Showing results by author "Radiotopia" in All Categories

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.

In 1998, a brain scientist named Alice Flaherty developed a rare form of madness. She felt so compelled to write that she scrawled sentences across the walls of her house and her own skin. Alice’s quest to understand her own bizarre behavior led her to William Styron, one of the most celebrated authors of the 20th century.

Ways of Hearing is a six-part podcast exploring the nature of listening in our digital world. Each episode looks at a different way that the switch from analog to digital audio is influencing our perceptions, changing our ideas of Time, Space, Love, Money, Power and Noise.

Radiotopia Presents: Red for Revolution is an audio drama centering intergenerational stories of Black women, queer love, and liberation. We meet Jazmine, an 18-year-old grappling with her queer identity, first crush, and the delicate task of mending her relationship with her homophobic mother. As Jazmine seeks solace and guidance from her grandmother, we are transported back to 1971, to follow the passionate love affair between jazz singer Lorraine Giovanni and activist Ella Ali. Two remarkable women from vastly different backgrounds, with opposing political views and living oceans apart, ...

How would you describe a world you’ve never seen? Blind Guy Travels invites you into life without sight. Join host Matthew Shifrin as he experiences a Marx Brothers comedy, creates an online dating profile, collaborates with LEGO to develop instructions for blind builders, and prepares for college graduation.

“Not All Propaganda is Art” unravels the gripping tale of three iconic writers—Richard Wright, Dwight Macdonald, and Kenneth Tynan—who became entangled in the covert battles of the Cultural Cold War in the late 1950s. As the boundaries between art and influence blurred, these pivotal figures served as both collaborators and targets of American, British, and French security agencies, ensnared in a high-stakes propaganda war over fiercely contested ideas such as the critique of mass culture and the power of politically engaged art—debates that still resonate.