Echoes In The First Person
By: Michael Washington Brown
Language: en-us
Categories: Arts, Performing, History, Society, Culture, Personal, Journals
Echoes in the First Person is a weekly narrative podcast that reimagines legacy through poetic monologue, cinematic sound design, and restrained storytelling. Each Monday, a first-person performance draws listeners into the inner world of an anonymous historical voice—without revealing their name. Through immersive audio, these episodes evoke memory, emotion, and the quiet urgency of justice.On Thursdays, the veil lifts: the identity is revealed, the context deepens, and the relevance to today’s world comes into focus. Blending artistry with archival intent and emotional resonance, Echoes is a sonic sanctuary where history breathes, overlooked lives are honored, and storytelling beco...
Episodes
Composed in Silence: The Untold Journey of a 19th‑Century Musical Visionary— Part 2 Thursday Thread
Jan 08, 2026Composed in Silence returns with a deeper look into the life behind the monologue—an artist whose work shaped the soundscape of the 19th‑century classical world, yet whose contributions remained obscured by the conventions of their time. This Thursday Thread unpacks the historical context, family dynamics, and cultural forces that shaped a creator working within a celebrated musical dynasty.
Through letters, manuscripts, and the shifting expectations of the romantic era, we explore how a figure of extraordinary talent navigated the boundaries of authorship, recognition, and creative freedom. Their story reveals a
Composed in Silence: The Untold Journey of a 19th‑Century Musical Visionary— Part 1 Monday Monologue
Jan 05, 2026Composed in Silence steps into the inner world of a figure whose brilliance was shaped behind closed doors, where creativity thrived despite the weight of expectation. This monologue traces the quiet defiance of a 19th‑century composer, a mind attuned to classical music, romantic‑era innovation, and the unspoken tensions between genius and tradition.
In the shadows of a celebrated musical dynasty, we uncover the echoes of a voice long overshadowed—an artist whose hidden legacy, uncredited compositions, and unwavering devotion to cra...
Duration: 00:09:05Echoes New Year’s Special: Reflections and Horizons
Dec 29, 2025As 2025 draws to a close, Echoes in the First Person pauses to honor the voices that have joined us along the way. In this New Year’s special, Reflections and Horizons, we look back at listener reflections—words of gratitude, encouragement, and connection—and look forward to the stories waiting on the horizon in 2026.
This episode celebrates the journey of how Echoes began, the creative team that brought it to life, and the joy of saying “yes” to the unknown. Alongside heartfelt listener quotes from Los Angeles, London, Switzerland, Tanzania, Arizona, Hawaii, and beyond, we reflect on...
Duration: 00:12:30Choir of Connections: Echoes Christmas Special
Dec 22, 2025As Christmas approaches, Echoes in the First Person gathers the voices of history into a single chorus. In this special holiday episode, Choir of Connections, we revisit figures who broke barriers, offered gifts of innovation, and raised voices against silence.
From James Hewlett, the first Black Shakespearean actor in America, to Major Taylor, the world champion cyclist who defied prejudice, and Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, Medal of Honor recipient and gender pioneer—these stories remind us of courage that endures.
We honor innovators like Mary Anderson...
Duration: 00:14:57Unbuttoned: Courage Under Fire— Part 2 Thursday Thread
Dec 18, 2025In this week’s thread, we open the story of Civil War history through the lens of a figure who refused to conform. Their path as a medical pioneer reveals acts of radical resilience and boundary breaking that challenged the strictures of 19th century America. The episode explores the weight of a Medal of Honor, the shadow of forgotten voices, and the enduring power of courage under fire. Listeners are invited to uncover hidden legacy, confront unconventional truths, and re...
Duration: 00:11:38Unbuttoned: Courage Under Fire— Part 1 Monday Monologue
Dec 15, 2025Unbuttoned traces the silhouette of a figure who refused to conform—someone who challenged the strictures of 19th century America and redefined patriotism under fire. This monologue explores the life of a medical pioneer whose acts of radical resilience and boundary breaking earned both reverence and controversy. In the shadows of Civil War history, we uncover hidden truths and the legacy of a forgotten voice whose courage was stitched into every act of defiance. Their unconventional legacy remains a te...
