took the stand and testified that Walker was the killer. A jury convicted Walker of murder in December, 1991. He served the next 12 years in maximum security prisons around California, until new DNA evidence and eye-witness testimony proved his innocence. Rick Walker was exonerated in 2003. This is his story.
See the piece on Transom.
Final Sale
Samantha Broun, 6:56
When Winthrop "Winnie" Sherwin announced that he was retiring and closing his store after 70 years, I knew I wanted to document it. I had lived in West Groton, home of Sherwin Brothers Clover Farm Store, for about twenty years.
My children, now grown, had gone to a four-room schoolhouse up the road from the store. After school, they would walk to Sherwin's and buy penny candy from Winnie or from his sister, Helen, who also worked there. It seems a little Norman Rockwell, and it was. Besides the candy, my kids absorbed the sense of community that centered in Winnie's store.
See the piece on Transom.
Not All Bad Things
Chana Joffe-Walt, 09:55
Payton's mom has been in prison for two years. She lives with her great-grandmother in Seattle. Several months before her mom's release Payton recorded an audio diary of "life while my mom is away." From behind a microphone, Payton interviews family members and tries to make sense of her situation.
See the piece on Transom.
SERIES: Pacific Drift Individual Pieces
Ben Adair, Queena Sook Kim, Ayala Ben-Yehuda
Individual pieces from the short-run series Pacific Drift:
- * Bad Teeth at King Drew Dental Clinic, 06:20
A morning on the "Dental Divide" at King Drew Dental Clinic in South LA.- * Botanica Sacrifice, 05:00
A ritual sacrifice in the back room of Botanica El Congo Manuel.- * Rough Sex With Sam Stern, 08:47
Sam Stern talks about his life in the Los Angeles pornography industry.- * Uses of Fear, 08:50
Three takes on the uses of fear in our society and psyche.See the piece on Transom.
Body in Motion
Jesse Hardman, 10:30
"As many reporters can attest, it can be a hard transition from the detached impartiality required for most journalism to documenting someone close to you. For nearly ten years thoughts of interviewing my dad felt forced and, frankly, the idea scared me. Did I really want to know the difficult details of his battle with the disease? [ . . .] While visiting my parents a few months ago, I woke up one morning and saw my dad was getting ready to go to a Parkinson?s support event. I grabbed my recorder and a microphone and joined him. "
See the piece on Transom.
Just Tryin' to Get Back to Abnormal
Various producers, varying length
This Katrina show began in the shower room at the Austin Convention Center. Abe Louise Young was volunteering there when she realized that the people she was helping bathe wanted to tell her what had happened to them and talk about who they were almost as much as they wanted that hot water.
This collection of pieces demonstrates the way that culture survives, transforms, and tries to heal itself in the aftermath of disaster.
- Katrina Kitsch, Eve Troeh
- Something Happened / Permission to Leave, Heather Booth
- Elmer Glover, Alexandra L. Woodruff
- Kevin Goodman, Big Chief of the Flaming Arrows, Sarah Yahm and Abe Louise Young
- Katrina Oral History montage, Sarah Yahm
Street Fantasy and Baby Mama Drama, Drama
Natalie Edwards, 06:31 and 4:30
Street Fantasy: What can be said about the sexiest, nastiest, and most dangerous profession?There are different sides to prostitution. We have the good, the bad, and the ugly. In this feature, fantasy meets reality when all sides of the world's "oldest profession" are discussed.
Baby Mama Drama, Drama: Natalie once had a boyfriend who had a child from a previous girlfriend. This is a dramatic re-interpretation of what happens with two's company, three's a crowd and four is unbearable.
The Transom Radio Hour
Various producers, 53:00 shows
Host Jay Allison, creator of the website Transom.org, presents new work and interviews producers. Each hour-long program focuses on a theme, category or format (e.g. radio diaries, portraits, interviews) and offers thoughts on informed listening and even producing that sort of work.
The series is hosted by Jay in conversation with exemplary radio producers, like The Kitchen Sisters (Talking to Strangers), Dave Isay (Family Interviews), Joe Richman (Audio Diaries), Rob Rosenthal (Learning the Craft), David Greenberger (Conversations with our Elders), and Benjamin Walker (Experimenting with Sound). The hours showcase the work of those producers, and new work from the new voices featured on Transom.
After the Dumpster
Elizabeth Chur, 11:43
Melodie's hoarding problem jeopardizes her safety, and her landlord has threatened her with eviction. Yet she's discovered an ingenious tool in her struggle against a sea of possessions.
