Teenage Diaries Revisited
May 10, 2013 11:19 AM   Subscribe

Teenage Diaries Revisited Beginning in 1996, Radio Diaries gave tape recorders to teenagers around the country to create audio diaries about their lives. NPR’s All Things Considered aired intimate portraits of five of these teens: Amanda, Juan, Frankie, Josh and Melissa. They're now in their 30s. Over this past year, the same group has been recording new stories about where life has led them for our series, Teenage Diaries Revisited. - The conversation at the end of the 2013 update on Josh is a complete gut-punch - it left me speechless and unable to breathe.
posted by Slap*Happy (8 comments total) 30 users marked this as a favorite
 
Josh does seem to have kick ass parents. I hope he gets to teach again.
posted by angrycat at 11:38 AM on May 10, 2013


I heard Amanda's story on the radio the other day. I can't wait to get home and listen to the rest of these.
posted by The Hamms Bear at 12:00 PM on May 10, 2013


Whoa. I went to college with Josh and he was a fixture in the gym - always there and so friendly. That was heartbreaking.
posted by boofidies at 12:05 PM on May 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


I've listened to Josh's teen diary several times and played it in the classroom--it always engages students immediately. Josh has such a strong, memorable voice in the original piece (and, listening to the update, he still does). I hope he is able to find peace. [previous thread on Metafilter about NYC's "Rubber Room"]

Thank you for posting this--I probably would not have known about it otherwise, and now I can listen to the other stories and updates too.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:10 PM on May 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


iliketitanic: I wish there were transcripts of these.

Hi, I was the designer on this project for NPR. You bring up a good point. We do have transcripts for these stories, but aren't linking to them from the main page. Here they are:

- Amanda
- Juan
- Frankie
- Josh (not up yet)
- Melissa (not up yet)
posted by alykat at 1:18 PM on May 10, 2013 [42 favorites]


Juan's story just killed me, and something about this opening statement really digs in. "This is a small, little town. About half a block down is the Rio Grande River and sometimes it's funny. You see, we came all the way from _______ - about 18 hours, just to camp 300 feet into the United States."
posted by OnTheWing at 1:56 PM on May 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


Holy shit. The others were good. For me though, it was Melissa's story that cracked my heart. She was dealt a very tough hand, and she played it well. I admire her more than I can say.
posted by Diablevert at 4:40 PM on May 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


I listened to Josh's story the other day, just by chance, and found myself really liking his voice and delivery. All else aside for a moment, the guy should be doing voiceover work and certainly not sitting in the rubber room.
posted by bz at 10:40 PM on May 10, 2013


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