Episodes

  • Chrononormativity, duppies and post-colonial thought. Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures exploring beyond the past, present and futures.

    Language in the Land of Duppies: Exploring the origins of Jamaican folklore as a gateway to understanding the legacy of slavery on the island.Produced by Laura CartySpecial thanks to Alexander Powell, Carmen Johnson, Natalia Downer, Kandice Thompson and Jean Smart.

    All my friends are turning into StarsWritten and performed by David Amber DevereuxWith Dr Matthew Temple, Research Fellow,Universidad Diego PortalesAdditional voices by Lou Sutcliffe and Alessa CatterallFeaturing quotes from De Profundus by Oscar Wilde, Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, and In A Queer Time And Place by Jack Halberstam

    Interjections on the future: There is not currently any obvious path to reconstructing a popular faith in political, economic and even some social institutions but while it might not always feel like it today, the unwinding of colonial modernity is underway and accelerating. Produced by composer and researcher, Sara Rahman.Featuring psychiatrist Isabel Valli and writers and artists Fer Boyd and Maedeline Stack.

    Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft Produced by Axel KacoutiéA Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

  • Word spirits, back rooms and a reply all-pocalypse - Josie Long presents short documentaries that emerge from the internet.

    Word SpiritsWith thanks to Caroline Hesse, Donovan McGrath, Mary Dolejsi, Nicole Reinsch, Nalini Kumari, Zen Priest & Buddhist Scholar John Stevens (for permission to include his Classical Aikido Kototama Chant), and Critical Sound Explorer & Artist Matt Parker (for permission to include excerpts from The People's Cloud / Field Recordings of Internet Data Centres): https://www.earthkeptwarm.comAdditional mixing by MaitreyaProduced by HJ Radia

    The Back RoomsProduced by Mae-Li Evans

    The Bello Tolls for TheeProduced by Nadia Mehdi

    Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea RangecroftSeries Producer: Eleanor McDowallA Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

  • Missing episodes?

    Click here to refresh the feed.

  • Josie Long presents short documentaries that go back to the start. The musician Lucinda Chua traces the journey of a rose, a connection is forged between a young woman now and a trapeze artist on New Year's Eve 1942, and a touching personal archive illuminates the journey of a word.

    Muscles and MysteriesProduced by Teresa Kristoffersson

    First WordsProduced by Kalli Anderson Featuring the voices of Kalli's parents, Kathy Hunt and Lance Anderson, as well as Kalli's husband, Zack Finkelstein, and their two children, aged 12 and 8.

    Reclaiming The Rose Produced, narrated and music by Lucinda ChuaChinese Narration by XiaoQiaoPoetry in English and Chinese by He Sun

    Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea RangecroftSeries Producer: Eleanor McDowallA Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

  • A couple looks for each other in their dreams, a research facility delves into the otherworldly, and a philosopher imagines a flow of time set to the rhythm of our rivers - Josie Long presents short documentaries that emerge from the dreams of others.

    River TimeFeaturing Jonathon KeatsProduced by Nadia Mehdi

    HauntedFeaturing Linda FleishmanProduced by Elizabeth Friend

    Darling, Are You Dreaming?Featuring Jules and VitalProduced by Eloise Stevens

    Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft Series Producer: Eleanor McDowallA Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

  • A pamphlet from the 1980s illuminates the world we live in now, a musical invitation for your domestic space, and some dazzling canine choreography for your ears. Josie Long presents short documentaries based around instructions.

    How to Listen... including How Not To, How You Ought To, and How You Won't (Extract)Written by Stephen Potter and Joyce GrenfellProduced by Stephen PotterOriginally broadcast on BBC Third Programme in 1946

    Hot Dogs!Presented by Alan SmithProduced by Steve UrquhartOriginally broadcast on Alan Smith's Mid Morning Show, BBC Radio Cumbria in 1999

    Hell Rubs and SobsProduced by Sami El-Enany

    How To Look 30 When You're 30Produced by Jesse Lawson

    Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea RangecroftSeries Producer: Eleanor McDowallA Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

  • The moment of time before a camera shutter closes, a symphony of ums reveals a partner's untruths, and two women linked by a phantom thread reflect on their changing bodies. Josie Long presents even shorter short documentaries.

