Radiotopia Presents: We're Doing the Wiz

Some teachers hang you upside-down to help you sing better. Others sit on you. In the lead-up to his senior recital, Matthew reflects on becoming an accomplished blind musician, through conversations with four of his music mentors who have helped along the way.     Blind Guy Travels is a production of Radiotopia from PRX and part of Radiotopia Presents , a podcast feed debuting limited-run, artist...

Most dating apps rely heavily on user photos and other visual cues, so Matthew gathers a team of friends to help him craft the perfect dating profile and vet potential romantic interests.     Blind Guy Travels is a production of Radiotopia from PRX and part of Radiotopia Presents , a podcast feed debuting limited-run, artist-owned series from new and original voices. Learn more about Blind Guy Tra...

Why watch a movie if you can’t see the screen? Matthew and his friend Ben take in a Marx Brothers film and showcase the power of a good description.     Blind Guy Travels is a production of Radiotopia from PRX and part of Radiotopia Presents , a podcast feed debuting limited-run, artist-owned series from new and original voices. Learn more about Blind Guy Travels and access transcripts at radiotop...

On his 13th birthday, Matthew’s friend Lilya brings a gift that will change his life, and ultimately touch Lego-loving blind kids all over the world.     Blind Guy Travels is a production of Radiotopia from PRX and part of Radiotopia Presents , a podcast feed debuting limited-run, artist-owned series from new and original voices. Learn more about Blind Guy Travels and access transcripts at radioto...

How can a blind person learn gestures when he's never seen them? As Matthew prepares for a TEDx Talk, he makes his first foray into learning body language. Blind Guy Travels is a production of Radiotopia from PRX and part of Radiotopia Presents , a podcast feed debuting limited-run, artist-owned series from new and original voices. Learn more about Blind Guy Travels and access transcripts at radio...

Matthew explains the mysterious clicking noise you’ll hear a lot of in Blind Guy Travels . Blind Guy Travels is a production of Radiotopia from PRX and part of Radiotopia Presents , a podcast feed debuting limited-run, artist-owned series from new and original voices. Learn more about Blind Guy Travels and access transcripts at radiotopiapresents.fm and discover more shows from across the Radiotop...

Behind the Series is a short-run series about the shows previously featured on this very podcast: Showcase from Radiotopia. This week, we conclude Behind the Series with a big update. Showcase is back! And we’re back as... Radiotopia Presents , your destination for limited-run, artist-owned series from new and original voices. To help celebrate, we talk with Radiotopia’s Julie Shapiro and Audrey M...

Behind the Series is a short-run series about the shows previously featured on this very podcast: Showcase from Radiotopia. This week, we revisit The Stoop. A warm, funny, and intimate podcast that tells stories about the black diaspora, The Stoop has had an interesting run with Radiotopia. After landing as a top ten finalist in Radiotopia’s 2016 Podquest search, The Stoop launched a year later as...

Behind the Series is a short-run series about the shows previously featured on this very podcast: Showcase from Radiotopia. This week, we revisit The Great God of Depression .    Initially released in 2018, this five-part series tells the story of brain scientist Alice Flaherty’s journey to understand the madness that consumed her brain and body for a time—a journey which eventually led to acclaim...

Behind the Series is a short-run series about the shows previously featured on this very podcast: Showcase from Radiotopia. This week, we revisit The Polybius Conspiracy. Initially released in 2017, this seven-part series told the creepy story surrounding a mind-altering arcade game from the 1980s and the quest of protagonist Bobby Feldstein to find vindication for an alleged abduction and assault...

Behind the Series is a short-run series about the shows previously featured on this very podcast: Showcase from Radiotopia. This week, we revisit Secrets , a six-part series from 2018. When released, Secrets offered listeners a compelling mix of autobiography, private admissions ranging from espionage to photography fraud, and storytelling traditions from Sweden and the U.S.. Three years later, pr...

