Let me tell you why this piece was so important to me. See — I was the kid who wanted to get good grades in grade school, so that I'd be prepared for high school, so that I'd be prepared for college, so I'd be prepared to get my dream job, so that I'd be prepared to have a family. The lesson I've been learning for the last 10 years is that you can't spend all your time preparing for the future — because who you are and what you want today will probably not be the same by the time that future comes around.

But some habits are hard to break. When I'm working on a radio story and the punch line I had prepared for doesn't materialize, I'm likely to bang my head against the wall for a good week before I look around enough to find another door.

Trenton Good is my exact opposite — not just because he's more likely to be enjoying the outdoors than doing homework. Trenton made this radio story by being open to inspiration. And he made it great by letting the moment guide him.

It all started when Trent skipped school. He had a radio assignment that wasn't going anywhere, and after his radio teacher, Sarah Bromer, asked him why he skipped school the next day, they threw out the old assignment and dove into the story that was right in front of them. Why had Trent skipped school that day?

But it doesn't end there. Instead of sitting down and writing a script the way most radio producers do, Trent started out just telling his story into the microphone. Then, he used that very real version of his story to shape a script that had the pieces he liked, and sounded authentic. More authentic, surely, than a script would be that was typed first and recorded later.

Trent is a natural at living in the moment. His lesson is like my lesson, but in reverse. Trent told me that producing this piece taught him that he does need to try in school, no matter how much he doesn't like it, because he needs to be prepared for college, so that he can be prepared to get a job he likes.

But I don't want to get carried away with didactic life lessons. The reason you should listen to Trent's piece is to enjoy his creative, introspective honesty. It's not something you hear from a 16 year old everyday.

Check back right here for the next Youthcast! And keep in touch on Twitter, Facebook, or by leaving a comment right here. While we're gone, listen to HowSound, the backstory to great radio storytelling. And thanks for listening!

View from Tumamoc Hill was shot by Trenton Good. Image of Trenton was shot by Sarah Bromer.

"Who cares?" might be a better question, at least for regular sports betters like Brooklyn College Radio's Vincent Geary. Vincent told me in an interview this week that in his community in Rockaway, Queens, lots of people bet on sports. For some it's a hobby, for some it's a sport, and yes, for others it's an addiction. But for everybody, it's totally out in the open — and as far as they're concerned, it's legal. That's because of the thousands of international online gambling websites through which bookmakers and gamblers settle their bets these days.

Vincent studies radio at City University of New York in Brooklyn. He told me he didn't expect his college radio class to be so surprised that he was a regular gambler. So, for Vincent's final project, he decided to capture the nature of gambling in his community in Rockaway NY. He told me: "Gambling has a very negative connotation… and I just wanted to put it out there and have people decide on their own."
So have a listen. And stay tuned for my interview with Vincent at the end of the podcast.

Online gambling image by Orin Zebest, Bookie image by flickr_lifeshots.

Margo Blanco may be small, but she isn't shy. Last summer, not long after moving from her home in the Philippines to Santa Fe, NM, Margo went with her Youth Media Project Summer Intensive class on a field trip to Albuquerque. There, she stood on the street with a tape recorder, asking strangers: "have you ever felt like you are little in this world?"

Surely anyone who moves across the world knows what it's like to feel little. In fact, in the previous episode of Youthcast, Jacob Holley-Kline talked about how traveling to a new place made him feel like a baby — knowing little about where he was, who he'd meet or what was expected of him. But, as Marga discovered talking to people on the streets of Albuquerque, you don't have to travel across the world to feel humbled by its size. We all feel small sometimes.

Marga seems to be a born reporter. When I asked her if she felt nervous or awkward sticking a microphone in front of all of those strangers — having just stepped off a plane from the Philippines — she said "I think, for me, it comes naturally." That might be because she's been reporting for school papers and making radio back home since she was in the 5th grade. Marga also likes to work in visual media, and created an animation in Photoshop that accompanies her piece.
Have a look!

Fish image by Flickr_Wonderlane

Last month, Jacob Holley-Kline went on a school trip to Greece. He had worked all of the previous summer to pay travel expenses. When he got there, he was stunned by the beauty of the place. "The water looked like a melted gemstone or something. Like congealed tanzanite," Jacob told me. But something was bothering him. Why does he get to go to Greece, and other folks don't? Did he deserve to be there?

This is the question Jacob puzzles over in this beautifully written and delivered commentary, from the Alaska Teen Media Institute.

While Jacob was in Greece, he kept a diary — writing between 5 and 9 pages every day. "As it stands now," Jacob said, " the whole 8 or 9 days is a complete blur."

So how did he decide which details, from all those pages of writing, he should include in a three-minute commentary? "After living in Alaska for my whole life, there's a lot of beauty here, but it's a totally different kind of beauty than in Greece…. So I tried to find the aspects of it that seemed the most unreal. And this is what it came down to."

Jacob also wanted to shout out to Robert Stormo and Rosey Robards at the Alaska Teen Media Institute, "for making me write this — or not making me, but pushing me to write it — because it is one of the reasons I'm able to appreciate the trip as much as I did."

When Rachel Smith's older sister was a second-semester high school senior, she and her classmates started to "senior slide." They had been going to school for 13 years, graduation was on its way, and heck, it was warm outside. So when one of her teachers found her students unprepared for class, and announced: "I know everyone has been giving up on you for your entire life, but I’m not going to give up on you," the students in the class were offended.

They were being lazy; not hopeless.

According to Rachel, who is the chief poet at Kenwood Academy's Epic Sound slam poetry team, that kind of thing happens a lot when privileged young people come to teach in what she calls "inner city" schools. So Rachel decided to write a poem about it.

It's not every week that we feature a poet on Youthcast, but this week it seems appropriate. First of all, an incredible collection of young peoples' slam poetry performances has just been uploaded to PRX. It includes all of the finalists from this year's Louder Than a Bomb (LTAB) competition. Louder Than a Bomb is an annual teen poetry festival and competition that began in 2001. Last year, a feature-length documentary came out about the competition. The trailer is below, along with a link to Generation PRX's profile of the film and words from LTAB's founder, Kevin Coval.

Chicago Public Radio's Robin Amer describes the festival as "competitive, raw, and onstage, it’s a medium that has helped thousands of teenagers channel their budding identities, intense personal feelings and emerging political world views in recited verse." Rachel Smith is one of those teenagers — she says that participating in LTAB helped build her confidence in herself and in her community. Rachel says LTAB "gives teens an opportunity to speak on politics, and a lot of time grownups who wouldn’t listen to teenagers, and it would be put off as something that the youth are complaining about, but now we have a real voice."

Watch the documentary trailer, and read about it on Signal, Generation PRX's newsletter.

Kamna Shastri makes music, and she makes radio. The main difference between these endeavors, she says, is that she makes radio for an audience whom she has to make certain will understand the ideas she's trying to communicate. The music she makes just for herself. Lately, Kamna's been making a lot of radio about music.

In this week's Youthcast, we'll hear about two of Kamna's stories, as well as musical arrangements*. The first story is about an a cappella group that one of Kamna's friends belongs to. The group combines Indian music and western music, the two traditions Kamna grew up studying — so Kamna knew a lot about the subject before gathering her tape. This piece is abbreviated in the podcast, so be sure to check out the full version, below.

The other story is about a man who lovingly recycles old pianos, a person and subject that were wholly unfamiliar to Kamna until she got working on the story. Kamna says that in the beginning, interviewing her friend was easier than interviewing the piano repairman, since Kamna says she can be shy with strangers, especially at first. Plus, she already had a deep understanding of Indian and western music and cultures, so she knew which questions were likely to be fruitful.

However, Kamna says something really special happens once she's deep into an interview with somebody she doesn't already know. She says "something happens in my mind where I have no sense of myself, where any sort of judgment or me sticking to my opinions (I tend to be sort of opinionated) all of that sort of drops when I’m putting the story together, and in a way their story becomes — almost — my story."

*In the podcast, a musical work by A.R. Rahman was accidentally attributed to Shastri. The performance and arrangement are Shastri's.

Bullying is a hot topic these days. In fact, 5 newspapers have published stories about bullying in the last hour, judging from my Google results.  Until now, much of the national conversation was being carried out by the people who understood it the least: adults.  As Council Brandon — one of the people featured in this week's podcast — put it to me:

“You may be an adult and you were bullied in high school or middle school, but that was a long time ago,” she continued, “there wasn’t the media of today, the environment wasn’t the same, so I think until you’ve actually experienced it in this time, you can’t discuss it very accurately.”

Council Brandon and co-host Peython Echelson-Russell are in high school. They know what it’s like to be bullied, and to be a bully.  Together they hosted Bullied: Teen Stories from Generation PRX, an hour-long documentary featuring stories by and about young people, across the nation and the world. Bullied was produced by Catie Talarski and Connecticut Public Radio, and is presented by PRX.  In this week’s podcast, I speak with Council and Peython to find out what it’s like to host a documentary — especially when the subject is close to your heart.

Get the backstory on how this project came together on the Generation PRX website, and check out 7 other curated hour-long youth specials on the PRX website.

Our podcast, including Segment A of the documentary:

The full documentary:

Image: Council Brandon, provided by Connecticut Public Radio.

Perfection isn't easy. In fact, even attempting perfection is usually really hard. Last year Grace Edgerton spent a whole year producing only two stories in her radio production class at City High Radio, the charter high school she attends in Tuscon, AZ. The one we're featuring is a short Vox Pop about kids and their parents. "It was long, it was awful," Grace says about the production process. "There was this one particular thing that dragged out for like three weeks, where we couldn't decide on the ending song."

In the end, though, Grace says it was worth it to produce something really, really good.  And that is exactly what her Vox Pop is.

Vox Pop? It's short for Vox Populi, or voice of the people. Technically, this is just a "man on the street" interview, which can be spliced into any kind of TV or radio story. But most often "Vox Pop" refers to a specific style of radio story, in which the producer asks one compelling question to a slew of different people, artfully cuts together the answers, adds some music, and voila! They've produced a Vox Pop.  It sounds easy, right? And it is — easier, that is, than producing a short documentary, for example.  That's why so many teachers use Vox Pops to teach their students the art of making radio.

Below we've collected a list of some of our favorite Vox Pop pieces and moments. We'd like to add yours to the list! Have you produced a Vox Pop you'd like to share? Or perhaps you've heard one and just loved it. Let us know! Post the piece on our Facebook page and we'll add it to our list pronto.

I Wish by Samantha Broun

Awesome Pope from NPR, excerpted by Roman Mars

Why We Wear Baggy Pants by Curie Youth Radio

What's Divorce Like For You? by Youth Radio Vermont

Skull 'N' Bones by Kerri Seed

Three Days Before Christmas in the Zombie Hut by Brendan Greeley

Grace Edgerton is in the image above, at the far right.

Maria Isabel wasn't supposed to finish the 6th grade. She lived in a tiny mountain ranch in Mexico, where girls stayed home to cook and raise children. If her father had had his way, that's exactly what she would have done.

Instead, Maria Isabel went to a private high school, moved to the United States, and got a college degree. Now, she's a registered nurse living a comfortable life in Texas, where her daughter is studying radio, TV and film at the University of Texas. Her daughter Victoria Campos, that is — the featured producer of this week's Youthcast.

This story is like a three-layer-cake labor of love. Layer one: Victoria is interviewing her mom, whom Victoria describes as "such an inspirational figure in my life." Layer two: Victoria's mom is sharing an intimate story about two strangers who became very dear to her heart. And finally, layer three: it was while recording and editing this piece that Victoria fell in love with making radio. She told me, "I would go to the studio at 1pm and come out at 9pm and not even realize I had spent that much time in there. Throughout the process of editing this story, I realized that I was doing something I really loved."

So have a listen!

Once you've listened, consider this:
What makes this story work for you? Are there other perspectives you might like to hear in addition to Maria Isabel's? Leave a comment here, or tell us what you think on Facebook or Twitter.

Image at top: Victoria and Maria Isabel. Image below: Victoria.

When the real estate bubble popped and property values plummeted, schools across the country saw their budgets shrink — a lot. Now, many schools whose policies prohibited advertising are reassessing, hoping to replace lost tax revenue with income from corporate advertisers. Just this week the Phillipsburg, NJ school board unanimously approved an agreement with a corporate advertising agency, and the town of New Trier, IL began discussing a similar agreement — something hitherto prohibited by the school board's policies.

In Anchorage, Alaska Teen Media Institute's Aviva Hirsch set out to understand everything about the issue of advertising in schools. Check out her story:

In our interview, included in the podcast, Aviva mentioned to me that despite the fact that she interviewed 11 people — more than she could fit in the story — she still wishes she had been able to include the perspective of a student who was really affected by the advertisements in his/her school. We hope you can help us out!

If you have attended a school that advertises on school property, we want you to get in touch. Join our discussion about advertising in schools on Facebook.

"Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever be as uncivilized again," Jennie Gruber asks at the end of this week's featured story, Big Loose Fear. Hers is the kind of story that makes you think "nothing makes good radio like good writing," then adding "or good sound… and composition…."

It's no wonder Jennie is a great writer and producer, since she's getting a Masters in Creative Writing at Sarah Lawrence College, where she produced this piece with Sarah Lawrence College Radio under the tutelage of celebrated public radio producer, Ann Heppermann. In the story,  Jennie recalls her post-college years collecting garbage for a recycling company in Santa Cruz, CA; her enterprising (and often homeless) customers, and the impact all of this had on her present self.

This is a fun one, so sit back and enjoy.

Images by D'Arcy Norman and Timothy Takemoto.

Cristel moved to Philadelphia from the Dominican Republic with one goal in mind: to become a music producer. She didn't expect the daily routine of hateful words, unconcealed drug use, physical fighting and exhausted teachers that she found at high school in Philadelphia. But when Philly Youth Radio got a hold of her, Cristel spun her love of music and her disappointment at school into an incredibly creative story that takes you right into the hallways of her school.

I recently spoke with Cristel, who's now in college studying music production and business. Stay tuned after her piece to hear our interview.

School violence is big deal these days, and we want to see the young people who are affected by it driving the conversation. Generation PRX's Jones Franzel is heading up a youth radio project on bullying, with a grant from the Motorola Mobility Foundation. Generation PRX is sending equipment to five youth radio groups, and creating an hour-long special featuring their stories. You can share your stories and learn more about Generation PRX's bullying project at Generation PRX.org and on GenerationPRX's Facebook page.

If you are in the Philadelphia region and are interested in making radio, check out Philly Youth Radio's paid youth apprenticeships. They're taking applications through December 22nd so hop to!

"Who cares?" might be a better question, at least for regular sports betters like Brooklyn College Radio's Vincent Geary. Vincent told me in an interview this week that in his community in Rockaway, Queens, lots of people bet on sports. For some it's a hobby, for some it's a sport, and yes, for others it's an addiction. But for everybody, it's totally out in the open — and as far as they're concerned, it's legal. That's because of the thousands of international online gambling websites through which bookmakers and gamblers settle their bets these days.

Vincent studies radio at City University of New York in Brooklyn. He told me he didn't expect his college radio class to be so surprised that he was a regular gambler. So, for Vincent's final project, he decided to capture the nature of gambling in his community in Rockaway NY. He told me: "Gambling has a very negative connotation… and I just wanted to put it out there and have people decide on their own."
So have a listen. And stay tuned for my interview with Vincent at the end of the podcast.

Online gambling image by Orin Zebest, Bookie image by flickr_lifeshots.

Food.  It's powerful stuff.  Not just because it fuels our bodies or our activities, but because it does something deeper. It connects us — to the past, to each other, to places, and to the earth itself.  That's probably why there's so much radio about food.  There's the Kitchen Sisters, of course, who tell stories about community in a way no one else has or probably will.  There's PBS's The Meaning of Food  (Ok, I know, PBS isn't radio, but … it's close!) which asks questions you've always wondered about, like "who prepares the last meal for death-row inmates?" And "what's the difference between a Kosher loaf  bread, and a not-Kosher loaf of bread?" If you search PRX, you'll find 2,260 pieces, all about food.

This week on Youthcast, we're featuring a piece by Brentton Harrison, a 19 year old culinary school student who lives in South Carolina.  It's called "Do You Want It," and was produced with Fusion Youth Radio in Chapel Hill, NC. Do You Want It not only asks and answers questions about food, culture and community —  it also features Brentton's singing, and the grooves of his high school band, Reverend B and the Wanna Bs.

One thing I like about Brentton's producing [and just general] style is the way he takes things that are light, and things that are more serious or complex, and acknowledges them equally. You can get a sense of that by checking out his images below. On the left, his gorgeous gourmet meal. On the right, his chicken and waffle sandwich.

Speaking of chicken and waffles, if you haven't tried it, you should. This stuff is seriously delicious. My favorite place to get chicken and waffles is at Roscoe's in Los Angeles. Where's yours?

This week's episode contains:

1 Short List produced by 8 and 9 year olds
1 Interview with their 3rd grade teacher
1 Short List produced by a 26-year old, inspired by the 8 and 9 year olds

I can't tell you what this week's Youthcast episode is about. It's a mystery that reveals itself upon listening. But I've got a few other things to share. First of all, hello! My name is Emily Corwin, and I am your new host. Molly Adams, Chantel Harley and Kiera Feldman have left some big shoes to fill, and although I only wear a size 6, I'm planning to run, jump and skip in them.

A little about me:

In addition to hosting Youthcast, I am also the Assistant Programmer of Public Radio Remix, PRX's 24/7 radio service of driveway-moment storytelling. I also make my own radio, which you can get a taste of here, or on PRX. Until a few months ago, I held-down the PRX help-desk homefront with Genevieve Sponsler, and before that I played all kinds of crazy music on the cello. If I'm not listening to, talking about, or making radio, I'm probably running, biking, cooking, eating, or skyping with my tiny nephew. The image on the left is me working on this story.

So yes. It's nice to meet you!

Back to this week's piece. I already mentioned that I can't tell you what it's about (you'll have to listen,) but I can tell you who made it. Third Grade Audio is the youth producer group run by David Green, who teaches 3rd graders at North Shore Country Day in Winnetka, IL, just outside Chicago. This piece is a short list, a style of radio collage made popular by Jay Allison of Transom and WCAI. It was produced by David's summer program students, who are 8 and 9 years old. These students also created a companion animation, which I'm posting below. I recommend listening to the audio first, and then taking a look at the silent animation.

Enjoy!
We welcome questions, comments (adulation is welcome, suggestions are okay too), and anything else here on the blog, as well as on our facebook page.

Lauren Silverman used to think that Wall Street was her path. And let’s just say that when the bank bailouts happened, her dream crashed, deflated, and possibly bottomed-out, to borrow a few familiar metaphors. But guess what? Lauren found another career that has worked out for her: public radio! She now works as a producer for Weekend All Things Considered. Stay tuned after her commentary, because we talked on the phone about just how you get in the door in Washington DC and why its never too late to go back to radio.

And finally, waaah! This is the last episode that I will be hosting for YouthCast. It's been a lot of fun, meeting producers around the country over the phone and by email, listening to hours and hours of youth produced radio that, in my opinion, can far surpass the work of professionals in its honesty and originality. So I want to shout out all the young producers who make this work mostly on their own time and all the mentors who I know put a lot of their own time into these projects as well.

