Describing Sylvia Plath in 1972, Plath's editor Fran McCullough says: "instances of her bitchiness and snobbery [were] quite astonishing. And of course she was a Scorpio."  Jumping off from there, host Eliza Smith uses the lens of astrology to understand Plath's work, asking Bay Area astrologer Jessica Lanyadoo to analyze Plath's star chart. What follows is a tragic and insightful reading. Want to see what Sylvia Plath's star chart looks like? Have a peek here: http://popuparchive.tumblr.com/post/112725167669/popcast-episode-two-is-live-and-its-a-good-one 
Listen to the original radio doc from The Pacifica Radio Archives: www.popuparchive.com/collections/925/items/6821

And of course, she was a Scorpio

Astronauts don’t have days and nights like we do on earth, so they need some help regulating their sleep. Turns out, it takes a whole team of engineers down on earth to rouse NASA’s elite from their slumbers. In this Popcast, hear about the NASA tradition of "wake up songs" from Mission Control, including the one song that went too far.

Written and produced by Eliza Smith, narrated by Eliza Smith and Jacob Winik, with editorial help from Emily Saltz. Audio from the NASA collection on Pop Up Archive: https://www.popuparchive.com/collections/1687

The Song Banned by NASA

When Maurice Sendak’s now classic children’s book In the Night Kitchen was released in 1970, it caused a scandal. Its protagonist, a young boy, is bare naked throughout the book, amidst a landscape phallic milk bottles and free-flowing liquids. Parents cried pornography. Armchair psychologists jumped to analyze its Freudian subtext. But the kids? They just laughed. 

In this Popcast, we play you excerpts from Sendak's 1970 conversation with legendary interviewer Studs Terkel. Sendak balks at the idea of writing down to kids. In fact, Sendak thinks it's the kids who have “crap detectors” that allow them to tap into the real spirit of his books. Together, Sendak and Studs consider that it's the adults who can’t understand children’s literature, and not the other way around.

Hear the full interview in The Studs Terkel Radio Archive collection on Pop Up Archive, from The WFMT Radio Network: https://www.popuparchive.com/collections/938/items/37552

Freud in the Night Kitchen

It was the early days of the civil rights movement. Across the South, black students staged sit-ins, marches, demonstrations and protests that were violently repressed. In this podcast, two voices from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) talk about the song “We Shall Overcome” – three simple words that became an anthem of strength and conviction for their movement.

Bernie Lafayette remembers hearing the song in February 1961 during 14 nights of demonstrations to enter the movie theaters of Nashville, Tennessee.  Cordelia Jackson first heard the song in March of that year at a sit-in at the Jackson, Mississippi public library.  "In my heart, when I was worried about my friends in jail, and how they might be pulled out and lynched or anything, I heard those voices saying: 'We Shall Overcome.'" 

These interviews were conducted in 1962 in Chicago on the occasion of a concert there by the Freedom Singers. The newly-formed quartet was touring the country in support of civil rights and the goals of SNCC.  

Reporter Brandi Howell produced this podcast using with archival audio of an interview conducted by Studs Terkel in 1962. The archival audio used in this episode comes courtesy of the Studs Terkel Radio Archive from the WFMT Radio Network in Chicago. Visit them at www.studsterkel.org or follow them on Twitter and Instagram @StudsArchive.

You can find this podcast, along with thousands of archival recordings, at popuparchive.com/explore


The Freedom Singers, and the three simple words that gave strength to a movement

The rooms were full of menstrual blood and Kotex, rubber breasts and stumbling brides, fragmented bodies in linen closets and simulacra of babies being born. It was 1972, and this was Womanhouse: a rickety Victorian house turned into a home for radical feminist installations by the students of Judy Chicago’s Feminist Art program at CalArts. A conversation between Chicago and writer Anaïs Nin offers insights into a volatile moment of Second-wave feminism. 

Produced by Adrian Shirk. The archival audio used in this episode comes courtesy of the Pacifica Radio Archives. Visit them at pacificaradioarchives.org or call 1-800-735 0230. You can also check out their own archival radio show, "From The Vault," at fromthevaultradio.org. Find this podcast, along with thousands of archival recordings, at popuparchive.com/explore

Music from the Free Music Archive: "Maura and Dana," "You're Gonna Find Out," and "Never Smile" by Big Quiet (CC BY NC ND); "My Sweetie Went Away" Bessie Smith (Public Domain); "Bowery at Midnight" and "A Room” by Happiness in Aeroplanes (CC BY NC SA); "Waltz to a Wood Thrush” by Kathleen Martin (CC BY NC SA); "Deserted City” by Kai Engel (CC BY NC). 

Audio excerpts from from the 1974 film "Womanhouse:" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rnKllxfrF4
and "Judy Chicago & the California Girls:"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x07AtDl69F0


Welcome to Womanhouse

How do you write a love poem to a 2,000 year old stranger? On Popcast, hear about Northern Irish poet Seamus Heaney's obsession with "bog bodies." These centuries-old human remains were found in boglands of Northern Europe, and were often killed in violent, ritualistic ways – something that resonated with Heaney, living in war-torn Belfast. Bioarcheologist Andrew Chamberlain and Heaney scholar Stephen Enniss of the University of Texas at Austin weigh in on the science and symbolism of bog bodies in Heaney's work.

