Braden Storytelling Grant

Sandbranch is a community outside of Dallas that hasn’t had running water or well water for decades, but the residents refuse to leave. Founded by former slaves, it used to be a thriving town of over 500 people. In the 1980s, its wells were contaminated. The residents have been fighting for running water ever since. Now, led by a pastor, an environmental lawyer, and past and present residents of t...

How does one build a new home after losing all of one’s family? A son interviews his mother, a Cambodian refugee and genocide survivor, about her experience resettling in the U.S. He learns how her past has shaped his life. Producer: Bunnard Phan Featuring: Nickie Phan, Bunnard Phan, Music: Khnom Min Sok Chet Te by Pan Ron Chnam oun Dop-Pram Muy by Ros Sereysothea Orchestral version of “Unchained...

From the rhyming styles of breakbeat poets and Bronx backyard jams of the 1980s, hip-hop sprang forth from the heart of urban black culture to give voice to the silenced narratives of black communities. The rhythm of resistance. Uncontainable, the sound waves traveled much farther than the national border. In the 1990s, young Cubans living in the barrio of Alamar resonated with the rhythms and att...

Explore the ties between language and identity in South Africa with two women who see Afrikaans as the language of reconciliation. Two women in South Africa are currently challenging the assumption that Afrikaans is solely the language of the oppressor. One is a poet. The other runs a community radio station. Through a retelling of the true history of the language and the people who created the la...

In Abra, a province of the northern Philippines, members of several indigenous communities - collectively called the Tinggian - are fighting to protect their histories. Listen to the stories of an elder charged with upholding a centuries-old peace pact; a pastor whose ancestors fought as revolutionaries; a mayor who evaded assassination to build a school in his hometown; and a weaver who’s made it...

This podcast explores the burgeoning natural hair movement in the Dominican Republic, where the vast majority of women prefer to straighten their hair. In doing so, it explores the intersections of race, gender, and history in the country’s capital. Producer: Alyssa Vann Music: All music recorded in the plaza in the Colonial District of Santo Domingo, or in salons.

As indigenous people from Mexico migrate to California, their languages and cultures are threatened. One indigenous trilingual rapper based in Fresno is fighting back. “We are taught that we're not valuable, we are taught that we have no history, we are ignorant, we don’t have richness of culture…. I’m trying to turn everything around.” Miguel Villegas Ventura came to the US at age 7 speaking only...

After delivering one child, the Head Nurse Nassara turns around, changes her gloves, and delivers another. In Mnazi Mmoja Hospital, Zanzibar, 30-50 babies are born a day. Often, in the maternity ward, there are only 3-4 nurses working at a time. As the largest public hospital in Zanzibar, Mnazi Mmoja faces the island’s high rate of maternal mortality head on, yet, the root of the problem is hard t...

A touching and honest non-narrated produced portrait of one of the first people to be detained at JFK under the initial Trump travel ban order. Stanford PhD student traveling from Sudan: Nisrin Abdelrahman Aired on: www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/the-do…ct/segment/13703580 www.radioproject.org/2017/09/arriva…l-refugee-ban/ kalw.org/post/stanford-grad-s…n-detainees#stream/0 “80s interlude” (Album: Or Up W...

Mao Zedong’s 1950s China was the world’s bicycle production capital. In the 90’s, when the economy opened up, bicycle manufacturing was commoditized and anyone could start a bicycle factory, right in their backyards. We immerse ourselves in the rural town of Wangqingtuo, one of the towns that transformed itself from a backwater agricultural village, to a bustling center of bicycle production. What...

Living with mental illness means living with the mysterious and mundane. Caretakers of loved ones with depression, anxiety or psychosis must come to grips with both sides, and resist the tug of their own demons in the process. This is an ongoing story about a mom, her daughter and the everyday work of love. Producer(s): Sarah Jiang, Eileen Williams Music: Podington Bear, “Undersea Garden”, “Love S...

Two years after the death of one of Canada’s most beloved slam poets, Zaccheus Jackson is remembered for the work he did in mentoring the next generation of poets, showing pride in his Indigenous heritage, and building a vibrant, creative community. A poet, an arts educator, an artist, and a friend offer their thoughts on his legacy, then and now, as a former mentee travels to the places that star...

