It's no secret that Erica Heilman and Transom have a bond. She credits Transom with getting her into radio/audio. We look to her for inspiration on how to create artistic work that really matters: to her own small community and to listeners everywhere. That's quite a trick, and one we have always cared about, and are investing in for the future.

This new episode of Rumble Strip (available here and on Transom.org ) is a great example. Erica embedded with her friends for six months as they put on a play, a play about the town they live in, starring the people in the town. It's a murder mystery.

But more than that, it's a trick to get people to hang out, every kind of person in the area, even if they hold opposing beliefs, and make sure they all have a good time together. Because they are neighbors and neighborly connections matter. They may even be key to our survival. And if a mystery dinner theater production helps, terrific.

For more visit https://transom.org/2023/the-civic-standard

Transom.org  channels new work and voices to public radio, with a focus on the power of story, and on the mission of public media in a changing media environment. Transom won the first Peabody Award ever granted exclusively to a website. Transom.org is a project of Atlantic Public Media which ran the Transom Story Workshops and founded WCAI, the public radio station in Woods Hole, Mass.

Support for this work comes from National Endowment for the Arts