Radiotopia Presents: We're Doing the Wiz

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, published by MIT Press in May 2019.   The conversation was recorded live before a studio audience on April 9 at the PRX Podcast Garage in Allston, Massachusetts and was mixed by Ian Coss. It was led by Damon, with Radiotopia Executive Producer Julie Shapiro, Ian Coss, who co-produced and sound designed the podcast, Matt Browne, who edited the book, and James Goggin, who designed the book. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 contraption, the modem. The consequences of those connections linger today.Spacebridge is a production of Showcase from PRX’s Radiotopia with additional funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Our Russian content partner is the history site Arzamas.Academy.Find out more and listen to the previous series, Ways of Hearing, The Polybius Conspiracy, Secrets, Errthang, The Great God of Depression and The Stoop at radiotopia.fm/showcase. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 to sex in the resulting “citizen summits,” which rivet participants but also put many careers on the line.  Spacebridge is a production of Showcase from PRX’s Radiotopia with additional funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Our Russian content partner is the history site Arzamas.Academy. Find out more at radiotopia.fm/showcase. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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.  Spacebridge is a production of Showcase from PRX’s Radiotopia with additional funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Our Russian content partner is the history site Arzamas.Academy.Find out more and listen to the previous series, The Stoop, Ways of Hearing, The Polybius Conspiracy, Secrets, Errthang, and The Great God of Depression at radiotopia.fm/showcase. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 satellite link between the enemy empires of the US and USSR.Spacebridge is a production of Showcase from PRX’s Radiotopia with additional funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Our Russian content partner is the history site Arzamas.Academy.Find out more and listen to the previous series Ways of Hearing, The Polybius Conspiracy, Secrets, Errthang, The Great God of Depression, and The Stoop at radiotopia.fm/showcase. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 world from top-down broadcasting to the more horizontal, Internet-levelled society where we all now live…for better and/or for worse.Co-hosted by Julia Barton and Charles Maynes, Spacebridge is a production of Showcase from PRX’s Radiotopia with additional funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Our Russian content partner is the history site Arzamas.Academy. Find out more at radiotopia.fm/showcase. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 awareness of racial issues mattered when they were choosing a partner. This mini-series of The Stoop is produced especially for Showcase from PRX’s Radiotopia. It’s hosted and produced by Leila Day and Hana Baba, edited by Julie Caine and Casey Miner, engineered by Seth Samuel and Chris Hoff, and associate produced by Jessica Jupiter. Music by Daoud Anthony and artwork by Neema Iyer. Special thanks to KALW, the NPR Story Lab, and California Humanities. Find out more and listen to the previous series, Ways of Hearing, The Polybius Conspiracy, Secrets, Errthang and The Great God of Depression at radiotopia.fm/showcase. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 hosted and produced by Leila Day and Hana Baba, edited by Julie Caine and Casey Miner, engineered by Seth Samuel and Chris Hoff, and associate produced by Jessica Jupiter. Music by Daoud Anthony and artwork by Neema Iyer. Special thanks to KALW, the NPR Story Lab, and California Humanities. Find out more and listen to the previous series, Ways of Hearing, The Polybius Conspiracy, Secrets, Errthang and The Great God of Depression at radiotopia.fm/showcase. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 of The Stoop is produced especially for Showcase from PRX’s Radiotopia. It’s hosted and produced by Leila Day and Hana Baba, edited by Julie Caine and Casey Miner, engineered by Seth Samuel and Chris Hoff, and associate produced by Jessica Jupiter. Music by Daoud Anthony and artwork by Neema Iyer. Special thanks to KALW, the NPR Story Lab, and California Humanities. Find out more and listen to the previous series, Ways of Hearing, The Polybius Conspiracy, Secrets, Errthang and The Great God of Depression at radiotopia.fm/showcase. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 and Hana also take the test, and things take an unexpected turn.This miniseries of The Stoop is produced especially for Showcase from PRX’s Radiotopia. It’s hosted and produced by Leila Day and Hana Baba, edited by Julie Caine and Chris Miner, engineered by Seth Samuel and Chris Hoff, and associate produced by Jessica Jupiter. Music by Daoud Anthony and artwork by Neema Iyer. Special thanks to KALW, the NPR Story Lab, and California Humanities.Find out more and listen to the previous series, Ways of Hearing, The Polybius Conspiracy, Secrets, Errthang and The Great God of Depression at radiotopia.fm/showcase. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices