Author James Baldwin once wrote, "I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually."

On this episode, we go back to 1932 when a group of World War I veterans set up an encampment in Washington, D.C., and vowed to stay until their voices were heard. It was a remarkable chapter in American history, and a demonstration of the power of citizens to come together for a cause. This is the story of the Bonus Army.

On July 19, 1963, at least 15 Black girls were arrested while marching to protest segregation in Americus, Georgia. After spending a night in jail, they were transferred to the one-room Leesburg Stockade and imprisoned for the next 45 days.

Only twenty miles away, the girls' parents had no knowledge of their location. A month into their confinement, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) heard rumors of the girls' detention and sent photographer Danny Lyon, who took pictures of them through barred windows. Within days, these photographs appeared in publications around the country.

As the girls' ordeal gained national attention, they were released without charges. This is the story of the 'Stolen Girls.' 

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To see more photos by Danny Lyon, visit bleakbeauty.com and Instagram.

This week we're featuring a story from a brand new audio magazine we've been listening to called Signal Hill.

"Pie Down Here" features oral history interviews with farmworkers and Communist Party members who organized a sharecroppers' union in Alabama during the Great Depression. The interviews were recorded by historian Robin Kelley for his book, Hammer and Hoe.

You can learn more about Signal Hill and check out the rest of their first issue—eight original stories—at signalhill.fm.

In 1939, Time Magazine called Dorothy Thompson a woman who “thinks, talks and sleeps world problems — and scares men half to death.”  They weren’t wrong. 

Thompson was a foreign correspondent in Germany in the years leading up to World War 2, and she broadcast to millions of listeners around the world. She became known for her bold commentaries on the rise of Hitler. The Nazis even created a “Dorothy Thompson Emergency Squad” to monitor her work. She was an eloquent and opinionated advocate for the principles of democracy. But by the end of the war, those strong opinions put her career in jeopardy. 

This is the story of the woman who tried to warn the world. 

These days, we’re used to media that thrives on conflict and amplifies the most outrageous voices in the room. It's something we often trace back to shock jocks, like Howard Stern, and in-your-face talk show hosts like Tucker Carlson and Rush Limbaugh. But before all those guys, there was Joe Pyne.

At the height of his career in the 1960s, the New York Times called him “The ranking nuisance of broadcasting.” Today, episode two of our series Making Waves: The Original Angry Talker. 

In 1934, the Washington Post called Elder Lightfoot Solomon Michaux, the “best known colored man in America.” He was known as the Happy-Am-I Preacher. His Sunday services were broadcast to over 25 million listeners on CBS radio. Black America saw Michaux as a leader for racial harmony and progress. But during the civil rights movement, his reputation took an unlikely turn.

This is episode 1 of our new miniseries Making Waves, three profiles of people who pushed the boundaries of radio. They used the microphone in different ways: one to warn, one to rile, one to preach. What they had in common is they were all controversial, they spoke to huge audiences in their time, and today, they’re largely forgotten.

From ancient myths of sea monsters lurking below to Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the ocean has long been both a source of fear and fascination. For Captain George Bond, a Navy medical officer in the 1960s, the deep sea was humanity’s next frontier. Undersea agriculture, deep sea mining, and human colonies on the ocean floor made up his dream for the future.

Today we bring you the story of the U.S. Navy’s little-known experiment building homes on the ocean floor. They called it, Sealab.

Happy 2025! We have a slate of new stories coming soon, but we want to start the year by shouting out fellow podcaster (and friend of the show) Nate DiMeo of The Memory Palace. He just put out his first book, The Memory Palace: True Short Stories of the Past. So to celebrate, we're featuring one of our favorite episodes from The Memory Palace, "These Words, Forever." Joe also sat down with Nate to chat about his book, storytelling and the dream of having a device that could allow you to hear anything. 

Find Nate's book The Memory Palace: True Short Stories of the Past NOW online or at your local bookstore. Check out The Memory Palace wherever you get your podcasts, or on radiotopia.fm. 

If you liked this episode, follow us on X and Instagram @radiodiaries. Hear more episodes on our feed and at radiodiaries.org. 

If you follow boxing, you've heard of Claressa Shields. At the 2012 Olympics, she became the first American woman to win gold in boxing. She repeated the feat 4 years later, becoming the first American boxer — woman or otherwise — to win consecutive medals. Now, she's the subject of a new movie called The Fire Inside, tracing her journey to Olympic stardom.

Claressa Shields' story was one of our earliest at Radio Diaries. We gave her a tape recorder and asked her to document her journey leading up to the 2012 Olympics. She was sixteen at the time. Today, we revisit the story of Claressa Shields — before the world knew who she was.

The Fire Inside comes out exclusively in theaters on Christmas Day. 

If you liked this story, follow us on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram @radiodiaries! See more stories in our feed and on our website, radiodiaries.org.

Former Oklahoma senator Fred Harris died recently, at 94 years old. In 1967, Fred Harris and 10 senators came together and released the Kerner Report, a 1400-page explanation of the causes of the protests that filled American cities that summer. It was an instant — and unlikely — bestseller, selling over half a million copies in just three weeks, getting shoutouts by celebrities like Marlon Brando, and sparking debates on news programs throughout the country. The book talked about white racism at a time when that phrase was mostly used by Black activists, not white politicians. Fred Harris was the last surviving member of the Kerner Commission.

If you liked this episode, follow us on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram @radiodiaries. Visit our website at radiodiaries.org.