Sounds of a City and (Possible) Saint

Hey Friends,

I’m a longtime newspaper writer and reporter but when I started producing a public radio show, I learned there are things sounds can do to bring life to a story that transcends what we can do in print and digital. Music, pauses, background noise, emotion in voice and reactions. It’s the most intimate form of journalism to me, being able to hear each other and drop into new surroundings.

On a beautiful fall day, I took my field recorder around New York City, recording the sounds of the city, voices when walking, footsteps up stairs, the water and the loudspeaker on a Staten Island Ferry. I wanted to tell the story of radical Catholic activist, mother and journalist Dorothy Day, and walked “On Pilgrimage With Dorothy Day” where she herself spent time, in churches, the site of where she was imprisoned, where she lived, and the room where she died. Day is being considered for sainthood in the Catholic Church, and we hear about a search for miracles, and meet eleven people along the way who knew her, or have been changed by her.

I just found out the To the Best of Our Knowledge show has won a Wilbur Award, which recognizes secular media covering faith and spirituality. The award has been given since 1949 by the Religion Communicators Council, and  “The ultimate criterion is brilliance in communication about faith and religion with fairness and professionalism, honesty and respect.”

This year fellow winners include The Forward, CBS News Sunday Morning, Netflix, National Public Radio, Eureka Street Productions, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and historian Diana Butler Bass.

I’m so honored for our TTBOOK team, especially our sound designer Joe Hardtke on the show, to be recognized. I’m reading and listening now to many of the other winners, and each of these creations gives me a bit more hope in our fractured world that we can learn from each others’ beliefs and inner and outward spirituality.

– Shannon