A story about professionals in various fields involved in end-of-life caregiving. As a premedical student, I explored their experiences, both negative and positive, for the purposes of finding purpose and direction through my pre-professional journey (and in life). Featuring: Torrey Simons, MD, Joshua Fronk, MD, Jo Darius, Heather Shaw, NP, Vilma Buck, Colleen Vega, NP, Lynn Hutton, LCSW, Carol St...

In this story, Nicole Bennett-Fite follows the modern cryonics movement and what it says about our desire for immortality. Produced by: Nicole Bennett-Fite Jim Yount is chief operating officer of the American Cryonics Society.

Iceland’s Concealed Conservationists is about the elf population in Iceland and how Icelanders’ tradition of hidden creatures living in the landscape encourages a deep respect for nature and a sense of responsibility to preserve the wilderness which is an essential part of Iceland’s culture and identity. But over the past few years the numbers of tourists travelling to Iceland has increased drasti...

After I retired I thought… what do I do next?” We all the know the rags to riches story of immigration and the American dream – but what happens next? The East and West have clashing views of what it means to age, and each person has to define for themselves what it means to grow old in a country that’s not their own. This piece tells the stories of immigrants learning to grow old in America, and...

In the rural Himalayas healers called dhami have used local plants and mantras to treat the sick for thousands of years. However, westernized medicine is now coming into the area and rendering the traditional ways obsolete. The tension between between the two healing practices plays itself out in a surprising way. Produced by: Christopher LeBoa

The stories of Korean comfort women were left untold for decades, until one woman broke the silence in 1995, 50 years after the end of World War II. Since then, several brave women have come forward with their experiences of forced prostitution for the Japanese army. This is the story of one woman, Gil Won-ok, after she was taken at the age of 13. She speaks for the women and girls whose stories w...

Carolyn and Corina survived abuse, illness, addiction, crime, and prison. What ways have they found to successfully reintegrate into the world? This is a story of how we heal ourselves against the specters of our pasts. Featuring: Corina Shortall, Carolyn Crowley Producer: Chuong Phan, with help from Will Rogers Image: Meltwater Via flickr www.flickr.com/photos/meltwater/578304919/  

In an isolated fishing village in Papua New Guinea, a linguist sets out to write the first dictionary of the Ende language. Not long after she begins, she finds that one word was more difficult to translate: mokwang, Ende’s word for love, which also means survival. In this story, we’ll hear how Ende women define what it means to love in Limol, Papua New Guinea. Featuring: Grace Maher, Lois Sadua (...

A Neglected Story - Hatred in Yemen highlights the story of Shoshanna Shechter, a 30-year-old Jewish woman who escaped Yemen at age 14. She speaks of physical abuse, verbal abuse, rape, murder, and kidnapping against herself and all Jews in Yemen. More symbolically, she brings to light the reasoning as to why we never hear about this silent war against Jews occurring in Yemen – escapees fear that...

“For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action. Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought. The farthest horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by...

Mr. Sayes was embedded with the South Vietnamese Rangers during the Vietnam War. He rarely saw another American, and survived some of the most harrowing combat in history. Today, he teaches high school mathematics. This is his story, told to one of his former students. Featuring: Trey Sayes Producer: Dustin Dienhart Special thanks to The Stanford Storytelling Project Photo: Dang Van Hoanh, Tiger S...

What is Rondon? What does it mean to be Creole in Nicaragua? In a world that increasingly seems to strive for uniformity, afro-descendant Creole people on the eastern coast of Nicaragua seek to hold on to their unique culture through their food. Join us as we travel between the farm, the lagoon and the city to explore how Creole food is changing due to outside pressures. "Why we appreciate Rondon,...

Braden Grant Recipient Reade Levinson travels to Mongolia in hopes of witnessing a practice known as sky burial, in which the bodies of the dead are prepared for the afterlife. But as Reade learns on her journey, in Mongolia the forces of urbanization, modernization and environmental change may be threatening this sacred ritual. “The scene would be not very nice, when you look at a dog running aro...