In this episode, two young Black artists revisit memories to grapple with how they are seen by others, and how they see themselves.

"Letters to a Young Poet" is one of four episodes of Best of the Best (2020), a nationally broadcast radio special produced each year by Third Coast. Each of episode of the series features winning stories from the 20th annual Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition.

How to Remember, produced by Axel Kacoutié and edited by Eleanor McDowall for Short Cuts from BBC Radio 4.

Winner of the 2020 Best Documentary: Gold Award

This story is sonically inspired by producer Axel Kacoutié's travels to his home country of Côte d'Ivoire, where belonging and authenticity dominated his mind. This work is an attempt to reconcile and accept (in seven steps/scenes) all the parts of he’s either wrongly internalized or intuitively known to be true. 

Borders Between Us, produced by Saidu Tejan-Thomas Jr. and Jay Allison for Transom.org.

Winner of the 2020 Best Documentary: Silver Award

Saidu Tejan-Thomas is a young poet. For a long time, he had a story he needed to tell: an homage and apology to his mother. It's a tragic love story driven by the tangled search for a better life. It's personal for sure, but set against the universal perils of immigration - in Saidu's case, from Sierra Leone in West Africa - but by extension, from anywhere. Borders Between Us uses Saidu's poems as narrative drivers, reveals, and resolutions. These are not easy tasks for poems.

This episode of Best of the Best was produced by Isabel Vázquez.

Keep up with the latest from Third Coast by signing up for our newsletter at thirdcoastfestival.org.

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Three stories from 2020 that each paint a unique portrait of survival and hope in the time of coronavirus.

This episode was first published in November, 2020. For the most recent recommendations and information about COVID-19, please visit your local public health website.

"The Great Indoors" is one of four episodes of Best of the Best (2020), a nationally broadcast radio special produced each year by Third Coast. Each of episode of the series features winning stories from the 20th annual Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition.

Dat Rona [excerpt], by Dr. Janina Jeff (Host and Executive Producer) and Sam Riddell (Lead Producer), with Chad Milner (Music Producer), Chris Diggins (Creative Director) and Dr. Ashira Blazer (guest medical expert).

Winner of the 2020 Impact Award

Made on March 20, just days after the United States went into lockdown, this episode of the podcast In Those Genes features host and geneticist Janina Jeff speaking with colleagues on the immediate impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, particularly for Black communities in the U.S.

Plus, an interview with the makers of Dat Rona, recorded on November 1st, 2020.

Centenarians in Lockdown [full story], produced by Nellie Gilles, Sarah Kate Kramer, and Joe Richman for Hunker Down Diaries from Radio Diaries and NPR.

Winner of the 2020 Best Documentary: Short Award

When the 1918 flu pandemic broke out, Joe Newman was 5 years old. Today, he's 107 and his fiancée Anita Sampson has just turned 100. Together, they reflect on life, love and lockdown.

Diary of a HomeSchooler [full story], produced by Anayansi Diaz-Cortes for Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, in partnership with Chalkbeat.

Winner of the 2020 Best News Feature Award

High school student Sarah Ali-Brown finds herself managing several new heightened home responsibilities, in addition to schoolwork, during the pandemic, but she’s determined to stay on track with her future plans.

This episode of Best of the Best was produced by Isabel Vázquez.

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In this episode, we meet extraordinary people who are fighting the system, working to make transformative change and seeking a better world, for themselves and for others. 

"Towards a Better World" is one of four episodes of Best of the Best (2020), a nationally broadcast radio special produced each year by Third Coast. Each of episode of the series features winning stories from the 20th annual Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition.

The Work of Closing a Notorious Jail [excerpt], reported by Carolina Hidalgo and edited by Jen Chien for 70 Million.

Winner of the 2020 Directors’ Choice Award

Five years after Michael Brown’s murder galvanized criminal justice reform activists in St. Louis, Missouri, these folks are gaining serious momentum to shut down the city's notorious Workhouse jail — and we’re brought along to hear how they’ve managed to do it.

Somebody [full episode], narrated by Shapearl Wells, produced by Alison Flowers and Bill Healy, and edited by Sarah Geis for Invisible Institute, Topic Studios, The Intercept and iHeart Radio, in association with TenderfootTV. Mixed by Michael Raphael with sound design by Bart Warshaw and Carl Scott.

