Episodes

  • Tamar Avishai is an art historian turned finance administrator turned independent radio producer. She worked for years as an art history instructor and an adjunct lecturer at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

    In each episode of her podcast The Lonely Palette, she focuses on one object – a painting, a sculpture, an installation, a very special urinal – and tells its story, exploring the artwork, the movement, the social context.

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    Stories of Sound is an audio series that delves into sound arts and audio storytelling, offering listeners a window into the creative processes, challenges, and inspirations of artists, authors and theorists who tell stories through sound.

    Audio documentaries, radio dramas, interviews, soundscapes, narration, auto-fiction, sound installations, archival material, sound design, radio, podcasting, and much more.

    Stories of Sound: Conversations on Sound, Art, and Audio Storytelling is curated by Riccardo Giacconi at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University.

    Narration by Megan Hyde.

    Additional editing by Marion Nicvert.

    This episode features excerpts from episodes 1, 20, 25, 34 and 51 from The Lonely Palette podcast, by Tamar Avishai.


    Produced with support from the Faculty Research Awards Committee, School of Arts & Sciences at Tufts University.

    https://botafuego.org/STORIES-OF-SOUND

  • Axel Kacoutié is an audio artist and poet who's been crafting sound, music, and words to challenge the familiar and revive a magic in the mundane.

    Recent collaborations include those with Falling Tree Productions, Shade Podcast, Somerset House, and many more. Previously the Creative Director of Sound at the Guardian, their work has featured on BBC airwaves, Spotify, and in physical spaces such as the Tate Modern and Sundance Film Festival.

    Axel Kacoutié has won several awards, including Best Documentary at the Third Coast International Audio Festival, Gold for the Sarah Lawrence Audio Fiction Awards, Best Sound Designer at the Audio Production Awards, Prix Marulić Grand Prix award.

    – – –

    Stories of Sound is an audio series that delves into sound arts and audio storytelling, offering listeners a window into the creative processes, challenges, and inspirations of artists, authors and theorists who tell stories through sound.

    Audio documentaries, radio dramas, interviews, soundscapes, narration, auto-fiction, sound installations, archival material, sound design, radio, podcasting, and much more.


    Stories of Sound: Conversations on Sound, Art, and Audio Storytelling is curated by Riccardo Giacconi at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University.

    Narration by Megan Hyde.

    Additional editing by Marion Nicvert.

    This episode features excerpts from the following pieces by Axel Kacoutié: How To Remember (2019), A Mother Tongue (2021), Gatekeeper (2023). It also includes an audio version of Axel Kacoutié’s biographical note, available on their website axelkacoutie.com

    Produced with support from the Faculty Research Awards Committee, School of Arts & Sciences at Tufts University.

    https://botafuego.org/STORIES-OF-SOUND

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  • Rick Moody is the author of numerous novels, collections of short fiction, two memoirs, and a book of essays.

    His debut novel, Garden State, was the winner of the 1991 Editor’s Choice Award from the Pushcart Press. The Ice Storm (1994) was published in twenty countries and adapted into a film directed by Ang Lee in 1997.
    Other novels include Hotels of North America; The Four Fingers of Death; The Diviners; and Purple America, for which foreign editions have appeared widely. His most recent memoir is The Long Accomplishment (2019).

    His radio pieces have appeared on The Next Big Thing and at the Third Coast International Audio Festival.

    He is the recipient of the Addison Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Guggenheim fellowship.
    He has taught at New York University, Yale University, Princeton University, and Brown University, and he currently teaches at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts - Tufts University.

    – – –

    Stories of Sound is an audio series that delves into sound arts and audio storytelling, offering listeners a window into the creative processes, challenges, and inspirations of artists, authors and theorists who tell stories through sound.

    Audio documentaries, radio dramas, interviews, soundscapes, narration, auto-fiction, sound installations, archival material, sound design, radio, podcasting, and much more.


    Stories of Sound: Conversations on Sound, Art, and Audio Storytelling is curated by Riccardo Giacconi at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University.

    Narration by Megan Hyde.

    Additional editing by Marion Nicvert.

    This episode features excerpts from Rick Moody’s text “The Construction of Humanism in Documentary Radio” (2005), as well as his audio pieces "Pirate Radio Station" (2005) and “Annals of Minimalism” (2023).It also features excerpts from "The city wears a slouch hat" by John Cage and Kenneth Patchen, 1942, and “On the Edge” by Joe Frank, 1991.

    Produced with support from the Faculty Research Awards Committee, School of Arts & Sciences at Tufts University.

    https://botafuego.org/STORIES-OF-SOUND

  • Jazmine 'JT' Green is an audio documentarian by trade and artist by practice.

    She is the founder of Molten Heart, a creative and commercial studio focused on the texture of sound.

    She writes and produces electronic music as CMD+JAZMINE.

