Family Snapshots

Series produced by Conrad Bishop

Caption: PRX default Series image
PRX default Series image 

Sixty-five 90-second modules, each a complete micro-drama, about the absurdities, traumas, and tiny ecstasies of family life.

Sixty-five 90-second modules, each a complete micro-drama, about the absurdities, traumas, and tiny ecstasies of family life.

They?re unlike anything you?ve ever heard. They?re funny and moving ? each one a surprise. They're the story you?ve heard your dad tell for 30 years. The searing words overheard in the supermarket line. The hour you felt most alone, or most absurd, or most alive. With the barbed hook of a commercial spot, they?re unabashed sales pitches for being human.

How to use them? Morning drive. Evening drive. Before the news. After the news. Follow-up or change-of-pace in a talk show. Anytime as an ear-catching sweetener.

Described by Bill Siemering (first program director of NPR) as ?the most evocative 90 seconds in radio." By the program director of WMUH, Allentown, as "the most thought-provoking 'sweetener' we?ve ever had." And by the Cleveland Plain Dealer as ?what radio can be when good intentions, fine execution, and stunning creativity come together.? Hide full description

Sixty-five 90-second modules, each a complete micro-drama, about the absurdities, traumas, and tiny ecstasies of family life. They?re unlike anything you?ve ever heard. They?re funny and moving ? each one a surprise. They're the story you?ve heard your dad tell for 30 years. The searing words overheard in the supermarket line. The hour you felt most alone, or most absurd, or most alive. With the barbed hook of a commercial spot, they?re unabashed sales pitches for being human. How to use them? Morning drive. Evening drive. Before the news. After the news. Follow-up or change-of-pace in a talk show. Anytime as an ear-catching sweetener. Described by Bill Siemering (first program director of NPR) as ?the most evocative 90 seconds in radio." By the program director of... Show full description


63 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: PRX default Piece image
A family operates on the same principle as a jazz combo: improvisation on a theme.

Bought by WQJC and WVPE


  • Added: Jun 15, 2004
  • Length: 01:37
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: PRX default Piece image
A woman reveals her terror when her recently-retired husband is suddenly in poor health.

  • Added: Jun 15, 2004
  • Length: 01:37
Caption: PRX default Piece image
The adult daughter hasn't called; the parents are desperate; but at least there's a message on the machine.

  • Added: Jun 15, 2004
  • Length: 01:38
Caption: PRX default Piece image
Twin sisters are torn between the fear of losing each other and wanting to break away from each other now that one of them is getting married.

  • Added: Jun 15, 2004
  • Length: 01:37
Caption: PRX default Piece image
An ingenuous young taxi driver applies for a bank loan, inspired by his father's vision of American opportunity, to start a steel mill.

Bought by WQJC


  • Added: Jun 15, 2004
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: PRX default Piece image
An adult daughter, bringing flowers to her mother's grave, imagines what her mother would say to her, both condemning and loving.

Bought by WQJC


  • Added: Jun 15, 2004
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: PRX default Piece image
A sister reminds her accusing brother who held the household together when the mother was abusive and alcoholic in their growing-up years. The sco...

  • Added: Jun 15, 2004
  • Length: 01:38
Caption: PRX default Piece image
An elderly man prepares to take his senile wife to the nursing home, trying inarticulately to express his love.

Bought by WYSO


  • Added: Jun 15, 2004
  • Length: 01:37
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: PRX default Piece image
A woman questions her 15 year old daughter about going out with an older man and being busted. "The grass was Chuck's."

  • Added: Jun 15, 2004
  • Length: 01:38
Caption: PRX default Piece image
A grandmother-to-be is departing to visit her daughter who is having her first baby. Her husband assures her, yes, he can take care of himself.

Bought by WQJC


  • Added: Jun 14, 2004
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: PRX default Piece image
A mother explodes at the dinner table. But she's in a surreal world where her explosion means nothing: "It's ok, Mom, you're not nearly as crazy ...

Bought by WQJC


  • Added: Jun 14, 2004
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: PRX default Piece image
A man describes to his lover the experience of consoling a friend who had just learned of the death of her father. A module from "Family Snapshots...

  • Added: Jun 14, 2004
  • Length: 01:37
Caption: PRX default Piece image
A man is furious at his siblings making a public show of love for their deceased mother: they never showed their love while she was alive.

  • Added: Jun 14, 2004
  • Length: 01:38
Caption: PRX default Piece image
An elderly woman phones her older brother to let him know she's having a risky, life-saving operation. She ends up comforting him.

Bought by WQJC


  • Added: Jun 14, 2004
  • Length: 01:37
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: PRX default Piece image
Are the frustrations in their late-in-life marriage outweighed by their real commitment? Her advice: "Get everything in writing."

Bought by WQJC


  • Added: Jun 14, 2004
  • Length: 01:37
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: PRX default Piece image
Two men talk of a couple whose bizarre lifestyle has nevertheless supported a love and commitment stronger than what the men have experienced in th...

  • Added: Jun 09, 2004
  • Length: 01:37
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A young bride-to-be in an interracial marriage tries to get reassurance from a hesitant sister who doesn't want to "take sides."

  • Added: Jun 09, 2004
  • Length: 01:38
Caption: PRX default Piece image
On a bus, a woman describes the diversity of her family, coming together in a tense but sustaining unity at Passover.

Bought by KRCB 104.9


  • Added: Jun 09, 2004
  • Length: 01:37
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: PRX default Piece image
A married man tells a woman with whom he's having an affair of the time in his childhood: when he felt unconditional love.

Bought by WQJC


  • Added: Jun 09, 2004
  • Length: 01:37
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: PRX default Piece image
An elderly woman has been notified that her ex-husband has died. Her friend makes the mistake of extending sympathy.

  • Added: Jun 09, 2004
  • Length: 01:38