This American Life producer Ben Calhoun was working on a story centering on racial issues, and struggling with including mention of his own mixed race heritage. In a new HowSound, Ben talks with host Rob Rosenthal about the way he wrestled with this delicate writing task. Click here for more.   ~~~~~~~~ Produced in collaboration[…..]

The 10th issue of Starting Out, Alice Wilder’s monthly feature for audio industry newbies, is now on Transom. Alice’s interview with members of the union organizing committee that worked to create a union at Gimlet offers a good story and much useful thought on organizing workers in any field. Click here for so much more.[…..]

A new SHOW on Transom is from poet, teacher, and musician B. J. Wilson. His lyric essay, created after the death of a friend, is a compelling read. In sharing the words in audio, they reach us in a way that insists we feel their intimate, raw power. Wilson also describes  his state of mind[…..]

Transom welcomes back producer/sound designer extraordinaire Brendan Baker. In a new essay, Brendan dives deeply into the evolving word of spatial audio, delineating concepts, specifics, its best uses in radio and podcasting, and more. Click here for more.    

  Transom is featuring an intimate share from former soldier, current storyteller, Elliott Woods. At one time, he  served as an Army combat engineer in Iraq. Seven years later, working as a journalist, Woods embedded with a squad of 12 Marines in Afghanistan, one of whom didn’t survive. A decade passed, and he decided to[…..]

In the world of journalism, some stories are evergreen, and so are some questions. Fifteen years ago, when Andrea Silenzi was starting out, she reported a story about a woman dying of ALS. It was a difficult story to report and she regularly wondered “Who am I to be here?” Host Rob Rosenthal, revisits that[…..]

The 9th episode of Starting Out, Alice Wilder’s monthly feature for newcomers to the world of audio, offers an insightf-filled interview with Rebeca Ibarra, the host and producer of Insider’s The Refresh. Click here for more.  

Producer Hillary Frank is a journalist, podcaster, and novelist. She’s called upon all of those talents in creating Here Lies Me, a fictional podcast that delves into the complications of life as a pre-teen in this country. HowSound host Rob Rosenthal deems it one of the best of last year. In this episode he talks[…..]

Over at Transom, when exciting new work comes in “over the transom” it is a pleasure to feature and share word of it. Recently Abby Wambaugh submitted her first produced audio work, a “thoughtscape,” as she describes it. Along with the piece, Transom features her excellent notes on the process she undertook to move words[…..]

        Over at Transom, a new manifesto from a longtime environment reporter takes us places many of us never visit. Reporter Ashley Ahearn’s passion for her work led her to pick up stakes and move from Seattle to a rural area to report more deeply on people who most directly interact with[…..]

Alice Wilder’s monthly feature for people new to working in the audio industry, Starting Out, is back. Alice returns with great advice, job postings, and an interview with one of her mentors, Noel King. Currently host of Vox’s Today Explained, Noel King launched her career in an adventurous way and has learned much on the[…..]

The Kitchen Sisters are known and loved by public radio listeners young and old, and now celebrate a major achievement: the Library of Congress will acquire their entire archive of innovative audio work. On HowSound, Rob talks with Kitchen Sister Davia Nelson about their big news, and their collaboration with performance artist Laurie Anderson. Click[…..]

Transom’s Jeff Towne has kept an eye on a new wave in audio production — the use of podcast mixers. Although designed more for use in conventional conversation style shows, he finds they can be helpful to have on hand in other ways. In a new post, he reviews some of the latest and most[…..]

Over at Transom, HowSound host Rob Rosenthal puts on his evaluating hat and dishes out a fresh collection of darts and laurels. Featured work is from The BBC, Vice, Wonder Media, and others. Click here for for more. ~~~~~~~~ Produced in collaboration with the Public Radio Exchange, HowSound delves into the ins-and-outs of radio storytelling[…..]

The 8th episode of Starting Out features an intimate interview with Chris Stedman, host/writer of Unread, an award-winning podcast he created while processing the unexpected death of a friend. Generous and insightful, this conversation explores the complicated reality of simultaneously experiencing and exploring the tendrils of grief emanating from the survivors of a suicide. For[…..]

The new issues of Starting Out features Priska Neely, Managing Editor of the Gulf States Newsroom, who answers reader-submitted questions about how to build relationships with supervisors. Full of useful thought and advice. Click here for more.

HowSound’s new episode features a conversation with audio producer and sound artist Kristina Loring, who once attended the Transom Story Workshop where she was taught by host Rob Rosenthal. Kristina thinks outside the box and shares the backstory to her pandemic-inspired audio installation, created for SoundScene, an annual arts festival in Washington, D.C.. Click here[…..]

In this episode of HowSound, host Rob Rosenthal talks with Al Letson about his unusual approach to true crime storytelling in the true crime series he reported for Reveal, “Mississippi Goddam: The Ballad of Billey Joe.” His special approach: respect for the victims. Click here for more. ~~~~~~~~ Produced in collaboration with the Public Radio[…..]

In a new HowSound, Rob shares a crucial aspect of audio storytelling, the method he uses for organizing a story: a scene chart. But not only does he dissect one of his favorite audio stories, he also provides a pdf for you to download as a guide. Click here for more. ~~~~~~~~ Produced in collaboration[…..]

Over at Transom, a new manifesto for the new year from documentarian Sara Brooke Curtis in which she encourages us to open ourselves to new ways of seeing, thinking and hearing. Click here for this lovely rumination.