    Her works have been featured in places such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Mass MoCA, 99% Invisible, and Pop Up Magazine.

    Her interests revolve around the intersection of design practices, health technologies, and the global influence of Blackness.

    – – –

    Stories of Sound is an audio series that delves into sound arts and audio storytelling, offering listeners a window into the creative processes, challenges, and inspirations of artists, authors and theorists who tell stories through sound.

    Audio documentaries, radio dramas, interviews, soundscapes, narration, auto-fiction, sound installations, archival material, sound design, radio, podcasting, and much more.


    Stories of Sound: Conversations on Sound, Art, and Audio Storytelling is curated by Riccardo Giacconi at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University.

    Narration by Megan Hyde.

    Additional editing by Marion Nicvert.

    This episode features the following pieces by Jazmine 'JT' Green: EMDR (2019), For George, Breonna, Ahmaud and Christian (2020), and an excerpt from PMHx (2021).

    Produced with support from the Faculty Research Awards Committee, School of Arts & Sciences at Tufts University.

    https://botafuego.org/STORIES-OF-SOUND

  • Siobhan McHugh is a leading podcast studies scholar and multi-award-winning narrative podcast producer. She is also a documentary-maker, oral historian, writer, journalism academic, podcast critic and podcasting consultant.

    Her book, The Power of Podcasting – Telling Stories Through Sound (2022) is an insider’s guide to how narrative podcasts are made and a love letter to audio storytellers old and new.

    Narrative podcasts Siobhan worked on include Phoebe’s Fall, Wrong Skin, The Last Voyage of the Pong Su and The Greatest Menace, all of which won Gold at New York Radio Festival, as well as other awards.

    In 2013, McHugh founded the first journal of radio documentary and podcast studies, RadioDoc Review.

    She was Associate Professor in Journalism at the University of Wollongong, south of Sydney, and Honorary Associate Professor in Media and Communications at the University of Sydney, where in 2022 she launched the Hub for Innovation in Podcasting, a coalition of researchers, makers, fans and teachers of podcasting.

    – – –

    Stories of Sound is an audio series that delves into sound arts and audio storytelling, offering listeners a window into the creative processes, challenges, and inspirations of artists, authors and theorists who tell stories through sound.

    Audio documentaries, radio dramas, interviews, soundscapes, narration, auto-fiction, sound installations, archival material, sound design, radio, podcasting, and much more.


    Stories of Sound: Conversations on Sound, Art, and Audio Storytelling is curated by Riccardo Giacconi at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University.

    Narration by Megan Hyde.

    Additional editing by Marion Nicvert.

    This episode features excerpts from the following audio-documentaries: The Greatest Menace (2022), Heart of Artness (2018), The Last Voyage of the Pong Su (2019), Saigon Tapes (2020), Minefields and Miniskirts (1993).

    Produced with support from the Faculty Research Awards Committee, School of Arts & Sciences at Tufts University.

    https://botafuego.org/STORIES-OF-SOUND

  • Nick van der Kolk is the creator of the podcast Love + Radio.
    Love + Radio has been produced since 2005, making it the longest running narrative podcast in history. In 2011, it became the first podcast to win the top prize at the Third Coast Festival Competition, and would go on to win three more Third Coast Festival awards.
    The Love + Radio episode “The Living Room” was the basis for the Academy Award-winning short “The Neighbor’s Window” in 2020.
    Nick is also the creator of The Secrets Hotline, a podcast in which anonymous callers from across the globe to share what is hidden in their lives.
    He is based in Leitrim, Ireland.

    – – –

    Stories of Sound is an audio series that delves into sound arts and audio storytelling, offering listeners a window into the creative processes, challenges, and inspirations of artists, authors and theorists who tell stories through sound.

    Audio documentaries, radio dramas, interviews, soundscapes, narration, auto-fiction, sound installations, archival material, sound design, radio, podcasting, and much more.


    Stories of Sound: Conversations on Sound, Art, and Audio Storytelling is curated by Riccardo Giacconi at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University.

    Narration by Megan Hyde.

    Additional editing by Marion Nicvert.

    This episode features excerpts from Love + Radio’s episodes “Points of Egress” and “Such is the way to the stars”, as well as Volume 5 from The Secrets Hotline.

    Produced with support from the Faculty Research Awards Committee, School of Arts & Sciences at Tufts University.

    https://botafuego.org/STORIES-OF-SOUND

  • Hildegard Westerkamp is a composer, radio artist, and sound ecologist. She performs, writes, and presents soundscape workshops and lectures internationally.

    Westerkamp was born in Osnabrück, Germany, and emigrated to Canada in 1968. Her compositions have been performed and broadcast in many parts of the world. Some of her pieces appear in Gus van Sant’s films “Elephant” and “Last Days.”