YouthCast will only be taking a brief a hiatus though, before your new party host, Emily Corwin, takes over on November 2nd. If you want to keep track of my antics, follow me on Twitter. Shh! It's my personal account, @mollyelena.

As I've learned about and experienced drug and alcohol addiction and recovery through people who are close to me, it's been a struggle for me to understand why people just can't stop. There's a conflict between what I understand to be a personal responsibility and accepting that an addict is controlled by something outside themselves. It's certainly hard to understand addiction and illness when you yourself don't struggle with it.

In this week's episode, Chelsey Russell interviews her grandfather about his struggle with alcoholism, and the faith he has put in Jesus to help in recover. It is part of a series of honest and serious conversations about the roles that religion plays in young people's lives, from how prayer works itself into the daily life a Muslim girl, how atheism reassures a young man who has struggled with darkness in his life, and the global differences in Christian church culture.

The above photo was taken by Flickr user Efenstor. It is of his or her grandfather and comes with a poignant story about alcoholism. Read it at the photo's page here.

So much pizza... Taken by Flickr User rj3

Ah, the mysterious life of a pizza delivery man, finally captured in his natural habitat.  This documentary takes a smooth non-narrated path to tell the story of one man's evening at work, bringing the people what they need. We hop in and out of the car, meet customers, gossip, headbang, talk smack about our co-workers and just have a good time. Language Advisory for casual swearing!

Listen to another more recent feature of Alex Malmude's on TBDRadio, a show on WGXC. In it, a woman talks about her mixed feelings on being able to watch movies or tv whenever she wants.

If you love pizza as much as I do, I recommend visiting this Flickr photoset. If you weren't hungry before, you are now. PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA!

As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches this week, a lot of people feel a sense of fatigue–some just aren’t interested in looking back. And one of them is 18-year old Jillian Suarez. She’s a member of Radio Rookies, a program at WNYC Radio in New York that teaches young people how to report their own stories for the air. Jillian is one of the 3000 young people who faced perhaps the biggest loss of all on September 11th: the death of a loved one.

Katherine Sims of Weekday High takes on an adventure with the help of her older brother.

Outro music is Boogie (Christian Muela) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

The image we used in this post is of Emma Ward, a Wisconsin trapeze artist. You can see more photos from circuses from the late 19th- and early 20th- centuries at the Wisconsin Historical Society's web page.

MPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson

Valencia's story follows how she, her mother, and her siblings reacted that night and how they've dealt through the years, mostly by trying to forget what happened. Her mom actually says she was surprised nobody asked her how her kids were doing. Now, Valencia reports that new focus on the affects of domestic violence on children have helped her and will help more kids in the future.

We've featured a few other stories from the MPR News Youth Series. Give them a listen and you'll travel to Washington DC to meet the president and to California to visit a Japanese Internment camp.

Music on this week's episode is by Deal the Villain, our fave.

Bill Gates made headlines last week when his charitable foundation invested in a toilet redesign: Between 30 and 40% of the world does not have access to a clean, sanitary human waste disposal method and lack of access can create disease and death that spreads through an entire community, simply because someone wasn’t able to flush. According to the Foundation, over 1 million children under the age of 5 die of diarrheal disease each year. That's more than AIDS and malaria combined.

Last year, WHJE Carmel was on this story. Reporter Sara Zhang takes us out of our comfort zone in her feature A Little Flushed Up.

Below is the video that the Gates Foundation produced to publicize their campaign. If you follow that link above that mentions his name, you can read about some fo the project proposals that would turn human waste into an energy source.

© 2007/Toprak

One of the best ways to ease into adulthood and the end of summertime freedom is with an internship: You don’t always work long hours and therefore don’t have to shoulder too much responsibility. You can sometimes move to another place for a while and get a taste of some travel. And, most importantly, you’re learning job skills that will help you be a real adult in the coming years.

This week's episode brings together two staples of summertime: traveling and taking on a new job. UNICEF Digital Diarist Bernice Akuamoah, pictured to the left, celebrates her 21st birthday in London, England, far away from her hometown of Accra, Ghana. She's in London to complete an internship with Al-Jazeera English, and while she's working hard and having fun, it's impossible not to be a little homesick. Bernice also interviews her boss about the importance of an internship.

Here's the link to the first part of Bernice's London Diary, where we get to see more of the city and meet some of her friends when they talk about defying expectations for young women while they take the time to find their passions in work.

Deoine and Vikky

So if you haven’t guessed, its time for a good old fashioned gay, teen love story, courtesy Victoria Cruz of Radio Rookies (and they have a bunch of new features up there, BTW, so check 'em out!). This one is about two young women who live in New York City and got to high school. That’s pretty much all you need to know. It is short, to the point, and you’ll feel like you are having a casual conversation with the reporter that easily slips into moments of profundity.

This piece also won 2nd place at the Blunt Youth Radio Audio Slam. Congratulations!

One of my friends likes to make fun of farmer’s markets. Bikes! Hummus! Organic! Sustainable! He thinks it’s a bunch of yuppie stuff. And sometimes I have to agree: 6 dollar loaves of bread? 5 dollars a pound for tomatoes? I know I’m supporting the local growers, but I can't live like I have the money I think I should have.

Class division, and therefore in a lot of urban areas, race division, can make for food issues that go beyond having a farmer’s market in your hood. (Ever hear of food deserts?) King Anyi Howell visits a farmer's market in Los Angeles aimed at attracting black customers. The market wants to bring fresh produce to a neighborhood known for fast food restaurants.

Sarah Zhang, commenting on the piece on PRX, thinks this one is a little too local in topic for all listeners, but she (as well as your host) was impressed by the writing, editing, and voicing on this feature. Something to learn from Youth Radio producer and reporter King Anyi Howell.

Above is a photo from the Harambee market taken by Mr. Howell. His blog hasn't been active in awhile, but he has produced some great reports and commentaries for Youth Radio and for NPR. Check his work and be inspired.

Music in this episode is from a free album by artist Kurobear. You can download it at the Free Music Archive. It's chill. And dope.

A homestead cabin in Wisconsin

It’s a childhood dream, to grow up in the wild, close to nature, maybe in a tree-house, Swiss Family Robinson style. But in reality, it might not be as easy as the picture books show. Grace Edgerton grew up on a homestead out in the Arizona desert, initially living in tents before the house was built.

She now lives in Tucson and attends City High School, a small charter school with an awesome radio program. And when it came time for her to make a feature, there was no other question as to what story Grace would tell: her own.

This episode includes an interview with the producer herself!

The book I reference in my interview with Grace is called This Life Is In Your Hands, by Melissa Coleman. It's about another childhood spent going "back to the land" in Maine, that ends quite tragically.

The music in this episode is by Toumani Diabate, a master of the kora, a 21 string harp from Mali.

César Chávez is a name synonymous with organized labor, nonviolent protest, and Latino civil rights. A name that is less immediately recognizable is Dolores Huerta. She co-founded the United Farm Workers with Chavez in 1960 and has continued her advocacy and activism for working people throughout her life. And she just turned 81!

While his birthday, March 31 is observed as a holiday in California, there has also been a movement to have it recognized nationally, similar to Martin Luther King, Jr. day.

KUNM Youth Radio attended the Cesar Chavez Day celebrations in Albuquerque where Ms. Huerta was speaking. She was interviewed by Victor Torres about her memories of working the UFW and her messages for activists today.

Victor has been on YouthCast as the subject of a story before. The reason Ms. Huerta thanks him so profusely is that he and a team of lawyers took action against his school when they were demoting him to less advanced courses because of his physical and speech disabilities caused by cere

The beautiful portrait of Dolores is the work of artist Barbara Carrasco.

Music in this episode is  by podcast favorite, Daghoti.

Regardless of what high school you may decide on, it will probably look boring and institutional like this one.

Chicago Public Schools are made up of 675 schools from elementary to high school. 71 of those are charter schools. We’ve also got magnets, achievement academies,  military academies, career academies, and the list goes on.  With such a grand variety, students in Chicago’s public system can decide where they want to go for high school, but the options might not be as open as you would hope.

This is a story about students motivations and decision processes in finding which institution’s style best fits them. However, these choices involve a lot of applications. Reporters Jerry Cruz and Allison Albrecht question how much a Chicago student has exactly in “School Choice” from Y-Press and Radio Arte.

Radio Arte, a youth run radio station in Chicago’s southwest neighborhood of Pilsen, and Y-Press of Indianapolis collaborated on a series of stories called (w)indy. One four part series that has been uploaded to PRX focuses on Chicago’s school system. The other four part-er focuses on Indianapolis’s diverse population and will be up soon.

I was researching budget numbers when writing the script for this story and was totally blown away by the amount of money spent on education! It's a lot! But more unbelievable figures are the budget shortfalls that school districts across the country are predicting for the coming year. In Chicago, we are short $760 million of the $5.3 billion it costs to run the schools. In New York, the Governor is proposing a $1.4 billion cut to education (from the $17 billion NYC public schools need to run) to help the state make ends meet. Got any public school drama where you live? Leave it in the comments!

Intro by music is Hella by Broke For Free on the Free Music Archive / CC BY 3.0

Outro music by Jonphonics on BandCamp.

