Issue Two

Dear listener,

Your body is like a racecar. As long as I have one ass instead of two, I’ll wear what I want. Go, machine, go. When you die, you turn to dust. It's like infrastructure: no one notices it until it breaks. We have to find a new way of life. A real, um, concrete way of life. To be brave. The fact of being together is very important.

It's really nice to meet you all, at last. I’ll call you if I need anything.

Editors' Note

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Editors' Note - Transcript

Issue Two Transcripts - Editors' Note.csv

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November 2025

Issue Two

The Editors

Editors' Note

Andrew Leland

Essay The Snail

The rest prescription

Zoe Kurland

Style Push-Up Contest

Entering my Erin Brockovich era

Jaclyn Moyer

Science Ghost Forests

Oregon ash vs the emerald ash borer

Rachel James

Feature The Learning Play

Bertolt Brecht and the revolution

Amelia Schonbek

Poetry Voice Lessons

We can’t see them, we can’t hear them, but they can hear us

Lio Wong

Feature Unknown Unknowns

The t4t tea on T

Omar Etman

Feature Cotton King

In Mahalla, they make looms out of lamp posts

Mitra Kaboli

Dispatch Making Utopia

Who made this mountain holy?

Credits

The Snail

Andrew Leland

My brain, I discovered, is like a mouth that demands something to chew. If I don't give it chewables, it starts eating itself.

The Snail

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The Snail - Transcript

Issue Two Transcripts - Andrew.csv

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Notes

Andrew Leland is the 2024-6 Koeppel Fellow in Journalism at Wesleyan University, and the author of The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight, a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Memoir. This story was written by Andrew, and edited by Omar Etman, Jackson Roach, and Liza Yeager. Production and sound design by Jackson Roach and Liza Yeager. Fabian Cereijido was the ghost of Jorge Luis Borges, and Katz Laszlo was the meditation guide. Additional editorial support from Lio Wong, Annie Rosenthal, and the Issue Two cohort. Special thanks to Antonia Cerejido and Neena Pathak.

Push-Up Contest

Zoe Kurland

Zoe’s dad designed a bra that changed the world. Can it change her life?

Push-Up Contest

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Push-Up Contest - Transcript

Issue Two Transcripts - Zoe.csv

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Notes

Zoe Kurland is a writer and audio documentarian based in Marfa, Texas. This story was written and produced by Zoe, and edited by Liza Yeager and Jackson Roach. Sound design and additional production by Liza Yeager. Additional editorial support from Omar Etman, Annie Rosenthal, and the Issue Two cohort. Special thanks to seamstress Mary Ellen Fields, the co-author/creator of the Erin Brockovich push-up bra. Thanks also to Travis Bubenik, Greg Jacobs, Sarah Thornton, David Kass at William Morris Endeavor, and everyone at Western Costume in Los Angeles, California.

Ghost Forests

Jaclyn Moyer

Jackie tries to see the most underappreciated trees in her neighborhood—before they’re all gone. This story was produced in partnership with High Country News. Read the companion print feature here.

Ghost Forests

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Ghost Forest - Transcript

Issue Two Transcripts - Jackie.csv

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Notes

Jaclyn Moyer lives in Corvallis, Oregon. She’s the author of On Gold Hill, which won the 2025 Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction. Jackie reported and wrote this story, and it was edited by Annie Rosenthal, Liza Yeager, and Jackson Roach. It was produced and sound designed by Jackson Roach. Additional editorial support from Omar Etman, Lio Wong, and the Issue Two Cohort, as well as the editorial staff at High Country News.

The Learning Play

Rachel James

If at last you could change the world, what would make you too good to do so? Featuring an interview with Silvia Federici.

The Learning Play

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The Learning Play - Transcript

Issue Two Transcripts - Rachel.csv

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Notes

Rachel James is a poet, artist, and author of An Eros Encyclopedia (Wendy's Subway, 2022). She resides in New York City, Lenapehoking, where she teaches seminars on sound, poetry, and performance scores. Rachel wrote and produced this story, and it was edited by Liza Yeager and Jackson Roach. Sound design by Rachel James, with help from Jackson Roach. The story features recordings from and discussions of a performance of The Measures Taken, written by Bertolt Brecht, staging and concept by Jurrell Lewis and Lucas Kane; directed by Lucas Kane; performed by Malachi Brown, Ava Kaplan, Nashwa Zaman, Adi Blaustein Rejto, and Kaiden Talesh; music by Livia Reiner; costumes by Willa Schwabsky and Zelda Mazor-Freedman; set design by Eliza Williamson. Special thanks to Silvia Federici, Joan Ingalls, David Barnett, Laura Bradley, Adi Blaustein Rejto, and Lucas Kane. Thanks to Triple Canopy, the Socialism Conference, and the MacDowell artist residency.

Voice Lessons

Amelia Schonbek

In the middle of Amelia’s family, there’s a silence. She wants to crack it open, so she starts learning to sing.

Voice Lessons

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Voice Lessons - Transcript

Issue Two Transcripts - Amelia.csv

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Notes

Amelia Schonbek writes, edits, and builds community in New York. Amelia reported and produced this story, which features the voices of Andrew Schonbek, Laura Joviala, and Emilia Kallonen. It was edited by Liza Yeager and Annie Rosenthal. Sound design and additional production by Jackson Roach. The song Dust was written by Channing Showalter. Deep thanks to Channing and her collaborator Annie Schermer, and to Alice Schonbek, Annie McEwen, Cassie Peterson, Holland Andrews, Michael Pollak, Jill Salberg, and Suzanne Goldenberg.