    Is This An Image?Produced by Jon Tjhia

    Death from AboveWritten and read by Joe Dunthorne

    Body of WorkFeaturing the voices of writer Marleen Kruithof and cinematographer Babette MangolteMusic by Nicola MeccaProduced by Georgia Walker

    What's in an Um?Produced by Talia Augustidis

    CharonComposed, produced and performed by Jamie Payne

    Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea RangecroftSeries Producer: Eleanor McDowallA Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

  • Liminal prose and cryptic hotlines. Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures navigating our relationship and imaginations to history collecting.

    The Flight of SankofaProduced by Weyland Mckenzie-WitterFeaturing Lisa Anderson, the Director of the Black Cultural Archives, Dr Etienne Jospeh of Decolonising the Archive and Christopher West the inaugural curator for the Black diaspora, John Hay Library, Brown University, who recently curated an exhibition using Brown University’s Mumia Abu-Jamal collection.

    XenoglossiaProduced by Kamikaze Jones

    Fish & Chips(best listened to with headphones)Produced by Abira Hussein and Olani EwunnetRecorded with Sue BowermanFeaturing the voices of Somali Aunties from LondonSpecial thanks to Alan Archer-Boyd, and Whose Knowledge?

    Produced by Axel KacoutiéCurated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea RangecroftA Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

  • Getting lost in childhood longings, the search for the home we carry inside ourselves and exploring true sexual desire in a world shaped by media and societal pressures. Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures that explore our desires.

    American Glove CafeFeaturing Conor O’Toole and FánWritten and produced by Conor O’Toole

    Are We There Yet?Featuring Angeliki Androutsopoulos, Garth Davis, Amira and Danita, plus recordings by Mary Hufford for The Library of Congress. Produced by Jaye KranzOriginal commissioned and produced for Constellations podcast

    Desire ShapesFeaturing PoppyProduced by Phoebe McIndoe

    Produced by Andrea RangecroftCurated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea RangecroftA Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

  • From a creature that leaps in the darkness of your basement to a fish that drains the life force of its partner - Josie Long presents creature features and creepy crawly short documentaries for Halloween.

    In SpiritFeaturing James Maclaine, Senior Curator of Fish, at the Natural History Museum, LondonProduced and sound designed by Meera Kumar

    The Seventh SenseThanks to Emma Rathbone, Gaye Williams, Ben Pagac, Mary Jane Epps, and everybody who shared a camel cricket story Music by Cue Shop, Big Lazy, and Blue Dot SessionsProduced by Jesse Dukes

    For the PigeonsProduced by John Luke Roberts

    Series Producer: Eleanor McDowallCurated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea RangecroftA Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

  • A remnant from the Cold War becomes an accidental haven for wildlife, a poet and a tree surgeon search for the roots of a metaphor, and a musician searches for an anchor to home. Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures about the ground beneath your feet.

    Always MovingCello performed by Joe ReynoldsEngineered by Yuri ShibuichiComposed and produced by Tendertwin (Bilge Nur Yilmaz)

    Memorial LandscapeFeaturing Kai Frobel Translator Jana KosokProduced by Tom Phillips

    Poet / TreeA conversation between Matthew Reid and Raymond Antrobus

    Series Producer: Eleanor McDowallCurated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea RangecroftA Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

  • Visions and out of body experiences during birth and a name that stretches back through time - Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures about the experience of coming into the world.

    TransitionProduced by Kalli Anderson and apè AliermoFeaturing excerpts from SIMULA, an 8.2-channel sound installation by apè Aliermo and mixed and mastered by Rose Bolton. This composition includes sound recorded during three anonymous births and electromagnetic sound recorded in a hospital during one of the births. The voices you hear are Redzi Bernard, Becky Kenna, Amy Macfarlane and Andrea Gummo.

