Category Archives: Pubmedia

Transom→ Story Dissection: When The Lede Gives It All Away

2022-11-08 For the first time in a long time, I pulled into my driveway, sat there, finished listening to an episode of a podcast, went inside my home, and listened to the next episode. I was that drawn in. What podcast? Power Trip, the first season of Cover Stor …›

Transom→ Ariana Martinez, Part 2

2022-11-01 Making Time (Re)Introduction I actually remember, precisely, when I came to understand the importance of daydreaming and, more broadly, of Slowness. This lesson came to me through a children’s book. Leo Leonni’s Frederick is a story about a family …›

Transom→ We Need More Words to Describe Audio Stories

2022-10-24 According to Music Genre List, there are 54 different types of jazz. From Acid Jazz to West Coast Jazz. Apparently, there are 41 styles of Country music. Bluegrass is listed under Country with two subgenres — Progressive Bluegrass and Reactionary …›

Transom→ An Indie Audio Maker’s Manifesto

2022-10-20 We’re living through an era of social and political tumult, when civic discourse is breaking down and the founding notions of democracy are being challenged. In times like these, it’s more important than ever that citizens have access to a rich med …›

Transom→ Starting Out: Issue 13, with Laura Mayer

2022-10-18 Introduction  Hi y’all!  Welcome back to Starting Out from me and Transom. We took September off for some much needed rest, and so that I could prep a new season of interviews and resources for y’all.  One of the questions I’ve hea …›

Transom→ Hand Over The Cash?

2022-10-11 There’s the anecdote about the trampoline. It goes like this: Phoenix Jones, a real-life superhero who wears a Batman-type outfit, chases a bad guy down a street in Seattle. The bad guy tries to get away by climbing over a fence. As Phoenix approache …›

Transom→ 32-Bit Float Audio

2022-10-04 It’s not often that we experience fundamental shifts in the technology we use to record audio. In the portable-recorder world, there have been a couple of leaps in the last three decades: the shift from analog recording to digital, and then the s …›

Transom→ Getting Honest

2022-09-27 On this archive episode of the Sound School Podcast, a gift. A gift from producer Will Coley and editor Viki Merrick. Frequently, what takes place between a producer and an editor during production is private, behind closed doors. As is true in many fi …›

Transom→ Darts and Laurels Minus The Darts

2022-09-13 There’s a rule for interviewers: shut up. Interviewers are not supposed to talk while an interviewee gives an answer. In particular, don’t say “mm-hm” or “oh!” or “Hunh”… keep all the little utterances of normal conversation to yourse …›

Transom→ Ariana Martinez, Part 1

2022-09-06 A Time-Based Medium Intro: An Invitation “But time is not what you do something with — time does something with you.”—Sheila Heti, Motherhood Do you remember the last time you surrendered to an experience? When you relinquished expectation or c …›

Transom→ Wolves, Horses, Boars, Birds, and Bugs

2022-08-12 There’s a haunting, high-pitched, dissonant sound that rises from the woods every spring in New England. Peepers. Incredibly small frogs about the size of a thumbnail. They’re so small it seems impossible they’re as loud as they are. One evening …›

Transom→ Starting Out: Issue 12, with B.A. Parker

2022-08-09 Introduction   Welcome back to Starting Out from me and Transom!  This month marks one year of Starting Out, and I kind of can’t believe it. Over the last year I’ve written this newsletter in my free time: on planes, trains and occas …›

Transom→ Tips For Interviewing Shy People (Especially Nuns)

2022-08-02 Not too long ago, a colleague and I interviewed someone for a story. I wouldn’t describe the interviewee as shy, per se, but they were definitely guarded, as though monitoring everything they said. To be sure, they were a good talker, they told stori …›

Transom→ The Art of the Radio Feature

2022-07-26 Veteran Australian producer Mike Ladd gives his thoughts on making radio features, focusing on subject, sound, shape and script. What follows here are some personal ideas and practical tips gained from four decades of listening to, thinking about, and …›

Transom→ Nausea, Forehead Mics, and Immersion

2022-07-19 One of my favorite narrative journalism reporters is Ted Conover. Two books of his in particular stand out because he dives in and becomes a character in the story he’s reporting: Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails with America’s Hoboes and New Jack …›

Transom→ Starting Out: Issue 11, with Daniel Alarcón

2022-07-12 Introduction   Hey y’all. Welcome back to Starting Out from me and Transom.  What a few weeks it’s been. It’s unrelentingly hot here in North Carolina — rain shows up on the forecast every day but never materializes. I can feel t …›

Transom→ Share the Script?

2022-07-05 There are a few things it’s important to say to an interviewee at the start of an interview to make sure you’re both on the same page. Even if a reporter has talked to this person on the phone or by email, it’s always a good idea to remind people …›

Transom→ Consider Your Ears

2022-06-28 What Audio Does Best I’ve retired. After 45 years on radio (Pacifica, NPR, Radiolab) and television (CBS, ABC, PBS, HBO) I now have my days free, the nights too, to muse over what I’ve done and I think I may have discovered something surprising alo …›

Transom→ Delicately Revealing Your Identity in the Story

2022-06-21 I was given a “writer’s block” as a gift, recently. It’s a little wooden cube. On each side there’s a Henry David Thoreau reference — his signature, a wood cut image of his shack at Walden, a reference to Civil Disobedience, and one of …›