Photo by Flickr user JeffreyLCohen

Palestinian Hoop Dreams is a thoughtful story by Ahmed Hemeid, a student at United World College in New Mexico.  Ahmed played a lot of basketball back home. After preparing for a championship tournament, Ahmed and his teammates find out that it is canceled due to the beginning of the Gaza War.  Ahmed’s “Palestinian Hoop Dreams” is an amazing story that shows the pervasiveness of war and its effects on youth in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian Hoop Dreams was written and narrated by Ahmed Hemeid, edited by Eliot Fisher and produced by Youth Media Project, through their educational program at the United World College. We've featured another one of these stories before, Peculiar Privelege and the Elegy by Ece Erdagoz. But head to PRX to listed to Green Army Hat, about a funny and testy relationship between the reporter and his grandfather, and Scare Those Ghosts Away, about the difference in history lessons in China and Japan.

The Gaza War is back in the news as reports of war crimes and possible prosecution is debated. Read more from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Today's intro and outro music is by one of our favorite beatmakers, Deal the Villain.

Performers at Louder Than A Bomb 2010 by Flickr user cvyn2010

Seiji Takagi, pictured at right, started mushing when he was in second grade. And if you look at the bios of almost all of the people who ran the Junior Iditaord this year, they say they started racing as young as four but at least in elementary school. The dream dies a little more each year…

The Iditarod is now in it'a fourth day. Follow along on the official website.

Sound like a pro: SB Nation has compiled a recent and long past history of the race, coupled with facts about the current crop of mushers.

Over on Change.org, a writer shows what he sees as corporate irresponsibility in Target's endorsement of the Iditarod (under what I think is a sensational headline.) In the comments on that post,  there is a smart debate about whether the sport is cruel or needlessly pushes the dogs. Good points are made all around. Jump in the convo yourself on the Iditarod Forums.

She enters… A photo from Flickr user Ah Zut.

Everyone loves a party. And everyone loves a Quinceañera, whether they know it or not.

During this birthday and coming-out party for a fifteen year old girl, there are a number of dances that the birthday girl does: with her father, with her friends, and with a special boy.  But how does a fifteen-year old, on the cusp of womanhood, know how to do all of these elegant ballroom dances? With a little help of course.

Producer Oscar Hernandez met the Guru at a Quince party to which he was giving lessons. Juan Pablo Estada liked the way that Oscar danced and asked him if he wanted to start coming along with him to different parties, dancing with attendees and upping the skill level. In this episode of YouthCast, the feature by Oscar and Domingo is followed by an interview with Oscar Hernandez about Quinceañera dance culture in Austin, TX.

Learn more about Texas Folklife. Their youth radio program, Stories from Deep in the Heart, is just kicking off. Program director Diane Zander Mason told me that last year, Oscar and Domingo were just two of 10 students. This year they're working with close to forty students from two high schools in Austin! Yay for rapid growth!

And if you are now a little obsessed with Quinceañeras, like me, since I'm a girl and love sparkly things and parties, check out this website, Mis Quince Mag. It suggests good songs to dance to and has tons of videos… So emotional and cheesy! I wish I was fifteen again… but not really.

Slightly safer and cleaner dumpster diving for books in NYC.

There’s so many recession stories out there of how people are saving money and hustling to make ends meet. So what’s the most extreme thing you’ve heard of people doing? Well, for me, it’s dumpster diving.

Get to know Connor the dumpster diver. He looks for food, clothes, and pretty much anything else people throw away that is still useful.

But it’s not just a piece about “Hey, check out this wacky guy and the wacky things he does.” Reporter Rebecca Barker of the Alaska Teen Media Institute finds out why climbing into a dumpster, while thrifty and pretty rock n’ roll, is culturally taboo, sometimes illegal, and definitely unclean.

Young peeps in Maine, who are "currently busy" supporting trans youth, in the words of this week's subject, Will.

Right now on TV and in the movies, where I and a lot of other people seem to measure our culture's capacity for Human tolerance and understanding, most queer characters are teenagers and young people. Now, of course youngs are always ahead of the curve, but when the New York Times refers to last year, 2010, as the year of the transsexual,, something's up.

Y-Press in Indianapolis just churned out a series of reports on gender, from girls on the football team, to stereotypes in the media. This story from Shayan Ahmad is called Transgender Youth. And it's pretty much what it sounds like: interviews with two trans youth living in Indianapolis about how they are living.

Check out Y-Press's other stories in its Gender series over here on PRX.

And I got in touch with Shayan via email and asked him a few questions about gender, himself, and Y-Press.

We know our parents are probably more conservative, but how different are some your age group's (under 21) perceptions of gender then even 10/15 years older than you?

The perception of my generations views on gender do seem to be more progressive, but still not at the level of universal acceptance. To the best of my knowledge, the response toward Gay and Lesbian people has improved greatly, although there are still definitely those who see gay marriage as immoral. I would say that most people in our generation are accepting of the prospect, but its still a hot topic. The response to the transgender community is a lot less accepting; during conversations I had with other youth about my experience interviewing transgender kids, most all thought of the gender confusion as strange. So for the gay and lesbian community our generation is responding well, but unfortunately I can't say the same about the transgender community.

What drew you to this aspect of gender (trans issues) when developing a report under this umbrella theme?

The major motivation for me was my utter lack of knowledge. There were a ton of issues which I was completely unaware of, and in developing the piece I learned a great amount concerning a community of which I had no prior understanding.

How did you meet and get to know your subjects?

We were able to get in touch with our interviewees mostly through the Indiana Youth Group (IYG). We had prior contact to the group, which was helpful, and then were able to talk for a good amount with three youth and one adult supervisor who had gone through a gender change. The other transgender person we interviewed was Masen Davis, who is the head of the Transgender Law Center. We found the organization online and simply e-mailed them, and luckily they were really willing to do an interview.

What else are you up to in Indianapolis? What news shows do you like, magazines/blogs do you read?

Mostly, I'm up to Y-Press, and also my high school newspaper publication (hilite.org), so a good amount of journalism. As with most high schoolers, I'm mostly busy with school but I also do occasional fundraising, partly for Riley Children's Hospital, Relay for Life, and to support the citizens of Pakistan who were affected by the recent flooding. I'm a big fan of The Daily Show and NPR, but for my regular news I usually visit either CNN or BBC. I'm also a huge fan of This American Life, and regularly read Time Magazine and music and entertainment reviews.

Today is the one year anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti that has claimed somewhere over 200,000 lives. 2010 also saw the Pakistan floods, which left over 20 million people without homes. The beginning of 2011 has now also seen a lot of pain and sorrow, both from people-made violence and natural disasters.

It takes both the land and its inhabitants decades to recover from a natural disaster and the YouthCast feature this week was made five years ago, in response to the recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

Tyrel and Tevin Wooten lived their whole lives in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans. For two weeks after Hurricane Katrina, the Wooten family was constantly threatened. Police pointed guns at their step-father, Patrick. Looters broke into the family home. They lived without power in 120 degree heat. Finally, authorities picked the family up and put them on a plane. Thirty minutes into the flight, the pilot announced their destination: Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod. Randomly relocated to a much colder, much more rural area, the Wootens decided to put down roots in Massachusetts.

This non-linear and non-narrated piece is called “From New Orleans to New England” by Emily LaFond of the Blunt Youth Radio Project. A reviewer on PRX suggests that its structure mimics qoute the disjointed and utter confusion that came as a result of Hurricane Katrina. See for yourself!

On the image above: A Mess in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina via News Muse on Flickr

Some more youth-produced stories about overcoming problems after a natural disaster

• Students come up with an engineering solution for dealing with seasonal floods in Zambia: Floating School from the COP16 Youth Voices from Africa
• Moving out of state and moving on after Hurricane Andrew hits Florida: The Hurricane by Daniel Whaley of Youth Radio Vermont
• Another Katrina survivor makes a decision that will honor his mother who did not make it: 21 Year Old Katrina Survivor Signs Up for the U.S. Army by Adeline Goss of Brown Student Radio

Intro music in this week's episode is "So Smooth" by Deal The Villain / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

Outro music is "Faith's Witness" also by Deal The Villain / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

In this story produced for Minnesota Public Radio News' Youth Radio Series, Mara starts with an inteview with her Grandmother, travels to California with her great aunts, and starts to understand the impact of this event on her family. Stay tuned after the feature, because Mara and I had a conversation and she told me some details that are not in the final piece.

Above and to the right is photo of Mara and her Aunt Matsue. They are at the memorial to the internees on Bainbridge Island in Seattle, where most of Mara's family lives now.

To learn more about Japanese American internment, don't just stop at the Wikipedia page (though it is a good jumping off point.) Check out the now National Historic site of Manzanar, the camp that Auntie Matsue and Mara's grandma were interned at, and also the web page for Mara's piece, where MPR News has a slideshow of photographs of Mara and her family as well as historical shots from the 40s.

"Cows" by rajthesnapper

We are all very interested in what we and our neighbors are eating these days. From The Omivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, the documentary Food, Inc., and legislation at the state and federal level to regulate safety standards and ingredient quality, healthy food and how we get it are often making front-page news.

Terrascope Youth Radio in Cambridge, Massachusetts specializes in radio stories about science and the environment.  Meredith Midgely and Manon Bonet, who sound like they might be a couple vegetarians themselves, want to base some pro-veggie propaganda in facts. So of course they went to scientist, who tells them that the common model for raising meat really is not that good for the environment.

Apparently, "The Cow Gas Effect" had a more grown up sound originally. One of the advisors of Terrascope, Ari Epstein, emailed me this behind-the-scenes story about how they got these young producers to act more their age.

One way we suggested doing that was to create pieces that would "make Ari feel a little uncomfortable." The teens decided that one sure way to do that would be to put a fart noise on the air, so they created this piece, which originally said "cow farts" instead of "cow burps," with a farty noise as a sound effect. But the problem is that the greenhouse gases generally come out the other end of the cow. As cows digest their food in their multiple stomachs, they produce methane, which they then burp out. So we had to redo the piece, kind of in a hurry. Fortunately one of our MIT student/mentors has a fraternity brother who can burp well on command.

