Show Notes
As adults, we think we’re too old for fairytales… but they hold such important lessons about strength, transformation and compassion. In this episode we listen to modern fairytales… a modern rendition of the ugly duckling, and a transformation in an enchanted forest.
Water Off a Swan’s Back by Persephone Waxman In a modern retelling of an ugly duckling, Persephone reminds us that its all just water off a swans back. Written & Produced by Persephone Waxman Sound design and score by Julian Smith Gard The Voice Actors were Persephone Waxman as Swanathon; Gabrielle Angelone as Sweenie; Sofia Morreale as Diana; Thomas Von Rein as Duckworth; Marceline Di Bartolomeo as Dr Ribbit; Mark Spencer as Geese 1; Alex Clouston and Thomas Khulmann as Geese 2 and 3 This story was produced as part of audio fiction collective Script Roulette, who are based in Naarm and want you to make radio plays with them. Check out https://www.artscentremelbourne.com.au/whats-on/2026/festivals-and-series/play/script-roulette-podcast or their on their insta @scriptroulettepodcast
Where The Water Knows Your Name by Luca Gambirasio/Sound Commons Project A wanderer takes a sip from a magical forest stream and wakes up in someone else’s feathers. Because we all need to be taken care of sometimes, because really, we are all just reflections of one another. That story was produced by the Sounds Common Project Find more of their work Writer, voice over, and composer Charity Rosario Producer and composer Luca Gambirasio This story was produced as part of All The Best’s 24 Hour Radio Race back in November 2025. Check out some previous episodes on the radio race https://allthebestradio.com/featured/617-beneath-the-surface/ , https://allthebestradio.com/featured/676-mirrored/ and the second story, Hook, Line & Sinker in https://allthebestradio.com/featured/622-sunburned/
All The Best Credits Host: Gabriella Accaria Executive Producer: Melanie Bakewell Programming & Community Coordinator: Catarina Fraga Matos Production Manager: Kwame Slusher Community Coordinator: Patrick McKenzie Mixed & Compiled: Emma Higgins Theme Music composed by Shining Bird Special shout-out to all our volunteers
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
More from All The Best
"...as an act of justice doing and expressing how much I care for them, and I guess also the sacredness of all life in witnessing and experiencing multiple genocides and affrontations of, like, what's happening on these lands I think navigating grief as an act of love maybe gave me a sense of autonomy and being able to move through with a, with a bit more grace and not letting it subsume me all of the time." - Shareeka Helaluddin
There is this Tolstoy quote from Anna Karenina, "All Happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." I've always struggled with this binary. This idea of happiness or unhappiness as somehow being fixed states. No nuance. I think real families, ones outside Russian fiction, exist on a more complex spectrum.
This week we are featuring our first story from our Jesse Cox Audio Fellowship 2026! More than 15 Years ago, Jesse Cox co-developed an incredible audio narrative program on fbi.radio called All The Best. JCAF is an audio mentorship program, pretty one-of-a-kind, championing the kind of work and spirit our show's co-founder upheld and honouring his legacy.
Sooooo ... the best way to think of this episode is a bit like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. But instead of there being a bereaved scientist obsessed with resurrection, we have a monster of a story stuck together from different audio body parts made by audio makers from all over the world. Our Programming and Community Coordinator Catarina Fraga Matos breaks down the way the audio corpse works: