2023-12-19 The opening to the previous episode of Sound School was boring. Dull. Uninteresting. As Ira Glass has put it, “Story equals bait plus narrative.” Well, there was nothing “bait-y” about the first two minutes of that episode, the one feat …›
2023-12-14 In the early 2000s, I dreamed of quitting my day job to produce radio stories full time. I managed to get a few pieces on All Things Considered, and in 2006, I got one on This American Life. During the final edit, Ira Glass bet me five dollars on how m …›
2023-12-12 As we come to the end of the year, we always try to compile a list of interesting gear for people making radio, or podcasts, or anyone doing audio recording and editing. These might make a good last-minute gift for an audio recordist you know, or …›
2023-12-07 Hello! Welcome (back) to All Hear, The Everything List for Audio Opportunities. This is the longest edition of All Hear ever — 90+ opportunities! The very first edition came out in January of this year with 30 opportunities, and I’m very pleas …›
2023-12-07 This piece was born out of a strange sense of homesickness I was feeling in the fall of 2022. It was the first time in the 10 years since I’d left the Central Coast of California that I felt a pull to move back. I didn’t. Instead I made a …›
2023-12-05 Theo Greenly remembers there used to be hovercraft transport to Akutan Island but not anymore. To get there to report a story for the public radio station he works for, Theo had to take a white knuckle express, a little six-seater twin prop plane calle …›
2023-11-30 During a visit in Paris at the end of 2022 I mentioned to Laurence that I would like to create an audio piece about the Unspeakable or Unutterable. The idea was to tell a story where we have difficulties finding the right words — it’s eithe …›
2023-11-28 September 25, 1950 – September 4, 2023 From Syd Lewis (Transom Editor) Losing Mary Hearing of sound engineer Mary Gaffney’s death staggered me. I’d spoken with her a couple of months earlier and knew she was having health struggles, but …›
2023-11-21 One of the ways I discover new podcasts is by reading “best of” lists. While there can be a lot of dreck in those lists, I often encounter gems. Weirdly, given what I do for work and how many podcasts I listen to in the course of a year, I don’t …›
2023-11-16 Sharif Youssef's "Pineapple Head" is a poetic little piece, written like a children's book, but exploring themes of depression and loneliness. The post Pineapple Head appeared first on Transom. …›
2023-11-14 Introduction Welcome back to Starting Out from me and Transom! In this issue I spoke with NPR’s scientist in residence and Short Wave co-host Regina Barber, who made the leap from academia to media. She has a PhD in physics and taught physics a …›
2023-11-07 During nearly every workshop I teach, right at the beginning, I send students out to the street to record vox. Talking to strangers with recording gear a student has barely used can be a harrowing experience — especially, the talking to strangers …›
2023-11-02 Hello! Welcome (back) to All Hear, the Everything List for Audio Opportunities. I’m really excited about this month’s edition. It’s filled with so many opportunities open to audio makers — fellowships, grants, scholarships, fully funded uni …›
2023-10-31 Parachuting In the early aughts I was getting my feet wet professionally as a radio reporter in Chicago and increasingly was interested in parts of the city, the South and West Sides, that were often underreported, or covered one-dimensionally, usually …›
2023-10-26 Welcome to my circus This piece embodies a personal journey of resilience. As a young, book-hungry reader in a family without means for books and a town devoid of child-friendly libraries, I manged not only to survive an evil librarian, but I also emer …›
2023-10-24 Today, Sound School marks the 15th anniversary of the death of Studs Terkel — America’s interviewer. Who didn’t Studs interview?! He chronicled the life of 20th century America from the ground up in books like Working, …›
2023-10-19 The Plan There was none. I was winging it. Beginnings So where did I start? Maybe it was with the pugs. Their snuffles and grunts were their signature as much as those mournful eyes. I had recorded Max and Lola over the years. Their wheezes …›
2023-10-17 Introduction Welcome back to Starting Out from me and Transom! I’ve got a fun issue for y’all this month, but first, I have one question and one favor to ask: The question: who do you want me to interview for the next season …›
2023-10-10 I was recently interviewed about audio storytelling by a couple of producers from ACB Stories in Germany. They asked all kinds of great questions, like “How do you determine the proper length of a story?” (Honestly, I wish I knew. It’s a mystery. …›
2023-10-05 Hello! I’m Talia. Welcome (back) to All Hear, the Everything List for Audio Opportunities. There are some great opportunities this month, including Arts Emergency’s mentorship scheme for disadvantaged young people in the U.K. looking to pursue …›
2023-09-26 One day, a bunch of years ago, I was sitting in the kitchen of a women who lived in Phippsburg, Maine, over by Small Point if I remember correctly. As I was asking her questions about life on the Maine coast, I was startled to see on the bookshelf behi …›
2023-09-19 Hi y’all! Lately I’ve been trying to make a habit of reaching out to people when I love their work. Not because I want a job from them or their co-sign on a new project or anything else. Just to say, this was great, it meant something to me.& …›
2023-09-12 Some ideas are just so maddeningly simple. You think “Why didn’t I come up with that?!!” I felt like that when I first heard Rachel Matlow’s “Dead Mom Talking.” It was a forehead slap moment. On the face of it, Rachel took some tape she’d …›
2023-09-07 Hello! I’m Talia. Welcome (back) to All Hear, the Everything List for Audio Opportunities. If you’re new here, in this column, you’ll find international audio opportunities with upcoming deadlines, as well as a couple of Spotlights for in …›
2023-08-29 Anytime I’ve spoken to friends and colleagues in the radio and podcast world this year, the conversation inevitably turns to all the layoffs and closures. One friend said “It’s a bloodbath out there.” It’s into this risky world for new podcas …›
2023-08-22 Introduction As you’re reading this, I’m on a plane to the Online News Association’s conference in Philadelphia. It’s my first ever fancy professional conference and as I write this I’m trying to source professional looking clothe …›
2023-08-17 A Time Capsule of Stories and Soundscapes Forty-five years ago, I began recording things that few others were paying attention to, like the sounds of a wine riddler, the slowed-down calls of a wood thrush, or an interview with a directory assistance op …›
2023-08-15 You know how you go through your interview tape and you discover a lot of great moments, quotes and ideas that stand out and you say to yourself (or out loud) “Oh, I’ll put that in.” And, “Wow, that’s a good one. I’ll include that.” …›
2023-08-03 Hello! I’m Talia. Welcome (back) to All Hear, the Everything List for Audio Opportunities. If you’re new here, All Hear is both a Transom post and a monthly Substack newsletter. Over on my newsletter, I list as many upcoming opportunities for i …›
2023-08-01 (This is a rebroadcast of an episode of The Sound School Podcast from 2020, back when it was called HowSound. These notes about the episode are from that time as well.) The other day, I dropped off some computer speakers at a friend’s house. She came …›
2023-07-25 Introduction Hey y’all! We’ve got a bunch of new subscribers, so I thought I’d do a little housekeeping! I’m Alice, a podcast producer in Durham, North Carolina. I write this newsletter in partnership with Transom, the best tr …›
2023-07-18 Music is emotional fascism. I often say that when I’m teaching. It’s a warning about scoring stories with music because music is incredibly dangerous — it commands an emotion. It’s almost as though we have no control over what we feel when …›
2023-07-11 Hello! Welcome (back) to All Hear, the Everything List for Audio Opportunities. If you’re new here, my name is Talia, I’m an audio producer based in London. Last year, I created a Google Doc compiling international audio resources. In this news …›
2023-07-05 Sometimes I yell at podcasts. I’ve grown weary of narrative series that use the same tropes again and again. Haven’t you? Surely, you’ve heard this too many times: “To understand, we need to go back in time.” What about this: “When I first …›
2023-06-27 Introduction I try not to think too much about the day that I got laid off. It was during the early days of COVID. After I got the news I called my favorite union steward, who called the SAG-AFTRA lawyers. Then I logged off Slack, ignored texts or call …›
2023-06-20 When I think back on it, I had a positively appalling approach to field recording when I first started out as a producer. A problem would present itself in the field and I would think “I’ll fix it later.” Wow. What a mistake. For instance …›
2023-06-13 The first cohort of the CBC’s Indigenous Pathways programme. Welcome (back) to All Hear, the Everything List for Audio Opportunities. If you’re new here, my name is Talia, I’m an audio producer based in London. Last year, I created a Goog …›
2023-06-06 “Driveway moment.” That’s a term used for a captivating audio story. The story is so good, so well told, a listener can’t get out of their car until they finish listening. A “driveway moment” is something all audio producers strive for. Bac …›