Show Notes
2025 is almost over, and it’s the time of year when everyone is sharing their ‘best of’s, ‘wrappeds, ‘rewinds’ or recaps of the year. In this episode, our amazing volunteers at All the Best share the stories that really resonated with them.
Second Hand Bandit by Ramon Briant Episode #640 The Second Hand Bandit was all about community and second-hand op-shops, or in Patrick’s words, it was about those ‘comrad vibes’. Ramon’s story focuses on how a second-hand shop community came together to solve a string of thefts. Produced by Ramon Briant
Weaving Ancestral Voices by Shareeka Hellaludin Sue chose Weaving Ancestral Voices from #629 Ancestral Voices, and the episode focused on that theme of connection and reconnection. The story is about the Shraeeka’s journey to reconnect the different parts of her identity. For Sue, it was the delicate panning, whispered textures, and ‘really subtle shifts in tone’ that Shareeka uses in the piece. This story was produced by Shareeka Helaluddin. The Supervising Producer was Mell Chun, with support from John Tjhia.
Wanted: Dunnart Alive by Xanthe Smith This comes from #660 Wanted: Dunnart Alive. This is one of Jesse Cox Audio Fellowship Stories for 2025. Lindsey’s choice is all about looking for that elusive thing. Xanthe revisits her childhood memories of meeting ecologist Sue Churchill, whose stories of the rare marsupial stayed with her for decades. She chose this story because ’…the amount of effort it takes, even finding something so small.’ Produced by Xanthe Smith Supervising Producer was Karla Arnall All The Best turned 15 this year! And as part of our b-day party showcased stories from the JCAF fellows.
Tubig Lang by Merlinda Bobis Ray’s choice is the first story in #653 Tubig Lang (Just Water). This takes us to the Philippines and explores what a typhoon looks like in the eyes of a child. He chose this story because ‘Even though these episodes moved through world typhoons … What stayed with me were the quieter, more personal details that shape how each person makes sense of the chaos’. It was originally commissioned by Debris Magazine issue five, Prismatic Joy, and the sound design was by Tala Issaoui. The supervising producer was Phoebe Adler Ryan.
The Great Dingo Debate by Andrea Dixon Our final pick comes from Imogen! And her choice came from the #623 Humanimal. Andrea shares her love for Taz, a rescued dingo living on her family’s property in Hawkesbury, Darug country. For Imogen, it represented a perspective she hadn’t heard before. The producer was Andrea Dixon. The Supervising Producer was Thomas Phillips.
All The Best Credits Program Manager & Host: Kwame Slusher Executive Producer: Melanie Bakewell Programming & Community Coordinator: Catarina Fraga Matos Community Coordinator: Patrick McKenzie Theme Music composed by Shining Bird Special shout-out to 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: