Here, have some ear candy.
There are tons of for-pleasure radio programs out there – such as PRX Remix and the classic This American Life. This one is not as well known:
Photo: Racineur, Creative Commons, some rights reserved
THE TRUTH is fiction – we make short films without pictures. Movies for your ears.
Every two weeks, Jonathan Mitchell and his team deliver carefully produced, sound-rich audio dramas. I’ve listened to a handful of episodes (about 10, so far), and I think The Truth is actually kind of hit-or-miss. Sometimes – when it misses – the plot line feels cheesy or forced.
But when it hits, The Truth knocks you off your feet.
Listening to some of these stories (in a decent pair of headphones) has an intense, visceral effect. They are alarmingly real. You feel like you’re eavesdropping, and it’s almost uncomfortable, – but in a good, thrilling way.
This one about Jared, an emotionally disturbed veteran, sent chills down my spine. We experience the world from Jared’s point of view, so when horrible voices torment him, they torment us, too.
I also recommend Moon Graffiti, Falling, and Human Intelligence.
Read more about The Truth here.
What do you think? Are you into this stuff, or not so much?
Tags: APM, ear candy, jonathan mitchell, movies for your ears, radio drama, The Truth, you're not alone, zach hirsch
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Thanks for the tip, Zach. We count on each other to find the best of public media. I hadn’t heard of The Truth until you mentioned it to us. I’m wondering if there are any other audio gems out there that we all should know about. We’re not just audio and digital producers, we’re curators for each other. What have you found worth checking out?
I should’ve mentioned that I first heard The Truth when it was featured on the Re:sound podcast from the Third Coast International Audio Festival. That podcast is great place to find gems. It’s accomplished radio makers and sound artists curating their favorite material, each week.
Glad to have the heads up, Zach. Heck yeah, I’m totally into this stuff.
I’ve been into Radio Art since my Chicago days following Ken Nordine’s Word Jazz every week, then later on Joe Frank and then Le Show. I always tuned in to re:sound with Gwen Maxhyde (sp?) as well. Nowadays on NCPR we have the great show, Radio Lab, which is radio art as much as it is science (the show’s name is spot-on!). Often I’m tuned into our local PRX station at 88.7MHz Canton (can’t remember the call letters at the moment…WREM, maybe?), which has a fair amount of experimental and conceptual stuff.
These are the kinds of programs I value above all others.