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Some essays on story, community, public media, and life in general.

Jay’s 2012 PRPD benediction
Jay at 2012 PRPD

Featured in CURRENT:
“If we can imagine it, why don’t we do it?”

Grilling Me Softly

My older daughter, Lillie, a 10th grader, is visiting. We’ve finished dinner and are sitting around, and it feels like a good time to mention that I have finally had my first date. As I had suspected, she has a flood of questions, which I have decided in advance not to answer. Instead, I start taking notes.

Back at the Ranch
Back at the Ranch

A young boy molts. Tender skin falls off, or gets scraped off, and is replaced by a tougher, more permanent crust. I made a change like that standing in the back of a pickup truck when I was 15.

How Sweet the Sound
How Sweet the Sound

I ride an old motorcycle. It breaks down regularly, and the guy who used to do the repair work went bankrupt and left town. I called around, and the only place willing to do the work now is a chopper shop about an hour away where the local motorcycle gangs get their bikes fixed.

Storytelling on the Radio Builds Community, On-Air and Off

“The journalist must be facilitator, fact-checker, ethicist, but not a puppet-master”

From Scratch at Cape & Islands

Imagining the sounds of 90.1 and 91.1

Bursts of lush and local life are new stations’ trademark

What would you put on the clean canvas of a brand new public radio station, the first one of the new millennium?

Hot Air: Tips for Citizen Storytellers

If you are unsatisfied with the way your public radio system portrays life as you know it, consider doing the portraying yourself.

Vigil

“My two-year-old daughter is caught up in a difficult health problem. I joined the Well to talk about Radio, but I found myself in the Parenting Conference late at night talking about Lillie. And little flashes of light came back– other parents, other people– responding.”