Dmae Roberts shares the last few years of her mother's life in a story that is sweet and touching without being the slightest bit sappy or overly-sentimental. There are touches of humor, a slow and steady dramatic tension that seems just right, and an intriguing ending. Dmae's tone and style are so natural your listeners will forget that they're listening to the radio. Mother's Day is an obvious tie-in, but anyone who ever had a mother would appreciate the story at any time.

A nice little slice of life in eastern Kentucky, by way of interviews with a mom and her son, deftly mixed with a Gillian Welch song. He rides a bicycle, which is kind of a big deal around there, she started raising her family when she was 17, which is not such a big deal. The final mix is a visit with some friendly, thoughtful, charming folks, who will give your listeners some insight into how folks around Appalachia think and live. It's a kind of gentle telling, not forced too much, which is kind of how it's done in those parts...

Other reviewers have already sung the praises of this story: a daughter's account of her mother's near death experience, her mother's new persona, with musings on what it all means. There are two versions of this story: eleven and twenty minutes. If you have a "showcase" program that can handle the longer version, you may prefer it to the shorter. In defiance of conventional arithmetic, I think the eleven-minute version is just a bit too long, and the 20-minute version is just about right. How can this be? There is a level of detail in the longer version that makes many of the anecdotes more entertaining and meaningful. The narrative flow, to me, seems easier to follow. I got more of a sense of two-parallel-stories-in-one, which seems apt for a mother-daughter character set. Both versions are fine, to my ears, but I liked the longer one more (usually not the case for me, by the way).

The music and singers are quite charming...and the piece works on many levels, with references(or at least inferences) to feminism, Latin-American machoism, U.S. cultural dominance, romance...all in all pleasant, informative and thoughtful, a very nice combination.

This is a listener-friendly fun piece that makes a pretty good case for Karaoke. How did THEY know how easily I dismissed the activity (without ever having set foot in a Karaoke bar)?
But NOW I get it. Anybody who can hit that high note in Jay and the American's Cara Mia deserves a spot on your station.

I find this to be a charming half-hour, one in which Socrates of Athens, who seems quite comfortable with his New York City accent, answers all of life's most perplexing questions with the greatest of ease. Slightly reminiscent of Steve Allen's great public television series "Meeting of the Minds". Turns out learning can be not only painless but fun and interesting.

I generally don't like parodies on the radio much, and I almost didn't even bother to listen to this little batch (includes underwriter announce and geo-quiz parodies)from KERA. But these are really funny! And what can really recommend them is that they will still amuse listeners who haven't heard the originals. That elevates them beyond the simple dictionary definition of "imitating for comic effect".

This is a polished, seamless piece that takes us along on an "eight-minute date", a scheme cooked up by a dating service whereby singles shuffle from one new date to another, with only eight minutes to find out as much as they can before moving on to someone new. They take notes and afterwards visit a website that helps sort out who is interested in whom, and whether the feelings are mutual. It's fun to listen to, partly because you get to eavesdrop a bit on these quickie conversations, and partly because you can't help but reflect on whether such a contrived system adds to or detracts from the romance of it all.

This is an amusing piece that most listeners are bound to connect with in one way or another. Some interesting little surprises along the way, cool period music in all the most appropriate places, nice breezy pace.

As the producers say, this is a "parable of public relations and the price of fame", a story about a crusty old fellow who has a charming sense of honesty. Does he really dislike skiing that much? Does his wife really have the right to complain about his lackluster employment record? This guy seems to have the kind of "crusty-on-the-outside-but-a-heart-of-gold-inside" personality that TV sitcom producers try to replicate, but never quite achieve. And the story treatment first reveals and then moves beyond the typical PR cliche in a way that I think most public radio listeners appreciate.
An interesting, listener-friendly eleven minutes.

After hearing this piece you will know what sea cucumbers are, who buys and eats them and who doesn't (and why), how much money you can make fishing for them, how to process them, which central American countries almost all the sea cucumber processors at this plant come from, how much it would cost to smuggle their children here, what they had for dinner that night, what you would pay for rent if you were willing to share a trailer with eight other people, and more. An interesting and straightforward piece, complete with a sense of place.

Reminiscent of Studs Turkel's 'Working', this piece takes you along on a garbage truck's rounds. You hear it, you see it, you smell it, you are there, and it's kind of exciting and fun. "Motor Mouth", our pungent protagonist, offers some interesting and valuable insights into the power of positive thinking. No narrator, which is nice. At first I wondered why the reporter didn't edit out his questions, but then I came to realize that by leaving them in he gives the audience a much more honest picture than they might have get otherwise.

Take that old Temptations rock song "Papa was a rolling stone, Wherever he laid his hat was his home..." (was it the 70's?) and multiply it by 14, and you have an idea what this half hour is all about. Masterfully told, and at once disturbing, honest, and even inspiring, this is a powerful story. And an important one as well, giving real meaning to the words 'family' and 'grace'.

Most listeners, I think, would not soon forget this little piece. An honest, compelling account of a moment in 1st grade, 1955, that can inform us more about racism, in two minutes, than you would have ever thought possible. The Huck Finn references were masterful. I listened to the piece before I read the description, so I was as surprised as a listener who had heard no intro whatsoever. In fact, I think the minimal intro made it much stronger for me.

A cleanly edited, well-produced piece that manages to combine punks, politics, Howard Dean, body piercings, freedom, campaigning and "heart", all in one pleasant package. No hard issues debated, no commentary on media spins or primary circuses, just a clear picture of a slice of sub-culture, one presented in a rather unassuming, open and honest way. It's punx for Dean, man.