    In 1993, she was instrumental in helping found the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology. In 2003, Vancouver New Music invited her to coordinate and lead public soundwalks as part of its yearly concert season. This, in turn, inspired the creation of The Vancouver Soundwalk Collective, whose members continue the work on a regular basis.

    – – –

    Stories of Sound is an audio series that delves into sound arts and audio storytelling, offering listeners a window into the creative processes, challenges, and inspirations of artists, authors and theorists who tell stories through sound.

    Audio documentaries, radio dramas, interviews, soundscapes, narration, auto-fiction, sound installations, archival material, sound design, radio, podcasting, and much more.


    Stories of Sound: Conversations on Sound, Art, and Audio Storytelling is curated by Riccardo Giacconi at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University.

    Narration by Megan Hyde.

    Additional editing by Marion Nicvert.

    This episode features excerpts from the following pieces by Hildegard Westerkamp: “Whisper Study”, “Cricket Voice”, “Kits Beach Soundwalk”, “Once Upon A Time”, “Attending to Sacred Matters”.It also features an excerpt from the radio-documentary “The Idea of North” by Glenn Gould.

    Produced with support from the Faculty Research Awards Committee, School of Arts & Sciences at Tufts University.

    https://botafuego.org/STORIES-OF-SOUND

  • Eleanor McDowall is co-director of Falling Tree Productions, which makes a host of award-winning podcasts and radio features including BBC Radio 4’s Short Cuts, of which Eleanor is the series producer.
    Her documentary work has received several awards, including a Prix Europa and a Third Coast: Best Documentary award.
    Eleanor also runs Radio Atlas, an English-language home for subtitled audio from around the world, and produces the podcast Field Recordings.

    – – –

    Stories of Sound is an audio series that delves into sound arts and audio storytelling, offering listeners a window into the creative processes, challenges, and inspirations of artists, authors and theorists who tell stories through sound.

    Audio documentaries, radio dramas, interviews, soundscapes, narration, auto-fiction, sound installations, archival material, sound design, radio, podcasting, and much more.


    Stories of Sound: Conversations on Sound, Art, and Audio Storytelling is curated by Riccardo Giacconi at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University.

    Narration by Megan Hyde.

    Additional editing by Marion Nicvert.

    This episode features excerpts from the following pieces: "The Dreams" by Delia Derbyshire and Barry Bermange (1964); "The Clock" by Dennis Funk (2015); "Inventions in Sound" by Raymond Antrobus and Eleanor McDowall (2021); "A dancer dies twice' by Eleanor McDowall (2016); "A Kiss" by Rachel Long (2023); "Writer" by by Katharina Smets (2015).

    Produced with support from the Faculty Research Awards Committee, School of Arts & Sciences at Tufts University.

    https://botafuego.org/STORIES-OF-SOUND

  • Annea Lockwood is a New Zealand-born American composer. Her compositions range from sound art and environmental sound installations to concert music.
    During the 1960s, Lockwood created works such as the Glass Concerts, and the Piano Transplants series, in which defunct pianos were burned, drowned, beached, and planted.
    Water has been a recurring focus of her work and her three installation sound maps of rivers: The Hudson River, the Danube and the Housatonic River.
    In 1973 Lockwood moved to the US, settling in Crompond, NY. She is an Emerita Professor at Vassar College.
    Her music has been issued on CD, vinyl and online.

    In 2022 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

    – – –

    Stories of Sound is an audio series that delves into sound arts and audio storytelling, offering listeners a window into the creative processes, challenges, and inspirations of artists, authors and theorists who tell stories through sound.

    Audio documentaries, radio dramas, interviews, soundscapes, narration, auto-fiction, sound installations, archival material, sound design, radio, podcasting, and much more.


    Stories of Sound: Conversations on Sound, Art, and Audio Storytelling is curated by Riccardo Giacconi at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University.

    Narration by Megan Hyde.

    Additional editing by Marion Nicvert.

    This episode features excerpts from the following pieces by Annea Lockwood: “Glass World”, “Tiger Balm”, “A Sound Map of the Danube”, “Ceci n'est pas un piano”, “Dusk”, and “Namaste”.

    Produced with support from the Faculty Research Awards Committee, School of Arts & Sciences at Tufts University.

    https://botafuego.org/STORIES-OF-SOUND

  • Stories of Sound is an audio series that delves into sound arts and audio storytelling, offering listeners a window into the creative processes, challenges, and inspirations of artists, authors and theorists who tell stories through sound.

    Audio documentaries, radio dramas, interviews, soundscapes, narration, auto-fiction, sound installations, archival material, sound design, radio, podcasting, and much more.


    Stories of Sound: Conversations on Sound, Art, and Audio Storytelling is curated by Riccardo Giacconi at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University.
    Narration by Megan Hyde.
    Additional editing by Marion Nicvert.

    Produced with support from the Faculty Research Awards Committee, School of Arts & Sciences at Tufts University.

    https://botafuego.org/STORIES-OF-SOUND