Unknown Unknowns

Lio Wong

How to make a life-changing decision when all you have is the sparse and noisy data of an uncertain world? First, try posting on Lex.

Unknown Unknowns

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Unknown Unknowns - Transcript

Issue Two Transcripts - Lio (1).csv

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Notes

Lio Wong is a writer and cognitive scientist who lives in San Francisco. This story was written by Lio, and edited by Jackson Roach, Omar Etman, and Liza Yeager. It was produced and sound designed by Lio Wong, Jackson Roach and Liza Yeager. Additional editorial support from Annie Rosenthal and the Issue Two cohort. Special thanks to Matt Caren for sound engineering, to George Fei, Bettine Gibbs, and Andy Perfors for interviews, and to Courtney Noh, Max Vilgalys, Kathy Chow, Alicia Chen, and Anne Kim for the voices of Lex.

Cotton King

Omar Etman

Omar’s grandfather ran the biggest cotton company in Egypt. It was a workman’s paradise, owned by the people of Egypt. At least, that’s the story his family has always told him.

Cotton King

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Cotton King - Transcript

Issue Two Transcripts - Omar.csv

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Notes

Omar Etman is a writer and editor from New York. Omar wrote and produced this story. It was edited by Annie Rosenthal and Lio Wong, with editorial support from Liza Yeager and Jackson Roach. Liza and Jackson mixed the story, too. Special thanks to Hamdy Hussein and Dr. Hanan Hammad, and to many others: Said Abdelwahab, Hossam Hamalawy, Hossam Talaat, Yousef Almahalawy, Hatem Elmessiri, and my grandmother, Esmat Seliman. Thanks also to the many workers at Misr Spinning and Weaving who showed me around. And thank you to my parents, Dr. Heba Abdelmaksoud and Dr. Amr Etman.

Making Utopia

Mitra Kaboli

First it was the Shakers. Then, other people started coming to the mountain. All in the hopes of starting their own little utopias.

Making Utopia

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Making Utopia - Transcript

Issue Two Transcripts - Mitra.csv

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Notes

Mitra Kaboli is an audio artist and documentarian based in Brooklyn, NY. This story was produced, reported and sound designed by Mitra. The editors were Jackson Roach, Liza Yeager and Jess Shane. Additional editorial support from the Signal Hill cohort. The Singers were Annabel Lee, Fiona Feng, Jacqui Cornetta, Kira Josefsson, Rider Alsop, Carly Richman, Savannah Strenz, Hanna Johansson, and Sanna Samuelsson. Archival Audio Courtesy of Soundings Mindful Media archive, by Dean & Dudley Evenson. Thanks to UnionDocs Center for Documentary Arts, Mount Lebanon Artist Residency, Shaker Museum and Ragdale for creating space and providing resources to make the work possible. Special thanks to Sarah Steadman, Rye-Ellis Katz, Andy Vadnais, Annabel Lee, Iromee Gale, Suzanne Goldenberg, Talia Moore, Audrey Quinn, Sarah Kramer, Mark Elijah Rosenberg, Jamie Ross, Rose Higham-Stainton, Kevin Fuerst, Elizabeth Sheffer-Winig (and the town of New Lebanon, NY), Heather Bruegl, Amelia Schonbek, Kerosene Jones, Khushi Pasquale, Taj Martel, and The Abode of the Message. “Making Utopia” was made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. To get your hands on a different, longer and more expanded version of this story, Mitra has cassettes for sale with the full length documentary on it, along with incredible art by visual artist and illustrator, Aidan Koch (who also created all of the illustrations for Signal Hill, Issue Two). You can get a cassette here.

Credits

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Subscribe to Signal Hill on Pocket Casts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app to get new issues when they come out. You can sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Bluesky, and Tumblr.

Signal Hill is edited by Omar Etman, Jackson Roach, Annie Rosenthal, Lio Wong and Liza Yeager. Jackson and Liza are the editors in chief.

The stories in Issue Two were created by Omar Etman, Rachel James, Mitra Kaboli, Zoe Kurland, Andrew Leland, Jaclyn Moyer, Amelia Schonbek, and Lio Wong, with support from the editors, and also from their cohort of fellow contributors.

S Yarberry was the Issue Two narrator.

Alan Dean was the fact checker. Omar Etman created the trailer.

As of Issue Two, the Signal Hill original music library has been stocked by Huda Asfour, Clara E. Brill, J. Mamana, Ethan Philbrick and Jackson Roach. Additional music is from Blue Dot Sessions.

The Issue Two cover and story illustrations are by Aidan Koch.

Lindsey MacMillan is our web designer. Additional graphic design by Harrison Smith. Alex Hanesworth designed the Signal Hill logo.

Signal Hill’s board of directors are Caroline Kanner, Emily Kennedy, and Alex Lewis.

Our administrative advisor is Eliza Dexter Cohen.

Special thanks to Stephen Cassidy Jones, Mitchell Morgan Johnson, Annie McEwan, Sam Roach, Harrison Smith, and Margaret Stohl.