Short documentaries and adventures in sound presented by Josie Long - available to download as a podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mk3f8/episodes/downloads

Short Cuts

Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures rediscovering the contexts that give cause to communities and their art.

An Image Interrupted
Produced by Danny Greenwald
Featuring the voice of Taha Heydari

àlá lo lá (You Dreamed a Dream)
Produced by Tobi Adebajo
Poems: In a Dream, Agbegbe T’ala, Safari Ya Siri
Sound Design by Tobi Adebajo
Music by Akin Euba, Nabalayo, petals and Tobi Adebajo

Banned in America
Produced by Lucy Evans (they/them), also known as the drag king Sir Cum Sized (he/him).
Featuring interviews with:
Angelique Young-Cavalier (she/her), a Trans, Equal rights activist, Motivational Speaker and Drag Queen Entertainer Based in Tampa, Florida.
Jackie Rosebutch (they/them), a non-binary drag Goddex and environmental science enthusiast based in Missoula, Montana.
Maxi Glamour (they/them) @maxiglamour, a multidisciplinary artist at the intersection of high fantasy and social critique. Known as the Demon Queen of Polka and Baklava, Maxi Glamour uses demonological imagery as an allegory for how marginalised people are demonised by society, and wit and magic to examine the structural harm of oppression.
Bella DuBalle (she/her), a Show Director and Host at Atomic Rose in Memphis Tennessee, and also a licensed minister who has performed many weddings. Bella created and hosts “the Mid-South’s local RuPauls’s Drag Race", a competition called War of the Roses.
Bobby Pudrido (he/him), a Texas-based drag king and show producer who uses drag as a way to explore, blend, and showcase his queerness and Latine culture. In his drag show productions, Pudrido prioritises trans, gender diverse, black and brown drag kings and their accomplices as a way to push back against the erasure of these identities in mainstream culture.
Special thanks to Samara Slaughter (she/her), JD Miller (they/them), Butch Mermaid (they/them), Sam Bam Thankyoumaam (they/he), Hugh Mann Race (he/they), Puppi Love (she/they), Dick TransDyke (they/he), Problem Child (she/they), Luxury Bones (he/they) and
Andie Sleaze (they/he) from New York who formed the chorus of resistance heard at the beginning.
Additional music by Aine Pearson (she/her)

First broadcast 18th July 2023, BBC Radio 4
Produced by Axel Kacoutié
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft

S35: Short Cuts: Art 7/8

Made up, mixed or invented. Josie Long presents not-so-long-radio sound paintings melting how we use words to make space for who we want to be.

A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening
Produced by Darragh Amelia
Featuring June Katz, Patricia Hirsch, poet Xiao Yue Shan, photographer Anna Francesca Jennings and historian Alma Simba.

The Magic of Waves
Produced by Ève-Marie Bouché

Remember There Is More
Produced by Tej Adeleye
Featuring activist Ngozi Alston, creator of the term Neuroexpansive; Dr Nick Walker, creator of Neuroqueer theory; Dr Ned Hallowell; Dr Keri Opai; Matana Roberts; Aiyanna Goodfellow, founder of Neuromancers and “a darling spook, writer, ghost whisperer, and friend".

First broadcast 25th July 2023, BBC Radio 4
Produced by Axel Kacoutié
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft

S35: Short Cuts: New Word Order 8/8

Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures about finding meaning amid the noise.

The poet and audio producer Ross Sutherland seeks to understand the strange echoes in his hearing, a remnant from a house fire is transformed into music and the radio-maker Liza Yeager finds magic in a series of encounters.

Hallucinations
Featuring Dr Theresa Marschall and Lizzy Dening
Produced by Ross Sutherland

The Right Colour Candle
Featuring Annegret Curtis, Ed Dadey and Jan Gehmlich
Produced by Liza Yeager

Stovepipe Wind Harp Summons the Frogs
Produced by Fil Corbitt

First broadcast 19th September 2023, BBC Radio 4
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft

S36: Short Cuts: Signal To Noise 1/9

A small boy accidentally creates a vast new lizard population in his hometown, a sonic storm gathers and a writer takes his family on a precarious family boat trip. Josie Long presents short documentaries about situations tumbling out of control.

Eight Go To Treasure Island
Written and read by Joe Dunthorne

A Mirror
Featuring Steve Urquhart
Produced by Eleanor McDowall
With thanks to Rosalind Jana for pointing out the poetry of the Beaufort Scale

Lazarus Lizards
Narrated by Addie
Produced by Jennifer McCord and Carrie Ann Welsh

First broadcast 26th September 2023, BBC Radio 4
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft

S36: Short Cuts: The Tipping Point 2/9

A simple object offers comfort and connection to a grandmother and a long line of Indian women; a wife uncovers the fingerprints her husband left on their world and with them, the microscopic details of grief; and an Urdu language lesson between a father and daughter reveals cultural loss and the father's longing to belong. Josie Long presents short documentaries that reverberate through time.  

