Transmissions
The Gold Line 2026
Dinahbird (FR 2026)
Dinahbird (FR, 2026)
27 min
High-frequency trading uses complex algorithms to scan multiple markets and execute orders in microseconds, demanding the fastest, most direct links between exchanges. In 2012 traders began using microwave radio networks, relayed by antennas on tall, often unnoticed structures, to send data between the New York Stock Exchange’s data centre in Mahwah, New Jersey, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in Aurora, West Chicago, in about 4.01 milliseconds along a route insiders call the Gold Line.
Sound artists Dinah Bird and Jean-Philipe Renoult, fascinated by these antennas and the paths they forge, have been documenting the physical routes the money makes since 2016.
In 2018 they made a ‘slow’ high frequency road trip along the Gold Line that took 6 weeks. Following towers in the Allegheny mountains of rural Pennsylvania, past Amish homesteads, through the flat plains of Ohio and past the immaculately mowed lawns of Indiana, they made extensive location recordings, both next to the antennas and by tuning into their frequencies over the airwaves.
This is an invitation to the listener to reimagine the movement of money. What exactly does this sound like? We hear the static pops and dissonant hums of radio signals intercut with the wind blowing in the antenna wires and the whirring of huge ventilation systems as we drive along Interstate 80. The road trip is punctuated by interventions from experts such as sociologist Donald Mackenzie who tells us how HFT works and just who takes part in these 'speed races'.
With contributions from : Donald Mackenzie, Alex Pilosov, Night Owl and Stéphane Tyc.
All recordings and music byBird & Renoult
Produced by Dinah Bird and Jean-Philippe Renoult
A Social Broadcast for BBC Radio 3’s Between The Ears
Unland
Alina Talipova (BE, 2025)
Alina Talipova (BE, 2025)
38 min
Unland (original title: Onland) is an audio documentary about four young people
navigating the fragile ground between origin and future. Each of them balances
between memory and desire, between a pasts with dark shadows and a future that
remains uncertain. Set in a metaphorical swamp, their voices reveal what it means
to grow up between cultures, carrying histories larger than themselves. Through
field recordings, multilingual voices, silences, and soundscapes, the work explores
identity, migration, and belonging without offering simple answers. Instead, it invites
the listener into an unstable but fertile space where contradictions and connections
coexist.
The characters — Anna (Russian-Georgian, navigating diaspora life), Ignace
(Azerbeidzjani, adopted in Belgium and reconstructing his identity), and Amina
(Ossetian, moving from Russia and Turkey to Brussels) — reflect different but
connected experiences of displacement and belonging but also shaping an identity
faced with controversy. Their multilingual voices (English, Dutch, Russian) overlap
and intertwine, underscoring the impossibility of one clear narrative or translation.
The structure of Unland follows the rhythm of a day, from morning to night and back
to morning. This cyclical movement reflects how migration stories do not always
lead to resolution or progress but move in circles, pauses, and restarts. Rather than
delivering a political statement, Unland creates a sensory and emotional space
where listeners are invited to experience cultural in-betweenness. It is an exploration
of what remains unsaid in migration stories, and a way to listen to the tensions,
silences, and echoes that shape identities across generations.
Unland does not offer political slogans or simple narratives
but creates an auditory landscape of tension, dissonance, and recognition.
Produced by: Alina Talipova
Supported by Katharina Smets
Music Toon van Beek
1001 Stabs
Lina Prestwood (UK, 2025)
Lina Prestwood (UK 2025)
8 min
To be born in Gaza is to be born already bleeding.
Before you take your first step, a blade is pressed gently, precisely, against your soul, the first of 1001 stabs
Fadi Almeghari was killed on Tuesday 26th May 2026 by Israeli forces. He was 25, the main breadwinner of his community and the primary carer for several children orphaned by IOF attacks. His writing and photography were internationally celebrated for their emotionally nuanced and evocative portrayal of life under occupation and more recently, genocide. His work can be seen on his Instagram page @fadimghari and his dependents can be supported at gofund.me
Produced by Lina Prestwood
Written in August 2025 by F. (Gaza)
Read by F. and Lyana Mansour (USA)
With thanks to Fatima Zahra Gahzli (Turkey)
SOIL: Rewilding the Underground | Part 1: The Story of Soil
Jess Hamilton (AU 2025)
Jess Hamilton (AU 2025)
40 min,
SOIL: Rewilding the Underground is a narrative audio documentary that gives a voice to the hidden life beneath our feet. It follows First Nations custodians, farmers, scientists and communities as they connect with the underground to turn degraded dirt back into living soils, in order to safeguard our climate, health, food security and biodiversity.
