Category Archives: Pubmedia

Transom→ Starting Out: Issue 21, with Jonathan Menjivar

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 …›

Transom→ Next Level Scoring

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 …›

Transom→ All Hear, July 2023

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 …›

Transom→ Lean In and Listen Like It’s Music

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 …›

Transom→ Starting Out: Issue 20, With Priska Neely

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 …›

Transom→ Revisiting: Avoiding Pesky Recording Problems

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 …›

Transom→ All Hear, June 2023

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 …›

Transom→ The Best Audio Storytelling According to Pushkin

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 …›

Transom→ Happy 15th Sound School!

2023-05-23 We were digging into some numbers the other day. By “we,” I mean, Jay Allison and Jennifer Jerrett at Transom and Kerri Hoffman at PRX. And by numbers, I mean “How many episodes of Sound School have there been?” The answer is simple — 20. …›

Transom→ All Hear, May 2023

2023-05-16 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 newsletter, …›

Hot Pod News→ Live audio is getting another go on Bluesky

2023-05-10 Hi all,  This week is an exciting one for the audio industry, with Podcast Upfront around the corner and awards season underway. This week we’ll look at a new community audio project on BlueSky and Spotify’s expansion of its audio ad network i …›

Transom→ What’s Grabbed Antonia’s Ears?

2023-05-09 Remember back in high school, when a student would raise their hand and ask the teacher “How long does the report need to be?” I clearly remember one teacher saying, “Long enough to answer the question!” Good one, right? The teacher was clearly …›

Transom→ Starting Out: Issue 19, with Stephanie Foo

2023-05-02 Introduction Hey y’all,  Welcome back to Starting Out, from me and Transom. It’s season four of the newsletter! And my first season of the newsletter on Substack.  I switched platforms because I want us to be able to connect more — and …›

Transom→ The Fingerprint of Chris Brookes

2023-04-25 For this episode of The Sound School Podcast, I took Chris Brookes’ advice. “I believe in finding a talisman,” Chris wrote on Transom back in 2011. He says he digs up a talisman for a story he’s producing, something that’s “connected in som …›

Transom→ All Hear, April 2023

2023-04-18 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. Every month, I …›

Transom→ Producing a Non-narrated Obituary

2023-04-11 “You don’t want the music to take over or even be noticed very much.” I think that’s the most important observation Quil Lawrence made when we talked about a non-narrated, audio obituary he produced. Quil reports on veterans for NPR. The obitua …›

Transom→ What’s Next for Munira?

2023-03-28 If a podcast drops in Tanzania, does it make a sound? Munira Kaoneka is asking just that question when producing a podcast from her home in Dar es Salaam. Some days she wonders who’s listening because, as she puts it, “podcasters are struggling out …›

Transom→ All Hear, March 2023

2023-03-21 Hello! Welcome (back) to All Hear Hello! Welcome (back) to All Hear, the Everything List for Audio Opportunities. Before I get into this month’s Spotlights and opportunities, Transom has some exciting news! They are considering (re)starting some prog …›

Transom→ Still More Darts and Laurels

2023-03-14 If a humpback whale could talk to us, what would they say? Dr. Geraint Rhys Whittaker decided they might say the same thing someone who lived through a bombing would say. And then he made an audio piece called “First Contact.” It’s intriguing rig …›

Transom→ All Hear, February 2023

2023-02-21 Hello! Welcome (back) to All Hear.  In case this is your first time: my name is Talia, I’m an audio producer based in London. Last year, I created a Google Doc compiling international audio resources. Every month in my newsletter, I’ll rem …›

Transom→ Dear Birth Mother

2023-02-14 “Should I? Or shouldn’t I?” “Should I? Or Shouldn’t I?” I must have asked myself that question a thousand times. My internal dialogue never seemed to end. “It’s one of the most important events of your life! Bring a recorder!!” “No, …›

Transom→ Starting Out: Issue 17, with Ariana Martinez

2023-02-02 Introduction   Hey y’all — Ariana Martinez has been on my “to interview” list for a while now — they’re an incredibly talented sound designer and make truly delightful stories. But what I was most excited about was how they push t …›

Transom→ Studs Terkel Meets Brian Eno in the Woods

2023-01-31 I think my favorite quote from Brian Harnetty on this episode of Sound School is when he told me his work as a sound ethnographer is “basically, curiosity that’s rooted in sound.” As he conducts his research, he says he pays attention to the “s …›

Transom→ All Hear, January 2023

2023-01-24 The Everything List for Audio Opportunities Hi there! My name is Talia, I’m an audio producer based in London. When I entered the industry a couple of years ago, I really struggled to find opportunities. Eventually I started compiling a small list of …›

Transom→ All Hear Coming Soon!

2023-01-20 The Everything List of Audio Opportunities When I was just starting out, it was hard to learn about what opportunities were out there in the audio industry. It felt like you had to know someone who knew something, or look in a million places, or pay fo …›

Transom→ Small, Random, and Meaningful

2023-01-19 A call for submissions for the Transom Specials We want to help support your passion project — a small, random, one-off story or audio experiment that means a lot to you. And one that might not fit anywhere else. This call is for (ideally) finished p …›

Transom→ This is Good, But I Have a Question

2023-01-17 I subscribe to far too many podcasting emails. I probably need to cut back. But, I won’t. It’s the best way for me to stay in touch with what’s happening outside my radio/podcast bubble where I live in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. I just wish these …›

Transom→ Starting Out: Issue 16, with James Kim

2023-01-10 Introduction   Hey y’all,  As longtime readers of the newsletter know, I’m a gardener. Which means I have a tough time in January. It’s too early to start my seeds for spring, most of my fall crops have been knocked out by the cold …›

Transom→ Jeremy Hobson

2023-01-05 Live In The Evening When I first got obsessed with radio around age six or seven, it was because I would listen at night. After it was time for bed, I could turn on the radio and hear a live person on the other end. Someone who was speaking to me. A fr …›