Winner of the 2020 Best Serialized Story Award

When Shapearl Wells's son Courtney is found outside a Chicago police station with a fatal bullet wound, Shapearl immediately distrusts the official narrative. So she launches her own investigation into her son’s murder — and teams up with journalists to confront the cops and find out the truth about what happened to her child.

Crosses in the Desert / Cruces en el desierto [short excerpt], written by Catalina May and Dennis Maxwell, edited by Catalina May, sound designed by Martín Cruz and produced by Dennis Maxwell for  Las Raras. Scored by Andrés Nusser.

Winner of the 2020 Best Documentary in a Non-English Language Award

Alvaro Enciso, a retired Tucson resident, spends his time methodically placing crosses in the exact places where dead migrant bodies have been found in the Sonoran desert. A story by a talented new artist concerning mental illness, toxic workplace environments, Egyptian Rat Screw, and the nature of infinity.

This episode of Best of the Best was produced by Isabel Vázquez.

Keep up with the latest from Third Coast by signing up for our newsletter at thirdcoastfestival.org.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Three stories grappling with the messiness of the mind, the body, and being a person. This episode is best listened to with headphones and/or in a quiet place!

"Of Bodies and Minds" is one of four episodes of Best of the Best (2020), a nationally broadcast radio special produced each year by Third Coast. Each of episode of the series features winning stories from the 20th annual Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition.

Songs of Speculation (excerpt) [abridged], by Jillian Walker and Ben Williams for category-other.com

Winner of the 2020 Audio Unbound Award

Songs of Speculation (excerpt) is a lecture that explodes into multi-form performance, calling on the body, time, and the power of music to reclaim histories forgotten or lost.

Not This Again [excerpt], produced by Allison Behringer with Hannah Harris Green, and edited by Bethany Denton with Cassius Adair & Caitlin Pierce for Bodies from KCRW. It was mixed by Myke Dodge Weiskopf, with music & sound design from Dara Hirsch. Lila Hassan provided translation assistance. The managing producer was Kristen Lepore.

Winner of the 2020 Best Documentary: Bronze Award

Angelina was a journalist living in Brooklyn when she was diagnosed with ALS. She now lives with her parents. How do you stay true to yourself when you rely on others to keep you alive?

A transcript of this story is available at KCRW.com/bodies.

Infinities [full story], produced by Boen Wang.

Winner of the 2020 Best New Artist Award

A story by a talented new artist concerning mental illness, toxic workplace environments, Egyptian Rat Screw, and the nature of infinity.

This episode of Best of the Best was produced by Isabel Vázquez.

Keep up with the latest from Third Coast by signing up for our newsletter at thirdcoastfestival.org.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The entire 2020 Best of the Best series will drop on the Re:sound feed tomorrow!

Gwen Macsai's brand new podcast Rising to the Challenge is available on your podcast app of choice.

To keep up with everything going on at Third Coast, sign up for our newsletter. You can also get in touch by emailing [email protected].

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Best of the Best is Third Coast’s annual ode to audio storytelling, taking listeners on a journey through the full breadth of what’s possible in stories made from sound. 

This episode showcases three of the winning stories from the 19th annual Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition. Host Gwen Macsai introduces the winners of the Best Serialized Story, Best Foreign Language & Directors’ Choice awards, plus a behind-the-scenes interview with producer Zoha Zokaei.

In The Dark, Season Two — Best Serialized Story Award

by lead reporter and host Madeleine Baran, senior producer Samara Freemark, producers Natalie Jablonski and Rehman Tungekar, reporters Parker Yesko and Will Craft, and edited by Catherine Winter for APM Reports.

In small town Mississippi, a white prosecutor tried a black man six times for the same crime, a quadruple homicide. For 23 years, Curtis Flowers maintained his innocence on death row. This story is a narrative investigation into the case, which uncovered prosecutorial misconduct, false confessions, an alternate suspect, and a pattern of racial bias.  

Click here to read the latest on the Curtis Flowers case, and to listen to the rest “In The Dark, season 2.”

Price of Secrecy (Hazineh Razdari) — Best Foreign Language Award

by Zoha Zokaei and edited by Rob Szeliga.

An unexpected turn of events occurs when 15-year-old Tannaz tells the police about being sexually abused by a friend.

Click here to listen to the full story with subtitles.

No Feeling is Final — Directors’ Choice Award

by Honor Eastly, with executive producer Joel Werner, producer Alice Moldovan, writer Graham Panther, and sound engineer Russell Stapleton. Created at ABC Audio Studios under the guidance of managing editor, Kellie Riordan.