Music in this episode is by daghoti and was found on the Free Music Archive(.org).

Taking a bound away from logic, I've gone and explored my own mind, and what I found is something that can't be told, it needs to be experienced. When you listen to this, I ask that you go in with an open mind, and try to imagine the best you can. I promise I'll try my best to explain what it is like to be… well, me.

I Didn't Know That (You Were A Muslim) is a short portrait of Beth's spiritual journey by independent producer Tali Singer. After the story, listen to a conversation Tali and I had about finding a good story and why being an independent producer is not for everyone.

Couple links to help y'all out: In our conversation, Tali mentions apprenticing with Dmae Roberts and what a grant-writing beast Dmae is. In fact, she is a such an expert, she a has a great, resourceful blog on the topic: Funding Your Bliss. This is well worth a look through if you are setting out on your own for any project for which you need funding.

Tali and I also talk about the Third Coast International Audio Festival, where we met! Third Coast is a radio conference and competition for audio producers. Tali was part of the Pitch Panel, a session that allowed producers to pitch their stories face to face with editors of  national shows and popular podcasts. Listen to both of those pitch sessions here and here, along with more session audio from Third Coast if you can't make it until 2012. Tali mentions that this conference was overwhelming (and I agree!), so we both should have reviewed Dmae's article on Conference Mapping.

Hear more of Tali's profiles over at PRX.

Intro music is called Journey To The Moon by DjCode / CC BY-SA 3.0

Outro music is called Mamma Roots Daddy by Lax-o-mat / CC BY-SA 3.0

Lorinah

As Liberia slowly recovers from a 14-year-long civil war, its educational system retains some of the lawlessness that reigned during the conflict.  Lorinah Kolleh, a 15-year-old from Kakata, Liberia, says that throughout the country, students and teachers often bribe each other for better grades.

“An even bigger problem,” Lorinah says, “is teachers exploiting female students for grades.”

I got the lead on this week’s feature from Jones Franzel, who runs Generation PRX.  It comes from the UNICEF Radio, which covers stories that focus on the health, education, equality and protection of children.  Jones wrote me about this piece, saying, “Talk about being brave and direct with your questions.”

Lorinah was one of the participants in a week-long radio production workshop for 7 young people from Liberia. You can hear more of UNICEF Radio’s unique and bold stories at their PRX page.

Intro music is by Phoenix.

Outro music is "Memories of a Machine" by (Mastermind XS) / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

Did you know that the government owns 30% of the land in the United States?  Between seven or so different bureaus, that’s over 1 million square miles of forests, rivers, giant caved faces of dead presidents, nuclear waste sites, and military testing grounds and bases.

This week’s feature is about what some inhabitants of those federal lands are up to: Horned Lizards. Jordan Nelson of KOSU in Stillwater, Oklahoma heads to Tinker Air Force Base to learn how the military and biologists are living peacefully with what are commonly known as "Horny Toads." And within this podcast, there is an interview with Jordan about what he plans to do with his Journalism degree. His secret: multimedia is the future. Enjoy!

Learn more about horned lizards! Some species can shoot blood out of their eyelids as a defense mechanism. Pretty sweet!

Stephanie adds her view to this cultural exploration in her feature for KFAI Youth News.  This feature is fun, funny, and pushes the limits of personal boundaries.

Web Exclusive!

An Interview with Stephanie Perry

I have to ask if you've seen Chris Rock's movie Good Hair? What did you think of it?

I have to say I have never seen Good Hair but I did watch the previews. I'm glad I didn't because I didnt want to subconciously compare my results to the movies'. I really do want to see the movie though now that I'm done with my story.

So where did you get the idea for this story?

I got the idea to do this story in a weird way. I was walking home one day from work and I saw a swarm of African-American women crowding the hair shops down the street from my house. Which is when I noticed the number of hair shops there was: 3 all on the same block! It made me wonder why almost all of them had straight faux hair…

Did you do all these interviews in one day?

My subjects vary in age. The women are in their late teens to early fifties and the men are in their middle teens to late forties. I did them all in the same day because when I went out the day before, I couldn't find a lot of willing people.

What are your favorite radio shows?

It's funny but I dont really listen to radio. I like my mp3 player attached to my ears at all times. I'm more of a reader than a listener.

Yesterday, September 21, a defense budget bill that included the DREAM Act was blocked by a Republican filibuster. It also included a repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Policy in the military.

Carlos Padilla speaking at a DREAM Project Rally

In the DREAM Act, young adults who came to the States undocumented as children would have a clear path to American Citizenship: they could complete two years of college or complete two years of military service.

I’ll let you go to a news source to get the full details and analysis. I can only bring a you personal story from a young person whose life would change if the DREAM Act became law.

Molly Freed of Weekday High in Seattle, interviewed Carlos Padilla and his mentor, Roberta Lindeman, on what the DREAM Act means to him: how he qualifies and what has happened in his life that makes him want this so bad.

Intro music is by Javelin and the song is On It On It.

When Blunt Youth Radio member Iris SanGiovanni was eight years old, her dad became homeless for six months after her parents divorced. A few years later, she had the chance to talk with him about his experience.

This conversation exposes the myths and stereotypes that we have about homeless people. Iris even realizes after talking to her dad how much of the advice that he gave her came from his experience. After listening to this, I had to take a moment and reflect on my own life and I felt grateful for what I had. So thank you, Iris and Robert SanGiovanni, for sharing this story with such a large audience.

The Maine Association of Broadcasters awarded Iris's reporting first place in its radio features category, and this was not a special youth category. This was for the whole state of Maine! So congratulations Iris for representing the kind of thoughtful writing and stories that young people are making!

WEB EXCLUSIVE!

I gave Iris a call while she was at a meeting for Blunt. She told me about her new expectations for herself after creating an award-winning piece at the age of 14 and her new perspectives on family after interviewing her father.

(Listen to the interview!)

Music in this podcast was provided by the Free Music Archive. The intro is called Ringtones by (Xiu Xiu) / CC BY-NC 3.0. The outro is called Hot Brick by CAVE.

Ain't the South Side of Chicago gorgeous?

I live in the great city of Chicago and not only has summer begun, it is in full sweltering, mosquito biting, leaf wilting, sweaty armpitting FORCE. Hey, no one lives here for the weather. But before it really got started, I have to take myself back to the beginning when summer was actually light and breezy, filled with chirping birds and neighbors out and about.

This week's feature, about the very beginning of summer here in the Second City, comes from Tonette of Curie Youth Radio. Summer on 64^th is short and sweet so regardless of whether you live in the sultry Midwest, or the breezy coasts, you can get outside and enjoy your summer because one thing’s for sure: in a few months time, you’ll wish you were this sticky again.

The newly installed camera that Tonette mentions. Thanks, Google!

Music in this episode is by YACHT. You can download their album, See Mystery Lights, for free because it is all up on the Free Music Archive.

This interview explores how Victor and his attorneys changed policies at the school for students with disabilities.

I know it requires a bit of attention to understand Victor in this piece. But luckily, KUNM Youth Radio posted an excerpt of the interview in video from YouTube, so watch it right here!

And watch other KUNM media at their section of the Youth Media International website!

Intro and Outro music is by Robot Koch / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 and it was found at the Free Music Archive

Sam Greenspan is a freelance radio producer, media educator, and production assistant at NPR in Washington, DC. And he has been incredibly gracious in lending me an additional feature for this edition of YouthCast. The one contained in the podcast below is The Shell Game. At first you might think that this is about video games, judging from the image above, but really, it's about music, power, and gender. And more importantly, the way it was recorded totally grabbed my ears. I'll explain in audio format a little more. Just click "Play!"

WEB EXCLUSIVE

"Searching for Blelvis" is the story of Sam's quest for DC area street character, Blelvis, or "The Black Elvis." This story contrasts with The Shell Game because it is more intense: scripted, investigative, and took a few months. It aired on WAMU, Washington DC’s NPR affiliate. I think it really demonstrates the two sides of Sam, and a lot of young producers: they have the talent to do something offbeat and off the cuff, but also to report on and write features of substance. Head over to PRX to hear the whole thing.

And right here, listen to a bonus interview excerpt of Sam and I talking about the making of "Blelvis" and the trouble of being on the other side of the mic as a reporter and producer.

(Listen to the interview!)

Sam also wants to give a shout-out to Radio Rootz DC, which teaches District high schoolers audio storytelling and media literacy.

Music in this episode is by Transient / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

The Mario Kart shell image is Flickr user michellegabriel.

Ece Erdagöz is from Turkey and studied at the United World College in Montezuma, New Mexico. While in the States, she got involved with the Youth Media Project, which works with different groups of youth in schools, advocacy programs, performance art groups, etc.

Being a member of two minority groups in Turkey, Ece has been surprised that she never faced any kind of discrimination at home. But when she came to another country to study, she started interviewing her fellow "third culture" peers and found different stories of how people feel about being an outsider.

In the player below is our latest episode with the crisp writing and confident, conversational delivery from Ece Erdagöz in her piece "Peculiar Privilege and the Elegy."

Intro music is by Hayvanlar Alemi / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Outro music is by Digi G'Alessio / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

Both songs were found at the awesome Free Music Archive.

Our theme encomapssing photo is from NoBorders Flickr stream. Please head over there if you want to see beautifil B&W phtotography from around the world, accompanied with the short stories behind them

The caption of this Flickr photo by Lars Plougmann reads: My father is visibly nervous the first time my sister drives the car after having obtained her driver's license

This is a series of tales from the Alaska Teen Media Institute about the first time people got their licenses… or the first time they drove a car before even getting a license. Scandal! Max Jungreis asks the tough questions in The Power of Plastic.

