Author: Elisabeth Weilenmann. Direction: Elisabeth Weilenmann, Marie-Louise Fürnsinn (assistant). Actors: Alina Fritsch, Oskar Weilenmann, Eszter Hollósi. Other Participants: Hanna-Lea Drexel (directing internship), Gerald Irnacek (editorial), Elmar Peinelt (sound), Stefanie Zussner (production management), Kurt Reissnegger (editor). Producing Organisation: ORF/Ö1. Coproducing Organisation: ARD Hessischer Rundfunk

«There are many kings. But only one Prince», said the renowned singer Alicia Keys in her tribute to Prince when he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. He responded shyly. Prince was grand and dramatic in his music, yet reserved and quiet in private. He has been described as an anthem maker and a musical universalist. The radio play "P R I N C E – FunkyPurpleAssociations" explores his childhood between jazz and violence, his religious upbringing, his radical artistic independence, his struggle for creative self-determination, and his loneliness. These themes are woven together associatively with the biography of the author and director Elisabeth Weilenmann. In a deeply personal way, the piece tells the story of what music can mean – and achieve – in a person's life.

Authors: Martin Ožvold, Elia Moretti. Direction: Martin Ožvold. Sound: Elia Moretti (percussion and objects), Martin Ožvold (electronics), Pierre Louis Barge (voice). Additional Voices: Elia Moretti, Ondřej Ježek, Martin Ožvold. Composition, Mix, Mastering: Martin Ožvold. Recording, Technical Assistance: Vít Jeřábek, Ondřej Urban, Ondřej Ježek. Producer: Ladislav Železný

"FSME 840: W 'en I listen" investigates and explores the notion of "The Music to Come", a phrase borrowed from the French Composer and Writer François Bonnet, who suggests that music remains to be discovered and is still hidden. "Music to Come" is not something the composer creates alone, but rather the many relationships that one composition can produce with its listeners. "Music to Come" is the pure, subjective moment of our listening experience. If we shed our cultural baggage and our expectations about rhythm, melody and meaning, what remains is a pure sensation: an experience of being displaced from who you are and engaging in a kind of bare relationship with your own perception. This piece contains linguistic and semantic elements, such as the sound of words or adjectives like mobile, immobile, amnesic, repetitive, as well as phrases such as «These sounds are simple», «Numbers are mystical tears» or «They can reveal surprising wonders» and other similar terms that can act as the mouth of an ephemeral narrator, but are not intended to be read as a text in the script but to be heard as part of the composition. These and any other language objects are used as one of the music elements following the traditions of radiophonic composition and radio art.

Author: Malte Hemmerich. Direction: Felicitas Ott, Malte Hemmerich. Narrating Voice: Malte Hemmerich. Editing: Tuula Simon, Greta Hey. Other Participants: Tuula Simon, Nadine Kettler (Overvoices); Andreas Völzing (Technical Implementation); Kathrin Tiefenthaler (Technical Management); Lena Hofbauer, Alexandra Klockau, Celine Frohnapfel (Distribution); Felix Kriewald, Greta Hey (Podcast Team). Producing Organisation: SWR. Coproducing Organisation: WDR

Resisting a dictator – and surviving? Malte Hemmerich explores the dramatic life of Composer Dmitri Shostakovich in search of an answer. Against the backdrop of Stalin's dictatorship, where free expression means mortal danger, Shostakovich hides his true thoughts in his music and repeatedly comes perilously close to arrest – or worse. His works are deliberately ambiguous: they can be heard both as veiled criticism of the regime and as triumphant propaganda. This double meaning endangers his life, yet it also makes him immortal. Today, Shostakovich is one of the world's most frequently performed composers. Focusing on the music itself, this podcast reveals – especially for musical laypeople – how classical music can be charged with meaning, what power it holds, and what it means to be an artist in dark times.

Direction: Andrea Borgnino. Editing: Arianna Biagi, Paola Manduca. Sound Design: Massimo Verolini. Producing Organisation: Raiplay Sound

"Shamelessly Liscio" is an original RaiPlay Sound podcast. A daring five-episode journey into today's dance halls, telling an Italian story born in Romagna but reaching far beyond its borders. Born from the ingenuity of those who turned conviviality into a way of life, and from the resilience of a community used to facing adversity, Romagna dance music is anything but a relic of the past. Each episode follows a guiding instrument played by a different artist, leading listeners through landscapes that are both tangible and dreamlike. To the sound of the C clarinet, accordion, saxophone, or violin, we gaze out over the long Adriatic beaches, cross the gentle hills of the hinterland, and enter the enchantment of fog, never forgetting the recent wounds inflicted by floods on a land, Romagna, for which water has always been both a resource and a threat.

