Radio Diaries

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Radio Diaries

Show Notes

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.

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Oct 22, 2026

In the spring of 1981, the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings met for a minor league baseball game of little importance. But over the course of 33 innings—8 hours and 25 minutes—the game made history. It was the longest professional baseball game ever played. This story was produced in collaboration with ESPN's 30 for 30.

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This week we're sharing a story from the audio magazine Signal Hill. The story, "What's Inside the Moon," is about the poet Kenneth Koch and a group of elementary school students he taught to write poetry in the 1960s. Half a century later, producer Jess Shane tracked down the students to ask what poetry had meant for their lives. You can find more stories from Signal Hill at SignalHill.fm.

Aug 13, 2026

This week we're featuring an episode of Phonograph, a podcast that deconstructs the history and art of audio storytelling. The hosts of Phonograph recently invited Radio Diaries' Joe Richman on their show to talk about "24 Hours at the Golden Apple," a classic episode of This American Life that he helped produce. The Golden Apple is a diner in Chicago, and back in 2000, a group of producers took shifts hanging out there over 24 hours and talking to as many people as they could. Joe's story focused on the friendship between two high school students, Danielle and Allison, who he met during his shift. Here's an excerpt of Phonograph where Joe talks about making this story, and what it's like to listen back to it more than two decades after it first aired.

Jul 16, 2026

A few years ago we did a story about Martha Lillard, a woman who had spent most of her life sleeping in a device called an iron lung. Martha had caught polio in the early 1950s, and, like many polio survivors, she had difficulty breathing on her own. Her iron lung was a big metal ventilator that fit her entire body inside and used bellows to suck air in and out, helping her to breathe. Martha was the last person in the U.S. to use one. Martha Lillard died on June 26, 2026. As a remembrance, we're revisiting our story about her.

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