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Playlist: News Station Picks for September

Compiled By: PRX Curators

 Credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/88448902@N00/448512720/">Scott Kinmartin</a>
Image by: Scott Kinmartin 
Curated Playlist

Here are the September picks for news stations from new PRX News Format Curator Naomi Starobin.

Naomi is the news director at WSHU Public Radio in Connecticut and a board member of PRNDI. Public radio is her second career — she came armed with experience in environmental science and engineering, and teaching. There was also a stint as a ranger with the National Park Service. She has an MS in journalism from Columbia University. Just after graduating, she was a factchecker at Consumer Reports, which has forever made her love the truth.

What Naomi listens for in a piece:

"It can be about anything, it can be short or long or in between, it can have one voice or many. It will not be boring or repetitive. It will slice through, right to the ears and the brain, in terms of both audio and ideas. Take me somewhere I can’t get to on my own...into someone’s world, into an understanding that surprises me."

Nominate a piece for Naomi to consider.

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Here are the September picks for news stations from new PRX News Format Curator Naomi Starobin.

Naomi is the news director at WSHU Public Radio in Connecticut and a board member of PRNDI. Public radio is her second career — she came armed with experience in environmental science and engineering, and teaching. There was also a stint as a ranger with the National Park Service. She has an MS in journalism from Columbia University. Just after graduating, she was a factchecker at Consumer Reports, which has forever made her love the truth.

What Naomi listens for in a piece:

"It can be about anything, it can be short or long or in between, it can have one voice or many. It will not...

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Turning to a Mediator to Break Up in Tight Times

From NPR Economic Training Project | 04:07

This piece was produced at the NPR Economic Training Project, and it's by Tina Antolini, a reporter and producer at WFCR in Amherst, Massachusetts. It zeroes in on a way to get a divorce in this challenging economy: use a mediator. But it's not all roses, and the reporter takes care to point out the difficulties that a couple run across when using mediation.

At 5:02, it can be paired with another economics long form (who's not putting those out these days?) to fill a longer segment in the news magazines.

Default-piece-image-1 Even the business of love is being hit by the recession. Or, actually, the business of... the break-up.  As fights over finances, layoffs and  foreclosures strain some marriages to the breaking point, the economic downturn is also changing how some people manage the process of divorce... by turning to mediation.

Kosher Meets Capitalism: The Business of Shabbat

From Rebecca Sheir | 04:35

Take your listeners on a trip into Orthodox Judaism, and the challenge of making it through the Sabbath when you can't turn on a light, brush your teeth or light a stove. Turns out there's money to be made with that challenge, by selling products that make life a little easier but don't violate the rules. In other words, they're kosher. Reporter Rebecca Sheir, now at WAMU in Washington, D.C., does a nice job of finding voices that express what it means to live with the limitations of the Sabbath, and the opportunities those limitations present.

This piece has already been picked up by KUOW, WFUV, Interfaith Voices and WAMC. Join them, and your listeners will get to know a corner of the world a little better. Makes for a nice Friday afternoon piece.

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With the weekend comes Shabbat, or Shabbos: the Jewish day of rest. From sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, Jewish law forbids certain, specific kinds of "work" - simple things we often take for granted. Like writing and erasing... cutting and tearing... even turning the lights on and off.

Thus, Sabbath observers have spent many a Friday afternoon taping down light switches, stashing away pens and pencils - even pre-cutting their fingernails and pre-tearing their toilet paper. But in recent years, an industry has emerged which manages to merge modern convenience and this sacred time. Rebecca Sheir has more.

An Orchestra of Bicycles

From Rene Gutel | 02:59

A light, sound-rich piece, mostly first person, about a sound artist who wrote a composition that is performed by people on bicycles. The clickety-click of the bicycles interweaves nicely with the composer's description of the piece.

This comes from Rene Gutel, an independent journalist based in Phoenix, Arizona.

You may need to beef up the intro a bit to explain just what a gamelan is (originating in Indonesian music, a set of instruments as a distinct entity, built and tuned to be played together) and add a bit about the artist.

Em-rercordsb_small Sound Artist Richard Lerman reflects on Travelon Gamelon, a piece he wrote in 1970 for amplified bicycles.

Fatalistic Teens Increase Risk of HIV Infection

From Youth Radio | 03:47

Every month, I look at pieces that are either by a teen or about young people. This one stood out. It's by Ankitha Bharadwaj, reporting for Youth Radio out of California. It explores how teens view their own mortality. We hear from an expert, but also from teens who are articulate about their own stories and their views of their lives.

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Studies have shown that, unlike adults, many teenagers greatly overestimate their risk of dying in the near future. But what does that fatalistic attitude mean for the actual health of those teens? Youth Radio’s Ankitha Bharadwaj [ahn-KEY-tah BAR-d’waj] reports.