If you tune around on a shortwave radio, you might stumble across a voice reciting an endless stream of numbers. Just numbers, all day, everyday. These so-called "numbers stations," say nothing about where they are transmitting from or who they are trying to reach, but they can be heard in Spanish, Thai, German, Russian, Chinese, and any number of other languages from around the world.
These mysterious shortwave transmissions caught the attention of producer David Goren when he was just a kid. His piece, Atencion! Seis Siete Tres Siete Cero: The Mystery of the Shortwave Numbers Stations, aired in 2000 as part of the series Lost and Found Sound.  In tuning into these weird little broadcasts, Goren joins a curious community that has been listening to numbers stations for decades, some suspecting that the stations are run by intelligence agencies sending encrypted messages to individual agents in the field.

99% Invisible-97- Numbers Stations

The curtain rises on "[a] late evening in the future." Lit by the white light above a desk. Black-and-white imagery continues throughout. On the desk are a tape-recorder and a number of tins containing reels of recorded tape. A man consults a ledger. The tape he is looking to review is the fifth tape in Box 3. He reads aloud from the ledger but it is obvious that words alone are not jogging his memory.

Last Thursday (in Fragments) - "It started with a drawing"

We've been singing a lot of Leonard Cohen around the house the past few months.

It's time we began

The 1962 murder of Mary Horton was one of the oldest cold cases in U.S. history. Then reporter Jerry Mitchell started digging into it.

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The Breakthrough: How a Reporter Solved a Decades-Old Murder

Welcome to Episode One of Elderberry Bongo Drum, the new all-Oscar podcast. Drums by Oscar. Story by Oscar.

Elderberry Bongo Drum, Ep. 1: "Slithering Arms"

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VIP Security (2017 Radio Race)

Join Bee Jellyfish while she interviews Andrea, the owner of a unique business based in Los Angeles California. She manages women who are down for whatever. 

Lead: Bee Bond
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ChrisBeeTeam : VIP Security (2017 Radio Race)

Pining for the sound my toilet used to make.

Full episode here:
https://soundcloud.com/fallingtreeproductions/s3-short-cuts-lost-and-found-56

Fluctuations [BBC Radio 4, 2013-06-25]

We are no longer hosting our podcast here. You can find us on Podbean: http://whitewhalepod.podbean.com/ If you are subscribed anywhere else you will get new episodes - just not here.
The White Whale is an audio zine. A podcast of mixtape journalism, fiction, and sound experimentation. Find us wherever you listen to podcasts and be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Last Thursday (in Fragments) - "It started with a drawing"

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