Taped letters

From mix tapes to voice notes: New Generation Thinker, Linguist at Newcastle University, and child of the military Rebecca Woods looks at how cassette tapes provided connection and community across the seas in the late 20th Century. On cassettes passed hand to hand, the Dinka people of South Sudan share stories of luck and loss through narrative song cycles. Sewn into cloth bags, taped letters from Manchester to Pakistan help love blossom – or carry curses bound for meddling mothers-in-law. Tucked into suitcases, recordings of reluctant small children and Christmas songs keep British military personnel in touch with their families.

Joined by academic ethno-musicologist Angela Impey, founder of the Tape Letters archive Wajid Yaseen, and RAF veteran nurse Patsy Curtis, Rebecca shares these stories with you through the modern technologies that have replaced taped letters and musical mixtapes, from Zoom to music sharing platforms to the increasingly ubiquitous WhatsApp voice note.

Producer: Julian Siddle