Authors, Narrating Voices: Adomas Šimkus, Pijus Juška. Editing, Producer: Adomas Šimkus. Co-host, Audio Director: Pijus Juška

In this episode, the "Rhythm Rats" went completely topless, shamelessly let their beer bellies hang out, and fully surrendered to the techno madness. We dive deep into the Detroit archives, take a pseudo-scientific look at Berlin's club scene, and catch up with DJ Maria Paskevic – whose alias literally nobody can ever remember. It was the perfect chance to find out why DJs sometimes have to wake up at the crack of dawn for work, and why so many ravers are just too lazy to shower after a heavy night out.

Author, Narrating Voice: Andrea Lupi

"Semibreve" is a weekly series of short radio programmes about music. It first began in 2013, and a second season started in April 2022. Each episode lasts around 15 minutes and explores a new topic every week. Each programme is the result of a thorough investigation and is shaped individually according to its unique character. In this episode, we explore intertextuality in classical music, focusing on the intersection of aesthetics and music analysis. Taking a down-to-earth approach, we explain each type of musical borrowing alongside its actual musical result.

Direction: Nick Taylor. Sound Engineer: Callum Lawrence. Editor: Jessica Isaacs. Other Participants: Norma Herrmann, Steven C Smith, John Harle, Michael Phillips, Mica Levi, Dana Stevens (Contributors); Bernard Herrmann, Martin Scorsese (Archive Voices). Producer: Nick Taylor. Producing Organisation: BBC Audio for BBC Radio 3

This innovative and sonically immersive audio documentary marks both the 50th anniversary of Martin Scorsese's 1976 noir classic "Taxi Driver" and the death of Bernard Herrmann, the man behind the film's unforgettable music. The documentary uses music, archive audio and brand new interviews to bring Hollywood's most individualistic composer to life. While we learn much about Herrmann and the world in which he sometimes struggled to operate, any sense of traditional narrative structure is subverted by the carefully crafted sound design, which echoes the noisy, seedy world of the 1970s New York Gothic. Listeners are plunged deep into the uneasy soundworld of Herrmann's iconic "Taxi Driver" score, which is used as a prism to examine its composer and his circle, leaving us wanting to know more.

Author: Ivor Martinić. Direction: Hana Veček. Editing: Tomislav Šamec. Producer: Nives Madunić Barišić

In the near future, faced with constant threats of nuclear war, global warming and various diseases, the government issues forms to every family. Due to the lack of space in the shelters, all parents are required to choose just one of their children to be saved in case of a disaster. The elder son, who has built a successful life abroad, decides to pay his family a visit, eager to find out which of the two sons they have chosen. In the next three days, while sitting at the kitchen table, long-repressed emotions surface and things left unsaid are finally spoken, even the thoughts considered unthinkable. With disaster looming, a family's inner pressure cooker explodes, destroying every truth they used to hold on to. While stripped of rehearsed roles in family dynamics, their vulnerability is exposed, allowing them to reach for connection.

Author, Direction: Jiří Adámek Austerlitz. Narrating Voices: Kateřina Císařová, Vendula Holičková, Bára Mišíková. Actors: Kateřina Císařová, Vendula Holičková, Bára Mišíková. Sound: Ladislav Železný (Sound Design); Jiří Adámek Austerlitz, Ladislav Železný, Pavel Šnajdr, Brno Contemporary Orchestra (music). Producer: Renata Venclová

Playwright and director Jiří Adámek Austerlitz decided to render the context of this well-known protest in an original radio form. His composition, "Mother of God, Banish Putin", features three gentle female voices in a varied stream of litanies, statements, quotations and singing. They ask why Russian society is so attached to the dictator, Vladimir Putin, and why it is so difficult to banish him from Russian hearts and minds. Who actually blasphemed in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow? And against what?

