The Next Big Thing

A Family Undertaking (Photo by Andrew Kist)

Getting Intimate

Show #448

Friday, July 30, 2004

We get intimate. We visit with people who have abandoned the funeral industry for home burials. We meet a woman who collects hair. We listen to a family of women skinny dipping. We offer a dramatic monologue, written by David Cale, about a phone-sex operator. Also this week, reflections on an abandoned project that could change the way you hear music. And the return, at long last, of vocal acrobat Zero Boy.

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She Blinked

From a sidewalk in Brooklyn, words with and about a living mannequin. Produced by Matt Lieber.

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Zero Boy is Back

The creator of "sound cartoons" is back to tackle challenges from our listeners. Callers present him with one-sentence scenarios involving all sorts of odd narrative twists. Then Zero Boy has to translate those scenarios into sound, producing a vast array of comic sound effects using only his mouth. You have to hear it to believe it. Produced by Julie Subrin.

» Visit Zero Boy's website

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Sunny Side Up

Writer David Cale has introduced us to many people through his short stories. This week, we meet Hayley Collins, a young woman who’s found a unique way to benefit from some men’s preference for a woman with a British accent. “Sunny Side Up” was performed by Cara Seymour.

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Champions of Inner Peace

yoga Table tennis? Taekwondo? What will they think of next in the world of Olympic sports? Comedians Mary Purdy and Bob Wiltfong think the answer to that question might just be yoga. Produced by Julie Subrin.

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Final Resting Place

A Family Undertaking: Photo by Andrew Kist The idea of the funeral home is a relatively new one. Back in the 19th century, people buried their own. In a new documentary film, filmmaker Elizabeth Westrate follows several families who are now reviving that practice. Here are some of their stories. The film, A Family Undertaking, will air on the program POV Tuesday, August 3, on many PBS stations. Produced by Emily Botein.

» Information on A Family Undertaking
For resources on home funerals
» Ask an expert
» Crossings

Photo right by Andrew Kist

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The Importance of Hair

Leila Leila Cohoon knows about hair. She’s been in the hairdressing business for more than 50 years, founded the College of Cosmetology in Independence, Missouri, and created what she believes to be the world’s only hair art museum. She and Dean talk about the history that hair can tell. Produced by Julie Subrin.

» More about Leila’s Hair Museum

Photo right: Leila Cohoon with one of her museum’s hair wreaths

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Global Jukebox

Before ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax died in 2002, he began an enormous undertaking: the creation of a computer program that could analyze songs in the way that one might analyze a DNA sample – identifying the many individual threads that come together to form the song we hear. While that project remains uncompleted at the Lomax archives, host Dean Olsher asks what we could learn about ourselves, and about music, by breaking songs down in this way. Produced by Jamie York.

» More information on Alan Lomax

Photo right: Library of Congress

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Heard in Central Park

Carl Rux ...on a summer afternoon: music – loud music – performed by poet, playwright, novelist and musician Carl Hancock Rux and his band, as part of the Summerstage series. Produced by Jamie York.

» More information about Carl Hancock Rux
» Find out what else is going on at Summerstage

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Skinny Dipping

A cool night, a full moon, and a secluded lake. What better opportunity for a family dip? Next Big Thing contributor Bente Birkeland sent this audio postcard from White Bear Lake in Minnesota, where she and the three generations of women in her family spend their summers skinny dipping.