The Transom Radio Specials

Series produced by Atlantic Public Media

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Transom.org is the public radio website dedicated to helping people tell their own stories. Transom offers the tools, the techniques and the encouragement to get those stories on the air and help public radio fulfill its mission. From time to time Transom creates special hours for broadcast. These are generally stories we're not hearing on traditional broadcast outlets and often the voices of those we don't hear from at all.

Transom Radio Specials are made up of documentaries, portraits and diaries. They're evergreen and can be run separately or as a series. We'll keep adding to this series as new hours are created.

For more from Transom, check the Transom Radio Hour which focuses on the art and craft of making radio http://www.prx.org/series/11068-the-transom-radio-hours


14 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: Actors from Developed to Death, a mystery dinner theater show from the Civic Standard in Hardwick Vermont. The mission of the Civic is to give neighbors excuses to get together, even if someone had to die before the salad course. , Credit: photo by Terry J. Allen.
"The Civic Standard" chronicles the making of a unique theater production in Hardwick, Vermont. "Developed to Death" is a play about Hardwick and w...

Bought by KWGS, Prairie Public, KALW, and WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass.


  • Added: Jul 06, 2023
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Artwork by Carla Kihlstedt, Credit:  https://carlakihlstedt.com/
War correspondents are charged with reporting from the frontlines. Putting themselves in risky situations, documenting, and sharing what they see f...

Bought by WFAE, Red River Radio Network (E. Texas/Louisiana/Arkansas/Mississippi), KWMR, WCQS, WXXI Rochester and more


  • Added: May 19, 2020
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 12
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When COVID-19 struck, Producer Erica Heilman was looking for a way to be useful. She wasn't needed to make school lunches or volunteer at the hosp...

Bought by WGBH Radio Boston, WBEZ, KSFR, KZMU Moab Community Radio, KLCC and more


  • Added: Apr 30, 2020
  • Length: 58:59
  • Purchases: 11
Caption: Aminata Tejan-Thomas, Saidu Tejan-Thomas and Saidu Tejan-Thomas, Jr., Credit: courtesy of Saidu Tejan-Thomas Jr
Saidu Tejan-Thomas is a young poet. For a long time, he had a story he needed to tell: an homage and apology to his mother. It's a tragic love stor...

Bought by WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass. and PRX Remix


  • Added: Apr 15, 2020
  • Length: 38:13
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Franz Wright
What if you have a story that's really complicated, and you have 546 tapes to listen to, and you get obsessed and don't know where to stop? All of ...

Bought by WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass., KFAI Minneapolis, WRVO Public Media, KUT, WYSO and more


  • Added: Jun 06, 2018
  • Length: 57:59
  • Purchases: 11
Caption: Samantha Broun with Ernest Preate , Credit: Associated Press
This is a story about a terrible crime and everything that followed. It’s an intensely personal documentary, but it extends into public life and in...

Bought by HowSound, WGBH Radio Boston, KTSW 89.9, Third Coast Festival/Re:sound (Outside Purchaser), WHYY and more


  • Added: Mar 01, 2016
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 19
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A remarkable half-hour of insights into a hospital’s most traumatic and intimate moments. A Transom Radio Special produced by Sam Slavin with Viki ...

Bought by Australian Broadcasting Corporation, KOSU, and KGOU


  • Added: Oct 12, 2015
  • Length: 28:30
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Some of Delta 187 Rakassans
We've Never Been The Same: A War Story is the story of one night of battle and the decades of recovery that followed. Produced by Adam Piore and Ja...

Bought by WORT, Interlochen Public Radio, KCUR, WFIU, WITF and more


  • Added: Sep 08, 2015
  • Length: 53:28
  • Purchases: 104
Caption: Kelly McEvers, Credit: Glen Carey
NPR's Kelly McEvers' unprecedented and intimate portrait of the sacrifices reporters and their families make to tell untold stories -- and the some...

Bought by WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass., Prairie Public, KSUT, RadioFreePalmer, WYSO and more


  • Added: Jun 18, 2013
  • Length: 58:19
  • Purchases: 81
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Andrew Forsthoefel set out at age 23 to walk across America, East to West, 4000 miles, with a sign on him that said, "Walking to Listen". This hour...

Bought by KZYX, WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass., KZMU Moab Community Radio, WFAE, KUPR low power FM and more


  • Added: Apr 02, 2013
  • Length: 53:57
  • Purchases: 75
Caption: Street Minister, River Sims
An oral history of the Polk Street neighborhood in San Francisco, as told by those who have called it home.

Bought by WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass., KCPW Salt Lake City, KZYX, KQED, C89.5 - KNHC Seattle and more


  • Added: Jun 12, 2010
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 23
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Two audio diaries: a street kid who decides to wise-up and a person born in the wrong body

Bought by KUNM, KUPR low power FM, WFAE, Georgia Public Broadcasting, KGOU and more


  • Added: Jun 07, 2010
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15
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First-person voices from all sides of adoption. Stories about living with questions and searching for answers.

Bought by WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass., WRVO Public Media, WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass., KOSU, KQED and more


  • Added: May 21, 2010
  • Length: 54:01
  • Purchases: 23
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Studs Terkel, America's greatest listener: A remembrance from those who worked with him.

Bought by HowSound, Troy Public Radio, WNMU-FM, WORT, KUPR low power FM and more


  • Added: Apr 26, 2010
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 48