Sound School Podcast

Sound School Podcast episodes:

• 04.09.2024

  Thanks, NPR. That Was Satisfying.

  Have NPR's news magazines occasionally been sounding more radiophonic lately? Rob thinks so. He's collected a handful of satisfying moments of writing, production, and reporting from several reporters: Daniel Estrin, Avery Keatley, Andrew Limbong, Barbara Moran, Ari Shapiro, and Andrea...

  
• 03.26.2024

  The Um, A Deep Dive

  "Ums." You're supposed to cut them out, right? But what if the "um" means something? Talia Augustidis noticed her boyfriend "ummed" when he was lying and she thought "radio story." Talia takes a deep dive into the importance of not...

  
• 03.12.2024

  Revisiting: Should I or Shouldn’t I — Recording in Stereo

  One of the top three questions Rob often hears when he's teaching is, "Should I record in stereo?" Rob says mono is usually the way to go. But on this archive episode of Sound School, former NPR engineer Flawn Williams...

  
• 02.27.2024

  Small, Random, and Meaningful

  In the tsunami of serialized documentary making over the last decade, what happened to the short story? Where are the one-off curious and creative sound portraits or essays or found sound or audio postcards or.... ? Last year Transom commissioned...

  
• 02.13.2024

  For the Love of Radio, Get Out of the Studio!

  In honor of World Radio Day this week, The Sound School Podcast is celebrating with a story that exemplifies the power of radio to evoke striking images — a story reported from a remote hillside in Slovenia.

  
• 01.30.2024

  A Triple Whammy

  Katz Laszlo says writing and tracking for herself is complicated enough. But it's an even greater challenge writing for and tracking with the two co-hosts of The Europeans podcast. Katz lays out how she and the hosts wrangle it all...

  
• 01.16.2024

  Tracking Partners

  It's a brave thing to share the outtakes from a tracking session. All the blemishes are right there. But, Martine Powers and Rennie Svirnovsky from audio team at The Washington Post have graciously done just that. Hearing how they work...

  
• 01.02.2024

  Revisiting: Goldstein on Writing, Fonts, and The Goldstein

  While there were many great podcasts released in 2023, no one will remember the year as a good one for the people who make podcasts. There were far too many layoffs and cancellations including a show dear to our radio hearts...

  
• 12.19.2023

  Which Is the Better Open?

  Rob takes himself to task on this episode. He felt the beginning of the last episode of Sound School was so boring, he rewrote it. Compare the old version with the new version be sure to tell us at Transom which is the...

  
• 12.05.2023

  Reporting Out at the Edge

  Theo Greenly reports for a public radio station in the far-flung Aleutian Islands in Alaska. When he started, about two and a half years ago, he thought he'd hit the ground running reporting in-depth, documentary-style pieces. Instead, he learned he really...

  
• 11.21.2023

  Mixing Fiction with Non-Fiction

  Fiction should stay in its corner, non-fiction in its corner. Or so Rob thought until he heard producer Pippa Johnstone seamlessly and effectively mix the two in her memorable podcast "Expectant," where Pippa explores a remarkably uncomfortable question: In a...

  
• 11.07.2023

  Interview Strangers on the Street, Make a Podcast

  Catherine Carr has turned vox into artful conversation with a deceptively simple question: Where are you going? That's also the name of the podcast she makes (a recent British Podcast Award winner) where she interviews strangers about where they're going and...

  
• 10.24.2023

  Revisiting: Remembering Studs

  Studs Terkel is considered by many to be a patron saint of documentary radio journalism. It's been 15 years since his death. On this archive episode of Sound School from 2012, Rob talks to Syd Lewis who worked with Studs...

  
• 10.10.2023

  Pleasing to the Ear

  Rob acts as a story DJ on this episode, featuring excerpts from stories he’s recently found pleasing to the ear. His "playlist" includes work from "More Perfect," the BBC Radio 4 podcast "Seriously," "The Shortwave Radio Archive," and "That Intimate...

  
• 09.26.2023

  Salt at 50!

  What do radio producers Phoebe Judge (Criminal), Zoe Chase (This American Life), Greg Warner (Rough Translation), Matt Kielty (Radiolab), Emily Kwong (NPR) and dozens if not hundreds of others you've heard on your favorite podcasts and radio shows have in...

  
• 09.12.2023

  Revisiting: Dead Mom Talking

  This year's Third Coast Festival winners and finalists produced incredible work. It got us thinking about winners from previous years. So, we dug up this fantastic interview with Rachel Matlow who won a "Best New Producer" award in 2016 for...

  
• 08.29.2023

  So You STILL Want to Start a Podcast, Eh?