In Part 1: The Story of Soil, we follow the movement of organisms below ground as they interact to build the foundations for life. We hear how this ecosystem - and the way we have treated it - has driven the movement of human populations over millennia: from mass migrations, colonial expansion, displacement during the Dust Bowl era, and even systems of slavery.
Written/Created by: Freya Mulvey & Jess Hamilton
Produced by: Jess Hamilton
Sound design: Adam Connelly
Theme music: 'Daisies' by Cooee
Riley In The Closet
Hannah Frances Johansson (US 2025)
Hannah Johansson (US 2026)
11 min
This is a story about the time Hannah’s friend Riley, who is trans, lived in their closet for two weeks. Outside, it was 70 degrees and sunny, a true California endless summer. But in the closet, it was fall. They played jazz, sipped tea, and left only at night to eat a loaf of bread. Listen like you are in the closet with Riley, as they describe their fall-themed teenage breakdown, inspired by Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. Sometimes, identity can only be formed in isolation.
Produced by Hannah Frances Johansson
Uncovering Roots: Palestinians in Paraguay
Maxim Saakyan (UK 2026)
Maxim Saakyan (UK 2026)
26 min, Part 1 of 4
Palestinians in Paraguay is a four-part investigative audio documentary uncovering Israel's secret 1969 Cabinet decision to transfer 60,000 Palestinians from Gaza to Paraguay.
Drawing on declassified government records, sworn testimonies buried in Paraguay's Archive of Terror, and the exclusive account of the only living deportee willing to speak publicly, the series pieces together a story that was never meant to be told. It follows the paper trail from Gaza to Asunción. Through a covert travel agency, a shooting at the Israeli embassy, and a cover-up that lasted decades, and asks what it means that history is repeating itself today.
Produced by Produced by Maxim Saakyan, Nada El Kouny and Nadeen Shaker
2025 Selects: Drops from Heaven
Patrick McNameeKing (US 2025)
Patrick McNameeKing (US 2025)
7 min
Alesia shares how she began communicating with the deceased, and the impact of her career as a medium.
Produced by Patrick McNameeKing
Music by Patrick McNameeKing
2025 Selects: Life In Progress
Life in Progress (UK/DE 2025)
Phoebe McIndoe (UK/DE 2025)
6 min
Life in Progress is the story of Nanou Thassinda and her journey for belonging and acceptance in the UK. After Nanou's dad was murdered in The Democratic Republic of the Congo for publicly speaking-out against the government, Nanou lived as an asylum seeker for 11 years in and around London. In that time, Nanou found hope and empowerment, experimenting with english and the specific regional dialects she encountered as she moved from door to door. This piece is about finding voice, hope and the ever-transitory nature of life.
Produced by Phoebe McIndoe
Voice & Story: Nanou Thassinda.
Executive Editor: Ingo Kottkamp
2025 Selects: Reality Looks Back
Anne Jeppesen (DK, 2025)
Anne Jeppesen (DK, 2025)
21 min
When you watch a particle it acts like a particle. But when you look away, it does a whole other thing.
This story explores modes of experiencing the strange quantum basis of an everyday life. It journeys through split déja-vu, Schrödinger’s hamster and the clouds of possibilities that are hiding just beyond our reach.
This piece was developed as a part of the YASS! Mentorship program facilitated by Radio Papesse and mentored by Cristal Duhaime.
Written and Produced by Anne Jeppeseen
2025 Selects: Shorn Women
Chloe Turpin (UK/FR 2025)
Chloe Turpin (UK/FR 2025)
33 min
At the end of WWII, around 20,000 women across France were accused of ‘horizontal collaboration’. Their alleged crime: sleeping with German soldiers. And their punishment was having their heads shaved and facing a public beating. Chloe’s grand-mother’s Émilienne was one of the shorn women of French liberation. Like many others at the time, her story was always shrouded in shame and mystery.
From uncomfortable conversations with family members in Brittany to a trawl through the French National Archives, Shorn Women looks at this controversial and overlooked historical event. Confronting official and personal narratives, it's a story about justice, taboo and the power of speech.
Produced, Written and Music by Chloe Turpin
Voices: James Davey, Naomi Bloomstein and George Roll