Usually when we talk about suicide, we encourage people to "just ask for help". But Honor Eastly knows it’s not that simple. She’s been there and back, and now has years of phone recordings and diary entries which form the basis of her podcast.

Click here to listen to the rest of the series.

You can hear all the winning stories from the 2019 Competition at ThirdCoastFestival.org.

The program is made possible with support from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and distributed to public radio stations by PRX.

Music in this hour by Jeevs (“Solace”), Pablo Torri (“Linha”), Monplaisir (“I don’t need to cry but I can do it if you need to” & “on est d’accord on est d’accord on est d’accord on est d’accord on est d’accord on est d’accord”), and Stevia Sphere (“Going Down”).

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Best of the Best is Third Coast’s annual ode to audio storytelling, taking listeners on a journey through the full breadth of what’s possible in stories made from sound. 

This episode showcases three of the winning stories from the 19th annual Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition. These stories all won different awards (Skylarking, Best News Feature, and Radio Impact), but they all share a theme: investigations.

Punks, produced by Kathy Tu, co-produced by Tobin Low and Matt Collette, sound designed by Jeremy Bloom, edited by Jenny Lawton, and executive produced by Paula Szuchman for Nancy from WNYC Studios.

Winner of the 2019 Skylarking Award

A mystery story about a man, a movie, and a mad-cap adventure to unite the two.

Death in Illinois Prisons: He Didn’t Have The Death Penalty But That’s What He Got, produced by Shannon Heffernan and edited by Rob Wildeboer for WBEZ.

Winner of the 2019 Best News Feature Award

Every year, people die in Illinois prisons. Reporter Shannon Heffernan uncovered that the state hasn’t been keeping detailed records of these deaths, meaning that families couldn’t learn even the simplest details about how and why their loved one died.  

Change Intolerance, produced by Sam Fenn and Garth Mullins, co-produced by Lisa Hale, Alexander Kim, and Ryan McNeil for the podcast Crackdown, with editorial support from Laura Shaver and Chereece Keewatin.

Winner of the 2019 Radio Impact Award

In 2014, the province of British Columbia suddenly switched nearly 15,000 methadone patients to a new formulation of the drug called Methadose. Led by a team of Vancouver’s most experienced drug user activists, this story is an investigation into what happened afterwards.

You can hear all the winning stories from the 2019 Competition at ThirdCoastFestival.org.

The program is made possible with support from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and distributed to public radio stations by PRX.

Music in this hour by pine voc (“Let Your Household Objects Sing”), Jeevs (“Anesthesia”), VicthorA3 (“Semi Cold Night”), Niteffect (“Selfie”), and Genx Beats.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Best of the Best is Third Coast’s annual ode to audio storytelling, taking listeners on a journey through the full breadth of what’s possible in stories made from sound. 

This episode showcases two of the winning stories from the 19th annual Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition: the Best Documentary Honorable Mention, Bronze & Silver Award winners, plus a behind-the-scenes interview with producer Neena Pathak.

A Sense of Quietness [Excerpt], produced by Eleanor McDowall for Lights Out, a Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.

Winner of the 2019 Best Documentary: Bronze Award

In a beautifully flowing narrative, the stories of four unrelated women in the UK and Ireland connect in unexpected ways, as they discover the quiet power and hidden dangers of speaking out about abortion. Listen to the full piece here.

ROW-cub, produced by Neena Pathak.

Winner of the 2019 Best Documentary: Honorable Mention Award

After Aaji innocently asks if her granddaughter, Mithu, is bringing her "friend" home for the holidays, Mithu struggles to translate her heartache. [Note that this story is bilingual, but it can still be understood by non-Marathi speakers - to view a subtitled version of ROW-cub, go to RadioAtlas.org]

This Is Not A Drill, produced by Jazmín Aguilera with Anna Sussman for Snap Judgment from WNYC. With co-producers John Fecile, Erika Lantz, Nancy López, and Eliza Smith; original score by Renzo Gorrio; sound design by Renzo Gorrio, Leon Morimoto, and Pat Mesiti-Miller; edited by Anna Sussman and Mark Ristich; with executive producer Glynn Washington.

Winner of the 2019 Best Documentary: Silver Award

For exactly 38 minutes on January 13th, 2018, the state of Hawaii was thrown into a state of panic. This story recounts what it was like for residents on that unforgettable morning as they tried to wrestle with impending doom, death and destruction.  