Silver Cup: A Female Grammar 
Written and produced by HJ Radia 
With thanks to Laura Barton 
In loving memory of J.K Dave (1956-2023)  

Fingerprints and Lightbulbs 
Written and produced by Amanda Priestley  

22 Words Featuring Safwat Saleem and his daughter 
Produced by Safwat Saleem  

First broadcast 3rd October 2023, BBC Radio 4
Produced by Andrea Rangecroft 
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft

S36: Short Cuts: Echoes 3/9

Notes to Self and Sonic Symmetry. Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures exploring what it looks like coming back to yourself.

The News
Produced by Jess Shane
Featuring Jennifer Mills

Drawn Onward
Produced by Alan Goffinski and Sarita Bhatt
Music, Mix and Sound Design by Alan Goffinski

Man to Boy
Produced by Christina Hardinge and Jack Miguel
Featuring Jacob Kelly
Music by Samuel Mumford

First broadcast 10th October 2023, BBC Radio 4
Produced by Axel Kacoutié
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft

S36: Short Cuts: Meeting Myself Coming Back 4/9

Visions and out of body experiences during birth and a name that stretches back through time - Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures about the experience of coming into the world.

Transition
Produced by Kalli Anderson and apè Aliermo
Featuring excerpts from SIMULA, an 8.2-channel sound installation by apè Aliermo and mixed and mastered by Rose Bolton. 
This composition includes sound recorded during three anonymous births and electromagnetic sound recorded in a hospital during one of the births. 
The voices you hear are Redzi Bernard, Becky Kenna, Amy Macfarlane and Andrea Gummo.

Hope is the thing with feathers
Produced by Nanna Hauge Kristensen
Originally broadcast, in a different version, on BBC Radio 3's Between the Ears

Loweza Ayazi 
Featuring Nomkhubulwane Mnisi
Produced by Kagiso Mnisi

First broadcast 17th October 2023, BBC Radio 4
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft

S36: Short Cuts: Into The World 5/9

A remnant from the Cold War becomes an accidental haven for wildlife, a poet and a tree surgeon search for the roots of a metaphor, and a musician searches for an anchor to home. Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures about the ground beneath your feet.

Always Moving
Cello performed by Joe Reynolds
Engineered by Yuri Shibuichi
Composed and produced by Tendertwin (Bilge Nur Yilmaz)

Memorial Landscape
Featuring Kai Frobel
Translator Jana Kosok
Produced by Tom Phillips

Poet / Tree
A conversation between Matthew Reid and Raymond Antrobus

First broadcast 24th October 2023, BBC Radio 4
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft

S36: Short Cuts: The Soil 6/9

From a creature that leaps in the darkness of your basement to a fish that drains the life force of its partner - Josie Long presents creature features and creepy crawly short documentaries for Halloween.

In Spirit
Featuring James Maclaine, Senior Curator of Fish, at the Natural History Museum, London
Produced and sound designed by Meera Kumar

The Seventh Sense
Thanks to Emma Rathbone, Gaye Williams, Ben Pagac, Mary Jane Epps, and everybody who shared a camel cricket story
Music by Cue Shop, Big Lazy, and Blue Dot Sessions
Produced by Jesse Dukes

For the Pigeons
Produced by John Luke Roberts

First broadcast 31st October 2023, BBC Radio 4
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft

S36: Short Cuts: Creature Features 7/9

Getting lost in childhood longings, the search for the home we carry inside ourselves and exploring true sexual desire in a world shaped by media and societal pressures. Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures that explore our desires.

American Glove Cafe
Featuring Conor O’Toole and Fán
Written and produced by Conor O’Toole

Are We There Yet?
Featuring Angeliki Androutsopoulos, Garth Davis, Amira and Danita, plus recordings by Mary Hufford for The Library of Congress.
Produced by Jaye Kranz
Original commissioned and produced for Constellations podcast

Desire Shapes
Featuring Poppy
Produced by Phoebe McIndoe

First broadcast 7th November 2023, BBC Radio 4
Produced by Andrea Rangecroft
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft

S36: Short Cuts: Heart's Desire 8/9

Liminal prose and cryptic hotlines. Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures navigating our relationship and imaginations to history collecting.

