KFAI's MinneCulture Presents

Beginning November 3, we'll air three weeks of winners from the Third Coast Festival. The starred pieces listed below will air in November on the Listening Lounge. (Details in future posts.) The Third Coast International Audio Festival ("the Sundance for Radio") chose nine outstanding audio pieces for this year's Third Coast Festival/ Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition. This year's prestigious Audio Luminary Award went to veteran Canadian producer Chris Brookes, whose work with the CBC has richly documented the history of his native Newfoundland and expanded the modern radio documentary across the globe. Top honors for Best Documentary went to writer Starlee Kine and producer Alex Blumberg for Dr. Phil,originally produced for Chicago Public Radio's This American Life.Starlee finds so much comfort in break-up songs that she tries to write one herself - and turns to a rather surprising expert for help - the legendary Phil Collins. This American Life'...

It’s the middle of the night. You wake up with a start. There’s a presence in the room watching you. You sense that it is evil. But you are paralyzed and powerless. It’s your worst nightmare – Or is it? Radio Netherland's Michele Ernsting explores the strange and surprisingly common condition of sleep paralysis with Dr. Al Cheyne, a leading expert on the subject and several victims of “night frights." Inspired (in part) by The Nightmare , the 1781 painting by Henry Fuseli.

We've aired Ghetto Life 101 , the classic 1993 radio documentary about growing up poor on Chicago's South Side, on the Listening Lounge. Now the BBC is airing the original and a follow-up story about what the teenagers featured in the show are doing now. Here's the link . I hope to air both soon on the show.

Third Coast Festival announces winners The Third Coast International Audio Festival, which takes place in Chicago from Oct. 9-11, announced the winners of its annual awards competition. I haven't listened to all the pieces yet, but I did hear a good chunk of "Giant Pool of Money" the other day: It does a really good job of explaining the complicated — and sometimes boring — mortgage crisis and why the people involved did stupid things. (Hint: They made a lot of money doing it and everyone else did it too.) So for some good listening, go to the Third Coast website and listen in with a pair of headphones.