Duration: 00:08:17Pressed into Silence: Hidden Histories of Invention — Part 2 Thursday Thread
Dec 11, 2025This episode continues the reflection on overlooked ingenuity, tracing how innovation, resilience, and obscurity intertwine in the lives of those whose contributions reshaped daily existence yet remained unrecognized. Through layered soundscape, poetic narrative, and historical context, we explore the perseverance that carried invention forward against the weight of erasure. Listeners are invited to consider the legacy of progress, the silence that pressed against recognition, and the hidden voices that deserve to be heard.
This...
Duration: 00:11:29Pressed into Silence: Hidden Histories of Invention — Part 1 Monday Monologue
Dec 08, 2025"Pressed into Silence" traces the quiet resilience of a figure whose innovation reshaped daily life yet was long overlooked. This episode journeys through invention, obscurity, and the weight of erasure, inviting listeners to consider how history often muffles hidden voices that deserve to be heard. Through soundscape and narrative, we uncover the textures of perseverance, the legacy of progress, and the silence that pressed against recognition.
This is Part 1 of a two‑part reflection. The thread con...
Duration: 00:09:52A Mirror to Madness: Inside the Asylum Walls – Part 2 Thursday Thread
Dec 04, 2025Return to the corridors of nineteenth‑century asylums, where the echoes of investigative journalism deepen into a chilling portrait of mental health history. In this continuation of Echoes in the First Person, the undercover exposé expands, revealing layers of institutional abuse, neglect, and the fragile resilience of those confined. Through immersive narration and soundscape, listeners witness how true investigative storytelling became a catalyst for social justice reform and a historical reckoning.
This Thursday Thread invites audiences to engage with journalism pod...
Duration: 00:11:26A Mirror to Madness: Part 1- Monday Monologue
Dec 01, 2025Enter the world of investigative reporting and nineteenth‑century asylums, where an undercover voice exposes the hidden truths of mental health history. This episode of Echoes in the First Person immerses listeners in a daring journalism exposé that shattered illusions of progress and revealed the brutal realities of institutional life. Through immersive narration and soundscape, we follow a journalist who risked everything to document neglect, abuse, and resilience behind asylum walls. A Mirror to Madness is both a historical reckoning and a reminder of the power of storytelling to ign...
Duration: 00:08:10In Gratitude, We Pause
Nov 24, 2025This week, Echoes in the First Person pauses in gratitude and reflection. In observance of Thanksgiving, we wish all our listeners a safe and meaningful holiday, and we thank you for your comments, listens, shares, and words of encouragement. Whether you mark the holiday or simply embrace the season, may your days be filled with rest, renewal, and reflection. We’ll return with a new Monday Monologue on December 1st.
Credits:
Echoes in the First Person is a collective effort.
Dee...
Duration: 00:00:50The Sonata Before Silence: Beethoven’s Forgotten Violin Prodigy: Part 2- Thursday Thread
Nov 20, 2025A forgotten violin prodigy who once lit up London’s grand stages—Drury Lane, Haymarket, Covent Garden—steps into history again. In Vienna, his collaboration with Beethoven shaped the soundscape of classical music, yet his name was silenced by betrayal and erasure.
This episode continues the journey through classical music history, weaving themes of friendship, artistry, resilience, and survival. Listeners are immersed in candlelit salons, trembling strings, and birch winds, where every note became resistance and every silence a declaration.
Part 2 of this two‑part reflection uncovers the untold s...
Duration: 00:10:35The Sonata Before Silence: Beethoven’s Forgotten Violin Prodigy: Part 1- Monday Monologue
Nov 17, 2025A violin prodigy who shaped classical music history, performing in London’s grand theatres—Drury Lane, Haymarket, and Covent Garden—before collaborating with Beethoven in Vienna. This episode traces a journey of transcendence, friendship, betrayal, and erasure.
Through soundscapes of birch winds, candlelit salons, and trembling strings, listeners are invited to step into a forgotten composer’s legacy—one where music became both sanctuary and declaration. Every note was resistance. Every silence, survival.
This is not just the tale of a sonata—it...
Duration: 00:09:57Wiped Away: The Storm Behind the Invention: Part 2- Thursday Thread
Nov 13, 2025In the second half of this two-part reflection, the story deepens: how a forgotten inventor’s hand-operated windshield wiper reshaped the way we navigate storms, yet their name slipped from the record. From Alabama’s fields to New York’s streets, this episode traces the overlooked legacy of resilience, empathy, and mechanical brilliance.
Through archival storytelling, immersive narration, and evocative sound design, we explore invention, innovation, and the cultural silence that erases pioneers from history. It’s a meditation on visibility and recognition—who gets remembered, who gets erase...