"A compelling story of a strange disorder which would make an interesting item in a feature programme."
Sujan | full review
The Duplex Planet
David Greenberger, 93 drop-ins
For more than a quarter century David Greenberger has been talking with old people in nursing homes, mealsites and senior centers, collecting conversations and stories. His radio pieces are genuine, moving, and often funny, exploring issues of aging through real characters that are in decline, but are still very much alive.
See David's news-compatible piece, Growing Old in East LA.See the piece on Transom.
Our Name is Rogelio Bautista
KRCB Voice of Youth, 21:26
From the perspective of newspaper accounts and police reports, Rogelio Bautista died for a word, a color, a number, his death jotted down as just another statistic in our escalating gang war - but that's not the perspective of the four narrators of the story "Our name is Rogelio Bautista."
These four fourteen year old kids knew him as the cousin they'd crammed into a tiny apartment with, the kid who they played baseball with using cans as bases, the tough hero of their neighborhood...they narrate his story in the voice of this young man.See the piece on Transom.
Cutting/This New Game
KRCB Voice of Youth, 08:26
This piece addresses the recent phenomenon of "cutting" from the inside perspective of a teenager, Amanda Wells, who believes that no one is really getting at the heart of the problem or explaining what it feels like to cut your own body. In this sound collage, she focuses on the fundamental urge to self-mutilate and what it would take for someone to stop, while hinting at some secrets from her own life.
See the piece on Transom.
Conversation with Cornel West
KRCB Voice of Youth, 14:45
19-year-old Laquoia Simmons had a big night a while back: she met and interviewed Professor Cornel West, the famous 'interpreter of the African-American experience,' advocate for social justice, philosopher and critic. She reflects on her trip to Sonoma State University, and discusses what it was like to be an 'at-risk' young woman meeting a writer who writes so much about the so-called 'at-risk' population.
See the piece on Transom.
Eating Close to Home
Bill McKibben, w/ Chelsea Merz, Viki Merrick, Jay Allison, 07:42
Author and enviromentalist Bill McKibben goes an entire winter eating only foods from the Lake Champlain valley in Vermont -- and learns lessions about the global food system.
Bill McKibben is the author of "Wandering Home: A Long Walk Across America's Most Hopeful Landscape, Vermont's Champlain Valley and New York's Adirondacks."See the piece on Transom.
Here There is No Moon
Susan Stone, 26:37
A portrait of the long, dark tunnel of the suicidal mind.
This piece began not so much as investigation into why people attempt suicide, but as a portrait of what leads them to the act, and how they regain their footing - if they, in fact, can - on the other side.
"A beautiful, compelling and constructive half-hour about suicide - it's art - and it could even save a life."
See the piece on Transom.
1000 Postcards
Rene Gutel, 09:17
A bus driver writes his daughter every day for 1000 days.
"Richer and deeper with every passing minute. It operates on many levels at once -- there's a lovely Oulipian formalism to the task Rene's dad sets himself -- but this piece always feels warm, natural, and absolutely unaffected."
Schulman | full reviewSee the piece on Transom.
The Tomato and The Big Apple
Alwine van Heemstra, 28:41
In this radio documentary a tomato's course of life sheds light on the complexity of life in a metropolis. What compels people to choose for a ruthless existence in an overcrowded city? People seem to harden, especially in densely populated areas like New York City. The smallest issues engage people into scolding or fighting. In addition New York City is one of the most expensive cities in the world.
"This is a very fine piece, from a mind that will clearly produce much more of value. I can't wait."
See the piece on Transom.
I Wish
Samantha Broun, 07:31
My idea was to collaborate with people - through the mail - by asking them to record responses to the question, "What do you wish for?" I started by making five pieces of mail art, each of which included a mini disc, an invitation to collect wishes and a small card with prompts on it. I sent these "I Wish" packets out to five people - who I knew to varying degrees - across the country.
"I wish the radio stays open. I wish this piece to fly out there and find an audience. I wish fulfilling things for the producer, I wish for more wishing."
See the piece on Transom.
SERIES: Invisible Ink: Series #1
Roman Mars, nine 29:00 episodes
Invisible Ink is your radio zine, featuring local writers (some with mainstream success, some still struggling to make a living), national zine publishers, artists in all forms of alternative media, and people on the street come together to talk, tell stories, and give social commentary -- all set to music.
On Note to Sixth-Grade Self: "The agony of young self-awareness beats your heart."
