#50 - Ghetto Life 101
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Length: 00:38:07
Also in the SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling series
#54 - No Brother of Mine
(00:27:24)
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Diane Richard and her husband Todd Melby sure know how to pick a project with a long uphill road to the finish line. On this Saltcast, we talk with Diane and Richard about ...
#53 - Left For Dead
(00:17:50)
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
"Left for Dead" is probably the most gruesome story reported by a Salt student. It's not for the faint of heart.
#52 - Just Another Fish Story
(00:14:03)
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
You didn’t hear this from me, but sometimes the best approach to working on a story is to not have much of a plan.
#51 - Portrait of a Psychic as a Young Man
(00:11:47)
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Ninety-nine percent of the time, using the pronoun “I” in a story is a journalistic no-no. But sometimes, it's a useful storytelling tool.
#49 - The Junk King
(00:15:04)
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
On this edition of the Saltcast, I chat with Salt alum Josh Gleason about framing a story and listen to his feature "The Junk King."
#48 - Roadway Renaissance Man
(00:09:50)
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
There are lots of different ways to start a story. Maybe the most common is what I call “Here’s-how-things-are (or were)-here’s-how-they're-different.”
#47 - Wicked Maine Limericks
(00:09:10)
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Thought the limerick was a dead artform? A remnant of “ye olde days” that little kids still find humorous? Think again. Molly Haley brings us the story of a limerick ...
#46 - Nothing Predictable
(00:09:02)
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
The focus of this Saltcast is tension and narrative arc. I dissect an audio postcard of my own, called “Nothing Predictable,” and describe the arc of the story each step of ...
#45 - Hot Lunch!
(00:10:11)
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
No matter which way producer Audrey Dilling turned in the cafeteria kitchen at Biddeford High School, she was awash in sound, sound, and more sound. What’s a producer to do? ...
#44 - Racial Cleansing in America
(00:17:18)
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
On this Saltcast we feature John’s story “Racial Cleansing In America.” It’s about the expulsion of blacks from Corbin, Kentucky by the town’s white citizens in 1919.
Related Pieces
Piece Description
“You can do that with radio?!!”
That was my overwhelming response when I first heard “Ghetto Life 101.” I still feel the same way even after listening to the piece dozens of times.
“Ghetto Life 101″ is a high-water mark for radio documentary and the story featured on this edition of the Saltcast — our fiftieth!!
Dave Isay produced the piece in 1993. Dave gave tape decks to two teenage boys — LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman — to document their lives on the south side of Chicago. This diary-style production was one of the first in public radio and inspired a slew of other diary documentaries and youth radio programs (see below).
Dave no longer produces docs. Instead, he manages StoryCorps, perhaps the largest oral history project ever undertaken in the United States.
For the 50th Saltcast, Dave spoke briefly with me about Ghetto Life, some of the controversy that surrounded the broadcast, and how LeAland and Lloyd are doing now.
Related Website
Of 1 purchasers of this piece...
- 1 also bought:
The Birth of the Frito (00:07:19) - 1 also bought:
- 1 also bought:
Sugar in the Milk: A Parsi Kitchen Story (00:08:56) - 1 also bought:
Broncos & Boudin: The Angola Prison Rodeo (00:07:26) - 1 also bought:
