Long Haul: Public Radio Documentaries to Go!

The House of Pain was the gang name for a ten-story high-rise at Stateway Gardens, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) development that once sat across from U.S. Cellular Field (a.k.a. Comiskey Park) on Chicago's South Side. The building was demolished as part of an ambitious initiative to replace Chicago's notorious public housing high rises with mixed-income communities. Here, in the first of a three-part series following building residents through the CHA's "Plan for Transformation," families who once lived in the House of Pain try to figure out where they'll live once their building is dismantled. It's narrated by long-time building resident Andre Williams. Produced in 2002. Winner: 2003 Edward R. Murrow Award for Best National Radio Documentary.

Over the course of eight months, Long Haul followed two hospice volunteers through their training and first assignments in patients' homes. Trained to provide "respite care," the volunteers set out to give family members a break from their caretaking responsibilities. And while one has a chance to reflect on her patient's life in a intimate setting, another gets to explore death in a rather unexpected way – a way that training never could have prepared him for. Produced in 2008.

American schools teach students that with hard work, they can realize their dreams. But some kids do everything right, only to graduate from high school and find the American Dream isn’t for them. Sam was brought to the United States by his parents as a young child, but his family overstayed their visas. They’ve lived here now for fourteen years, and in that time Sam grew from a small boy to a young man — taught in American schools, and churches, he grew up like any other American kid. But it wasn’t until he was asked to fill in his social security number on a financial aid form that he began to realize the consequences of being undocumented. We met Sam just before he graduated from high school and share his story. American Dreamer was produced in 2009 with help from the Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media and the National Endowment for the Arts. Winner: 2009 Edward R. Murrow award for Best National Radio Documentary, 2010 Third Coast International Audio Festival "Radio Impact" award, and 2011 Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism (Runner-up). We're grateful to KCRW's Independent Producers Fund, as well as longtime supporters and friends Katie Hangley and Howard Simon, for additional support of this work.

This is the story of a good fish gone bad ... an immigrant brought here with good intentions ... a tasty fillet with a bad rap. A victim of stereotypes. Of fish profiling. A fish that can fly! And, a fish that could – if we let it – just rock our culinary world! Long Haul tells the story of the Asian Carp invasion in this 2010 story.

Usually, the opening of a grocery store in a small North Dakota town wouldn’t get our attention. But in 2007, in New England, ND -- which had been without a grocery store for a year-and-a-half -- it was cause for major celebration. Long Haul has the story of the fall and rise of the ‘New England Community Grocery Store.’