Still haven't taken that test? Here are some tips on passing.

Intro by minusbaby / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Outro beats from Childish Gambino. Listen to the whole song, but be warned that's there are some dirty words in here! I Love Clothes (Deadbeat Summer) by Childish Gambino

Photo by Jakub Mosur

Iman Fears (right) was one of two teens chosen from Minnesota to attend the U.S. Sentae Youth Program. She spent a week in D.C. in early March 2010, conducting interviews and recording her thoughts in an audio diary.

In addition to meeting her senators, a chance few people have to begin with, she also met the President and Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

This inspiring report was featured as apart of Minnesota Public Radio News's Youth Radio Series.

MPR's Youth Radio Series pairs high school and college-age reporters from diverse backgrounds with an experienced MPR producer to create compelling stories for MPR News, as they say on their website. That producer is usually Sasha Aslanian. She told me that the program was created after their first youth reported piece aired. There was such an overwhelming response from listeners, they now try to deliver a youth reported piece once a month. Check out the sensational premiere, Welfare Migration by Paris Porter on PRX.

Check it out! I talked to Iman on the phone and she does give the gossip like I promised: USA chants in the White House, and staying in the same hotel as former NY Governor Eliot Spitzer when he was, uh, scandalizing himself.

(Listen to the interview!)

Music in this episode is by Deal the Villain and I.D. and Baobinga. It was found at the Free Music Archive.

In this report from Priya Mirmira and Grace Bronson of Y-Press, we hear stories from two teenagers about how they're health care access was put in jeopardy and became cost-prohibitive when their parents lost the job through which they were getting insurance. With real numbers in personal anecdotes, the giant, confusing mass that is U.S. health care reform becomes a little more understandable.

Hear the rest of the series on health care and youth that Y-Press produced here on PRX.

Music in this episode is by Glasser. This track, Tremel, is available as a free download on Stereogum.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/duckducksnap/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

The finished product from Lanzhou Noodle House!

The Chinatown Youth Radio Project (ChYRP) was a short three-week intensive designed by Hansi Lo Wang, a graduate of Swarthmore College and an alum of the outstanding War News Radio. Like a pop-up shop of a radio group. But out of these three weeks in the summer of 2008, a great number of pieces were produced.

This one, Lanzhou Hand Drawn Noodle House by Xiaojuan Ke, puts a spotlight on a local business.

A little more about ChYRP and resourcefulness. Says Hansi about how they got it done:

"I was inspired by my awesome experiences working on War News Radio and wanted to share that experience with other young people and to tackle another under-reported story in American mainstream media — the Asian-American experience. So with the support of local community groups, media professionals, and other volunteers, I put together a 'radio boot camp' for young radio newbies — all of whom were instrumental in shaping the three weeks into a fun and lively experience."

ALSO!! Xiaojuan answered some questions about her radio piece via email. In it you'll find out exactly how long of an interview it takes to get the soundbite you need for your story.

How did you get involved in Chinatown Youth Radio Philadelphia?

Date back to the time that I participated in Chinatown Youth Radio Philadelphia was the time that I’ve been in the US for about two years. I met Hansi, the founder of ChYRP in a teen club and I heard about the youth radio project from him. At that time, I knew nothing about radio. I participated just because I thought it would be a great opportunity to improve my communication skills in English. But after getting involved in the radio team, I realized making radio stories was extremely interesting and beneficial.  It helps to improve my communication, writing and presentation skills, as well as making new friends.

Your piece has so much sound (noise in the shop, the door opening… and the door is really the best. I felt like I was learning a secret when you do that.) Did you think about what sounds you wanted?

At the beginning, I recorded different sounds from the store just for fun. But later, I noticed that if I put those sounds into my radio story, it would help audiences visualize the story and help the audience's imagination.

How did you decide to do a piece on Lanzhou Handdrawn Noodles? Were you a fan?

I’m actually not a fan of Lanzhou Hand Drawn Noodle House. The reason why I chose it was because I think food occupies an important position in the minds of the people all over the world. And I think food culture represents one of the most important traditions within Chinese culture. And Lanzhou Hand Drawn Noodle House is the first and the only hand drawn noodle house in Philadelphia Chinatown. And the skills to make hand drawn noodle are also unique and interesting. So I thought if I could make a piece on it would help people better understand the Chinese culture.

The owner of the shop gets really personal with you. How long did you talk to him for? And can you spell his name out for me?

I talked to him for about one and half hours. The owner’s name is Zengfeng Zhang.

How was it writing and recording in English? Was it easy or did you get frustrated? If you got frustrated, do you feel like you could have told your story better in Chinese?

I done with all interviews in Chinese, then translated them into English. It wasn’t easy since English isn’t my first language. But I didn’t feel frustrated since there were so many people helped me go through all barriers. I didn’t feel like I could have told the story better in Chinese because the purpose of making this piece was to promote Chinese food and to introduce immigrants’ life in the US, so I think it is better to do in English. Also, the initial reason that I participated in the Radio project was to improve my communication skills in English.

What are you up to now? School, work, etc? Where are you? Do you want to keep making radio if you're not doing that currently?

Nowadays, I am a student who is majoring in Mathematics and Actuarial Science at Temple University in Philadelphia. I want to keep making radio during my free time since it has so much fun and it’s so meaningful.

Music in this episode of the podcast is by Rusko, another Young of the World who is making it big. Check out some free downloads at his MySpace page.

He did a report for Radio Rookies in New York City about what it meant for him when the New York City Department of Education raised the standards for passing the 8th grade and ended social promotion. That's the practice of letting failing students head on up to the next grade so they can stay with the people they relate to socially.

Coverage of youth in the media rarely represents what young people are truly facing, thinking and saying. By helping young people reach WNYC's audience of more than one million weekly listeners, WNYC's Radio Rookies has become an integral part of the station.

- Radio Rookies on who they are and what they do.

* * * * *

Music in this episode is by a cool guy named Treacle from Chicago. Check out his tracks on Vocalo.org, which is also where I spend much of my broadcast time.

This radio drama produced by Zane Anderson and starring himself, Scott Stewart, Sarah Zhang, and Alicia Deogracias, is about all the awkwardness of asking someone out for the first time.

Check out their PRX page to listen to some of the pieces that Zane describes after the drama ends.

BTW, in case you didn't know, now you do. Sadie Hawkins dances are when girls are supposed to do the asking of the date, not boys. Oh, how quaint. Here's the origin: a Li'l Abner cartoon from 1937! Click on it for a larger, readable version.

Intro music is by Addiquit / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

Outro music is by Rhoda / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Sunset over the Hopi reservation in Keams Canyon, Arizona | Photo credit: Brett Myers

Rebecca Martin, a Youth Radio producer has this to add:

The story was produced with Hopi High School's radio class. While it was a collaborative production, Austin Coochyamptewa was the lead youth reporter.

Also appearing (in order) are: Alrye Polequaptewa, Leandra Calnimptewa, Paul Quamahongnewa, Annalese Nasafotie, Paul Quamahongnewa, Eloise Coochyamptewa, Leon Koruh, Rochelle Lomayaktewa, and DeAnn Honanie.

* * * * * * *

Intro music: "Leyendecker" by Battles on the album Mirrored.

Outro music: "Oh No" by Andrew Bird on the album Noble Beast. Fun fact: Bird said that the intonation on the refrain was created by a crying, frightened child sitting behind him on a plane.

Francesca Witcher

Francesca Witcher goes to a school where that kind of staging would be a lie. At least in terms of black students. As part of a research project on images of black men in the media, she produced an audio report on how black men at her school are dealing with being a minority and fighting the discouraging stereotypes that might make them drop out.

At the end of this episode, I called Francesca on the phone and she educates my lily-white college going self to what an HBCU is along with getting a little deeper into her media studies major.

This is a news article that proves my point, BTW. The University of Wisconsin at Madison and the University of Idaho both admitted to doctoring their viewbook photos in 2000. It's also where the photo above is from. And as of 2008, from a study by sociologists at Augsburg College:

Black students made up an average of 7.9 percent of students at the colleges studied, but 12.4 percent of those in viewbooks. Asian students are also more likely to be found in viewbooks than on campus, making up 3.3 percent of real students on average and 5.1 percent of portrayed students. The researchers acknowledge that appearance does not always tell the story of race and ethnicity, and say that they only counted clearly identifiable photos.

The music in this episode is from the Major Lazer album Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do. It's pretty dope if you like dancing.

As someone who is not too hot with understanding fiduciary theory beyond making change and how to use a credit card, most news about national and state budgets, budget cuts, mortgage crises, TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES, goes straight over my head and glazed over eyes. It's hard, damn it!

But what makes it easier is when reporters like Arai Buendia of Youth Radio put a human face to a budget crisis. These reporters shrink down the power of billions to a couple hundred dollars and let us know how these decisions are affecting our neighbors and might affect ourselves.

Hey! The State of the Union Address is on tonight (Wednesday the 27)! The President is going to be talking a lot about the national budget so watch it and try really hard to pay attention because it will affect you.

Photos by AMagill at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amagill/ / CC BY 2.0

Also: podcast music is by Thunderheist and Holy F*ck, intro and outro respectively. As usual, it was found at the Free Music Archive. Thank you so much!

100 Bush IDP camp, where Hassan Abdi Elmi lives Credit: UNICEF Somalia/ 2008/ Morooka

UNICEF Radio has produced a series of stories in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The CRC, as it known in short hand, was an agreement made at the UN on the 30th anniversary of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Basically, both of these conventions and declarations put down on paper that the health and well-being of young people should be a priority for governments.

