Hub & Spoke Presents: Sounds Like America
The dinging train-crossing gate in Deshler, OH. Rain falling on a nylon tent in Ashford, WA. Gravel popping under a pick-up truck tire in Fayetteville, WV. A clanging radiator in Cambridge, MA.
These are the sounds of America the Beautiful. America the Complicated. America the Contradictory. A patchwork of lived-in places and experiences, the sounds that most people would never notice, but would bring you home in a heartbeat.
We are all living in this enormous sonic canvas, and this year, as our immeasurable country celebrates its 250th birthday, it’s the special gift of audio producers to listen for and isolate the sounds that are both familiar and foreign to us all.
Hub & Spoke is inviting producers from around the country — every one of our 50 states (and DC!) — to send us a sonic postcard.
What does it sound like right now, where you are? How would you share it with someone who has never been there? What makes that place unique? What makes it yours?
We want to hear anything and everything that is hyper-local to you: a minute of train-whistle. An interview with your mayor, your dentist, your mail carrier. A description of your favorite painting at the local art museum. The sound of the birds in your backyard.
Alternately, are you a producer in a far-flung state with a story to share and no member station? We want to air your work, whatever the topic.
Why this project? Why now?
Our goal with this project is to:
highlight and uplift independent audio producers.
explore and value the vast differences and commonalities of experience across our giant, unwieldy country.
bridge divides by drawing out the sounds and conversations that many radio producers, and public media audiences, wouldn't usually hear.
With this project, we welcome independent creators from all over the country — with all their diversity of background, thought, and experience — and from all walks of audio life, from aspiring to seasoned producers.
We are thrilled to present this project in partnership with Transom’s The Listeners and XMTR Audio Arts Festival
The Listeners
Selected audio pieces we receive will be submitted to Transom with the possibility of being on transom.org and across their platforms, and promoted to public radio stations and national radio programs and podcasts. Selected pieces will also receive a modest honorarium, care of Transom.
The Listeners is a movement to make short, hyperlocal, documentary-style portraits that help us listen to one another again. They are seeking stories that are real, rooted, artful, and true. Stories with attention to regular, often unheard people from our communities. Stories about all the unimportant things that happen between the important things. Stories about everyday life. Stories about everyday survival. Stories that remind us that we are more alike than we are different. These can be quiet stories, small stories, experimental stories.
XMTR
Submitted audio pieces will air at the XMTR audio arts festival. Selected pieces will be a part of an artistic performance. This is an opportunity to bring your work to an international audience of both listeners and makers.
Over the past decade, Social Broadcasts has been combining community led co-creation, participatory art practice and radio making, to produce place-based audio projects all across the UK. In 2021, sonic storytelling platform XMTR.FM was launched with the ambition to showcase work from both emerging and seasoned independent audio makers from across the globe.
XMTR AUDIO ARTS FESTIVAL combines these two concepts to imagine an audio festival that champions local stories and artists, as well as showcasing audio works from around the world. Established in 2024, we’re delighted to be back for a third year of the festival.
The Fine Print:
Submission requirements:
Fill out this form.
Please keep your submission under 10 minutes.
Audio that has been previously aired is welcome as long as it’s shared with permission.
Audio must be 100% IP-owned by the creator.
Please provide a framework for your clips - e.g. if it’s the sound of birds, play the sound, but then let us know where we are, and who you are.
We are accepting pieces on a rolling basis until the end of 2026. Our submission deadlines are quarterly, so as to correspond with the release of our Radio Hours. The next deadline is JULY 15, 2026.
The Benefits:
The audio will be shared on our Hub & Spoke Presents feed.
Creators will be featured on our project landing page on the Hub & Spoke website.
The pieces will populate the feed on a rolling basis throughout 2026, and will be featured on our monthly newsletter and our quarterly Radio Hour.
Select pieces will be routed to Transom for participation in The Listeners and aired at the XMTR Audio Arts Festival.
We’ll keep a map on Tamar’s wall (HIGH TECH) and pin the location of every new submission!
FAQ:
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Our goal is to be accepting audio throughout the entirety of America’s Semiquincentennial. We plan to release Radio Hours each quarter, so if it’s more motivating for you, please submit by April 30, July 15, September 15, and November 15, 2026.
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That’s the thing: no. Not at all. This project is for boundless creativity, the kind of thing that strikes you as you’re walking down the street, the story or sound you might never pitch. We want to hear it all.
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Not in the technical sense, but if you have something to submit with the blessing of your institution, we will absolutely consider it. If you have any specific concerns, please contact us directly.
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The more the merrier! We’re not limiting submissions on a per-state (or commonwealth, we see you Massachusetts) basis.
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You’re welcome to submit as many pieces as you want, from as many states as you want.
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Absolutely! We wanna hear it all.
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Nope! We’re proud to offer a platform to audio that’s been around for a long time - no need to make something new. We’re all busy. If you’re submitting something that’s already been aired, please just make sure you have the appropriate permissions.
The Sounds Like America Audio Library
Listen to our growing collection of submissions from around the country!