Authors: Laura Gustafsson, Hilja Kerimäki. Dramaturgy: Paula Salminen. Direction: Laura Gustafsson. Actors: Eeva Mäkinen, Leea Klemola, Jarkko Lahti, Arttu Kurttila, Tarja Keinänen, Nicklas Pohjola, Anna Airola, Jouko Puolanto, Eeva Soivio, Satu Tuuli Karhu. Sound Track: Tuomas Hautala. Editing: Hanna-Helena Kinnunen. Producers: Pekka Savolainen, Matti Kajander (Executive Producer). Producing Organisation: Yle

Working on Finnish dairy and meat farms is far from what animal-loving dairy farm daughter Hilja dreamed of as a child. "Milkmaid" explores the relationships between humans and other animals and the emotions associated with them: exploitation, dependency and guilt – but also care and love. The prospects for rural areas are at times bleak, the farmers' lives heavy and the farmhand's work gruelling. Adding to Hilja's ordeals are her immature alcoholic parents and a boyfriend who drinks. Based on the life story of a former farmer's stand-in, "Milkmaid" reveals what adverts fail to mention about livestock farming.

Author, Direction: Oliver Sturm. Actors: Tom Schilling, Jeanette Spassova, Marleen Lohse, Inga Busch, Johann von Bülow, Martin Rentzsch, Sebastian Blomberg, Bernd Moss, Barbara Spitz, Friederike Kempter. Sound: Andreas Bick (original score), Andreas Völker (additional music). Editing: Michael Becker (NDR), Sabine Küchler (DLF). Other Participants: Jean-Boris Szymczak (technical implementation); Mechthild Cramer von Laue, Simon Hastreiter (assistants); Eva Revolver (artwork); Marc Zippel, Dagmar Titz (casting). Producing Organisation: Norddeutscher Rundfunk. Coproducing Organisation: Deutschlandfunk

Millions of people are desperate for a holiday – yet no longer capable of taking one. In near-future Germany, burnout has become a national epidemic. Anyone wishing to travel must obtain medical approval. Those deemed unfit are sent to Pre-Holiday Clinics to relearn the lost art of true rest. One of them is Sven, a self-optimisation addict. Instead of flying to Namibia, he ends up at an Alpine Pre-Holiday Clinic. Over ten episodes, he encounters eccentrics, dropouts and lost souls – and discovers that the boundaries between therapy and holiday, control and freedom begin to dissolve. A darkly comic social satire inspired by Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain". In episode 1, Sven's challenge is an artificial beach and the task of doing absolutely nothing. But his exhaustion may have deeper roots – including his affair with Cleo.

Author, Direction: Ilinca Stihi. Actors: Katia Pascariu, Mirela Popescu, Olimpia Mălai, Voicu Hetel, Cristina Bordeanu, Andrei Ostrowski, Dragoș Uretyan, Traian Olteanu, Teodor Ștefănescu, Mădălin Cristescu, Horia Cristescu. Sound Track: Andrei Miricescu. Editing: Irina Zlotea, Oana Cristea Grigorescu. Other Participants: Janina Tudor, Tom Brânduș. Producer: Oana Cristea Grigorescu

Ilinca Stihi's audio drama "Culprits" is inspired by a real-life case that shook Romanian society. The murder of a teenager by his peers in a Romanian village on 19 January 2026 invites us to examine the causes of extreme adolescent violence and to reflect on the social transformations and ethical distortions generated by social media interactions and gaming addiction. Through this exploration of radical emotions, Ilinca Stihi positions herself as an observer of the parallel worlds brought to light by the teenagers' extreme act. A world of children and adolescents organised within virtual spaces emerges, governed by rules, hierarchies and dynamics seemingly foreign to the adult world. Adults, in turn, lead their own parallel existence on social media, with increasingly limited contact with their children.

Author, Direction: Lex Noteboom. Actors: Lottie Hellingman, Nasrdin Dchar, Tom Jansen, Ian Bok, Tjebbo Gerritsma, Ozan Aydogan, Yannick de Waal, Reinout Bussemaker, Jade Olieberg, Buffi Duberman, Bartho Braat. Producing Organisation: NTR

Two podcasting journalists, Anna Springbok and Amir Ziani, stumble upon a company selling a bizarre service. Ares Consultancy specialises in stoking conflict between people. For a hefty fee, anyone can hand over two names and those people will turn on each other in mere weeks – results guaranteed. As Anna and Amir dig deeper into the methods of this shadowy company, something unsettling starts to happen. The closer they manage to get to Ares, the more they begin to fall out with each other and everybody else in their lives. Slowly, it dawns on them: this might not be a coincidence. But if it's not, what does Ares Consultancy want with them? "Stoker" is an audio drama about the influence modern digital media has on all of us. Ares does in fiction what algorithms do in reality – harden our worldviews and deepen our divisions.