This shorter piece from their series is a lo-fi interview done by youth reporter Mostafa Mohamed Abdurrahman of 16-year-old Hassan Abdi Elmi about life in a refugee camp in Bossasso, Somalia.

Hassan Abdi Elmi, photographed at a refugee camp in Bossaso, Somalia Credit: UNICEF Somalia/ 2009/ Nidam

National Geographic has an article on the complexities of Somalia's clan governments and the violence and chaos all over the country.

And then The New Yorker referred to Somalia as "The Most Failed State" in a recent issue. Is this a reasonable or fair assessment? NPR News interviewed the article's author, John Lee Anderson, so check that out, since the entirety of his article is not available online.

And for reference, the Rights of the Child:

1. The child must be given the means requisite for its normal development, both materially and spiritually.
2. The child that is hungry must be fed, the child that is sick must be nursed, the child that is backward must be helped, the delinquent child must be reclaimed, and the orphan and the waif must be sheltered and succored.
3. The child must be the first to receive relief in times of distress.
4. The child must be put in a position to earn a livelihood, and must be protected against every form of exploitation.
5. The child must be brought up in the consciousness that its talents must be devoted to the service of its fellow men.

Phoenix, AZ at night by flickr.com/photos/robotography/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Phoenix, AZ is a little scary. It's a sprawling metropolis in the middle of a desert valley. Apologies to those who live there and developed it, but it all seems little unnatural. And as a vacation spot, it is filled with golf courses and luxury homes, something that can be off-putting for the year round residents.

My Socialism by Andy Boyd puts us in the passenger seat of Andy's car as he drives around Phoenix, AZ and gets angsty about its ecology and economy.

Andy is a serious audio entrepreneur. Check out his other work at PRX.

You'll have to start dressing the part when you're a refugee in Syria

20-year old Fouad and 17-year old Ahmed are from Baghdad. They don’t want their full names used for security reasons. A few years ago, they fled the violence in Iraq with their families and settled in Syria, along with about 1.5 million other Iraqis. The two joined the Iraqi Student Project, an American organization that helps young Iraqis get into American colleges. As part of a writing class in that program, Fouad and Ahmed put together an audio survival guide for Iraqis living in Syria. They call it “How to Be a Refugee in Syria.”

This piece originally aired on the World Vision Report.

Intro music is an "orphan work" by Set Badria Anwar called "Rah Wilfy." There's a cool story behind this Iraqi recording from the 1920s and what exactly an "orphan work" means at over here at the Free Music Archive.

Outro music is a live performance by Zikrayat / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 on WFMU in New York.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/baratunde/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

A friend of mine who works in the Chicago Public Schools asked some of her students what they thought signs of gentrification were. The one that got her was something so simple: People jogging. Another might be advertisements for shiny new buildings right near vacant lots, like the photo above.

In "Gentrification on Logan Circle," Producer Shea Shackelford worked with an 8th grade class at the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School in Washington, DC. While studying the concept of "gentrification," they spent a week interviewing neighbors and businesses of the Logan Circle area changes going down their neighborhood.

Shea Shackelford produces for Big Shed Audio, a documentary podcast, and he created The Place + Memory Project, a publically sourced multimedia memorial to things and places that no longer exist.

Anonymous Baby is a first person essay from an unnamed young woman who got pregnant at fourteen and has a horribly unexpected end to that pregnancy.

The Youth Media Project produces a weekly live show in Santa Fe.

Music in this podcast by The Years / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0. Found at the Free Music Archive.

"Kentucky Fried Cancer" looks at how fast food goes beyond making you a little chubbier: Pizza Hut is now teaching kids to read.

Check out past episodes of Yo!Radio at the Youth Outlook PRX page.

Donny Lumpkins

Listen to an interview with Donny about where he grew up, his favorite radio shows, and how he sounds so damn good behind the mic!

(Listen to the interview!)

Music in this podcast came from the Free Music Archive.

Smoked Meat Fax Machine / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Megan Haller was wondering what the punishment in her school might be fore students who get into physical altercations and found out that if you are one of the spectators in the circle, you could end up in detention too.

After her piece, Megan and I talked about why joining the circle can be irresistible, even if you yourself are not a fighter.

The Alaska Teen Media Institute is based in Anchorage.

Chandra Touch, bottom row and fourth from the left, Captain of Plymouth State University's spirit squad.

We all do things our parents wouldn't approve of. For Chandra Touch, one of those things was the most normal activity an American girl can do: be a cheerleader. Chandra's mom grew up in Cambodia, so cheerleading seemed like a risque activity to her. Chandra turned the mic on her mom and on herself to gain some perspective.

This piece was produced for Blunt Youth Radio in Portland, Maine (my radio alma mater! woot woot!) with help from Youth Radio in California. More about Blunt: High school age youth from the Portland area, both free and incarcerated, staff a live call-in talk radio show. It is almost entirely youth-produced, from guest booking to engineering to production on reports, like this one that Chandra made.

Chandra is currently a third year student at Plymouth State University. She is a Social Work major with a minor in Psychology. I snagged her through email, since class has now started and everyone is busybusybusy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rubbertoe/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

There are a few staid themes in youth reporting, and I'm sure I'll feature pieces that touch on all of them in the next few months. They're the DANGER topics, the ones that lend themselves to moralizing and giving adults a platform to tell teens what they should do: teen pregnancy, drugs and alcohol, gang violence, etc. Teenagers' relationships with police officer figure greatly into the last two. Quinn Andrews is a reporter at Y-Press in Indianapolis, Indiana and after meeting with a group of teens to get their opinions on how police treat them, he went and interviewed to officers, a rookie and a veteran, about how they perceive the Youth.

Check out that piece Quinn refers to in the interview, where Y-Press had a roundtable with young people about their opinions on police officers, here.

Do you have a story about a police officer being less than respectful to you, whether you are young or not-so-young? How about a story of an officer being helpful or friendly? (I remember this one guy pulling up to a light next to me and my friend and just asking, "How are you doing today?")

When I think of police and teenagers though, I always think of this viral YouTube clip of a Baltimore police officer hassling some skateboarders. It is pretty riveting and upsetting, since it's the textbook example of what a lot of people think of when theythink of bad cops. This officer may be a jerk, but that boy he shoves around? His family is suing him for $6 million. Who's overreacting now? They go to trial in October.

(Listen to the Love Doctor)

Independent producer Lacy Roberts was homesick. It was her last year of college and she had realized how much her hometown of Missoula, Montana and growing up in the country had shaped who she was. When she re-discovered some absurd letters her grandfather had written to her during freshman year, Lacy set out to create an audio portrait of herself, her family, and the state that will always be closest to her heart.

Stay tuned for after Lacy's piece, because I gave her a call. We talked about avoiding the pitfalls of self-indulgence when making an autobiographical feature. Also, I now know more about Montana than ever before.

Lacy Roberts works on an on-hiatus, but hopefully returning soon, podcast with Rachel Blatt called the Ladies' Village Improvement Society. Check it out on iTunes (search "Ladies Village") and then listen and then maybe contribute!

Intro and outro music for this episode by Bilal Bashir & Divine Styler / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0, from WFMU's Free Music Archive.

Lake Mead, Arizona, the body of water created by the Hoover Dam. Check those falling water lines! Creative Commons photo by flickr user kyle simourd.

A whole slew of reporters from Terrascope Youth Radio (Ashley Brown, Carmen Chan, Jennifer deBruijn, Elise Hens, Elizabeth Jones, Yusung John Lim, Margaret Lloyd, Tyler Thompson, Andrew Wimmer, and Michelle Slosberg) produced this in depth story about water in Arizona, from just about every angle they could see: legal, political, personal, environmental, and a few more. Listen up to the YouthCast.

Terrascope Youth Radio is made up of a bunch of rogue science reporters from Cambridge. As they say about themselves, "It's radio about scientists trying to figure out how nature works, and also about ordinary people who care about the world around them."

I also used to live in Colorado, where until earlier this summer, it was illegal to drink the rain water you collect in barrels. Because rain, obviously, belongs to people before it even falls out of the sky. The Colorado Springs Gazette explains the law change. Here's what I'm wondering: where does your tap water come from? If you wanna take a second and tell us where you live and where your water came from, it would be for the greater good.

Music in this podcast is by The Sounds of Taraab / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0, from the WFMU Free Music Archive.

From the Veggielution flickr stream.

Robert Rogers lives in San Jose, California, and he is really freaked out by the pesticides and additives in his grocery bought food. So he went exploring in his city and found Veggielution, a five acre farm under a highway. Ride a bike and learn about permaculture with Robert in this informative piece from outLoud Radio.

Listen to an interview with Robert about his feature!

(Listen to the interview)

Robert will be attending San Francisco State University in the fall where he plans to major in journalism.

outLoud Radio is based in California. They are made up of LGBTQ teens and allies with a mission to "develop the skills and confidence to decide for themselves how they will be represented, advance social justice and make the most of their lives." Yay, outLoud!

Music in this episode of YouthCast came from daghoti. / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0, downloaded at the Free Music Archive, run by the geniuses at WFMU in New York City.

This piece mixes a personal story, a format you hear a lot of in Youth Radio, with sound rich reporting, something of which you hear less. Here is an excerpted part of the interview (not on the podcast) where Antony and I talked about form:

(Listen to the interview)

Antony is currently a Chemistry major at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, but he's thinking of adding Botany as well. Smarty pants.

Jalisco

Antony and his brother on the electronics

This is my last YouthCast podcast, so I wanted to feature the future of YouthCast – children! This piece is recorded by third graders. It is a goodbye tribute to a visiting Korean exchange student, and it is written as an audio poem adapted from "Welcome Back" by Georgia Heard.

As I mentioned in my blog post yesterday, I'm not saying goodbye, but so long. This has been a great journey and I thank you. I will indeed miss you!!

