Podcast: Radio Atlas

By Mette Post Riggelsen (2026)

A sonic crown of sonnets about that horrible moment, when you mother dies and becomes particles of light without a word. A poetic tribute to mothers, to life and to the Danish poet Inger Christensen.

First created for the HearSay festival in 2026 where this feature won the Art prize.

Idea, text and production: Mette Post Riggelsen

Sound design: Lasse Laurentius Nolsøe Lund

Marimba: Anton Post Sokoler and Olivia Post Sokoler

Translation: Roxanne Batty

Mette Post Riggelsen is a an independent Danish audio-maker at Lydskolen and part of year 1 of Æteren – a school and community for creative audio storytelling. She creates audiowalks, documentaries, educational material, poetry and other sorts of sonic quirkiness.

An experimental Scots translation of ‘Catullus 63’ tells the story of a young athlete driven mad by the Mother Goddess, driven to become an orgiastic priestess in the wild mountain woods, in a cacophonous reimagining of the Latin classic as a trans hymn to the Caledonian Forest.

By Harry Josephine Giles and Callie Rose Petal (ⁿᵒᵗBorges) for Radiophrenia (2026)

“Attis in Caledon” uses the full force of Scots to create a contemporary version of galliambic metre, the ancient poetic form of Cybele’s centuries-long trans priesthood, and the poetry is complemented by original music and archival material woven together into a new work of noise alchemy. We ran through the ancient pines of Coille Choire Chuilc in the foothills of Beinn Os to bring you this magic.

It was commissioned for Radiophrenia’s Lost in transmission – a series of events presenting non-English language radio works with subtitled translations in cinema spaces around Scotland. Learn more about Radiophrenia here.

Harry Josephine Giles is a writer and performer from Orkney, living in Leith. Her latest book is the poetry collection Them! (Picador 2024). Her verse novel Deep Wheel Orcadia (Picador 2021) won the 2022 Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction book of the year. Her poetry collections The Games (Out-Spoken Press, 2018) and Tonguit(Freight Books 2015) were between them shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Saltire Prize and the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award. Her stage show of her poetry sequence Drone toured internationally in 2019, and the performance of Deep Wheel Orcadia will tour in 2025. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Stirling.

Callie Rose Petal is a Scottish avant-garde conceptual performance artist, composer, software developer, and language artist. Her work spans experimental literature, noise composition, and transmedia ritual. She is known for her work as a “noise alchemist”, fusing experimental sound, ritual structure, and semiotics.

How do you make a life or death decision?

By Luis Trelles for Radio Ambulante (2018)

In Puerto Rico in 2012, a jury faces the possibility of sentencing someone to the death penalty – nearly a century after its abolition in 1929. Whilst the constitution of Puerto Rico has expressly banned the death penalty since the 1920s, it is still possible to enact it for federal crimes.

Juror No. 10 (La jurado 10) was created for the Radio Ambulante podcast. Listen to their episodes and follow along on their English or Spanish transcripts.

Juror No. 10 was produced by Luis Trelles

Edited by Camila Segura and Daniel Alarcón

Sound design by Andrés Azpiri

Fact checking by Andrea López-Cruzado

Radio Atlas

10 Years of Radio Atlas

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Radio Atlas turned ten years old this year! To celebrate, Sheffield DocFest are hosting a special birthday screening this Thursday evening (11th June) at 6pm. Come and join us to listen to subtitled audio! Book a ticket here.

This podcast originally aired on Radiotopia’s Selects. It’s a home for inventive, weird, excellent audio from the archives. Hear more here. I thoroughly recommend it.

The radio archives documentary I talk about with Mitra Kaboli is called Into the Ether and you can listen to it here.

And while I’m shamelessly promoting things – Short Cuts, Falling Tree’s home for adventurous short documentaries, is returning for a 12 episode series on CBC, ABC and the BBC in 2027.

The pitch call is open right now, learn more here. And enjoy browsing the free Falling Tree archive while you’re there!

What holds everyday life together after separating?

By Stefanie Müller-Frank (2026)

Alone at home with her daughters, Stefanie found herself living in a parallel universe made of new rules, long nights and polar bears who never have to cry.

Just the Three of Us (Nur wir drei) received the Human Award at this year’s HearSay Festival.

Stefanie Müller-Frank is a German journalist living in Basel, Switzerland.

The piece was produced by the audio maker Laura Bachmann.

Music: Eisbär by Grauzone

Parenting in a burning world

By Åsa Secher (2026)

It’s surreal becoming a mother when the world is on fire. To have your world become smaller, as you focus on all the little things, like teaching a small child to eat or to talk, knowing that the world outside of this little bubble is falling apart. When I lose my patience because my kid refuses to go to bed, I think about all the parents who will never again get to put their kids to sleep and the contrasts are almost unbearable. So how do I enjoy the little things, and at the same time try not to turn a blind eye to all that is happening around the world? I have no idea.

Created, produced, edited and mixed by Åsa Secher. Monday won the HearSay Festival Provoke Award.

Åsa Secher is a radio producer based in Stockholm. They write a monthly podcast recommendation newsletter in Swedish, which you can read here.

How should the ones left behind talk to those who have died?

By Leo Rehnfeldt (2026)

First created for the HearSay festival in 2026, this piece forms part of a larger project on posthumous conversation.

Linda is the name of the piece’s protagonist – Linda Körner Fernando. It is also a Swedish verb meaning to swaddle. To provide comfort by wrapping someone, usually an infant, in a blanket or pieces of cloth.

Linda won the 2026 HearSay festival Rising Award

Leo Rehnfeldt is a Swedish journalist and radio maker.

“Spaciada sa Bregungia (No More Shame) is in Sardinian, or rather, in the Sardinian I have. Which is not the same thing…” 

By M. Cristina Marras (2026)

“I didn’t grow up speaking Sardinian. My parents made a choice, a rational one, from where they stood. They believed that Italian was the language of the future, of education, of opportunity. That raising their children in Sardinian would mark us as peasants, hold us back, make us targets. They were trying to give us a better life. They were themselves products of a system that had taught them, convincingly, that their own language was an obstacle.

Nobody taught me the language of my home. The one my illiterate grandmother spoke. The one I couldn’t use to talk to her because I didn’t understand it. My parents thought they were protecting me. They were also, without knowing it, cutting me off from my own people. That loss doesn’t go away.

Spaciada sa Bregungia moves from that personal wound outward, through history, through politics, through the specific and ongoing ways a land and its people get diminished. It is not a gentle piece.”

No More Shame (Spaciada sa Bregungia ) was the winner of one of the two Overall Audio prizes at HearSay International Sound Arts Festival 2026

Created, spoken, produced, edited and mixed by M. Cristina Marras

Voices: Shepherd — Gianfranco Bitti; D.H. Lawrence — Romeo M. Minutolo

Murra players recorded live at the Sardinian Murra Championship, Urzulei, Sardinia

Music: Art of a Dead Man by Shadows; Under the Skin by Semo; The Fall (instrumental) by Or Chausha. All music licensed via Artlist.