Author: Satinder Kaur Chohan. Direction, Producer: Nadia Molinari. Actors: Shelley King, Payal Mistry, Gurjeet Singh, Esh Alladi, Ben Hollands, Shemiza Rashid. Sound Design: Sharon Hughes. Producing Organisation: BBC Studios

Satinder Kaur Chohan's drama is about the ruthless world of scam call centres. The drama moves between a bustling scam call centre in Delhi, India and a house in British Asian suburbia in London, under the Heathrow flight path. The drama centres on the relationship between two women: Anju, an Indian scam call centre worker and Deesho, a lonely Indian elderly woman living in London, unknowingly suffering the early stages of dementia. When Deesho mistakes Anju for her granddaughter Navi, an unexpected connection begins to form between them. But as pressure mounts on Anju to make more money, she is forced to make a difficult decision. "Scammer" explores a surprising intergenerational connection in a disconnected modern world, in which secrets and lies are currency in deceitful global transactions.

Direction: Sisonke Msimang, Kirsti Melville, Claudia Taranto. Narrating Voice: Sisonke Msimang. Sound Track: Moussa Diakite, Matthew Sigley. Editing: Kirsti Melville. Other Participants: Matthew Sigley, Tim Simonds, Craig Tilmouth. Producers: Cathy Peters, Sarah Allely, Kirsti Melville, Claudia Taranto. Producing Organisation: ABC Radio National Australia

A six-part podcast series about how South Africans won their freedom from Apartheid and how Australians helped them fight for it. The Apartheid regime divided South Africa on race lines, denying basic human rights to the majority black population, and the struggle to end it brought South Africa to the brink. White people, Indians and coloured people couldn't live together, marry, earn the same wage or get the same education. Black people were considered simply cheap labour for the mines and rich white families. Series host, writer Sisonke Msimang, grew up in a family of South African freedom fighters: she knows the story of this struggle inside out. Join Sisonke as she meets athletes, politicians, students, First Nations activists and unionists who were at the forefront of the global push to end Apartheid. Using sport and culture, but also sanctions and boycotts, they fought to secure the release of leader Nelson Mandela and to establish a multiracial democracy.

Authors: Merle Baeré, Frederik Hugo Ledegaard Thim. Narrating Voice: Merle Baeré. Sound Track: Marie Kildebæk. Editing: Jens Vithner. Other Participants: Christian Budtz, Anne Backlund, Niclas van Dohrn, Johnni Hansen, Luoping Zhang, Peder Wolkoff, Heine Andersen, Wiebke Marie Junck, Bente Merete Stallknecht. Producer: Jens Vithner

This is a six-part investigative podcast series combining rigorous journalism with strong narrative storytelling. In the basement beneath the University of Copenhagen, doctors teach anatomy by dissecting cadavers preserved with formalin, a solution containing carcinogenic formaldehyde. Then a rumour surfaced: former dissection instructors had developed cancer before 35. Over three years, two journalists uncover the story of four young doctors who developed cancer; three of them died young. What begins as a search for answers in a deeply personal tragedy becomes a striking exposé with far-reaching consequences all over Europe. Their investigation shows how chemical-industry lobbying and industry funding of scientific research have sought to seed doubt about the safety of formaldehyde, and how lobby pressure on scientists and EU committee members helped raise the exposure limit in the EU. After their work, the limit is set to be renegotiated.

Author, Narrating Voice: Audrey Bissonnier-Chazal. Direction: Charlie Marcelet. Sound Track: Charlie Marcelet, Alexandre Millet. Producer: ARTE Radio. Producing Organisation: ARTE Radio

Audrey was eleven years old when her parents, who were drug addicts, died of AIDS in the early '90s. For a long time, she had idealised them, transforming her mother from a young, drug-addicted aristocrat into a rock heroine searching for herself in the '80s, and her father into a restless and intrepid photographer. But when Audrey becomes a mother herself, that idealisation gives way to anger. What will she pass on to her daughter about her own story, whose memories are at once confused and terrifying? Through reminiscences and epic tales – sometimes funny, often moving – Audrey brings to life a period marked by freedom and excess. From this personal yet universal exploration emerges a story of complex maternal love, blending passion and legacy. It's a story of parents who are still wounded kids and, ultimately, of what we pass on to our children, for better or for worse.