You can hear all the winning stories from the 2019 Competition at ThirdCoastFestival.org.

The program is made possible with support from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and distributed to public radio stations by PRX.

Music in this hour by Pablo Torri (“Retorno” & “Volta”), Skill Borrower (“Heartstring Hotel”), VicthorA3 (“Los Derechos Se Consiguen En La Calle”), and Aviscerall (“Sanctuary”).

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Best of the Best is Third Coast’s annual ode to audio storytelling, taking listeners on a journey through the full breadth of what’s possible in stories made from sound. 

This hour of the program showcases two of the winning stories from the 19th annual Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition. Host Gwen Macsai introduces the winners of the Best New Artist Award and the Best Documentary: Gold Award, plus a behind-the-scenes interview with producer Sayre Quevedo.

Mardi Gras Is A State Of Mind, produced by Mara Lazer.

Winner of the 2019 Best New Artist Award

This is a story about the idea of shape shifting, with a friend, via testosterone. What does it mean to be a lesbian separatist who might actually be a man?

The Return, produced by Sayre Quevedo, with editors Marlon Bishop and Sophia Paliza-Carre for NPR’s Latino USA.

Winner of the 2019 Best Documentary: Gold Award

Javier Zamora came to the US at the age of nine and built a life there. But when his Temporary Protected Status was threatened by the Trump Administration, he had no choice but to return to El Salvador for the first time in 20 years. 

You can hear all the winning stories from the 2019 Competition at ThirdCoastFestival.org.

The program is made possible with support from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and distributed to public radio stations by PRX.

Music by Sieur Bigorneau (“Bleue”), Genki the Producer (“Crossroad”), toupie (“light meter”), Pablo Torri (“Sonho”), and Aviscerall (“Lullabyes”).

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Stories about people who lived to be 100, from the NPR series One Hundred Years of Stories (originally aired in 2000) by producer Neena Ellis.

Hen and Bill Boardman

At an age when most people are simplifying their lives and settling into old age, Helen Boardman was opening a new chapter - traveling to Europe, writing her memoirs, and falling in love (at age 90) with a younger man.

Ruth Ellis

Having no children, and having been shunned by her family for being gay, Ruth Ellis found herself alone in old age. That is, until a brand-new community embraced her, and helped her make the most out of the final years of her life.

Abraham Goldstein

Retirement was never in the cards for Abe Goldstein, who taught law at Baruch College in New York well into his 100s.

Roy Larkin Stamper

Cattle rancher, coal miner and preacher are just a few of the vocations R.L. Stamper pursued over the course of his 100 years. In the last years of his life, R.L. believed the Rapture was imminent and he wanted just one more thing: a wife.

Marion Cowen

Marion Cowen worked in theater and film with some of the great stars of his time and still remembers a few stories, though many memories have faded. Having outlived his entire family and almost all of his friends, Marion's primary end-of-life companion was a beloved 26 year-old cat named Soho.

Anna Wilmot

After her husband died, Anna Wilmot chose not to re-marry, believing "when you've had the best, forget the rest." Although she had many friends who she visited often, she spent most of the last three decades of her life alone. Soltitude didn't bring her down however - on the contrary Anna found many things to love about her life.

This episode of Re:sound was originally produced by Katie Mingle, and updated by Isabel Vázquez.

Find more stories like these in the book If I Live to Be 100: Lessons from the Centenarians by Neenah Ellis, which was rereleased in hardback in 2019.

Cover image by Helena Jacoba.

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This hour, we're bringing you a favorite from our archive... to-do lists, compulsive lists, data lists, lists in literature and a list of firsts!

To find out what these producers have been up to since we first aired the show, visit ThirdCoastFestival.org

The List

by Sean Cole, Ashley Ahearn and Nick van der Kolk (Love & Radio, 2011)

A man sets out to finish an unfinished list.

World's Longest Diary

by David Isay (Morning Edition, 1994)

An all-consuming list of every single little thing.

The Feltron Annual Report

by Roman Mars and Nate Berg (99% Invisible, 2011)

Anaylizing the data of life's minutiae.

They Didn't Get Along

by Rick Moody and Michael Hearst (Third Coast ShortDocs Challenge/Re:sound, 2006)

A list of things that clash.

First Love and 27 Other Firsts

by Whitney Jones (Cowbird.com, 2012)

A love story, in the form of a list.

This episode of Re:sound was produced originally by Katie Mingle, and updated by Isabel Vázquez.

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