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Playlist: O'Dark 30 episode 16

Compiled By: KUT

Caption: PRX default Playlist image

O’Dark 30 is an exploration of the world of independent radio production. It airs Sundays at midnight on KUT 90.5 Austin. Every week we present 3 hours of a little bit of everything from the world of independent radio production It's audio that deserves an audience.

Episode 16 pieces include The WASPS: Women Pilots of WWII...Owners of a Purple Heart...Jennie's Secret...Bonjour Chanson Series 7, Episode 33...The St. Patrick's Day Parade, Dublin, 1965...presidente Walker...Dyana, Goddess of the Moose Hunt...Alfred's Story...Wired for Sound: Music and the Brain

The WASPs: Women Pilots of WWII

From Radio Diaries | 22:42

The story of the first female pilots in WWII.

Wasp_square_small In the early 1940s, the US Airforce faced a dilemma. Thousands of new airplanes were coming off assembly lines and needed to be delivered to military bases nationwide, yet most of America's pilots were overseas fighting the war. To solve the problem, the government launched an experimental program to train women pilots. They were known as the WASPs, the Women Airforce Service Pilots. 

Owners of a Purple Heart

From Hillary Frank | 05:25

Three Purple Heart recipients talk about how they earned their medals.

Jones_cropped_small In 1932, General MacArthur changed the fabric Purple Heart badge to a medal. And at the last minute, he also changed the meaning: it went from a merit award to recognition of any soldier who had been injured in battle. But some soldiers aren't all that excited about getting a Purple Heart. To them, it's an award for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Hillary Frank talks with some Philadelphia veterans who are ambivalent about the honor.

Jennie's Secret

From Linda Paul | 18:05

Take a look at this picture. Maybe you can figure out that the Civil War soldier on the right is a woman. But the guy sitting next to her sure couldn’t, and neither could the rest of her fellow soldiers.

They didn’t conduct physical exams back in those days the way the military does now. The army’s policy, one observer quipped, was “ don’t test the eyes, count ‘em.“

Pic10_small The non-bearded soldier in this picture was known to her comrades as Albert Cashier. But she was born in Ireland on Christmas Day of 1843 as Jennie Hodgers. This is the story of a woman who posed as a man during the Civil War and went on to live most of her life as a man in the tiny town of Saunemin, Illinois. Through the years the town has been ambivalent about their most famous citizen & has struggled to figure out what to do with her old house.

Bonjour Chanson Series 7, Episode 33

From Charles Spira | Part of the Bonjour Chanson Series 7 series | 28:32

Six French Language Artists are introduced in English with one of their songs. Enjoy the wonderful melodies of French Popular Music even if you do not speak French.

Lyon_rhone_small French Language Popular Music has a history going back more than a hundred years and it keeps constantly changing to keep up with the times, yet manages to stay true to itself.  We bring you a wide ranging overview of the genre. songs that are popular right now in Paris, Montreal or Brussels, as well as the enduring performances from the past.  No need to understand French.  We tell you about the artists and the songs in English, so you can sit back and relax because you will know what the songs are about. In this episode you will hear:
Marie Espinosa, (France), L'Annonce
Benabar, (Rance), L'Effet Papillon
Juliette Greco, (France), Sur Les Quais du Vieux Paris
Marc Lavoine, (France), La Semaine Prochaine.
Isabelle Boulay, (Canasa), Chanson Pour les Mois d'Hiver.
Benjamin Biolay, (France), Ton Heritage.

The St. Patrick's Day Parade, Dublin, 1965

From Jackson Braider | 05:51

The Irish in 1965 felt differently about St. Patrick's Day

Default-piece-image-1 First aired in a much abbreviated and altered form on Day to Day, 3/17/04 The Braider family moved to Ireland in 1963 because my father was a writer and it was a cheap place to live. Who knew that being the second-best student in religious knowledge at St. Conleth's College (his older brother was the best) would land commentator Jackson Braider in a tableau vivant cruising up and down Dublin's main drag on St. Patrick's Day?

Dyana, Goddess Of The Moose Hunt

From Salt Institute for Documentary Studies | 08:53

It all started out as a simple moose hunt...but a lot can go wrong.

Epoch_moose_small Dyana is going on her first moose hunt ever.  Only, she's never even fired a rifle before.  So, she enlists some help.  But she gets more than she bargained for.  Jamie Yuenger has the story.

Alfred’s story: Sudanese youth journalist reports on early marriage in Southern Sudan

From UNICEF | Part of the Digital Diarists: Sudanese Youth Voices series | 08:27

Alfred’s story: Youth journalist reports on early marriage in Southern Sudan

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Alfred’s story: Youth journalist reports on early marriage in Southern Sudan

As Alfred Malish, now 14, has grown up, he has noticed an alarming thing happening around him: His female classmates are leaving school early to get married.

Early marriage still happens with some regularity in Sudan, most often for girls, who are sometimes as young as 12 when they’re married off. Marriage at such an early age can be an obstacle to further education; it can also result in complications should the girl become pregnant before her body is adequately developed.

‘People will not like you’

Alfred became aware of the problem after his friend Stella became pregnant at 15.

"I wanted to go to Senior One [class in school] but I'm pregnant, so I can't go," Stella tells Alfred in an interview he conducted last month as part of a radio story on the problem of child marriage in Southern Sudan.

In a warning to other girls in similar circumstances, Stella recalls being ostracized by her friends and her community.

"People will not like you, no one will be your friend and you'll stay alone," she says, adding: "My sisters, I want to tell you like this. Don't run to marriage. Don't attempt to get married at an early age. Giving birth is very difficult."

Wired for Sound: Music and the Brain

From Canadian Broadcasting Corporation | Part of the The Nerve - Music and the Human Experience series | 53:32

The Nerve Part 1 looks at how we are wired for sound – and just how all the wonder that music makes possible, is possible itself in the first place.

Thenerve-240x240_small On Episode 1 of The Nerve, host Jowi Taylor takes you on an aural journey, from the creation of sound at its source, through the air and the outer ear to the cochlea, the spinal column, and the cerebral cortex. On the way, you'll hear about how and why hearing evolved, and how the human ear is designed to react to certain sounds. Why do we hear some sounds as music, and other sounds as noise? What's the critical relationship between anticipation and satisfaction that drives music? Just what happens when the human brain and music become dance partners? And what roles do the elements we call rhythm, harmony, melody and timbre play in that dance?