Winners
Immerse your ears in the best audio documentaries and storytelling since 2001, the winners of the Third Coast/Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition.
My Lobotomy
My Lobotomy explores one of medical history's most controversial chapters -- when transorbital lobotomies were widely condoned -- through one man's personal journey.
- 2006
- 24:45
- David Isay
- Piya Kochar
The Dead Can't Do You Nothin'
Producer Katie Mingle narrates her quest to find ghosts in a "pauper's graveyard" in New Orleans.
- 2007
- 10:53
- Katie Mingle
The Ground We Lived On
The Ground We Lived On documents the loving relationship between journalist Adrian Nicole LeBlanc and her father, Adrian Leon LeBlanc, in the last months of his life.
- 2007
- 11:33
- David Isay
- Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
The Last Morning was a Sweet One
2013 ShortDocs Winner! A short story in sounds of our food's start to finish, from morning to night (though not necessarily in the same day!)
- 2013
- 02:56
- Alix Blair
Growing Up in the System
At age 21, Shirley Diaz is on the brink of aging out of the foster care system. Her life isn't easy now, and soon she'll be on her own, facing a new set of daunting issues.
- 2008
- 11:40
- Melissa Allison
- Shirley "Star" Diaz
Modern Day Scarlet Letter A
Many teenagers live half of their lives on social media sites and they're writing the rules as they go.
- 2013
- 08:24
- Courtney Stein
- Temitayo Fagbenle
Harper High School
In the 2011 -2012 school year, Harper High School, located in one of Chicago's most violent neighborhoods, saw 29 of its current and recent students shot.
- 2013
- 21:23
- Alex Kotlowitz
- Ben Calhoun
- Linda Lutton
Forest to Desert
2008 ShortDocs Winner! An audio doodle about this phrase: "Humankind is preceded by forest, and followed by desert." Forest versus city / tree versus car / then versus now.
- 2008
- 02:35
- Sarah Boothroyd
Majd’s Diary: Two Years in the Life of a Saudi Girl
In a country where women’s lives are intensely restricted, Majd Abdulghani dreams of becoming a scientist. Meanwhile, her parents want to arrange her marriage.
- 2017
- 28:06
- Sarah Kate Kramer
- Joe Richman
Is That My Imagination?
2008 ShortDocs Winner! The story of a mind on strike.
- 2008
- 03:00
- Meghan Vigeant
A Sentencing Hearing
On August 1, 2015 Glendale Police Officer Eric Guse received a call about a carjacking that would change his life.
- 2016
- 10:18
- Emily Forman
- Celeste Wesson
The Color Is Black
Here is darkness, construed as manifestations of the color black through history, space, time, and in the natural world.
- 2004
- 05:34
- Jerome Schmidt
- Rick Moody
The Searchers (Based on a True Story)
2008 ShortDocs Winner! Where do lost stories go? Potato pancakes are involved.
- 2008
- 03:06
- David P. Earle
Journey
A spare and gripping account of one family's journey fleeing violence in Afghanistan.
- 2016
- 09:21
- Jamil
Why Do I Stay?
When Rainy was 17, she met a producer named Courtney Stein from WNYC’s Radio Rookies.
- 2016
- 30:33
- Courtney Stein
- Rainy
Salt On the Lips
2013 ShortDocs Winner! David channels his frustrated desires into detailed fantasies for the perfect sensual feast.
- 2013
- 03:00
- Jenny Asarnow
Standing Out From the Crowd at a Trump Rally
As the Iowa caucuses approached in February of 2016, Donald Trump’s political campaign was gaining traction with voters. One major theme became clear: fear.
- 2017
- 09:26
- Ike Sriskandarajah
Riding Through the Summer
Pilsen, 2009: Chicago summer is full of life and full of sound - you can hear it best on two wheels.
- 2009
- 03:34
- Katie Mingle
Misfire
Misfire is an experimental sound piece that blends 1940s Dr. Pepper radio ads, original violin music, and sounds of thirst and thirst-quenching.
- 2003
- 04:16
- Paul Frey
- Sarah Varney
100 Songs in a Day
One way to earn money selling music is boring: write one hit and live off the royalties for the rest of your life.
- 2014
- 11:17
- Alex Goldman
- PJ Vogt
Here I Am and Here Be Danger
Here I Am and Here Be Danger is a non-narrated experiment in heartbreak.
- 2014
- 11:45
- Annie McEwen
Willie McGee and the Traveling Electric Chair
On the night of May 7th, 1951, a thousand people gathered in Laurel, Mississippi, to witness the execution of Willie McGee, a black man convicted of raping a white woman.
- 2010
- 22:59
- Joe Richman
- Samara Freemark
Teenage Diaries Revisited Melissa's Story
As an 19-year-old raised in the foster care system, Melissa took NPR listeners along when she gave birth to her son Issaiah.
- 2014
- 19:34
- Joe Richman
- Sarah Kate Kramer
Cooler by the Lake
A classical composer, Stuart Brocklehurst, attempts to deal with his writer's block through environmental field recording.
- 2009
- 06:14
- Laura Vitale
- Rick Moody
Chicago's Gangster
Every July 22nd, a group of Chicagoans gather to memorialize the death of infamous and beloved bank robber John Dillinger, who spent a year evading the authorities and winning American hearts before he was shot dead in July, 1934.
- 2009
- 03:56
- Heather Radke