Chasing Love
Miguel Macias, 59:46
Chasing Love is a one-hour radio documentary that explores the ways late capitalism has affected and is affecting the idea of Romantic Love and consequently, the way relationships are handled and viewed in American society.
The show tries a way of conceiving a piece as a whole; where music is composed as the bits of interviews are blended together; where secrets are told behind words of narration. Where the producer is nowhere to be found and present in every second of it."This is one of the best documentaries on any topic."
See the piece on Transom.
Girl Detectives
Sue Mell, 17:57
A poignant and personal piece about the struggles of three women to cope with the murder of a beloved friend in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Frustrated and unsatisfied with the findings of the police, they try to do some investigating of their own.
"The dialogue was captivating and I ended up caring greatly about the characters. I found the ending wholly unsatisfying -- which is to say, perfect for this piece."
Gully | full reviewSee the piece on Transom.
Family Sentence
Jeanine Cornillot, 29:10
"My dad spent 23 years in prison. He started off as a Cuban Revolutionary and later ended up a convicted felon in the United States. We only talked once in the last 16 years. Then, out of the blue I got an email from him. He wrote:
"'I'm home. Your biological father, Hector.'""This is great radio filled with so many beautiful moments."
See the piece on Transom.
The Mayor of Nichols
Gwen Macsai, 34:32
In 1972, I knew Arthur Earl Hutchinson as an eighth grader, full of beans. In 2000 he was shot by a Chicago policeman and killed. At the time he was described as homeless. I wanted to go back and try and find out what happened to him in the thirty three years since I had last seen him.
"Gwen Macsai remains one of public radio's great storytellers."
See the piece on Transom.
Biography of 100,000 Square Feet
Benjamin Temchine, 29:30
In the center of San Francisco, there is a plaza with no benches and a fountain with a fence around. It's a place that most people cross the street to avoid. How does this happen? Why does a public space fail? Is there a point where good intentions and idealism become so removed from reality, they actually border on negligence?
"This is truly great work. There were hundreds of places where the author could have taken short cuts, emerged with easy epiphanies. he avoided them all, and he's given city dwellers everywhere a really important text for reflecting on how planning gets done."
See the piece on Transom.
Your Radio Nightlight
Benjamen Walker
Call to Canada, 15:55
An American navigates through the Canadian immigration telephone system until he gets a live body. He then tells his tale of woe, he is depressed and frightened about what is going on in his country. He hopes to seek refugee status in Canada."Hilarious and engaging."
Mars | full review
Holy War, 58:30
This show has two elements: the first is a sci-fi fictional documentary about a future Christian America where victims of Terrorism are presented with clones of their attackers to do with as they please; the second is a monologue about going to war not in the name of God but rather with God himself."This is a great show, and this is a great episode, suitable for any broadcast."
Parker | full review
For the Blood Is the Life
Julia DeBruicker, 09:43
Three generations - nephews and nieces, uncles, great uncles - of one family shepherd us through the harvest of their homegrown meat goats. They discuss how mountain-raised meat fills a savvy local niche in the global economy and share how their expectation of the second coming guides them in their craft.
"A story with a strong sense of place, tradition and culture."
Easley | full review
See the piece on Transom.
The Day My Mother's Head Exploded
Hannah Palin, 19:57
On August 20, 1987 my mother had a brain aneurysm when she was only forty-six years old. She survived. Most people don't. I've come to refer to this life-changing event as "The Day My Mother's Head Exploded." The proper, socially conscious mother I grew up with died that day, and was replaced by an entirely different person.
"If you audition no other PRX piece this month, listen to this one."
Schulman | full reviewSee the piece on Transom.
Of a Piece
Michelle Orange, 17:04
A father/daughter meditation on divorce, tradition and jigsaw puzzles.
"Definitively the kind of piece I'd like to hear on the radio [. . .] It's a look at puzzles of all kinds--one woman's relationship with her father reveals a host of other truths about family and divorce, about tradition and what it does or doesn't mean, and ultimately about what lasts--what survives the failures of love. Eloquently, wittily and compellingly structured, told and scored."
Mell | full reviewSee the piece on Transom.
Roadway Renaissance Man
Carla Neufeldt, 06:11
Tom Nunes works full time at a toll booth on the Maine Turnpike. If the jazz wafting from his booth doesn't get you, his personality will.
"Love this piece - the man, the music, the story. It would be perfect for drive-time news magazine shows."
Astley | full review
See the piece on Transom.