Duration: 00:12:41Wiped Away: The Storm Behind the Invention: Part 1- Monday Monologue
Nov 10, 2025A visionary from the Deep South reimagined how we move through storms—yet history left their name behind. This immersive monologue traces a journey from Alabama’s fields to New York’s frozen streets, where a fleeting moment of empathy sparked a mechanical breakthrough: the first hand-operated windshield wiper. A design born of clarity, resilience, and quiet brilliance.
Through archival storytelling, poetic narration, and evocative sound design...
Duration: 00:08:29The Fastest Man you Never Knew: Part 2- Thursday Thread
Nov 06, 2025A denied a medal. A name erased from the record. A legacy carried not in trophies, but in footsteps.
This second chapter continues the first-person monologue of a trailblazer who raced not for glory, but for dignity. From segregated streets to international arenas, from quiet heartbreak to thunderous ovation, this is the story of what it means to endure—and to be seen.
Set against echoes of archival static and reverent silence, the voice returns with clarity and grace, tracing the aftershocks of a life lived in mo...
Duration: 00:13:06The Fastest Man you Never Knew: Part 1- Monday Monologue
Nov 03, 2025A child gifted a bicycle. A racer banned from the track. A champion who outran hatred, exhaustion, and history itself.
This first-person monologue traces the arc of a forgotten pioneer—raised between two worlds, propelled by grace and grit, and tested in ways few could endure. From childhood wonder to six-day endurance trials, from whispered prayers to public triumphs, this is a story of motion: physical, emotional, ancestral.
Set against am...
Duration: 00:09:30The Breath Between the Worlds: Part 2- Thursday Thread
Oct 30, 2025A knock at the door. A silence too long. A memory that refuses to fade.
This Thursday Thread picks up where the vigil left off—tracing the breath between survival and surrender, between what was lost and what still lingers. It follows the healer’s path beyond prairie and petition, into the quiet rooms where history was rewritten not with fanfare, but with presence.
Here, we listen for the echoes that remain: in the rustle of paper, the hush of snow, the whispered names of those never counted. This is the seco...
Duration: 00:12:19The Breath Between the Worlds: Part 1 – Monday Monologue
Oct 27, 2025A bedside vigil. A breath withheld. A doctor who never came. This Monday monologue traces the journey of a healer whose life began in silence and injustice—but whose footsteps echoed across 450 miles of prairie, carrying medicine, memory, and the weight of a people’s survival.
From a childhood shaped by grief and resilience to a legacy built on horseback and handwritten letters to Congress, this voice speaks not only of healing bodies—but of stitching together a severed history. Through wind, snow, and systemic neglec...
Duration: 00:09:08Curtain Without Applause: Part 2 – Thursday Thread
Oct 23, 2025In this Thursday Thread from Echoes in the First Person, the curtain lifts—but not for applause. The voice that once echoed unnamed now steps forward, revealing a life lived in the margins and a legacy that refuses silence.
Part 2 completes our two-part meditation on Black performance, historical memory, and the quiet defiance of first-person testimony. Where Monday’s Monologue lingered in anonymity, Thursday’s Thread offers revelation—not as spectacle, but as reclamation.
Through restrained sound de...
Duration: 00:11:42Curtain Without Applause: Part 1 – Monday Monologue
Oct 20, 2025In this debut Monday Monologue from Echoes in the First Person, a performer steps into history’s blind spot. Their voice—unclaimed, unnamed—echoes through minimalist sound design and poetic storytelling, revealing a legacy shaped by erasure and resilience.
Curtain Without Applause is a sonic meditation on Black performance, historical memory, and the quiet power of first-person narrative. The speaker’s identity remains unrevealed until Thursday’s Thread, allowing listeners to dwell in the tension between presence and anonymity.
This episode blends archival imaginatio...
Duration: 00:09:50Before the First Echo
Oct 10, 2025Before the First Echo is the prologue to Echoes in the First Person, a weekly narrative podcast that reimagines legacy through poetic monologue and cinematic sound design. In this brief opening, creator Michael Washington Brown shares the heartbeat behind the project: why it exists, what listeners can expect, and how each episode invites reflection, empathy, and reclamation.
Each Monday, a first-person performance draws listeners into the inner world of a historical figure—without revealing their name. Through restrained storytelling and im...
Duration: 00:03:43