Braden Storytelling Grant

Swimming In Dreams by Ethan Lo

What’s the point of all of this? It’s a question we've all asked ourselves. For child-refugees who’ve come to America (and their descendants), attempting to answer this question is inevitably tied with wondering why fate, God, or whatever higher power they believe in has given them opportunities that those who came before them did not have.If you’ve ever asked yourself what it is that you need to be doing in life, this story is for you. You don’t have to come from a refugee background to relate. It’s simply the story of a young man who’s beginning to seriously question his lot in life, intertwining it with his family background, and coming to terms with the nature of it all. By exploring the three lives of a now-reintegrated middle-aged man who was sentenced to prison at 15, a college student who once couldn’t dream, and a high school student balancing what she owes to her mother and to herself; Ethan hopes to answer one question: what am I here for, if anything?
Producer: Ethan Lo
Featured voices: Ethan Lo, Choy, Paw, Neesha
Music:Opening Credits, Johnny RipperRain, Aaron XimmNight Caves, Lee RosevereOminous Beat, Setuniman freesound.org/people/Setuniman/Harmonious Ending, Setuniman freesound.org/people/Setuniman/

Seekers by Sophie McNulty

In her late thirties, Lanie, Sophie’s mom, became a born again Christian. Christianity gave her life meaning and happiness. When Lanie found God, “All the heaviness was just lifted.” Sophie, an atheist, struggles to find purpose in her own life. In this story, Sophie sets out to determine if what saved her mother could save her, too.
Producer: Sophie McNulty
Music:The Healing (Sergey Cheremisinov)Precisamos de um plano (rui)Valantis (Blue Dot Sessions)Waves (Pictures of the Floating World)Multiverse (Ketsa)Postcards mastere

Klezmer For My Grandmother by Daniel Helena Alexander

In the summer of 2019, I fly to Israel with a single goal in mind. I want to play a song. But not just any song. I want to play a Klezmer song. This podcast follows my journey meeting Jewish musicians and dealing with family tragedy to compose a personal song. “Music doesn’t lie.” You'll agree when you hear how beautiful, haunting, and inspiring Klezmer music can be.
Producer: Daniel Helena Alexander
Music:“Miter Der Lerrer” by Di Gasn Trio“Schwartz Doina and Al’s Dances” by Daniel Hoffman“San Diego” by Blink-182“Bagopolier Freylekhs” by Klezmer Israel“Hora de Concert” by Emil Aybinder“In Your Arms” by Forestt“Music for Bows and Feet” by Daniel Hoffman“Festival Excerpts” by HaBalkania“Hora Mittsibeles” by Alicia Svigels“Excerpts” by HaBalkania“Niggun” by Gal Klein

Coming of Age (Online): Imagining Queer Futures by Julie Fukunaga

What does it mean to (be queer) and come of age on the internet?
In the past ten years, the queer games movement has exploded. Around the world, more and more people feel like they can make free and simple and strange games - ones that speak to queer stories and experiences. But it wasn’t always this easy.
Some queer gamers used the earliest, clunkiest internet to find each other in crisis, to find friends, community, and a lifeline support in a time when no one was paying attention. Follow the journeys of queer gamers as they reflect on their earliest experiences online - experiences of freedom and discomfort, of community and isolation. They’ve since become architects of the internet, contributing to online communities as media scholars and game developers, but for these queer gamers, it all started way back.
Producer: Julie Fukunaga
Featured voice (subjects names if they want to share): Pedro Gallardo (he/him), Teddy Pozo (they/them), Kat Brewster (they/she)
Au Clair de Lune (Sunhiilow)Sad Day Slow Game Music (HeatleyBros)PlaymateX, In My Head (Podington Bear)Flight of Lulu (Possimiste)Notice the Absence of You is Here (Monplaisir)You Can Calmly Put This Thing Together (Junior85)Opening Credits (JohnnyRipper)Route 3 (Mikel (Game Chops))Various themes from Animal Crossing

Behind the Lens, Outside the Walls by Dylan Junkin

While working in Entebbe, Uganda for two months, Dylan befriends a group of musicians and creates a music video for a rapper named Ben. Join Dylan as his personal identity and perceptions about Entebbe are challenged, nuanced, and shaped through the creation of the music video.
Producer: ​Dylan Junkin
Special thanks to Rahul Benno
Music: HIlls and Valleys by Buju Banton, The Road is Rough by Jimmy London, Right Right Time by Johnny Osbourne, Do Good by F. Stewart, Kyarenga by H.E. Bobi Wine, Skonto by Fic Fameica,

The Stories They Don’t Tell: the Vietnam War at Home by Axelle Marcantetti

Description: In Hue, Vietnam, bullet holes and bunkers are constant reminders of the stories no one mentions. In New York, a daughter tries to understand how the war in Vietnam has shaped her father’s life and hers. In both worlds, however, “History is politics” and silence is the rule. But what happens when we start asking about memory, not History?
Producer: Axelle Marcantetti
 

My Mexican Dream by ​Andrea Flores

I would have been born here, had my parents never left this town for the U.S. In my journey, I retrace my steps back to Malinaltenango, Mexico, the land my parents have always called home and a land I have never really known on my own. During my time here, I struggle with ideas of identity, belonging, family, and trauma. I re-open wounds that have long been sealed to make sense of my life in relation to my grandmothers. “It’s a part of my history that I never like to think about, because it makes me sad, or maybe guilty for being born when I was and where I was. Or maybe I don’t think about it because it makes me fear loneliness. Because what if they pain of loneliness is just as transferable as their love?”
Producer: ​Andrea Flores

What I’m Grateful For by Besher Ashouri

Besher grew up in Syria till the war forced him, and his family, to flee. This non-narrated portrait follows his journey from Aleppo to California and finally to Stanford Medical School.Produced as part of MED 232 Global Health course (2018)
Producer: Besher Ashouri(and Jake warga)
Photo: www.flickr.com/photos/seier/1477997213

A Postcard from Mariana by Gabriela Nagle Alverio

Hurricane Maria revealed a dependency on the government but there was one community that used it as an opportunity to claim their independence. “There was no government here. And we couldn't wait for the government. We couldn't wait for anyone.” In this story I visit of the community of Mariana that has tried to separate themselves from the government.
Producer: Gabriela Nagle Alverio
Music: Puerto Rico from Pastel Beach by Englewood, Elementary wave by Erokia, Night Cave by Lee Rosevere.

The Taste of War: The Koreans and U.S. Combat Ration by Won-Gi Jung

What does a war taste like? Tracing the history of U.S. military combat ration in Korea, the podcast tells the Koreans’ bittersweet encounters with America.
Producer: Won-Gi Jung
Music: “Submerging Blue-Black” by Podington Bear, in Fathomless-Ambient“Memory Wind” by Podington Bear, in Fathomless-Ambient