Transom→ How To Build Your Editorial Muscles

2021-06-17 By the time I left The New York Times, I had been there 18 years and had worked as an editor and a reporter. I’d been dissatisfied and yearning for a change for a while. I wanted to get into podcasting, but I wasn’t sure I had the chops to work in …›

Transom→ When Anthropology Meets Audio Storytelling

2021-06-08 The other day, I started listening to Stay Away From Matthew MaGill from Pineapple Street Studios. I’m very intrigued by it. Eric Mennel, the reporter and producer, is a clear and engaging guide to what appears to be a strange story about a huckster …›

Iffy.news→ Vax vs. Vote

2021-06-02 A side-by-side, state-by-state comparison showing vaccination rates closely correlated with Biden-vote percentages. …›

Transom→ Wrangling Stories With A Focus Sentence

2021-05-25 Starting a story when you’re not sure what’s at the heart of it can be tricky. But there are a couple of techniques I’ve used with students over the years that can help focus a story and center on what it’s all about. You can tr …›

Transom→ In Focus: Ways To Home In On The Core Of A Story

2021-05-25 There’s a risk when you write a story — lack of focus. No center. I’m sure you’ve heard stories like this. It’s like someone let a horse out of the paddock and it’s running all over the place. You can’t tell where it’s going or when it …›

Transom→ Remote Recording: Riverside and Talk Sync

2021-05-18 The COVID-19 crisis forced a number of dramatic changes in the ways that interviews are conducted. We explored different approaches earlier in the pandemic, including looking at some specific programs, such as Zencastr, and hardware, like the Rode Rode …›

Iffy.news→ The United States of Conspiracy

2021-05-18 Americans will believe almost anything. Two decades of polling prove that. No matter how insane the claim, at least 10% and up to 40% of people will say it's true. …›

The ProPublica Nerd Blog - ProPublica→ New: View an Organization’s Employees and Officers on Nonprofit Explorer

2021-05-14 by Andrea Suozzo On Friday, we updated our Nonprofit Explorer database in two big ways. First, we’ve added the ability to view key employees and officers right on an orga …›

Transom→ Celebrating 50 Years of NPR (And The Independent Producers Who Helped Shape Its Sound)

2021-05-13 For 50 years now, NPR has steered toward the goal — and remarkable vision — of an all-embracing, choral representation of America. It is a daunting task and requires a diversified team to pull off. In the language of the original enabling legislati …›

Transom→ Tape-Driven Storytelling

2021-05-11 There’s research that indicates people form their musical tastes when they’re young. Songs and bands that you liked as a teen will stay with you and, typically, remain your favorites as you age. That doesn’t mean taste remains static, it just mea …›

Transom→ Treat an Interview Like a Relationship

2021-05-04 Anna Sale’s Manifesto for Interviewing People About Hard Things When we started Death, Sex & Money at WNYC in 2014, the idea was pretty simple: to create a place for conversation about what really made up the details of our lives but what I found …›

First Draft→ An introduction to live audio social media and misinformation

2021-04-29 What does the rise of live, audio-based social media mean for identifying and moderating misinformation? We’ve taken a look at the platforms and their moderation policies, and offer some key takeaways for journalists and misinformation researchers. ( …›

Transom→ Dissecting a Good Story, Well Told

2021-04-27 Sometimes I’ll call another producer and I’ll say, “Hey, I can’t quite figure out what to do in order to… ” And they might respond and say, “Well, did you hear the latest episode of such-and-such podcast where they did this thing wher …›

Transom→ Principios básicos del podcasting, parte 5: volumen para podcasts v. radio

2021-04-20 Este artículo nació en 2016, con un email a la lista de distribución de AIR. Había muchas preguntas sobre niveles de volumen para podcasts y para radio, así que una noche me senté mientras me preparaba para una mudanza de Mineápolis a Washington …›

Iffy.news→ Mainstream media funds fake news

2021-03-01 When debunkers link to fake-news stories, they do more harm than good. There's a right way and wrong way to cite unreliable sources. Most publishers use the latter. …›

Transom→ Occupational Hazard

2021-02-23 What to Pack I used to think I carried a lot of radio gear. Going out to any interview I’d bring a backpack filled with headphones, a recorder, couple of mics, spare batteries. The usual. These days I’d do anything for that light load. Starting las …›

Transom→ Gas Mask? Check. Bullet Proof Vest? Check…What To Wear When The Reporting Gets Dangerous

2021-02-16 Over the last year, Casey Martin has reported from the front lines in Seattle. What he’s seen is crazy, he says. First the pandemic. Then the occupation of several blocks of the city in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. And now, the far-right prot …›

Transom→ Hexagon Heart

2021-02-09 THE (WAY) BACK STORY I’ve been working with audio for close to 50 years, so it feels like almost my entire life. I began at my college radio station, then later, in NYC, I fell in with a little crowd that included Jay Allison, Karen Frillman, Lou Gia …›

Transom→ Eavesdropping On The Insurrection

2021-02-02 The obvious, stand-out aspect of this story is the tape. It’s absolutely stunning. Micah Loewinger produced this story for On the Media (OTM) about the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building on January 6th of this year. Micah logged into a public …›

Transom→ Going Narrative

2021-01-26 Eight Axioms of Semi-Efficient Narrative Production Believe me. I get it. Narrative can be intimidating. And expensive. We listen to our favorite podcasts and we hear reporters talking about the years they spent chasing down a story. We listen in as th …›

Transom→ Perk Up Your Ears

2021-01-15 One of my favorite things about podcasting is that it reminds me of community radio. These are stations where the door is wide open; everyone is welcome to enroll in training and get on the air. I think of community stations as a kind of “electronic …›

Transom→ FRAN

2021-01-12 Backstory In its original form, FRAN was actually a television pilot. When I wrote the pilot, I was living in LA and working at a television production company. However, at the time, I was pretty much exclusively focused on one thing: comedy. Almost ev …›

The ProPublica Nerd Blog - ProPublica→ She Photographed Police Abuse at a 2014 BLM March Then Watched the Image Go Viral During Capitol Riot

2021-01-11 by Lisa Larson-Walker In the midst of Wednesday’s assault on the U.S. Capitol, Twitter user @thejuliacarter gave voice to the outrage many felt at the stark difference be …›

Transom→ Bow Glacier Asserting Its Existence

2021-01-05 Some years ago, I was walking through Government Center in Boston. I wasn’t really paying attention to where I was going when I heard music — timed with my footsteps. I looked down and discovered I’d walked into a sound art installation. Some …›

Transom→ How Do You Know a Story is Worthy of a Podcast Series?

2020-12-22 If only there was some magical equation for figuring out if the story idea you have equals a podcast series. Something like: Characters + Tension + Surprise + Date Peg + Narrative + Social Issue = 7-part series Wouldn’t that be handy? Unfortunately i …›

Transom→ Shure MV7

2020-12-15 A Worthy Successor to the SM7B When recording from home became much more common, even necessary, during the pandemic, the Shure SM7B became a very in-demand microphone. It had already become a favorite of many serious podcasters, largely for the same r …›

Transom→ Show, Don’t Tell

2020-12-08 Sometimes I’ll slap myself on the forehead and say, “Oh right! Don’t forget to do that when I write!” It’s for that very reason we’re dusting off this old episode of HowSound from 2012 with Brian Reed about the writing maxim “Show, don’ …›

Transom→ Gear Guide for a Lockdown

2020-12-01 2020’s holiday season, like the rest of the year, is certainly unlike any other in memory. Economic hardships, and changes in work processes due to safety concerns will make many people’s year-end purchasing plans dramatically different. …›

Iffy.news→ Congress’ COVID-Positive Party

2020-11-30 Do partisan beliefs and behaviors affect COVID-19 infection rates? Maybe, at least among members of the U.S. Congress. …›

Transom→ Everybody’s Home

2020-11-26 David Greenberger The process for working on Everybody’s Home was similar to what Tyson and I had been doing over the course of about a hundred pieces that we co-wrote for three CDs with the ensemble Prime Lens (My Thoughts Approximately (2017), It H …›

Transom→ Nancy Was Here

2020-11-24 I went to high school in the 1970s at a time when the queer community was marginalized — to say the least. In fact, I won’t say the least. It was dangerous for gays and lesbians and trans people then. I grew up on Cape Cod a culturally con …›

Transom→ Story Mentorship Fall 2020: Pieces

2020-11-17 The Fall 2020 Transom Story Mentorship students on Zoom with Rob Rosenthal and special guest Shereen Marisol Meraji. About Rob Rosenthal, Lead Instructor Rob Rosenthal is an independent producer and a teacher. He’s the host for the HowSound podcast o …›

Transom→ Things I Like

2020-11-10 If you were to ask me, “Do you have a copy of Thoreau’s book Cape Cod?” I’d say yes, and immediately find it among my pile of books in the Cape Cod section of my collection. Or, if you were to ask, “Can we listen to that Rahsaan Kirk record y …›

Transom→ Portraying Character

2020-10-27 The longer I do this, the more I think the best audio storytelling is about the writing. Yes, of course, there has to be a story there in the first place. Yes, you have to interview well. Yes, you have to record well. Yes, a lot relies on the character …›

Transom→ Story Mentorship Winter 2021: Apply

2020-10-22 Story Mentorship Applications This online training will take place from January 24 – March 6, 2021. Instructor Rob Rosenthal will run the 6-week program. We have intentionally capped the class size at six so that participants are guaranteed indiv …›

Transom→ Move It Forward

2020-10-20 The Weight of a Story Untold From the moment I entered the criminal legal system as a 15-year-old boy, I was told, “Don’t tell anyone anything about your case.” I translated that to mean: Don’t tell my story. It then was reinforced by the first …›

Transom→ Why So Chatty, Alex Blumberg?

2020-10-13 There’s not a lot that’s funny in the recently published compendium of writing on climate change by the New Yorker called The Fragile Earth. It’s not a funny topic. In his book Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Out?, about the same subject …›

Transom→ It’s Alright

2020-10-06 Discovering Transom I had bought the graphic novel Out on the Wire, by Jessica Abel, and felt so privileged to be reading it and to be behind the scenes with such amazing radio makers. I would so recommend this book for any radio lovers. It offers such …›

The ProPublica Nerd Blog - ProPublica→ Meet the Baconator

2020-10-02 by Frank Sharpe As a member of the team responsible for keeping ProPublica’s website online, there were times when I wished our site were static. Static sites have a simp …›