This week's Popcast was produced by Audrey McGlinchy, a writer and radio journalist based in Austin, Texas. The archival audio used in this episode comes courtesy of the Pacifica Radio Archives. Visit them at pacificaradioarchives.org or call 1-800-735 0230. You can also find their archival radio show, "From The Vault," at fromthevaultradio.org. Find this podcast, along with thousands of archival recordings, at popuparchive.com/explore


Seamus Heaney and the Long Dead

At the Cotton Club, Harlem's premier nightclub of the 1920s and 30s, 16-year-old Lena Horne performed as a chorus girl alongside legends like Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington. The only catch? The audience was whites-only. 

In Popcast, hear Horne talk with mixed emotions about her time at the Cotton Club with clips from a 1966 recording from the Pacifica Radio Archives. Produced by Emma Hammond.

When the Negro was in vogue

When Zero Mostel was under trial by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee in 1955, the committee asked what he was doing at an anti-HUAC meeting. Mostel replied: "What if I did an imitation of a butterfly at rest? There is no crime in making anybody laugh."  

In this Popcast, hear about Mostel's dedication to the absurd. He exposed real life absurd situations of the McCarthy era by talking back, and brought out the human truth to absurd characters like Eugene Ionesco's "Rhinoceros" on stage. 

This episode was produced by Samara Breger with archival audio from the Studs Terkel Radio Archive from the WFMT Radio Network in Chicago. (Visit them at www.studsterkel.org.) You can find the original recording, and hundreds of other Terkel interviews at popuparchive.com/explore. Music from the Free Music Archive. 

Zero Mostel and the truth of the absurd

"High is a different thing for different folks. I don’t smoke pot but I’m awful high tonight." Community organizer Elsie Easley said this about the state of welfare to students at University of Illinois in 1972. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, welfare recipients who relied on government aid to feed their families were often subject to extreme delays and disrespect, with no recourse to defend their rights. Hear the story of mothers and activists like Easley who argued for welfare as a civil right. 

This episode was produced by Liz Pfeffer with archival audio from Illinois Public Radio. Music by Podington Bear.

The Case of the Missing Checks

This is a demo of an proof-of-concept app called Call Collect -- an easy tool for creating a phone number where audience members can simply call in on their phone. It was developed at the May 2017 "Come + Play" Hackathon hosted by Audiosear.ch.

Collecting audio samples from a wide group of people or directly from your audience is difficult, time-consuming, and costly. It’s difficult for smaller radio stations or indie podcast producers to find the resources to get all the outside audio they need for their shows. It’s also tough to get feedback from the audience on a story.

So we built a tool to make it easy for listeners to submit their own audio based on questions or prompts from the host.

What could Call Collect be used for?

Crowdsource stories and ideas for future shows
Gather audience reactions and feedback
Create mash-ups of multiple characters/narrators
Gather sound on a topic from multiple locations
Actor voiceovers in your audio drama
Pre-interviews and interviews
Gather sound effects

Presentation slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10Ih84mjeMmyx9lI7w2TgMm0J5ZwYIa_-5qSgvUFiQI4/edit?usp=sharing

Call Collect demo

Duck under asks the question: Who gets to be a storyteller, and can we expand that definition? 

This listening platform brings producers and listeners together to add context to audio, making stories more inclusive and creating new ways of telling them derived from expanded participation. Using duck under, a producer can provide clips to annotate the main story that they couldn’t include in the original piece. Audiophiles and listeners can use it share their thoughts throughout the story, giving the audience a voice as well. 

Duck under creates a more genuine, less packaged feel to audio stories and provides a tool for providing more nuance and depth in reporting. Comments are recorded and shared in the duck under app, and appear underneath the audio. The audio of the original story fades out when a comment is added, and fades back in when the comment is complete.

Members: Adwoa Boakye, Katie Briggs, Reid Delahunt, Sarah Siplak, Shindo Strzelczyk, Stephen Suen, Todd Whitney, 

Technology used: Sketch, Mockuuups (Wireframes/mockups/identity work), ProTools, Adobe Audition (Audio editing), Glitch, Javascript, Node/Express, jQuery, jPlayer, SQLite/Sequelize, Recordmp3.js, LAME (Development)

Our deck: https://docs.google.com/a/slbradio.org/presentation/d/1Z4cr2s0h6Kh-4BdA3aH4OqTRcGbQ73AJnbZC3M5CMXc/edit?usp=sharing

Our code: https://glitch.com/edit/#!/duck-under?path=README.md:1:0

duck under demo

This is a round-up of some takeaways and experiences from the Come and Play Audio Hackathon. 

Using RecRoom, a platform for running Audio Surveys founded by Hackathon participant, Adwoa Boakye, two audio diaries were retrieved and selected to illustrate some of the experiences that happened during the Hackathon. With an Introduction featuring a snippet from Avery Trufelman of 99% Invisible fame and audio featuring two Hackathon participants, this piece gives some insight into the thoughts, ideas, and takeaways that came out of the event.

Podcast produced in collaboration with journalist Natalia Erokhina.

What can RecRoom be used for?

- Be a Journalist : Send surveys to your audience, hear what they think, and incorporate their voices into your show or creative process.
- Create Pre/Post‑Event Podcasts: let guests on your show or panelists at your event answer questions through an Audio Survey and turn the results into a podcast.

Come and Play - A Post-Event Podcast

Found sound fanatics: rejoice! In Popcast, Pop Up Archive's house podcast, we excavate gems from Pop Up Archive's public audio. Recordings range from 1904 wax cylinder songs to NASA's interstellar rumbles. 

Listen as we resurface and reexamine forgotten sounds in this series of intimate micro-podcasts.

PopUpArchive

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