  It's unusual for a producer to share a work in progress. It's rarer still to do it twice. Nina Porzucki updates Rob on the progress of Bird Talk, her comedy podcast in-the-making and the steps it took to make her second pilot...

  
• 08.15.2023

  Going Behind the Mic On Climate Change Reporting

  Rebecca Hersher, a climate science reporter at NPR, offers excellent tips on reporting on climate change. But, at the heart of Rob's interview with her is something more philosophical: the role of hope in climate change reporting.

  
• 08.01.2023

  Revisiting: Sound Art Meets Poetry Meets Cicadas

  Summer means cicadas. Those crackly, buzzy bugs that drone and drone in the heat like a live electrical wire spewing sparks. Mair Bosworth and Fiona Benson took that sound and crafted "Magicicada," a stunning "sound poem," as they called it,...

  
• 07.18.2023

  Next-level Scoring

  Get your headphones on for this episode! Rob dives into three remarkable examples of scoring. He features examples from the Serial/NYT series "The Retrievals," scored by Phoebe Wang, "My Mother Made Me" from PRX's Radiotopia Presents scored by Ian Coss,...

  
• 07.05.2023

  Lean In and Listen Like It’s Music

  Rob's a fan of the "radio art" style of audio storytelling from Europe but often, after listening, he finds himself scratching his head. "What was that about?!" He wonders if the problem isn't the storytelling but his American ears and...

  
• 06.20.2023

  Revisiting: Avoiding Pesky Sound Problems

  No matter how good you are recording in the field, you're going to encounter challenges. Rob Byers does an incredible job explaining how to avoid and fix those problems on this archive episode of Sound School from 2017. At the time, Rob worked at NPR. He's...

  
• 06.06.2023

  The Best Audio Storytelling According to Pushkin

  Pushkin Industries released a "Best Of Audio Storytelling: 2022" but instead of putting it out as a podcast series, it's an audiobook. Does it matter? Julia Barton at Pushkin says no. On the latest Sound School, Julia talks about tearing...

  
• 05.23.2023

  Happy 15th Sound School!

  The Sound School Podcast launched 15 years ago this month. But it was called Saltcast back then. And for the first episode, Rob featured once of his absolute favorite student-produced stories - one that he played in classes for years...

  
• 05.09.2023

  What's Grabbed Antonia's Ears?

  Antonia Cereijido has her ear to the ground. It's her job as Executive Producer at LAist to listen to what everyone is putting out. Rob asks her what grabbed her ears lately? She tells us about two recent series: the...

  
• 04.25.2023

  The Fingerprint of Chris Brookes

  A light went out recently. The bright light of Chris Brookes — a sorcerer of audio documentary and sound art. When Rob heard the news, he immediately started work on this remembrance featuring excerpts from several of Chris' distinctive productions...

  
• 04.11.2023

  Producing a Non-narrated Obituary

  What's the value of a non-narrated story for the listener? "It's direct," says NPR's Quil Lawrence. The characters in the story are "talking straight to the listener." He says this is especially important in an audio obituary. So, in a...

  
• 03.28.2023

  What’s Next for Munira?

  Munira Kaoneka first started as a blogger in Tanzania. But she says sometimes you need to shout so she started a podcast, “The Kaya Sessions." A couple of years later, after taking a workshop on narrative audio storytelling and reporting,...

  
• 03.14.2023

  Still More Darts and Laurels

  Rob takes a hard listen to three podcasts -- You Didn't See Nothin', Lights Out, and Noble Champions. He then tosses out darts for work that caused him to ask "Why'd you do that?!" and laurels for work that's just...

  
• 02.28.2023

  Think of a Radio Station (or Podcast) as a Musical Instrument

  Steve Junker says he thinks of a radio station as a musical instrument -- a pipe organ, to be specific. It's capable of making all kinds kinds of sounds. But, he thinks public radio stations tend to only play a couple...

  
• 02.14.2023

  Dear Birth Mother

  In this episode, Rob turns the mic on himself to mark the 10th anniversary of meeting his birth mother for the first time. He also features the positively stunning portrait of an adopting mom in "Dear Birth Mother," a Third Coast award-winning doc from Dan...

  
• 01.31.2023

  Studs Terkel Meets Brian Eno in the Woods

  It's good to look beyond your borders for inspiration. That's what this episode is about. Brian Harnetty is a sound ethnographer. And quite a bit of what he does resembles the work of radio and podcast producers. But he departs...

  
• 01.17.2023

  This is Good, But I Have a Question

  Three great new podcasts raised production questions for Rob. Why use sound effects in All There Is With Anderson Cooper? Why were the interviews for Bjork’s Sonic Symbolism podcast recorded so poorly? Those questions and more on the latest Sound School...