God's speed…

Producer & Licensor: David Green & Third Grade Audio

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46042146@N00/1065156117/

Have you graduated? Well, what's next? Those are definitely words you will hear during these next two months. While students have many options after graduation, some are choosing to enlist in the military. Kathyrn Petros spoke with a recruiter, counselor and a couple students in her high school about military recruitment.

Producer & Licensor: Alaska Teen Media Institute

Website: http://www.alaskateenmedia.org

Also check out this piece - Dear Mom: I Joined the Marines from Curie Youth Radio

And more from War News Radio

Another ode to mothers! But don't they deserve it? This week we wanted to explore teenagers relationships with their moms. Youth Mic producers Rosa, Esther, and Constance hit the streets of New York to interview individuals about this.

Producer: Rosa, Esther & Constance

Licensor: Youth Mic

Website: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/wkcr/

Music:

Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now - Hairspray

A Song for Mama - Boyz II Men

Producer & Licensor

Curie Youth Radio

Would you like to dance?

Do you want something to drink?

Where'd you get that dress?

Will You Marry Me?

Wow, how'd that last one get in there? Well, according to Alaska Teen Media Institute reporter Hellen Fleming, that last question is not so difficult to fathom. Some teens are hearing those infamous words, and they are preparing for weddings after graduation!

Here's something a little different – a radio drama! Why not? It's the first day of April!

Jennifer Ferran produced this piece about a nerdy, clumsy high school guy (Trevor) who finds a watch that changes his whole image. But is it all it's cracked up to be? Trevor takes us through a journey that leads us to his answer.

Producer: Jennifer Ferran

Licensor: Youth Media Project

The Chris Brown-Rihanna case has brought up so many discussions on the seriousness of domestic violence. It has enlightened us to educate ourselves about this issue.

So in a conversation with youth in NJ this past weekend, a young man brought up one term, "Respect." His argument was that women have lost respect for themselves and have allowed men to disrespect them. Now, although the issue of domestic violence goes much further than that, his point was well taken.

But, Youth Radio reporter Adriel Louis brings us something different when he recounts his tactics of trying to get a girl's attention and her response. He speaks of her confidence and beauty. And in this month of celebrating women, we decided to feature this piece.

Adriel Luis was a finalist at the Youth Speaks Grand Slam Poetry Finals in San Francisco.

Producer: Adriel Louis

Licensor: Youth Radio

*If you have been, or are a victim of domestic violence, please use the National Domestic Violence hotline. I will be featuring a more in-depth blog post later this week about domestic violence.

Shirley "Star" Diaz & Chantel "Telly" meeting in Chicago at the Third Coast Festival in October 2008. She was awarded the TCF Silver for this piece "Growing Up in the System."

*Congratulations to Star! She had a baby last week We're going to try to catch up with her soon, so be sure to check back!*

Radio Rookie Shirley "Star" Diaz grew up in six different foster homes after her father murdered her mother. Separated from her six younger siblings, Diaz speaks with her older sister as she confronts the tragedy and tries to make sense of it all.

Producer(s): Shirley "Star" Diaz & Melissa Robbins

Licensor: Radio Rookies

Website: http://www.wnyc.org/radiorookies

Music: Imagine Me by Kirk Franklin (2005)

Some people say art is just a reflection of life. Well, we've seen some emotional things happen in the entertainment world over the past few years when it comes down to love and relationships. Was Beyonce right when she sang "Crazy in Love?" And how about the artists below? Are they just expressing the way people in society feel about their experiences with love? Rataysha Lavender of Radio Rootz goes on a mission to find out: Does Love Make You Crazy?

Producer:Rataysha Lavender

Licensor:Radio Rootz

Website:http://www.radiorootz.org/

Music:

What Love Is (Instrumental) – Mary J. Blige

Bust Your Windows – Jazmine Sullivan

Damaged- Danity Kane

Bleeding Love – Leona Lewis

Before He Cheats – Carrie Underwood

Beautiful Girls – Sean Kingston

Dangerously in Love – Beyonce

Friday the 13th…what will you be doing? Well, if you were Tony Tellado of The Best of Sci-Fi Talk, you might pop some popcorn and get ready for a night of Sci-Fi. Recently, Tellado interviewed Greyson Chadwick, one of the leads in the zombie comedy Dance of the Dead. In the film, zombies invade a high school prom and Chadwick (as Lindsey) joins sci-fi geeks to stop the madness.

Also check out:

YouTube Interview with a couple of the actors from Dance of the Dead

Sci-fi Talk Live (Blog Talk Radio)

After all the celebrations this past weekend, today, President Barack Obama had to step into reality. As a president, there is so much to do. He will be met with new challenges daily. I wonder, will he ever wish he had super powers to deal with such issues? And if so, what would he want to use? Students for Third Grade Audio talk about the super powers they wish they had.

Producer & Licensor: David Green & Third Grade Audio

Music: Keep Risin' (Instrumental) (2002) by Souljahz

Over the past year we've heard one word that could summarize the result of the presidential elections: Change. With the start of a new year and the presidential inauguration just a few weeks away, that word has resurrected a buzz. And although we've heard countless promises from Barack Obama about the changes he's proposing, even he admits that the change must begin within. Louis, a producer for 826NYC, shares his personal struggle with his past and his desire to change.

Producer: Louis

Licensor: 826NYC

Website: http://www.826nyc.org/

Audio Excerpts & Music:

President-Elect Victory Speech (2008) by Barack Obama

Yes We Can (2008) by Barack Obama

A Change is Gonna Come (1964) by Sam Cooke

*Check out more pieces produced on PRX about CHANGE by clicking here.

Producers Chris Flynn and Porsha Thomas

Santa isn't real…Are you kidding me? Chris Flynn, Jasmine Gonzalez and Porsha Thomas of Curie Youth Radio interview Chicago teens about the moment they found out the truth about Santa Claus.

Producers: Chris Flynn, Jasmine Gonzalez and Porsha Thomas

Licensor: Curie Youth Radio

Website: http://www.curiehs.org/curie_youth_radio

Music:

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker (1891) performed by Philharmonia Orchestra

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (1987) performed by John Mellencamp

When you think of the holidays, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Some say candles and carols, others say traditions and family. Well, Jamie Lamb, a producer for Voices of Youth – Moab, says the theme is often repeated: love; giving love is the best Christmas gift ever.

Producer: Jamie Lamb

Licensor: Voices of Youth – Moab

Website: http://www.kzmu.org/voicesofyouth

Music:

All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth (1948) by Spike Jones & His City Slickers and George Rock

Give Love on Christmas Day (1970) by The Jackson 5

Radio Rookies reporter Jordan Teklay sings along with Prince "Emancipation!" At 15, he became legally emancipated from his parents. Then, he moved from California to New York City to escape his past and embrace adulthood. At 17, Teklay reflected on the past two years, with humor and insight.

Producer: Melissa Robbins & Kaari Pitkin

Licensor: Radio Rookies

Website: http://www.wnyc.org/radiorookies

"Change That America Can Believe In" & "Yes We Can" were the slogans that the Barack Obama campaign championed. Now, President-elect Barack Obama will have the opportunity to lead the movement of change. But how can we get on board? What do we need to change in our personal lives? Lucia Martinez of KUNM reflects on the changes she believe we need to make in order to become truly the UNITED States of America.

Listen to a few other youth-produced pieces about change on the PRX web site.

Producer: Lucia Martinez

Licensor: KUNM's Youth Radio

Website: http://www.kunm.org/youthradio

Music: Yes We Can by Will.i.am (2008)

Pictured: Mallory St. Claire, Jordan Denari & Quinn Andrews

Music:

Intro (America the Beautiful) by Kirk Franklin Hero

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence is an organization founded to advocate on behalf of battered women.

Youth Mic producers Isis Thompson and Brittany Kaitt speak with two women about the violence they experienced in relationships. They share warning signs and behavior patterns of abuse.

Music

Hell No! by Felicia P. Fields The Color Purple: Original Broadway

Love is Blind by Eve Ruff Ryders' First Lady

What would you do in your first moments of freedom?

Teens incarcerated at the Long Creek Youth Development Center speak with LaShanda, a producer for Blunt Youth Radio Project. They talk about the things they miss most, one of them is freedom.

We want YOU to post three things you would do in your first moments of freedom.

I think I would stand outside crying and breathing in the fresh air, thank God and hug my family members; I'm just not sure if I would do it in that order.

*Here are a few other pieces that may interest you: Prison Diaries, Youth Portraits, and Incarcerated Youth Speak Out.

Producer: LaShanda

Licensor: Blunt Youth Radio Project

Website: http://www.bluntradio.org

Music: Locked Up by Akon (2004)

In our discussions about teen pregnancy, we so often focus on the girls becoming mothers. But what about the guys becoming fathers?

Youth Voices Reporter Wenda Thompson takes a look at the fathers-to-be and programs designed for their needs…

Producer: Wenda Thompson

Licensor: WAMU

Website: http://yv.wamu.org/

Music: MyBabyDaddy by B Rock and the Bizz (1997)

School is back in session, and the question is will young people find the time to be involved in politics amidst studying, homework, school activities and part-time jobs? Will we vote? And what about those of us ineligible to vote because of our age; What part do we play in this election?

This is a historical year in politics – a woman is the Republican nominee for Vice President (Governor Sarah Palin, Alaska) and an African-American man is the Democratic nominee for President (Senator Barack Obama, Illinois). Lillian Warner of Weekday High explores where politics can fit in to young people's full schedules during this election.

Producer: Lillian Warner

Licensor: Weekday High

Website: http://www.kuow.org/weekdayhigh

Music: School's Out by Alice Cooper (1972)