Created by participants in Met Radio’s Fall/Winter Audio Documentary Incubator workshop series, these evocative audio documentaries will take you on a journey from a tattoo shop in the prairies to Sankofa Square in downtown Toronto. You’ll get an intimate look into choir practices and house parties and fridge crispers across the city, and find yourself amongst the crowds at football watch parties and queer country shows. Each piece delivers a sound-rich snapshot of the people and places that make this city (and beyond) special, in twenty minutes or less.
Listen to all the documentaries here!
This program was funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada’s Radiometres grant.
Episode Descriptions
Our Family Has All Kinds by Ella Miller
Mainstream country music hasn’t always been a genre all about beers, bros, and pick-up trucks; the genre began as a way for outsiders to tell their stories. Enter: The Ratskin Family Band, a colourful troupe of drag queens, kings, and things who are carving out their own chaotic, queer niche in Toronto’s country music circuit.
Credits:
Our Family Has All Kinds was written, hosted and produced by Ella Miller.
Interviews conducted with Terrie Dikoff, Zepheline, Kitty Creature, and Amanda Prior. Featuring sound effects from freesound.org.
Musical excerpts from Big Big Love by k.d. lang, Friends in Low Places by Rae Spoon, New Kind of Outlaw by D’orjay the Singing Shaman, and Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other by Orville Peck and Willie Nelson.
Additional music and sound effects recorded live at DROM Taberna with permission from The Ratskin Family Band.
Produced with the support of the Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC)
Inside The Pig’s Nest by Ana
Inside The Pig’s Nest explores the formation of Porcos Toronto, a Palmeiras supporters group that continues to strengthen the collective unity of football fans in the city’s ever-growing Brazilian community.
Bridging old interviews with newer recordings, Ana Saplala highlights how football creates countless opportunities for diasporic communities, and how fandom support can broaden one’s sense of belonging.
Credits:
Hosted, written, and produced by Ana Saplala
Based on the profile story of the same name, originally written by Ana Saplala and published to eatingthewhistle.wordpress.com https://eatingthewhistle.wordpress.com/2023/12/02/inside-the-pigs-nest/
Featuring the voices of: Allan Gomes, Davi Soares, and Mike Coxinha
Sounds used:
Downtown calm (Uploaded by klankbeeld to freesound.org)
Atmosphere in the pub-short (Uploaded by zabuhailo to freesound.org)
“Stuck Somewhere Between Dream & Reality” by John Shuemaker (2020, FreeMusicArchive.org)
“Conversations” by Lobo Loco (track 6 of “Hot Summer Place”, 2021, FreeMusicArchive.org)
Produced with the support of the Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC)
Echoes of Belonging by Tushar Unadkat
Echoes of Belonging: Listening Back to Sankofa Square is a 10-minute radio documentary by Tushar Unadkat exploring how sound shapes place in downtown Toronto. Through footsteps, streetcars, buskers, and everyday voices, the piece captures the rhythms of Sankofa Square. Listening closely to these layered moments, it reflects on memory, renaming, and how belonging can begin simply by hearing one another.
Credits:
Host/Producer/Writer: Tushar Unadkat
Production Support: Quinton Bradshaw — Documentary Facilitator
Program Direction: Sean Warkentine — Program Director, Met Radio CJTM 1280 AM Produced with the support of the Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC)
“Generations Coming”: talking skin stitch with ma koozinn by Nicole Brabant
This audio documentary is a profile of Geanna Rae (Dunbar/Klyne), a Plains Cree–Métis multidisciplinary artist living in Regina, Saskatchewan, Treaty 4 Territory. A few years ago, Geanna expanded her tattoo practice beyond mainstream street shops, to include traditional Indigenous tattooing through a mentorship with another Métis practitioner. In this interview, Geanna describes her Indigenous tattoo practice—what drew her into it, what it’s all about, and what the journey of Indigenous tattooing has meant for her.
Correction: During her interview, Geanna mentions her mentorship with Stacey Fayant began in 2019. However, their connection began around 2020–2021.
Credits:
Host/Producer: Nicole Brabant
Guest: Geanna Rae (Dunbar/Klyne)
Sound Design:
alienvoices.wav by LiloSound — https://freesound.org/s/506736/ — License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0
PrairieSummer_ambience.wav by dsebeste — https://freesound.org/s/351609/ — License: Creative Commons 0
Produced with the support of the Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC)
An Unspoken Message From Fruit by Ashley Kim
Fruit is explored as a medium to convey apology in the Asian community. While not everybody in the Asian diaspora may have experienced or even heard of this phenomena, it’s still something that seems to happen often enough to warrant some investigation. Join Ashley and her friends to talk about how they experienced apologies growing up and the impact it has on them in the present day.
Credits:
Host/Producer: Ashley Kim
Apple Crunch Effect: Apple_Crunch_01 by Koops on Freesound
Knocking Effect: Knock 3x by Ith_stp on Freesound
Intro Music: Funny Music by Soundore on Free Music Archives
Outro Music: Upbeat by Synclab Music On Free Music Archives
Produced with the support of the Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC)
Stage Access by Florian Montague
In this episode of Stage Access, Florian engages two members of the Epic Choir, Tristan and Jasmine, in a discussion about the history of the choir, and accessibility in the Toronto choral scene.
Credits:
Host/Producer: Florian Montague
Choral Performance: Redefine Arts’ Epic Choir
Guests: Tristan Whiston and Jasmine Wong
A special thank you to the Met Radio team and the Met Radio Doc Shop Facilitators for providing access to the equipment and the knowledge to complete this project.
Produced with the support of the Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC)
The Party’s Never Over by Rojhin Taebi
Roj is the last girl at every party. But when she tries to throw one herself, no one shows up. Is the house party dead? In this audio documentary, Roj investigates the fading ritual of gathering at home, seeking advice from seasoned hosts, exploring changing social habits before attempting one final gathering to see if people are still willing to show up, have a drink, kiss a stranger, and make some totally cool memories.
Credits:
Host/Producer: Rojhin Taebi
Track: “We Came to Party (Instrumental Version)” Artist: Basixx Composed by Anders Lystell, Linda Stenmark, Michael Stenmark Produced by Deek Cloud