The Flight of Sankofa
Produced by Weyland Mckenzie-Witter
Featuring Lisa Anderson, the Director of the Black Cultural Archives, Dr Etienne Jospeh of Decolonising the Archive and Christopher West the inaugural curator for the Black diaspora, John Hay Library, Brown University, who recently curated an exhibition using Brown University’s Mumia Abu-Jamal collection.

Xenoglossia
Produced by Kamikaze Jones

Fish & Chips
(best listened to with headphones)
Produced by Abira Hussein and Olani Ewunnet
Recorded with Sue Bowerman
Featuring the voices of Somali Aunties from London
Special thanks to Alan Archer-Boyd, and Whose Knowledge?

First broadcast 14th November 2023, BBC Radio 4
Produced by Axel Kacoutié
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft

S36: Short Cuts: Archival Imaginings 9/9

The moment of time before a camera shutter closes, a symphony of ums reveals a partner's untruths, and two women linked by a phantom thread reflect on their changing bodies. Josie Long presents even shorter short documentaries.

Is This An Image?
Produced by Jon Tjhia

Death from Above
Written and read by Joe Dunthorne

Body of Work
Featuring the voices of writer Marleen Kruithof and cinematographer Babette Mangolte
Music by Nicola Mecca
Produced by Georgia Walker

What's in an Um?
Produced by Talia Augustidis

Charon
Composed, produced and performed by Jamie Payne

Photo by Gabriel Pall https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crow_%28139578829%29.jpeg

First broadcast 9th January 2024, BBC Radio 4
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

S37: Short Cuts: Minis 1/6

A pamphlet from the 1980s illuminates the world we live in now, a musical invitation for your domestic space, and some dazzling canine choreography for your ears. Josie Long presents short documentaries based around instructions.

How to Listen... including How Not To, How You Ought To, and How You Won't (Extract)
Written by Stephen Potter and Joyce Grenfell
Produced by Stephen Potter
Originally broadcast on BBC Third Programme in 1946

Hot Dogs!
Presented by Alan Smith
Produced by Steve Urquhart
Originally broadcast on Alan Smith's Mid Morning Show, BBC Radio Cumbria in 1999

Hell Rubs and Sobs
Produced by Sami El-Enany

How To Look 30 When You're 30
Produced by Jesse Lawson

Photo credit: Steve Urquhart

First broadcast 16th January 2024, BBC Radio 4
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

S37: Short Cuts: Instructions 2/6

A couple looks for each other in their dreams, a research facility delves into the otherworldly, and a philosopher imagines a flow of time set to the rhythm of our rivers - Josie Long presents short documentaries that emerge from the dreams of others.

River Time
Featuring Jonathon Keats
Produced by Nadia Mehdi

Haunted
Featuring Linda Fleishman
Produced by Elizabeth Friend

Darling, Are You Dreaming?
Featuring Jules and Vital
Produced by Eloise Stevens

First broadcast 23rd January 2024, BBC Radio 4
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft 
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

S37: Short Cuts: In Dreams 3/6

Josie Long presents short documentaries that go back to the start. The musician Lucinda Chua traces the journey of a rose, a connection is forged between a young woman now and a trapeze artist on New Year's Eve 1942, and a touching personal archive illuminates the journey of a word.

Muscles and Mysteries
Produced by Teresa Kristoffersson

First Words
Produced by Kalli Anderson 
Featuring the voices of Kalli's parents, Kathy Hunt and Lance Anderson, as well as Kalli's husband, Zack Finkelstein, and their two children, aged 12 and 8.

Reclaiming The Rose 
Produced, narrated and music by Lucinda Chua
Chinese Narration by XiaoQiao
Poetry in English and Chinese by He Sun

First broadcast 30th January 2024, BBC Radio 4
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

S37: Short Cuts: Roots 4/6

Word spirits, back rooms and a reply all-pocalypse - Josie Long presents short documentaries that emerge from the internet.

Word Spirits
With thanks to Caroline Hesse, Donovan McGrath, Mary Dolejsi, Nicole Reinsch, Nalini Kumari, Zen Priest & Buddhist Scholar John Stevens (for permission to include his Classical Aikido Kototama Chant), and Critical Sound Explorer & Artist Matt Parker (for permission to include excerpts from The People's Cloud / Field Recordings of Internet Data Centres): https://www.earthkeptwarm.com
Additional mixing by Maitreya
Produced by HJ Radia

The Back Rooms
Produced by Mae-Li Evans

The Bello Tolls for Thee
Produced by Nadia Mehdi

First broadcast 6th February 2024, BBC Radio 4
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

S37: Short Cuts: The Net 5/6

Chrononormativity, duppies and post-colonial thought. Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures exploring beyond the past, present and futures.