    Hope is the thing with feathersProduced by Nanna Hauge KristensenOriginally broadcast, in a different version, on BBC Radio 3's Between the Ears

    Loweza Ayazi Featuring Nomkhubulwane MnisiProduced by Kagiso Mnisi

    Series Producer: Eleanor McDowallCurated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea RangecroftA Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

  • Notes to Self and Sonic Symmetry. Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures exploring what it looks like coming back to yourself.

    The NewsProduced by Jess ShaneFeaturing Jennifer Mills

    Drawn OnwardProduced by Alan Goffinski and Sarita BhattMusic, Mix and Sound Design by Alan Goffinski

    Man to BoyProduced by Christina Hardinge and Jack MiguelFeaturing Jacob KellyMusic by Samuel Mumford

    Produced by Axel KacoutiéCurated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea RangecroftA Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

  • A simple object offers comfort and connection to a grandmother and a long line of Indian women; a wife uncovers the fingerprints her husband left on their world and with them, the microscopic details of grief; and an Urdu language lesson between a father and daughter reveals cultural loss and the father's longing to belong. Josie Long presents short documentaries that reverberate through time.

    Silver Cup: A Female GrammarWritten and produced by HJ RadiaWith thanks to Laura BartonIn loving memory of J.K Dave (1956-2023)

    Fingerprints and LightbulbsWritten and produced by Amanda Priestley

    22 WordsFeaturing Safwat Saleem and his daughterProduced by Safwat Saleem

    Produced by Andrea RangecroftCurated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea RangecroftA Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

  • A small boy accidentally creates a vast new lizard population in his hometown, a sonic storm gathers and a writer takes his family on a precarious family boat trip. Josie Long presents short documentaries about situations tumbling out of control.

    Eight Go To Treasure IslandWritten and read by Joe Dunthorne

    A MirrorFeaturing Steve UrquhartProduced by Eleanor McDowallFeaturing cellos by incidentalnoiseWith thanks to Rosalind Jana for pointing out the poetry of the Beaufort Scale

    Lazarus LizardsNarrated by AddieProduced by Jennifer McCord and Carrie Ann Welsh

    Series Producer: Eleanor McDowallCurated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea RangecroftA Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

  • Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures about finding meaning amid the noise.

    The poet and audio producer Ross Sutherland seeks to understand the strange echoes in his hearing, a remnant from a house fire is transformed into music and the radio-maker Liza Yeager finds magic in a series of encounters.

    HallucinationsFeaturing Dr Theresa Marschall and Lizzy DeningProduced by Ross Sutherland

    The Right Colour CandleFeaturing Annegret Curtis, Ed Dadey and Jan GehmlichProduced by Liza Yeager

    Stovepipe Wind Harp Summons the FrogsProduced by Fil Corbitt

    Series Producer: Eleanor McDowallCurated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea RangecroftA Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

  • Made up, mixed or invented. Josie Long presents not-so-long-radio sound paintings melting how we use words to make space for who we want to be.

    A Lovely Way to Spend an EveningProduced by Darragh AmeliaFeaturing June Katz, Patricia Hirsch, poet Xiao Yue Shan, photographer Anna Francesca Jennings and historian Alma Simba.

    The Magic of WavesProduced by Ève-Marie Bouché

    Remember There Is MoreProduced by Tej AdeleyeFeaturing activist Ngozi Alston, creator of the term Neuroexpansive; Dr Nick Walker, creator of Neuroqueer theory; Dr Ned Hallowell; Dr Keri Opai; Matana Roberts; Aiyanna Goodfellow, founder of Neuromancers and “a darling spook, writer, ghost whisperer, and friend".

    Produced by Axel KacoutiéCurated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea RangecroftA Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

  • Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures rediscovering the contexts that give cause to communities and their art.

