series Archive

Radiotopia Presents is a podcast of limited-run, artist-owned series from new and original voices.

Radiotopia Presents previously featured mini-series from The Stoop and Errthang, and launched The Polybius Conspiracy, Spacebridge, Secrets, Ways of Hearing, and The Great God of Depression under the original banner of Showcase from Radiotopia.

 
 

a hit dog will holler

Gina’s pro-Black, political-yet-entertaining podcast is a welcome balm to her community. If she could only drown out the roar coming from outside. Dru comes to help, but she gets trapped too. Gina and Dru are two African-American women who can't leave, can't stay. It's about America. It's about time.

a hit dog will holler is written by Inda Craig-Galván. It is produced and directed by Gisele Regatão. Mixing and sound design by Sandra Lopez-Monsalve, with help from Isabel Hibbard. Music by Christina Gaillard. Performed by Cynthia K. McWilliams, J. Nicole Brooks, and Jacqueline Guillen.

 

S***hole Country

Afia Kaakyire (LOL not her real name, her parents would kill her) has a decision to make. And by God, her family is going to help her figure this s*** out.

Join her in this eight-part podcast series as she forages for guidance in their shared histories — true tales dipped in entrepreneurial dreams, green card anxieties, complicated love and liberal portions of the world’s best jollof — during a long-awaited trip to Ghana.

 

Blind Guy Travels

How would you describe a world you’ve never seen? Blind Guy Travels invites you into life without sight. Join host Matthew Shifrin as he experiences a Marx Brothers comedy, creates an online dating profile, collaborates with LEGO to develop instructions for blind builders, and prepares for college graduation.

Blind Guy Travels is written and performed by Matthew Shifrin, and produced and sound-designed by Ian Coss.

All music in the series is written and performed by Matthew Shifrin.

 

Spacebridge

Spacebridge tells a largely-forgotten saga of the late Cold War, when despair about the prospects of a nuclear conflict gripped the world. Both Soviets and Americans grasped at emerging communication technology via satellite and early Internet “spacebridges” that brought together citizen diplomats ranging from New Agers to tech-enthusiasts to astronauts. The urge to “just connect” helped tilt the world from top-down broadcasting to the more horizontal, Internet-levelled society where we all now live…for better and/or for worse.

Co-hosted by Julia Barton and Charles Maynes, Spacebridge is a production of Showcase from PRX’s Radiotopia with additional funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Our Russian content partner is the history site Arzamas.Academy.

For some helpful historical context, check out our timeline.

 

THE STOOP

The Stoop celebrates black joy, digging deeper into stories about blackness that we don’t hear enough about. Hosts Leila Day and Hana Baba bring you honest, lively conversations from across the black diaspora.

This special miniseries of The Stoop is produced and hosted by Leila Day and Hana Baba, edited by Julie Caine and Casey Miner, engineered by Seth Samuel and Chris Hoff, and associate produced by Jessica Jupiter. Music by Daoud Anthony and artwork by Neema Iyer. Special thanks to KALW, the NPR Story Lab, and California Humanities.

 

The Great God of Depression

In 1998, a brain scientist named Alice Flaherty developed a rare form of madness. She felt so compelled to write that she scrawled sentences across the walls of her house and her own skin. Alice’s quest to understand her own bizarre behavior led her to William Styron, one of the most celebrated authors of the 20th century.

The Great God of Depression is produced by Karen Brown and Pagan Kennedy, with support from New England Public Radio. Music and sound design by Ian Coss.

 

Errthang

Al Letson and Willie Evans Jr. are back with season two of Errthang! After a long hiatus, the dynamic duo returns to tell stories, and have a good time. This season Letson and Evans focus on stories and interviews about fatherhood, the political unrest in the country, and ruminations on love. It’s a wild, fun ride with a lot of heart and depth.

Errthang is produced and hosted by Al Letson, with co-host and music supervisor Willie Evans Jr., show systemizer Brie Burge and actor Jason Stephens. Check out season one here and listen to season two here

 

Secrets

What drives us to lie, and why is it so hard to stop?

Secrets explores the secrets we keep in our lives, and the overwhelming complexities of being a human being. For radio producer Mohamed El Abed, it all began when he was 12 years old, and he found out he had an older sister en route to his mother’s memorial service. Across six episodes you’ll hear Mohamed’s story, and meet both people who live every day with a significant lie, and people affected by the lies of others.

Secrets is produced and hosted by Mohamed El Abed and Martin Johnson, with additional production from Åsa Secher, from the Swedish podcast company, Soundtelling. Artwork is by Sepidar Hosseini.

 

The Polybius Conspiracy

The Polybius Conspiracy is a seven-part series that tells the complex story of two men united by a decades-old urban legend. Polybius, a mysterious arcade game from the '80s whose alleged existence in the Pacific Northwest is fueled by myth and an obsessive online fan base, and which may have factored in the abduction of two teenage boys.

 
 

Ways of Hearing

Ways of Hearing from is a six-part podcast hosted by musician Damon Krukowski (Galaxie 500, Damon & Naomi), exploring the nature of listening in our digital world. Each episode looks at a different way that the switch from analog to digital audio is influencing our perceptions, changing our ideas of Time, Space, Love, Money, Power and Noise. This is about sound, and the ways we are using it to share information in the world right now. Our voices carry further than they ever did before, thanks to digital media. But how are they being heard? Learn More on our blog!