It’s been awhile, we know, but we’ve got some exciting Showcase updates for you. Keep an ear right here to catch a brand new series coming your way April 28.    Want audio recommendations and updates about your favorite Radiotopia shows? Sign up for the Citizen newsletter at radiotopia.fm/citizen . Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Now is the time when you can help us keep Showcase and all of the many parts of Radiotopia thriving. Make your mark by donating today at radiotopia.fm . And keep an ear right here for a new Showcase series coming in 2020! Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

A missing plane. A cabin full of suspects. A search for the truth. Passenger List is a new fictional mystery thriller from Radiotopia. Hear episode two and subscribe to the show at passengerlist.org .  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Occasionally between Showcase series, we’ll bring you surprise bonus episodes, like the one you’re about to hear. It’s a recording of a live conversation inspired by Ways of Hearing , the very first series we ever featured here on Showcase . Since the series aired, writer, host, co-producer (and excellent musician) Damon Krukowski has taken the podcast to the page, with Ways of Hearing the book, p...

In the final episode of Spacebridge , big TV-satellite “spacebridges” become popular in the USSR, but remain a logistical nightmare—and for American producers, especially—a labor of love that few can afford. Meanwhile, a new breed of citizen diplomat enters the scene, determined to do an end-run around the USSR’s ancient telephone system. They find ways to connect people via a new-fangled contrapt...

The Soviet Union faces a series of funerals for elderly heads of state; meanwhile the nation falls in love with a “citizen diplomat” from America, a young girl. Popular daytime TV host Phil Donahue agrees to co-host a spacebridge with Vladimir Pozner, a multi-lingual Soviet known for expounding his government’s views on US TV. Soviet and American audiences argue about everything from geopolitics t...

The first two-way satellite links between the US and USSR are strange, disorganized, and sometimes a little magical. Battling language and technological barriers, Soviet and American musicians, computing pioneers, scientists, and even kids find a way to stage a series of exchanges across the skies — at first awkward, but growing more meaningful as Cold War paranoia ratchets ever higher.     Spaceb...

At a low point in the Cold War, three men walk into a bureaucrat’s office at Gosteleradio, the state broadcaster of the Soviet Union. Two are Americans: an astronaut, and a researcher of psychic phenomena. The third is a Russian utopian with a notebook full of phone numbers he’s not supposed to know. The three want approval for something that’s never been tried before: a two-way, simultaneous sate...

Spacebridge tells a largely-forgotten saga of the late Cold War, when despair about the prospects of a nuclear conflict gripped the world. Both Soviets and Americans grasped at emerging communication technology via satellite and early Internet “spacebridges” that brought together citizen diplomats ranging from New Agers to tech-enthusiasts to astronauts. The urge to “just connect” helped tilt the...

The Stoop talks to interracial couples having difficult conversations around race, love and identity at a time when racial tensions are high. And when there’s kids in the mix, these conversations can be even harder. We also hear from Professor Shantel Buggs—author of the study “Dating in the Time of #BlackLivesMatter”—who shares her findings from talking with with dozens of women about whether awa...

It’s called “the nod,” that silent acknowledgement of solidarity that especially happens when Black folk see one another in spaces where they are “the onlys.” In this episode, The Stoop hits the streets with black radio producers to give the nod and report back from New York, Seattle, and North Carolina. This mini-series of The Stoop is produced especially for Showcase from PRX’s Radiotopia. It’s...

Lean in for this one, as The Stoop heads to the lowcountry of South Carolina to celebrate the language and culture of the Gullah Geechee, a people rooted in a mix of African cultures. Meet Gullah royalty Queen Quet, unwavering defender of Gullah Geechee culture, and Professor Sunn m'Cheaux , who found himself teaching a language he’d often been told not to speak while growing up. This mini-series...

Thin nose, high cheekbones, kinky hair, what you got in your blood? Your blood won’t lie, but does it determine your identity? We meet two women – Uzaz Shami, a Nubian woman who didn’t expect her results, and Shonda Buchanan who has always identified as Native American but isn’t always accepted as that. What percent of an ethnicity makes you part of that group? Does it even matter? Co-hosts Leila...

Coming up next on Showcase: The Stoop.    The Stoop celebrates black joy, digging deeper into stories about blackness that we don’t hear enough about. Hosts Leila Day and Hana Baba bring you honest, lively conversations from across the black diaspora.  The Stoop is produced and hosted by Leila Day and Hana Baba, edited by Julie Caine, engineered by Seth Samuel, and associate produced by Jessica Ju...