Diane Hope writes: “I’ve been a sound recordist and audio documentary producer for 20 years. My audio features cover a wide range of themes – everything from the sound of the American freight train horn (for BBC Radio) to the science of sunken ship wreck corrosion (for ‘Distillations’ from The Science History Institute) to Korean cuisine (for ‘Proof’ from America’s Test Kitchen). I’m known for my immersive sound design and my work has won awards, including an Edward R. Murrow Award for ‘Best Use of Sound’ and ‘Best Podcast’ from The Science Studio. You can hear my work at: https://www.dianehope.com/ and on Instagram @inthesoundfield.”
Jonah N. Buchanan is an audio producer based in Queens, New York. Find more of his work in short form and analog audio at www.jonahbuchanan.com.
Molly Noelaniokekai Mamaril is the host and producer of the Honolulu-based podcasts Heartbeat Narratives and Above the Sides. Guided by curiosity and grounded in aloha, she tells stories that expand empathy and celebrate the power of human connection. She holds a B.A. in Communication & Journalism from the University of St. Thomas and an M.S. in Natural Resources and Environmental Management from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her work weaves together storytelling, mālama ʻāina (to care for the land), and innovative community-based economic development.
Maine sound artist Dianne Ballon was awarded a Maine Artist Fellowship and an Artist-in-Residency at Shenandoah National Park. Her sound works have aired on National Public Radio. Her “Boats Creaking at a Dock in Iceland” was awarded at an international radio art competition.
Patrick McNameeKing is an independent artist from New Hampshire. Through audio storytelling, photography, and music his work explores psychic landscapes that might otherwise only be glimpsed out of the corner of one's eye. During the rare intersections of downtime and inspiration he makes the esoteric roulette machine of a podcast Empty Clouds. He composes music and film for live audiovisual performances that take place in the forest, and enjoys traveling the Northeast by bicycle.
Vivien Schütz is an independent audio producer and artist from Germany, living in Brooklyn. She creates radio documentaries, narrative pieces, and audio dramas, with a special focus on non-narrated storytelling that explores human connection, gender, and questions of identity. She is also a co-founder of Audio Spice, an independent volunteer-run audio collective hosting free, sound-focused events for creatives in New York City.
Mike Sim is a field recordist interested in capturing the impression of time on place and space.
Mae Nagusky is an audiomaker. She combines sounds and words to create something bigger than their parts. She falls in love with strangers’ perspectives, accents, tone, timing, silence. All of it. She has a podcast called Creatures of the Wind. Mae also deeply enjoys mangoes and playing basketball.
Lusen Mendel is a theatrical audio visual technician and narrative sound artist. They enjoy foley, field recording, fluxus-inspired sound outings and performances, and making features for local radio stations.
Mitra Kaboli is an award-winning audio producer, sound designer, and multimedia artist working professionally in radio and podcasting since 2012. Mitra was one of the original members of the Peabody Finalist podcast, The Heart. Her work has been featured on ESPN’s 30 for 30 Podcasts, the BBC, Making Contact and NY Mag’s Tabloid. In 2022, she hosted and produced the critically acclaimed podcast, Welcome to Provincetown. Currently, Mitra is an adjunct professor at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and at Hunter College.
Will Coley is an independent audio documentary producer based in Lenapehoking (Harlem, NY). For many years, Will coordinated programs to support people in immigration detention centers. For this work, Will received the Reebok Human Rights Award. To help refugees and immigrants share their stories, Will then created digital storytelling and narrative change projects for nonprofit organizations and philanthropic organizations. Will is currently serving as a board member of the Association of Independents in Radio and a member of the Public Radio Exchange.
Hannah Sobol & Jackie Glass are the voices behind Your Neighbor's Hood, a Hampton Roads podcast where honest conversations about race and community unfold over coffee-table-style chats. Hannah brings a producer's ear honed at The Moth and The Guthrie Theater; Jackie brings the lived experience of a veteran, business owner, and Virginia State Delegate. Together on Truth Be Told: Virginia, they're listening deeply to the people and places along Norfolk's Elizabeth River Trail, and making sure their stories are heard. To hear more, and meet the full team, check out heardofem.com.
Luke Green is a radio producer and occasional host for WNYC in New York. He got his start in radio at Wesleyan University as a DJ and production director for WESU 88.1FM, and later as the Weekend Edition host for WCAI in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He's most proud of a special he produced about New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia for WNYC's centennial. The fun fact he usually shares is that he and his dad had the same Kindergarten teacher.
Fil Corbitt makes a radio show called The Wind from a handmade desk in the mountains outside Reno, Nevada. Their audio work has appeared on NPR, Snap Judgement, 99% Invisible, USA Today's The City, BBC’s Shortcuts, and on public and community radio stations across North America and beyond. Fil’s weekly short-form radio segment Postcards from The Wind airs on stations from Miami, Florida to Talkeetna, Alaska, and internationally on public radio program The World. More at thewind.org
Nikki Schaffer is a writer, educator and audio producer living in Philadelphia. She loves exploring the human condition and aspires to connect with others as an audio storyteller. She is happiest when making art, having deep conversations, and spending time in nature.