    An Image Interrupted Produced by Danny GreenwaldFeaturing the voice of Taha Heydari

    àlá lo lá (You Dreamed a Dream)Produced by Tobi AdebajoPoems: In a Dream, Agbegbe T’ala, Safari Ya SiriSound Design by Tobi AdebajoMusic by Akin Euba, Nabalayo, petals and Tobi Adebajo

    Banned in AmericaProduced by Lucy Evans (they/them), also known as the drag king Sir Cum Sized (he/him).Featuring interviews with:Angelique Young-Cavalier (she/her), a Trans, Equal rights activist, Motivational Speaker and Drag Queen Entertainer Based in Tampa, Florida. Jackie Rosebutch (they/them), a non-binary drag Goddex and environmental science enthusiast based in Missoula, Montana. Maxi Glamour (they/them) @maxiglamour, a multidisciplinary artist at the intersection of high fantasy and social critique. Known as the Demon Queen of Polka and Baklava, Maxi Glamour uses demonological imagery as an allegory for how marginalised people are demonised by society, and wit and magic to examine the structural harm of oppression.Bella DuBalle (she/her), a Show Director and Host at Atomic Rose in Memphis Tennessee, and also a licensed minister who has performed many weddings. Bella created and hosts “the Mid-South’s local RuPauls’s Drag Race", a competition called War of the Roses.Bobby Pudrido (he/him), a Texas-based drag king and show producer who uses drag as a way to explore, blend, and showcase his queerness and Latine culture. In his drag show productions, Pudrido prioritises trans, gender diverse, black and brown drag kings and their accomplices as a way to push back against the erasure of these identities in mainstream culture.Special thanks to Samara Slaughter (she/her), JD Miller (they/them), Butch Mermaid (they/them), Sam Bam Thankyoumaam (they/he), Hugh Mann Race (he/they), Puppi Love (she/they), Dick TransDyke (they/he), Problem Child (she/they), Luxury Bones (he/they) and Andie Sleaze (they/he) from New York the chorus of resistance heard at the beginning.

    Produced by Axel Kacoutié,Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea RangecroftA Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

  • From the texture of silence to sonic disappearances, Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures about the soundscapes we inhabit.

    Omissa OloisaanProduced by Miyuki Jokiranta

    A Moonlit MemoryFeaturing Salma Ahmed CallerSounds from YleArkisto, reinsamba, Benboncan, Julius_galla, Straget, FaireDesVagues and SoundLover16 on freesound.orgProduced by Taqwa Sadiq

    Sacha TakiFeaturing Jonathan Grefa, president of the Ancestral Kichwa Population of Kawsak Sacha (PAKKS - https://pakks.org.ec/), Rosa Santi, Education and Health Coordinator of PAKKS, Dr. Paola Moscoso, Director of Voces del Bosque and Graciela Tupay (singer)With thanks to Amaru Grefa, External communication and media of PAKKS, Pastor Inmunda, ex-president of PAKKS, Didier Lacaze, Director of Sacha Warmi.Rosa Canelos, Sacha Warmi, Dr. Alice Eldridge, University of Sussex, Gustavo Chiriboga, Voces del Bosque, SozapatoWith recordings from Voces del Bosque https://www.vocesdelbosque.com/?lang=enProduced by Mickal Aranha

    Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea RangecroftSeries Producer: Eleanor McDowallA Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

  • An in-patient in a spinal injuries unit reconnects with herself by learning to cook again after a life-changing injury, friends remember the musician Joe Scurfield and the archive of folk music he left behind, and a radio cantata in memory of 12 civilians killed by US forces in Iraq in 2007. Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures about remembering, relearning and commemorating.

    Canto I, Crazy Horse One-EightProduced and performed by Gregory WhiteheadCommissioned by Magz Hall for the 2014 Radio Dreamlands project

    FeastProduced by Bronwen Livingstone

    The TunebankFeaturing Tim Dalling and Pete ChallonerProduced by Rowan RheingansMusic performed by Joe Scurfield, Tim Dalling, Pete Challoner and Rowan Rheingans

    Produced by Andrea RangecroftCurated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea RangecroftA Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

  • From professional news watchers who speak each word aloud to melting ice, Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures about the flow of stories through and around people.

    MeltingProduced by Jules Bradley

    CirculationField Recordings from InspectorJ, Zimbot, Dobroide, Tosha73 on freesound.orgProduced by Son Hanson

    Bikes Up Ben NevisFeaturing Iain LynnViolin by Eloise Kenny-RyderProduced and composed by Calum Perrin

    Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea RangecroftSeries Producer: Eleanor McDowall

    A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4