Johnny Comes Home
Rupa Marya, 07:17
John Marchelletta is a Marine veteran of the current conflict in Iraq, who can't sleep at night since he has returned to his home in Gardiner, Maine. In this story, John relates a disturbing incident in which two young Iraqi girls are accidentally shot during an ambush at night when the US Marines were on the way to Baghdad.
"What a marvelous piece of radio. Its confessional quality is perfect for this medium. "
See the piece on Transom.
Sweet Phil from Sugar Hill
Phyllis Fletcher, 28:58
A man has 14 children with 13 different women, dies young, and leaves them to learn about him through each other, and through the letters he wrote from prison.
"This is one provocative piece that begs questions about family life, relationships and the different paths a person can take."
See the piece on Transom.
The Imaginary Village
Sandy Tolan and Melissa Robbins, 19:00
The Imaginary Village is a story about the longing for home. It is told almost entirely in the voices of Palestinians living in refugee camps in the West Bank and Lebanon. Some fled their villages in 1948; others only know those villages through the stories, photos, songs and maps preserved by their parents and grandparents.
"It's stirring and stays with you; it's maddening and confounding."
See the piece on Transom.
The Most German Day Ever
Brendan Greeley, 13:07
Six hours in Krautsand, a German town of 200 souls that sponsors the World Championships of Lawnmower Racing and wishes to secede from the Federal Republic of Germany.
"This is what radio is all about: informative, amusing, entertaining, engaging listening. The reporter tells his tale with a dry humor that does not corrode his respect and love for the subject."
See the piece on Transom.
Jimmy & Jewel: A Love (?) Story
Jason Rayles, 16:00 and 10:52
A woman I had never met before handed me a rose at my grandfather's funeral. Later, I heard that she was his girlfriend. I had always known my grandfather in the way I was most comfortable imagining him, and this new information did not quite fit. I talk to Jewel and to my aunt Tami about her relationship with Papa.
"It's hard to do a story on your family or people close to you, but when it comes out this good, it's all worth it."
See the piece on Transom.
The Fair
Jason Rayles, 10:28
Every fair is essentially two fairs: one sunny and bright, full of cuddly animals and babies; the other dark and ambiguously dangerous, more grown-up and aggressive. The subject is one we all know, yet it is one that we have mythologized into a (somewhat treacherous) fantasy world of oddballs, oddities, misfits, and shysters.
"The producer's narration is a wonder."
Braider | full reviewSee the piece on Transom.
Street Dogs
Jake Warga and Matt Perry, 12:00
The university district has in recent years enacted some drastic (and possibly unconstitutional) local ordinances targeted directly at homeless kids who tend to congregate on certain streets. These laws ban sitting or lying down on the sidewalks or in doorways, and the Seattle Police have taken to enforcing them with draconian strictness.
Walk down the street in Seattle, it's easy to ignore the throngs of homeless grungy kids asking for spare change. But it's harder to ignore their dogs.
Home From Africa
Jake Warga, 20:00
Follow Jenafir into the heart of Africa and the human condition. Mixed interview and sent tapes: hear the symptoms of chronic Peace Corps Withdrawal, what village life is like, and how the hardest culture shock is coming home.
"We've heard the story before -- Post Partum Peace Corps Disorder -- but told with audio diaries and some production flourishes it sounds different and fresh."
Seafood Joint, Garbage,
& Stress Test
Three pieces from Hans Anderson
Seafood Joint, 07:05
A racist man turns violent against my friends and me at a seafood restaurant."It gave me the feeling I was inside some sort of strange maze or something, where you think you're going one place, and suddenly you've taken a turn that brings you to another turn until finally you wind up at a completely startling destination with no idea what brought you there."
Taliaferro | full review
Garbage, 13:28
For fourteen months, starting in January 2002, I went through my neighbor's garbage twice per week."A clear, discernable voice. A refreshing and surprising piece that will provoke listener calls."
Braider | full review
Stress Test, 07:19
I took a stress test that seemed to include testing my stress level on getting to the stress test."This one has a wonderfully lively style. The editing is pure pleasure and the narrative voice is smooth and real."
Allison | full review
SERIES: The Little Gray Book Lectures
John Hodgman, 57:26
"The Little Gray Book Lectures" are a series of readings, songs, demonstrations, discussions, and occasional overhead projections that have been held near-monthly in Williamsburg, Brooklyn since 2001. Like ?The Little Blue Book? instructional pamphlets of the 20th century that inspired them, the Lectures are amusing, brief, accessible, enlightening, disposable to some, collectible to others, and always theme-specific.
"Felt like the kind of dinner party you always wish you'd have."
Mayer | full review
© 2007, The Public Radio Exchange
