Re:sound #38: The Games Show
This hour: tongue twisters, brain teasers, cheaters, and one of the worst high school football teams of all time.
2006 / TCF / WBEZ, USA
This hour: tongue twisters, brain teasers, cheaters, and one of the worst high school football teams of all time.
Tongues Twisting
by Judith Sloan (TCF ShortDocs: Stories About Games, 2005)
Clapping games and tongue twisters in multiple languages turn into rich stories when Judith Sloan records young immigrants in a theatre workshop. Memories of life "back home," broken families, and thoughts about dual realities are woven together with rhythm games and performances as the kids reveal the game of adapting to life in America.
The Ambassador of Go
by Blake Eskin (TCF ShortDocs: Stories About Games, 2005)
Most Americans have never heard of Go, an ancient board game that has simpler rules than chess but such complex strategy that computers can't even beat a talented amateur. In China, however, it's part of daily culture -- there are 30 million Go players and two Go channels on TV. Feng Yun is one of only two women in history to become a 9-dan Go professional -- the game's highest ranking. And she's faced even greater challenges since reaching the top of her game.
The Rules Will Be Different
by Melissa Allison (TCF ShortDocs: Stories About Games, 2005)
Hear how the political became personal in the wake of the 2000 presidential election for Florida recount lawyer Todd Elmer. Elmer takes us behind the scenes, as a renowned game theorist elaborates on the boundaries of contest and archival audio brings us back to the days of hanging chads.
There was a whole lotta hundreds...
by Michael Kavanagh (TCF ShortDocs: Stories About Games, 2005)
In America's high schools, students are playing a game whose only rule is to break the rules. There was a whole lotta hundreds... is a collection of stories about crib notes, secret codes, and elaborate heists, as told by the players and the referees: students and teachers from across the country.
Flying Pumpkins
by Matt Power and Emily Botein (The Next Big Thing, 2002)
Every year in Millsboro, Delaware, on the first Saturday after Halloween, a fierce competition gets underway, involving powerful instruments of propulsion and some very hearty produce.
Friday Night Bites
by Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister (Chicago Public Radio, 2005)
The River Valley High Mustangs have lost 18 football games in a row. But it's not just the number of consecutive games the Mustangs have lost, it's how soundly they have been beaten. The past two seasons, River Valley has been outscored by its opponents by a total of 949 to 38, or an average of 53 to 2. Producers Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister attended the Mustangs last game of the season to see how the team, and their fans, are holding up under such adversity.
If I Were a Tall Man
by Gwen Macsai (Weekend America, 2005)
Our host Gwen Macsai has always noticed that short Jewish men love basketball, the sport of towering giants. It's taken years, but she's finally figured out why.
This episode of Re:sound was produced by Roman Mars.
Check out Ready, Set, Go! Presenting the 2005 Third Coast Festival ShortDocs.
produced by
Judith Sloan is an actress, audio artist, oral historian, and educator whose multi-character solo performances combine humor, pathos, and a love of the absurd.
Blake Eskin's stories about board games have appeared on The Next Big Thing and in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the Washington Post.
Melissa Allison has worked as an independent producer and as an associate producer with The Kitchen Sisters, Homelands Productions, and WNYC's Radio Rookies.
Michael Kavanagh is an independent reporter and producer based in New Haven, Connecticut.
Matthew Power was a freelance print and radio journalist and a contributing editor at Harper's magazine and National Geographic Adventure.
Emily Botein is Vice President for On-Demand Content at WNYC Radio in New York.
Together with his life and radio partner Elizabeth Meister, Dan Collison produces audio documentaries and song/stories that detail everyday life in America, work that has consistently garnered radio's top awards.
Elizabeth Meister quit her job at the phone company to volunteer for public radio show This American Life in 1998, when she started their award-winning website in exchange for a chance to learn how to make radio documentaries.
Gwen Macsai is an award-winning radio producer, writer, and host.
Roman Mars (@romanmars) is the creator of 99% Invisible , a short radio show about design and architecture.