From Prison to President
Radio Diaries
Radio Diaries & Radiotopia
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 24 December 2015
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Four years after Nelson Mandela was released from prison, he became president of South Africa. And yet, those 4 years were among the bloodiest and most painful for all South Africans – black and white – as they struggled toward the transition to majority rule. On the Radio Diaries Podcast we’ve been revisiting chapters from our documentary series, Mandela: An Audio History. In this episode, we bring you “From Prison to President.” Plus, a bonus chapter about what might have been the most awkward lunch in history.
We couldn’t make these stories without your help. Please consider making a donation to Radio Diaries at radiodiaries.org. Thank you!
Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choicesTranscript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You're listening to Radio Diaries. This is Joe. |
| 0:03.0 | And this is Elisa. |
| 0:05.0 | And we want to thank everybody who has donated to Radiotopia's annual fundraiser so far. |
| 0:09.0 | We are coming to the end of the road, but we still have yet to reach our goal of a thousand donors. |
| 0:15.3 | So we want to let you know some of the things that your donation supports here at Radio Diaries. |
| 0:21.5 | We just finished our big series, The Unmarched Graveyard, and there's some expenses that you might expect, you know, paying for our producers, paying for research, paying for some gear, and there's some unexpected things. |
| 0:34.0 | Elisa, is there anything that was kind of unexpected? |
| 0:37.0 | For sure, like with the first story that I worked on, I interviewed a woman named Susan |
| 0:41.2 | Harlebert, whose son had died and was buried on Hard Island. |
| 0:45.4 | And after I interviewed her, I realized that she had actually never visited her son's grave. |
| 0:50.1 | So we decided to set that up. |
| 0:52.0 | You know, I went to pick her up a couple hours north of the city that cost us some gas money. |
| 0:56.4 | We put her up in a hotel and I bought a bunch of pizza and bagels to power us through the weekend. |
| 1:01.7 | And it was a really beautiful and |
| 1:04.0 | carb-filled couple days. |
| 1:07.0 | We hope that gives you a glimpse at some of the things that your donation helps |
| 1:10.0 | to support here at Radio Diaries |
| 1:12.0 | and we hope that you'll support us and the rest of the shows in the Radio Topia family. |
| 1:17.0 | You can donate today at radiotopia.F.M. slash donate. That's Radiotopia. F.M. slash donate. |
| 1:24.0 | And thank you so much for your support. Radio Topia from PRX is Radiotopia this is Radio Diaries I'm Joe Richmond. This is the sound of what might be the most awkward lunch in history. |
| 1:48.0 | This is from the news coverage of the time. |
| 1:53.0 | Let me try and explain what's going on. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Radio Diaries & Radiotopia, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Radio Diaries & Radiotopia and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

