Julie Shapiro

Here's a radio explanation of the Radio Ephemera ShortDocs Challenge, including descriptions from Rick and Megan Prelinger, of the books selected for the project.

Third Coast Festival artistic director Julie Shapiro describes her rendez-vous with Dollar Store founder Jonathan Messinger at Dollar Daze in downtown Chicago, where the Dollar Storeys items were chosen.

For the 2006 ShortDocs Challenge, the Third Coast was inspired by and collaborated with cartoonist and illustrator Matt Madden.

By way of a love letter, Julie Shapiro recounts the incredible racing history of the astonishing, record-breaking mare named Zenyatta. Zenyatta captured the hearts and imaginations of millions and shined a bright spotlight on the American horse racing industry in 2009-10.

Cub reporter Leila is keeping a keen eye on Drake Avenue, especially one particular family.

Dreams, black holes, a special door, a golden room...

This hour: audio stories inspired by the written word, be it a novel or a comic book.

This hour: a man hand-delivers reading material to a war criminal, two people who've never spoken fall in love, and more.

This hour: a retired child beauty queen recalls her youth and a young man revels in eating trash.

This hour: a woman investigates a secluded religious community, another secretly tapes her interactions with paint store owners, and yet another peels back the layers of "geek speak."

This hour: karaoke as marital therapy, a man tries to cure his stutter, the weird world of Tupperware parties, and more.

This week: an aural trip to one of the oldest cities in the world, an unconventional love affair, and a man who eats up all the books he reads (literally).

This hour: we head back to high school. For better or for worse.

This hour: producer Dmae Roberts grapples with the history and memories of her Taiwanese mother, a history of PTSD, and more.

This hour: a few stories by author Rick Moody rendered in sound, plus a woman visits her friends' houses and talks with them about their books.

This hour: a girl goes on tour with her parents and a woman returns to her homeland in Iran after 40 years away.

This hour: reparations, repatriations, and the mystery of the earworm.

This hour: sex on the Internet, music and memory, and more.

This hour: a mysterious suitcase, basement bhangra, and more.

This hour: we head to the south side of Chicago and Japan.

This hour: Gwen Macsai and Julie Shapiro spin some of our favorite stories from the 2012 Third Coast ShortDocs Challenge.

This hour: letters. To yourself, to your city, lost letters, found letters... and a love letter to letters.

This hour: Running on two legs, running on four, but most importantly, running with all your might.

This hour: stories told over the phone.

This hour: the strange world of competitive model horse collecting and an investigation of an old classmate's death.

The Golden Room is the first in your series of Bedtime Stories. How did you... dream up the idea?

For the 2008 TCF ShortDocs Challenge, the TCF joined forces with the Prelinger Library, a one-of-a-kind collection of books, periodicals, and more, running the gamut from the concrete and tangible to the abstract and etherized.

For the 2007 ShortDocs Challenge, the Third Coast was inspired by and collaborated with the Dollar Store Show - a regular reading and performance series in Chicago.

Radio transmissions are heard all over the world, from the largest urban centers to the smallest mountain villages. But what defines radio from a particular place, and what makes it different than radio from elsewhere?

In early 2010, the Third Coast teamed up with the incomparable pop / indie / experiemental band The Books, and issued an open invitation to make radio.

In early 2012, Third Coast teamed up with the neighborhood-centric website EveryBlock, and issued a wide-open invitation to make radio.

A bonafide Third Coast tradition! The second installment of this session once again pulls back the curtain on one of the most difficult and important skills every producer needs to master: pitching a story.

In June of 2017, Third Coast hosted a frank discussion about what it takes to make it in today’s podcast landscape, featuring: Jenna Weiss-Berman (Pineapple Street Media), Alex Blumberg (Gimlet Media), N’Jeri Eaton (NPR) and Julie Shapiro (Radiotopia).

Individual podcasters working with slim budgets and strained resources share how they create their best work while trying to grow audiences and raise money, often while holding down another full time job...

Individual podcasters working with slim budgets and strained resources share how they create their best work while trying to grow audiences and raise money, often while holding down another full time job...

This fall, over 750 producers, artists, students, and audio enthusiasts joined us in Chicago for the 2016 Third Coast Conference, November 11-13. Hear all of the sessions!

ABOUT THE 2019 COMPETITION

October 5-7, Orrington Hotel and Campus of Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

October 28-30, Chicago

October 9-11, Orrington Hotel, Evanston IL

November 1-3, Chicago

2006 Third Coast Conference

October 20 - 22, Chicago

2004 Third Coast Conference

Third Coast International Audio Festival, or Third Coast, has served an ever-growing global community of narrative audio storytellers and makers since 2000. An independent nonprofit arts organization based in Chicago, we center people first in our advocacy for the medium of audio as an art form. Through our work, we seek to push at the boundaries of the audio industry and support an international community of creators who build our world in sound.