ShortDocs
Discover hundreds of short audio gems produced in response to a prompt from Third Coast for the ShortDocs Competition, hosted between 2003 and 2016. Each year ushered in a new set of rules, new creative partners, and ever-more magical results.
X-Town
In the late 1930s, Massachusetts flooded four towns in the central part of the state to create a reservoir for the city of Boston. More than 2,000 people lived in those towns.
- 2003
- 07:29
- Sean Cole
And I Walked...Stories From the Border
Much of the Sonoran desert between Tucson and Mexico is a haunting wasteland of discarded shoes, shirts, and empty plastic water jugs, discarded by desparate illegal immigrants who risk their lives as they cross the desert from Mexico into the United States in search of better-paying jobs.
- 2003
- 06:05
- Ann Heppermann
- Kara Oehler
Vagy/Szomjusag/Thirst
As a boy, George Bien was sent thousands of miles away from Hungary to Siberia, to the notorious Gulag - the prison camp system in the Soviet Union, where millions of people perished.
- 2003
- 06:45
- Alex van Oss
Dinner at the Blind Cow
From the moment you enter the restaurant's dining room, you're in complete darkness. Blind waiters take your order, help you find your water glass, and lead you to the bathroom as needed.
- 2004
- 07:47
- Adam Burke
Memento Mori
Some members of Jude Fletcher's family have a fondness for taking pictures of the dead. Their photo albums boast the typical shots of joyous celebrations and family gatherings, side by side with shots of loved ones in their caskets.
- 2004
- 08:20
- Jude Fletcher
Listening to Jamie
Imagine a cold London winter, where the bizarre and unpredictable sounds made by producer Hugh Levinson's sleeping newborn punctuate the dark nights in the most unimaginable ways.
- 2004
- 07:23
- Hugh Levinson
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 Ambassador of Go
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.
- 2005
- 05:46
- Blake Eskin
There Was a Whole Lotta Hundreds...
In America's high schools, students are playing a game whose only rule is to break the rules.
- 2005
- 06:11
- Michael Kavanagh
The Rules Will Be Different
For one recount lawyer in Florida, the political became personal in the wake of the 2000 presidential election.
- 2005
- 07:59
- Melissa Allison
Tongues Twisting
Clapping games and tongue twisters in multiple languages turn into rich stories when Judith Sloan records young immigrants in a theatre workshop.
- 2005
- 07:20
- Judith Sloan
Sweetgum Handshake
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.
- 2008
- 07:46
- Julie Shapiro
- Rick and Megan Shaw Prelinger
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
Deportations Before Reform: Anatomy of an Immigration Bust
As lawmakers continued to debate immigration reform in 2010, the Obama administration pushed for a path to citizenship.
- 2011
- 08:56
- Marianne McCune
Fault Line
Kevin (not his real name) is a likable guy who lives with his wife in New Jersey. And he's on probation after serving time in a federal prison for committing a disturbing crime.
- 2014
- 24:14
- Jad Abumrad
- Pat Walters