Transom→ Spatial Audio

2022-05-03 Introduction The world of “3D” or spatial audio is still unfamiliar to many, but to audio producers it’s a compelling area to explore — intriguing, and at times confusing; the landscape is constantly shifting as new spatial tools and technologi …›

Transom→ More Darts And Laurels

2022-04-26 I find random sound effects in stories aggravating. (Insert sound of an irritated, roaring lion.) They’re a distraction. They add no value. And, frankly, I think they infantilize the audience. (Insert sound of a child cooing.) Rather than simply rant …›

The ProPublica Nerd Blog - ProPublica→ Look Up Nursing Home Staff COVID-19 Vaccination Rates

2022-04-21 by Ruth Talbot On Thursday, ProPublica added staff COVID-19 vaccination data to the Nursing Home Inspect project. The virus has killed more than 150,000 nursi …›

Transom→ Starting Out: Issue 8, With Chris Stedman

2022-04-19 Introduction  Hi, y’all! Welcome back to Starting Out with me and Transom.  I’m so excited to share this interview with Chris Stedman, host and writer of Unread. It’s a really special show that I’m so glad was made. Unread is a s …›

Transom→ Thinking In Scenes

2022-04-12 Back when he was just starting out, Bradley Campbell, a former student of mine, was jonesing to understand story structure. He figured if he could just decipher the structure of stories, he’d have the keys to the city. Bradley figured he knew all the …›

Transom→ Starting Out: Issue 7, With Noel King

2022-03-22 Introduction   Hey y’all! Welcome back to Starting Out from me and Transom!  If you’re new to the newsletter, here’s what you can expect: a collection of job postings for early career positions, resource guides on common issues (ho …›

Transom→ A Soldier’s Heart

2022-03-17 Self-doubt is healthy, and so are emotions! On those wonderful occasions when I have the opportunity to speak with students, there’s one question that I can almost always count on: When you’re reporting on the awful things that happen to other peop …›

Transom→ Engage Listeners To Build Trust

2022-03-15 Angela Evancie says journalism is witnessing the decline of local news, especially in the world of newspapers. To make matters worse for journalism, Angela says we’re also experiencing unprecedented skepticism and animosity toward journalism, reporte …›

First Draft→ Australian election misinformation playbook

2022-03-13 The challenge of monitoring, understanding, defining and responding to mis- and disinformation is exacerbated during election campaigns. This report outlines tactics used by agents of disinformation to undermine elections as observed by First Draft’s …›

Transom→ Riding Shotgun

2022-03-08 Trust, Reporting, and the Urban-Rural Divide It’s morning in camp and the Elzinga sisters are saddling up their horses and getting ready for another long day on horseback. They’ll be herding several hundred head of cattle through thick timber, up m …›

Transom→ Podcast Mixers (As General Audio Production Tools)

2022-02-22 The release of the Rodecaster Pro marked a pivotal moment in audio production. It is a small audio mixer with integrated vocal processing, two ways to integrate cell phone audio or web meeting audio, multiple headphone outputs and big pads for triggeri …›

Transom→ Radio Silence (Rerun)

2022-02-16 “If you think about it, the leaves grow in silence. Grass grows in silence. Flowers grow in silence. The stars come out in silence. . . ” Virginia Phillips lists those silent things at the beginning of Silence Among Friends. It’s a story about si …›

Transom→ Audio Message In A Bottle

2022-02-15 Download a transcript of this episode here. So what are we going to do, audio producers? What are we going to do to make our work fresh and sonically interesting? I ask because I’m flummoxed by the homogeneity of audio storytelling these days. Podcas …›

Transom→ Ten (More) Tricks For Finding Stories

2022-02-08 Back in 2018, I shared a bunch of my story-finding tricks in an effort to help demystify the process.  A lot of people seemed to find it helpful. I often get emails about it.  So in that same spirit, here are ten more tricks, surefire ways to …›

Transom→ Al Letson’s Covenant with Listeners About True Crime Stories

2022-02-01 Download a transcript of this episode here. A few episodes ago, I took an iHeartMedia podcast to task because the 1-minute trailer and the 1-minute opening to its first episode were exactly the same. No difference. If the listener started with the trai …›

Transom→ Mombinary

2022-01-25 Where It Came From This piece is almost all directly from my journal entries from the Winter of 2020/2021. I first became aware of the concept of gender as a spectrum in 2010, when I learned about it as a teacher in a professional development session a …›

Transom→ Navigating Tricky Story Dynamics

2022-01-18 Download a transcript of this episode here. Aviva DeKornfeld says there’s just not enough satisfying reporting on climate grief — especially stories of young people experiencing climate grief. So, when she discovered a climate activist-leaning …›

Transom→ Starting Out: Issue 6

2022-01-13 Hiya! Welcome back to Starting Out from me and Transom!  Just a quick bit of business: there won’t be a newsletter next month, so that I can focus on prepping the next set of issues for you. I’ll make sure to tweet out any job postings that I …›

Transom→ Get Close

2022-01-06 Dear you, I’m reading these words aloud as I type them. Words carrying sounds on their backs are my path to you and I’m trying to close the gap between us. Because at root, whether through words, sounds or images, it’s the connection I’m af …›

Transom→ So You Want To Start A Podcast, Eh?