Authors, Narrating Voices: Johanna Sagmeister, Maria Caroline Wölfle. Direction: Giuseppe Maio. Editing: Gabriela Hermer. Technical implementation: Benjamin Ihnow, Katrin Witt. Producing Organisation: Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg

In the summer of 2014, the so-called Islamic State attacked northern Iraq. Thousands of Yazidis were killed, kidnapped and enslaved. The Qasim family survives the genocide and later finds refuge in Germany, the very country whose parliament had publicly promised protection to the Yazidis. But years later, this family of six suddenly faces deportation. According to the German authorities, they are economic migrants and their region of origin is now safe. The authorities also argue that the Qasims continued to live in Iraq for years after 2014 and were therefore not in immediate danger. The family rejects this account: with young children, leaving the country earlier was not possible. They therefore filed an appeal, but on 22 July 2025 events came to a head. In the middle of the night the family is taken from their shelter in Lychen, Brandenburg, and deported to Iraq, despite an impending court ruling. Journalists Johanna Sagmeister and Maria C. Wölfle follow those dramatic hours closely: emergency appeals, contradictory statements, political promises. The case makes headlines across Germany, the public reacts, the media take up the story and Brandenburg's interior minister promises to bring the family back. In the end, eleven minutes decide their fate. The journalists follow the case from Germany to Iraq, where Wölfle reunites with the family and brings them letters and gifts from friends in Lychen, trying to understand whether and how it is possible to rebuild a life in the country they had fled after the genocide. In Germany, Sagmeister approaches the federal immigration authority with a fundamental question: why was this well-integrated family deported?

Direction, Producers: Tim Desmond, Liam O'Brien. Narrating Voice: Ruth Negga. Actors: Steve Hartland, Esosa Ighodaro. Sound Track: RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Mel Mercier, Niwel Tsumbu, Karl Nesbitt, Paul O'Donnell, Clara Sanabras, Áine Delaney. Editing: Ciaran Cullen. Other Participants: Philip Gallagher, Pamela Fraher, Aoife Hegarty, David Doran

"First Conviction" is the story of a couple whose daughter injures herself at home. When they rush her to a Dublin hospital, authorities misdiagnose the injury as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), sparking a ten-year nightmare. Facing unprecedented charges for a crime that never happened, the couple are wrongfully convicted in 2019 and sentenced to five years in prison, tearing their family apart. This 6-part series covers a story no one wanted to tell. As the series was publishing, the couple were granted a Miscarriage of Justice hearing. In June 2026, a three-judge panel ruled them "factually innocent" – setting up the largest civil compensation case in Irish history. Narrated by Academy Award nominee Ruth Negga, with a soundtrack by Tony nominee Mel Mercier, performed by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and Grammy nominee Niwel Tsumbu.

Author, Narrating Voice: Domas Zenkevičius. Sound Track: Liudas Vervečka, Martynas Gailius. Editing: Rūta Dambravaitė. Other Participants: Benas Gerdžiūnas (English transcript), Tomas Valkauskas (subtitles)

When Domas experienced his first psychotic episode, he did not yet understand what was happening. Faces of passers-by in the street began to change shape, the spotlight of a film camera made him squint, and it seemed as if someone was following him. After a consultation with a psychologist, it became clear that this was psychosis and that it needed treatment. This meant moving to the Vilnius Mental Health Centre, taking high doses of medication, attending therapy sessions, and trying to come to terms with a new and unfamiliar reality. In this story, Domas tries to understand what happened to him and, at the same time, to help those closest to him understand it too. Content warning: this documentary may not be suitable for sensitive listeners.

Author: Karin Hållsten. Producer: Anna Frey. Sound: Agnes Cassel. Publisher: Emma Boëthius. Producing Organisation: P1 Dokumentär

For Karin's grandfather, the signs began in his seventies. For her aunts, in their fifties. Karin can't shake the fear that Alzheimer's runs in the family and that her mother might be next. She starts observing patterns she's seen before: kitchen mishaps, unsteady steps, words that slip away and the sense of direction: that falters. But her mother doesn't want to know. She tells Karin to speak up if she notices anything, then adds that if she is diagnosed with Alzheimer's, she will take her own life. The subject becomes a tripwire, and the two of them struggle to talk about it. Karin takes notes and records ten years of interviews, conversations, arguments and laughter with her mother as the Alzheimer's works its way into their close relationship.