KFAI's MinneCulture Presents

Happy New Year from The Truth Walt Avery is throwing a New Year's Eve party. He's invited all his friends , and expects a big crowd. Who will show up? Who won't ? In this short story, we spend an evening with a man coming to terms with the perseverance of friendships, the death of his wife, keeping her memory, and  perpetuating  their traditions . Clandestine Recording of My Parents at New Year's by Laura Kwerel A secret recording of some late night gaiety. Laura was alone in her room when her parents and some neighbors began to celebrate  the coming new year. They started making these unbelievable sounds with their noisemakers, like some kind of strange, bizarre -- sad geese  -- and she knew she simply had to catch it on tape. Dec 31st, 1995 from Random Tape Kenneth and Miriam ring in the New Year... perhaps their last.  Random Tape  is a radio show that features odd voice messages, rants, poetry, music, any and all found recordings -- even some other 

True Stories for the Holidays from RISK! RISK! is the podcast "where people tell true stories they never thought they'd dare to share ." Writers , actors and ordinary folks tell their most intimate secrets -- the most loaded moments of their lives. It's hilarious, heartbreaking and often, just plain wonderful . Some stories are told on stage at RISK! live shows while others may include music and sound design.  This is a special holiday episode features author Elna Baker on the time she managed "adoptions" of baby dolls at toy store FAO Schwartz; author Michele Carlo on her first kiss in a Christmastime snowstorm; Steve Spatucci on his childhood quest to find Santa Claus; and Scott Whitehair on his teenage quest to make sure his baby brother continued to believe in Old St. Nick. Enjoy.

The War on Hanukkah from Eric Molinsky Hanukkah has become the pinnacle of assimilation for American Jews . Dreidels and Menorahs hang in holiday displays alongside Christmas trees and wreaths. But the real history of Hanukkah is sometimes forgotten . The ancient war that Hanukkah celebrates was very much a civil war between religious and secular Jews. While cooking latkes, a former Orthodox Jew explains how this 2,000 year old struggle over assimilation has affected her life.  La Nona Kanta by Julie Subrin Flory Jagoda grew up in a family of singers. Her childhood, in a mountain village outside of Sarajevo, was filled with songs sung in Ladino - the language passed down by Jews expelled from Spain during the Inquisition. After the horrors of World War II, she and her parents were the only survivors of the 42-member Altaras family. Since then, Jagoda , winner of a NEA National Heritage fellowship, has dedicated her professional life to composing, performing and teaching

If you love typewriters, this isn't the show for you. On this episode of the Listening Lounge, the reporting team of The Kitchen Sisters takes us inside the studio of a sculptor who makes it his mission to disassemble those antique writing machines. "I destroy typewriters," says Jeremy Mayer of Oakland, California. Mayer turns those keys and pieces of metal  into full-scale, anatomically correct human figures.   Also on the show: The Extractor from The Truth .  Producer Jonathon Mitchell spins whole worlds in his radio stories for The Truth. In the  "The Extractor," we start with some startling "what if"'s and spiral out from there: what if the sounds we make don't just fade away? What if they're embedded in the wood around us? What if someone invented a device that could retrieve these sounds from hours, years or even centuries ago? By the way, if you really love typewriters, check out Clickety-Clack: A Visit to Vale Typewri

Shell Shock   from Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening The rumble of artillery bombardment in Northern France could be heard as far away as Kent during the First World War. Up close in the trenches soldiers experienced a  sonic onslaught that continued night and day: howling shells, the machine gun’s rattle, and the screams of injured men. Professor Hendy of the University of Sussex visits Flanders to relay echoes from the Front.  Radio Everywhere  from Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening Radio seemed like magic to begin with... then the Nazis exploited its darker powers .  In the early days, listening to radio was an uncanny,  miraculous  experience. Amazingly, voices arrived out of thin air from hundreds of miles away. In time, the radio became a trusted part of family life - and by the 1930s and 40s, it was the perfect medium for propaganda , as Joseph Goebbels recognized . In this thrilling chapter, we consider the seductive power of the disembodied