Language in the Land of Duppies: Exploring the origins of Jamaican folklore as a gateway to understanding the legacy of slavery on the island.
Produced by Laura Carty
Special thanks to Alexander Powell, Carmen Johnson, Natalia Downer, Kandice Thompson and Jean Smart.

All my friends are turning into Stars
Written and performed by David Amber Devereux
With Dr Matthew Temple, Research Fellow,
Universidad Diego Portales
Additional voices by Lou Sutcliffe and Alessa Catterall
Featuring quotes from De Profundus by Oscar Wilde, Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, and In A Queer Time And Place by Jack Halberstam

Interjections on the future: There is not currently any obvious path to reconstructing a popular faith in political, economic and even some social institutions but while it might not always feel like it today, the unwinding of colonial modernity is underway and accelerating.
Produced by composer and researcher, Sara Rahman.
Featuring psychiatrist Isabel Valli and writers and artists Fer Boyd and Maedeline Stack.

First broadcast 13th February 2024, BBC Radio 4
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
Produced by Axel Kacoutié

S37: Short Cuts: Hereafter 6/6

A grand piano slowly climbs the stairs in Glasgow, a man in Brighton keeps finding his upright pianos going missing, a piano decays slowly in the woods while a grandson finds himself thrust into the role of a ship's pianist. Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures with a piano at their heart.

Pianos Aren't His Forte
Featuring Mark Campbell
Produced by Phil Smith
Including piano performances from Mark Campbell and Songs Without Words composed by Felix Mendelssohn and performed by Vassily Primakov from the Free Music Archive

Piano in the Woods
Written and produced by Ross Sutherland
Featuring performances from the project Piano in the Woods by the improviser, artist and curator Sam Bailey. You can learn more about the project at pianointhewoods.com

Two, Three, Hup
Produced by Steve Urquhart
Featuring piano performances by Steve Urquhart

First broadcast 30th April 2024, BBC Radio 4
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
Curated by Axel Kacoutié and Eleanor McDowall

S38: Short Cuts: A Piano 1/6

Two men on different continents share a love of butterflies, a swimming instructor seeks solace in the water and we dive inside an inner landscape. Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures that emerge from the earth, water and sky.

Psalm
Featuring Emil Blicher Bjerregaard and Mudar Salimeh
Inspired by the poem Psalm written by Wisława Szymborska 
Music by Simon don Eriksen and Gregor Quendel
Mix by Lærke Soedring Nielsen
Produced by Nanna Hauge Kristensen

My Body is of Earth
Created by Zara Zimbardo and Lily Sloane 
With editorial support from Keisha "TK" Dutes and sound consultation from Adriene Lilly

Finding Freedom in the Water: Gaza’s Swimming Teacher
A version of this story first aired on BBC World Service's Outlook in March 2023 ('My Life in Seven Swimming Pools') and in an updated version in April 2024 ('Finding Freedom in the Water: Gaza's Swimming Teacher) presented by Jo Fidgen
Sound design by Joel Cox
Interpreter Youssef Taha
Producer Louise Morris

First broadcast 7th May 2024, BBC Radio 4
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
Curated by Axel Kacoutié and Eleanor McDowall

S38: Short Cuts: Earth, Water, Sky 2/6

In water, on wheels or explained over the phone - Josie Long presents short documentaries about moving our bodies.

Field Notes
Featuring Hannah Kezema
Produced by Jess Shane and Kristine White

Instructions for Returning to My Body
Gamelan music courtesy of Nusantara
Produced by Kia Miakka Natisse

The Pink Flamingo
Featuring Peter Prijdekker
Sound Recording by Edd Kentish
Produced by Hunter Charlton and Vicki Carter

First broadcast 14th May 2024, BBC Radio 4
Curated by Axel Kacoutié and Eleanor McDowall
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

S38: Short Cuts: Body Movements 3/6

We make documentaries and audio art for radio, podcasts and public spaces.

At the heart of what we do is a belief in the imaginative possibilities of radio. Sounds that can reconfigure the world around you, move you through inner landscapes, sink into your dreams.

We are an intentionally small company that considers carefully the creative, social and political aspects of the work we put out into the world.

Falling Tree has two full-time Directors – Eleanor McDowall and Alan Hall – and we work with freelancers across our projects, including the core Short Cuts production team of Alia Cassam, Axel Kacoutié and Andrea Rangecroft.

We are one of the founding signatories of the Equality in Audio pact. 

You can listen to hundreds of our documentaries in the free, online Falling Tree archive.

Short Cuts

Falling Tree Productions