Untitled, 2008

Last night, while I was talking to a colleague on the phone, I was reminded of a site I used to visit for human interest stories that fell outside the mainstream. Many of the stories are about the prison system or religion in some way, but when I looked through the site again, it became so much more relevant. With stories about the people of the Appalachians that Shelby Lee Adams covered (found here) or Danny Lyon, when he was allowed into the Texas prison system (found here). I found it very interesting, overall, to trawl through the website again and listen to all the old stories again. Some are unsettling, like "The Execution Tapes" while others are very interesting ("My Lobotomy"). They shed light on a part of society that not many people know about. Unfortunately, many of the older programs are in RealAudio format, so you'll need something that can play those files. I would highly recommend against getting RealPlayer as it's clunky, filled with bloat, and will want to take over all of your media needs, which it does not do well. My recommendation is to instead get Real Alternative (found here). All the Sound Portraits are available here.