  
• 01.03.2023

  Recording Sound Design in the Field

  John Scott Dryden takes a very unique approach to sound design for the fiction podcasts he produces -- he records on location. For "Q&A," the first season of Mumbai Crime from Radiotopia, everything was recorded in Mumbai. The result is...

  
• 12.20.2022

  Why Two Narrators When One Will Suffice?

  The vast majority of stories are told by one narrator. But not at NPR's Planet Money. They regularly have co-narrators. Why? Why have two narrators when one will suffice? Reporters Erika Beras and Sarah Gonzalez have the answer.

  
• 12.06.2022

  Caves and Bears and Neanderthal Flutes - Stories from Slovenia

  What's the best way for reporters to break out of their boxes and think creatively? Give them an unusual assignment and send them out into the world with microphones. That's just what happened during a week-long workshop Rob taught with...

  
• 11.22.2022

  Writing An Audio Essay

  Rarely do reporters turn the mic on themselves to divulge the challenges in their own lives. So, when they do, it’s surprising — and refreshing. Stephanie Foo's personal essay, "The Favorite" is an excellent example. In this archive episode, Stephanie...

  
• 11.08.2022

  Story Dissection: When the Lede Gives It All Away

  The opening to a story, especially a long series, requires a dance. How much do you give away? How much do you hold on to? On this episode of the Sound School Podcast, I offer two examples: one that didn't...

  
• 10.25.2022

  We Need More Words To Describe Audio Stories

  When you limit language, you limit thinking. When you limit thinking, you limit creativity. When you limit creativity, audio storytellers wind up making the same thing over and over and over again and that's not good. That's why producer James T....

  
• 10.11.2022

  Hand Over the Cash?

  Reporter David Weinberg knows the rule: don't pay sources. For fifteen years, he never did – until he reported on Phoenix Jones for the podcast “The Superhero Complex.” What impact did that have on his reporting? David lays it out.

  
• 09.27.2022

  Getting Honest —The Editor, Producer Relationship

  Typically, what happens between an editor and a producer is private. In this archive episode of the Sound School Podcast from 2014, editor Viki Merrick and producer Will Coley offer listeners a gift taking us behind the scenes for the production...

  
• 09.13.2022

  Darts and Laurels Minus the Darts

  In another installment of Sound School’s occasional episodes offering darts and laurels for exceptional and not-so-exceptional work, Rob is offering nothing but laurels. Two for This American Life's episode "Name. Age. Detail." Another for a piece reported in Poland by NPR's Ari...

  
• 08.30.2022

  Two Years of Reporting Whittled Down to Fourteen Minutes – Elissa Nadworny

  This is the first episode of the Sound School Podcast (formerly HowSound). It's still from PRX and Transom. Rob's still the host. And the show is still committed to digging deep on the backstory to great audio storytelling. Our first episode...

  
• 08.16.2022

  Wolves, Horses, Boars, Birds, and Bugs

  Field recordist Melissa Pons says one of the most important elements of recording soundscapes isn't the gear -- it's you. If you're humble and connect to how the landscape makes you feel, your recordings will benefit. Recording sounds around the...

  
• 08.02.2022

  Tips For Interviewing Shy People (Especially Nuns)

  Some interviewees are shy. Others guarded. Yet, you need to talk to them for a story. How do you help them open up? Erika Lantz and Elin Lantz Lesser have a lot of ideas. They spent the better part of...

  
• 07.19.2022

  Nausea, Forehead Mics, and Immersion

  Almost every reporting trip has its pitfalls. Andrew Leland's recent story for Radiolab had more than most: He reported people with disabilities participating in tests for travel in space. Along with the nausea and recording challenges in zero gravity, Andrew has lost much...

  
• 07.05.2022

  Share the Script?

  For more than twenty years, radio journalist Laurel Morales followed the rules: Don't share scripts with sources. Laurel now produces the podcast "2 Lives" and she's tossed that rule out the window. She explains why on this episode of HowSound.

  
• 06.21.2022

  Delicately Revealing Your Identity in the Story

  Ben Calhoun, formerly of This American Life, sat for two hours staring at a Google doc trying to figure out what to say. It was a delicate piece of writing about race and his own identity. Ben unpacks what he...

  
• 06.07.2022

  Who Am I To Be Here?

  Back in 2007, when Andrea Silenzi was a rookie reporter just learning the craft as a student, she reported a story about a woman dying of ALS. It was not easy to report and she regularly wondered "Who am I...

  
• 05.24.2022

  Producing YA Fiction

  Hillary Frank says middle school can be brutal. The bullying, the harassment, the homophobia, the racism, the sexism... it's all there, along with the complicated emotions of pre-teens. "Here Lies Me," a podcast Hillary wrote, directed, and produced, tackles it...