2022-01-04 Download a transcript of this episode here. Last I heard, there are two million podcasts — two million! On one hand, that’s amazing. So many people picking up microphones and saying what they want to say. Frankly, I think that’s healthy for t …›

Transom→ Goodbye 2021

2021-12-30 TRANSOM: “TRAN-sum” A small hinged window above a door, allowing light and ventilation into hallways of older buildings. At magazine and newspaper offices, unsolicited manuscripts were submitted “over the transom.” A YEAR-END RE …›

Transom→ Exquisitely Challenging: Reporting on Suicide

2021-12-21 Erica Heilman’s story “Finn and the Bell” is the best I’ve heard all year. Yes. It’s that good. The documentary tells the story of Finn Rooney, a young man who was a volunteer fireman and a poet and a baseball player and, as one friend put it …›

Transom→ 2021 Gift Guide

2021-12-14 Last Minute Gift Guide Here are some gift ideas from the Transom crew: items we’d give audio producers we know, or that we’ve had our eyes on for ourselves. We’ve included a range of items, from inexpensive accessories to major splurges, …›

Iffy.news→ Consider the Source

2021-12-13 Anatomy of an anti-vax fact-check: Consider the Source, Check the Site, Confirm the Content. Who made the claim, who published it, where's the evidence? …›

Transom→ Starting Out: Issue 5

2021-12-09 Hiya! Welcome back to Starting Out from me and Transom.  A few weeks ago I sent out a survey to hear what’s working with the newsletter so far and what you’d like to see in the new year. Thank you all for such thoughtful feedback!  One th …›

Transom→ Darts and Laurels

2021-12-07 Download a transcript of this episode here. I can think of two rock-solid reasons why radio should be a subject for podcasts (and for radio broadcasters, too). And I don’t mean actual radios, I mean radio history and culture — stories about a m …›

First Draft→ False claims and conspiracy theories about Omicron emerge online alongside the new variant

2021-12-03 False claims and conspiracy theories about the new Covid-19 variant Omicron emerged online after the variant was reported by South Africa to the World Health Organization (WHO) on November 24. The WHO said the variant has had a large number of mutation …›

Transom→ What In The World Does An AP Actually Do?

2021-11-30 Defining the role of associate producer can be a little bit challenging, especially at a show like Radiolab, where every member of staff is a jack of all trades. Additionally, I was brought in “temporary,” a contract hire to help exclusively with t …›

Transom→ House of Pod Closes the House

2021-11-23 Cat Jaffee is clear. Podcasting is not about talking into a mic. It’s about listening. Cat’s a firm believer in “a better world through better listening,” as she puts it. As a podcaster, she feels the best content is derived from listening. Cat …›

First Draft→ Misinformation accompanies US expansion of boosters

2021-11-22 As the United States is poised to roll out its Covid-19 vaccine booster program for all adults, misleading information on social media around this latest development is likely to become the focal point of the next round of vaccine misinformation. Alrea …›

First Draft→ Austria’s lockdown for unvaccinated people falsely compared to Nazi policies

2021-11-22 False comparisons have again been drawn between Nazi Germany and Covid-19 pandemic measures, this time prompted by the introduction of a lockdown for people in Austria who are not fully vaccinated. About two million people in Austria, or one-third of t …›

Transom→ The Lake

2021-11-16 Aaron Smale (Ngāti Porou), Host, Researcher, Co-writer:  Lake Alice has been on a shortlist of stories I’ve wanted to tell in an expansive way for several years. I’d been researching state institutions that had held children in the late …›

First Draft→ Disinformation actors share misconstrued narratives about coronavirus spike protein to push vaccine skepticism

2021-11-12 Vaccine misinformation concerning the coronavirus spike protein has again picked up in recent days. Vaccine skeptics and deniers have weaponized this medical term to deter people from trusting Covid-19 vaccines, which have been proven effective and saf …›

First Draft→ Facebook comment sections rife with misinformation following Pfizer’s Covid-19 antiviral pill announcement

2021-11-12 Last week Pfizer published interim trial results for its experimental Covid-19 antiviral pill, Paxlovid, which the company said reduced the chance of hospitalization or death for some adults by almost 90 per cent. The US pharmaceutical giant’s analys …›

Transom→ Starting Out: Issue 4

2021-11-11 Welcome back to Starting Out!  My friends in high school were pretty competitive. Every quarter, the class rankings would come out and we’d silently note which friends were ahead of us in GPA. Everyone humble bragged about their AP classes and e …›

Transom→ A Sonic Conjuring (Rerun)

2021-11-09 Download a transcript of this episode here. Take a look at the photo above, the two strips of film from the collection at the Imperial War Museum in London. They document the sound of Armistice Day, the end of World War I, and the silencing o …›

First Draft→ Videos of anti-vaccine healthcare workers being removed from jobs reinforce misleading claims

2021-11-06 Several videos of anti-vaccine medical workers recording themselves being suspended or fired from their jobs at healthcare facilities have generated significant interest in the past few days. Most physicians and healthcare workers in the United States …›

First Draft→ Boost in vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories as Australia prepares to roll out Pfizer booster for adults

2021-11-06 Australia will begin offering Covid-19 vaccine booster shots to eligible members of its adult population on November 8. News that the country’s medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), had provisionally approved the Pfizer vac …›

First Draft→ Headlines about Australian actress’s stroke after vaccination fail to mention rarity of the conditions

2021-10-29 News headlines about a UK-based Australian actress who suffered a stroke “after getting Covid vaccine” or “after getting the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine” overly emphasized a single incident without providing important context about the rarity of …›