Last Witness: The General Slocum

Radio Diaries

Radio Diaries & Radiotopia

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 June 2018

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On June 15, 1904, a steamship called the General Slocum left the pier on East Third Street in New York City just after 9 AM. The boat was filled with more than 1,300 residents of the Lower East Side. Many of the passengers were recent German immigrants who were headed up the east river for a church outing, a boat cruise and picnic on Long Island. But they would never make it. We interviewed the last living survivor of the General Slocum, Adella Wotherspoon, when she was 100 years old. Today we’re bringing you her story as part of our series, Last Witness. Plus, a portrait of the last civilian lighthouse keeper in the U.S.

Know someone who’d make a good Last Witness? Get in touch! You can find us on Twitter and Facebook, use the hashtag #LastWitness.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Radio Diaries and this is Nellie Gillis with producers
0:05.2	Elisa Scarsay and Micah Hazel.
0:07.0	Hi.
0:08.0	Hey, this is our producer takeover.
0:10.0	Sorry Joe.
0:11.0	Sorry Joe. Before we start today's show, we wanted to let you know that right now is Radio Topia's annual fundraiser.
0:16.0	And for the occasion, our team wanted to come and tell you a few of the favorite things that we've heard from the network recently.
0:22.0	Micah, you go first.
0:24.0	So I recently listened to the Stoop episode,
0:27.0	Don't Call Me Ante, which is basically breaking down
0:30.0	like the word Ante, I use it all the time,
0:32.0	a lot of people of color use it all the time it's like a very endearing term and
0:37.6	This episode really just kind of broke down the ways in which it's actually pretty problematic.
0:45.0	I think something the show just really does well is it takes these just everyday things
0:49.3	in my life or everyday things in black culture and it kind of like flips them on the head a little
0:53.7	bit while also just feeling like a very casual like conversation between friends.
0:58.8	Awesome. How many people in your life do you call auntie. Oh my God like pretty much anyone who's
1:05.0	nice to me. How about you, Elisa? So I recently loved this episode. It was a
1:11.7	collaboration between two of my favorite
1:13.6	radiotopious shows, Articles of Interest and Wait for it. They did this story
1:17.6	about plus-size clothes that was the perfect combo of personal stories and
1:22.0	really fascinating fashion history that I had never thought
	...

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