Why did these two Virginians who lived 200 years apart write diaries in code? What were they trying to hide and what can we learn about them? William Byrd kept a diary written in code in the 1700s. In 1933 Bradford Jacob Wasserman hid what he saw in a coded diary while traveling in Europe during the brink of war. Their descriptions of mundane and monumental actions reveal their fears. Can we move beyond this legacy now that we know the truth? Thanks to Avraham Calhoun for listening to the stories and offering his insights. This piece was produced as part of the 2022 KCRW Radio Race.

Secret diaries reveal fears

This Virginia Union University Radio Production Class public affairs show first aired Monday, April 20, 2020 on WRIR LP 97.3 FM, Richmond Community Radio. The students in a radio production class I taught, produced a series of segments that as a whole they called “Tea With R-P-C” (Radio Production Class. Segments focus on politics, college sports issues, artist profiles and good eats. Produced pre-pandemic, but aired during the height of the pandemic.

Virginia Union University Radio Project Class Show - April 2020

In 2020 after classes went virtual, Virginia Union University students in my Radio Production class produced audio diaries recording what their lives were like as they disbursed from campus, thousands around the world got sick and died and the world came to a standstill. It was a scary time full of unknowns. Thanks to WRIR 97.3 FM Richmond Community Radio president Melissa Vaughn for editing the segments together to produce a show, which aired in June 2020, in its entirety. Part 1 of 2.

Coronavirus Diaries by Virginia Union U 2020 Radio Production Class

In 2020 after classes went virtual, Virginia Union University students in my Radio Production class produced audio diaries recording what their lives were like as they disbursed from campus, thousands around the world got sick and died and the world came to a standstill. It was a scary time full of unknowns. Thanks to WRIR 97.3 FM Richmond Community Radio president Melissa Vaughn for editing the segments together to produce a show, which aired in June 2020, in its entirety. Part 2 of 2.

Coronavirus Diaries 2 Virginia Union U Radio Production Class students June 2020

Back to school week in 2021 was like no other coming out of the pandemic. A group of brave Richmond, Virginia-area teens came together in August before heading back to class through a Richmond Young Writers week-long Radio Camp I led to focus on education, their experiences over the year during the pandemic and what made their experiences unique. Listen to their powerful words. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want to attend school board meetings wherever you are. This first aired on WRIR 97.3 fm Richmond Independent Radio on Fri., Sept. 10, 2021 at 10am. Thanks to Melissa Vaughn, Sean Lovelace, Baylen Forcier & Krysti Albus for production help.

Richmond Young Writers Teen Radio Camp project episode 1 of 2

A group of Richmond-area teens put together a radio show with me through a Richmond Young Writers week-long Radio Camp focused on  the state of education and the return to school (for many) after a year of remote schooling. Hear their take on these crucial issues with some lighthearted moments. This first aired on WRIR 97.3 FM Richmond Independent Radio 97.3 FM on Mon., Sept. 27, 2021 at 12 pm. Thanks to Melissa Vaughn, Sean Lovelace, Baylen Forcier & Krysti Albus for production help. Episode 2 of 2.

Teen Radio Camp Summer 2021 Episode 2

While Richmond Public Schools was out for the week in November 2021 due to exhausted staff & students navigating the Coronavirus' affects on the educational system, I led a teen radio journalism workshop at WRIR 97.3 FM Richmond Independent Radio through the Richmond Young Writers. The entire week focused on the educational experience and being a teen. On the last day they bravely interviewed Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras. Thanks to the many WRIR volunteers like Melissa Vaughn for helping!

Teen Radio Camp Nov 2021 Edition Ep1

Podcast pitch for Resonate
I'm Dina Weinstein, and this song you hear -  STRANGE FRUIT - a protest sung by Billie Holiday about lynching is linked to one of America’s favorite children’s book authors, Syd Hoff, who painted murals in the  HIGH SOCIETY club where Holiday sang. 
HERE’S a lighter tune you might have heard in HIGH SOCIETY… in this podcast about Syd Hoff you’ll learn more why the author of the beloved I-can-read books for Children of the Cold War era -  Danny and The Dinosaur and Sammy the Seal has one of the most interesting and radical pasts of all of his contemporaries. 
I was one of Hoff’s fans when I was kid. And then when I reread them to my kids, I discovered so much more about Hoff. 
The Bronx born artist was a high school graduate who sold his first cartoon to The New Yorker about tenement dwellers right as the Depression was starting off. 
And he made his living as a left leaning cartoonist, which got him into trouble with the FBI. I’ve got that file and the story surrounding it. 
Hoff made a shift in his art just as America was shifting away from hard and radical economic times, veering off into children's book writing and illustrating for that baby boom generation. 
There's a lot more to this author and I have a box full of his stuff and stories with family, neighbors, experts and fans to tell the story of children’s literature’s radical past. 
I curated an exhibit about him for his centennial in Miami, where he produced his most popular work, but now renewed interest in him now that the company Legendary got the rights to the Danny and the Dinosaur book for a movie adaption, which will be coming out soon. 
This podcast is going to tell the story about the link between this children's book author, how he has been under overlooked and his interesting and radical past will shock many. 
I'll be interviewing lots of experts and Sid Hoff fans to peel back the layers about this beloved but underappreciated author and illustrator. Hoff’s story is the American story.

Syd Hoff podcast pitch

Trailer for "Laughter Challenge" podcast, a submission for the RESONATE 2024 Podcast Festival Pitch Party at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University. The idea behind the "Laughter Challenge" podcast is a series of stories of people from Afghanistan now living in Richmond, Virginia as told in a docu-fiction-style by famous Afghan comedian Nabi Roshan, as he progresses in his acclimation to life in the U.S., and pursues his own quest to win over American audiences and perform again - for even wider audiences. "Laughter Challenge" was the name of Roshan's TV comedy show in Afghanistan. He and his family are just a few of the tens of thousands of Afghan people who fled the country when the Taliban took control in 2021. The podcast revisits those events and catches up with refugees as they settle in Virginia, with Nabi's inimitable humor that can lighten even the heaviest of situations.

LAUGHTER CHALLENGE PODCAST TRAILER

Edward Peeples, Jr., Ph.D., a longtime civil rights advocate and professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, died on Sept. 7, 2019. He was 84. Peeples wrote about his amazing life in the book "Scalawag." On March 13, 2019 I had the honor to accompany Miyuki Kita to meet Peeples at his Richmond, Virginia apartment and recorded our (rambling) discussion. Dr. Kita is an American Studies associate professor at The University of Kitakyushu in Japan who is researching Jewish Queens College (NYC) students who travelled to Farmville, Virginia in the 1960s to tutor Black children who had been shut out of school because, in the style of Massive Resistance, the white people in power in Farmville (and all around Virginia) shuttered public schools (and stole the funds) instead of integrating. Many books and the wonderful Moton Museum in Farmville explain how this happened - the heroes and the villains. Virginia Commonwealth University wrote more about Peeples on the occasion of his death.  https://news.vcu.edu/article/Edward_Peeples_longtime_VCU_professor_and_tireless_social_justice . And VCU library holds Peeples' papers in the library archives. It was an honor to meet him and I encourage everyone to read "Scalawag" to learn what one person can do in the face of hate. Peeples' journey was a personal one to change himself, others around him and better society as a whole.

Edward Peeples talks to Miyuki Kita and Dina Weinstein

Richmond, Virginia-based journalist involved in WRIR 97.3 FM. Teaches radio journalism & production with Richmond Young Writers and previously at Virginia Union University. Hear Dina's public affairs interviews on Open Source RVA at https://soundcloud.com/user-314182877

Dina Weinstein

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