Overview:

On this episode, Rob and Britta explore the audio work of Alex Kotlowitz, a documentariean and writer best known for There Are No Children Here. He's spent years building a quietly stunning body of non-narrated stories for Chicago Public Radio and This American Life. Britta's conversation with Alex is woven into our discussion of his stories about home, money, love, and trauma.

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Links for this episode:

A Trip to the Boundary Waters – The New Yorker Radio Hour

Panthers and Palm Trees – Stories of Home, produced with Amy Drozdowska

Mothers of Invention – This American Life Episode 298, Getting and Spending

An Almost Perfect Guy – Love Stories, produced with Amy Drozdowska

In Country, In City – This American Life #484, Doppelgängers

Harper High School, Part One – This American Life Episode 487

Harper High School, Part Two – This American Life Episode 488

The Bigness of the Small Story – Alex's 2016 Third Coast talk

Amy Drozdowska – the full Stories of Home, Love Stories, and money series archives

On this episode, a break from the usual format. About a year ago, Rob came home from his 30th high school reunion with a story he couldn't stop telling: how he tried to apologize to a woman that reunion whose friendship he'd ended their junior year of high school. To get to the bottom of what the story meant, Rob sat down with a close friend, set up two microphones, and told her the whole thing. Rob and Britta talk about what happened when he did, and why a story might mean something different depending on who's listening when you tell it.

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Links for this episode:

Alissa Duryee's music

Cheri Johnson's writing

Julie Censullo's podcasts

Music from Blue Dot Sessions

Overview:

On this episode, Rob and Britta dig into the career of editor and writer Julia Barton, whose incredibly varied career has spanned the golden era of public radio, an experimental podcast recorded while doing the dishes, and an executive editing role at Pushkin Industries. Along the way she's traced the hidden architecture of radio—where it came from and what it costs the people who work inside it.

Support Phonograph on Patreon

Links for this episode:

RadioWright — Julia's Website

Continuous Wave — Julia's Newsletter

Weekend America — A Life Changing Letter

DTFD: The Podcast — Julia Barton

Unsung Icons of Soviet Design — 99% Invisible

The Broadcast Clock — 99% Invisible

Neither Confirm Nor Deny — Radiolab

If You Could Do Anything — Anxious Machine

The Best Audio Storytelling According to Pushkin — HowSound

Music from Blue Dot Sessions

On this episode, Rob and Britta dig into the classic This American Life episode "24 Hours at the Golden Apple," (November 17, 2000) in which a team of producers spent a full day and night at a 24-hour diner on Chicago's north side, trying to interview everyone who was willing to talk. Special guest Joe Richman, founder of Radio Diaries, joins us to talk about the segment he produced for the episode, and what it felt like to revisit that story more than two decades later.

This American Life: 24 Hours at the Golden Apple (Episode 173)

Nancy Updike's talk at the Third Coast International Audio Festival: "Die Mediocrity Die"

Joe Richman's Radio Diaries

Music from Blue Dot Sessions

On this episode, Rob and Britta tell the story of the golden age of podcast advertising — how it started, why it worked, and why it seems to be over. Along the way we tell the story of what happened when Cards Against Humanity partnerned with a very opinionated tech podcaster to create the most entertaining ad campaign in the history of the medium.

Guests include Lex Friedman, one of the first people to sell podcast ads, and John Siracusa and Casey Liss, co-hosts of Accidental Tech Podcast.

Discussed in this episode:

The Wolf Den: Lex Friedman, Midroll's EVP of Sales and Development (Episode 71)

Hypercritical: Episode 1

Hypercritical: The Wrong Guy (Episode 42)

Hypercritical: Pinching the Harmonica (Episode 49)

Hypercritical: Worse and More Diverse (Episode 18)

Casey Liss: Siracusa on Toasters

Lex Friedman: lexfriedman.com

John Siracusa: hypercritical.co

Music from Blue Dot Sessions

In the weeks since Alex Pretti's murder, Rob and Britta have been listening to numerous podcasts that covered the ICE invasion of American cities over the past year. Ingesting a year of audio ICE coverage puts this story (not to mention our conception of audio journalism) into a whole new perspective.

Come for the heartfelt media criticism. Stay for Rob's brutal takedown of The Daily.

If you'd like to donate to people helping those targeted by ICE in Minneapolis, you can do that here. If you like the work we're doing, you can support us on our Patreon. Our music comes from Blue Dot Sessions.

Discussed in this Episode:

This American Life: "The Largest Deportation Operation in American History"

Reveal: "Taken by ICE"

Radio Atlantic: "When Border Patrol Comes to Town"

What Next: "Everyone Saw ICE Kill Renee Good"

The Daily: "On the Front Line of Minnesota's Fight with ICE"

Panic World: "We Were at ICE's Invasion in Minneapolis"

Radio Atlantic: "Another Death in Minneapolis"

This American Life: "What Is Your Emergency?"

5-4: "Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo"

Heavyweight: "Minneapolis"

Rob and Britta both live in the Twin Cities, so on this episode, we took a break from discussing audio storytelling, and Britta interviewed two photojournalists who've been covering ICE in Minneapolis. It's a conversation about what they've seen, about the vital role of photojournalism at this moment, and the personal toll of doing this work.

Stand with Minnesota Donation Directory

Our Guests:

Evan Frost

Ben Hovland

Media:

Video of Aliya Rachman being dragged from her car by ICE

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

At the tail end of 2025, Rob and Britta discuss work by Scott Carrier and Erica Heilman that captures something about how it felt to live through this harrowing year. To support our show and access our bonus story feed, follow this link to our Patreon.

Show Links:

• "The End of the World" from Scott Carrier's Home of the Brave
• "What Now Sounds Like" from Erica Heilman's Rumble Strip
• Rob and Britta's discussion of Scott Carrier's story The Test
• Erica Heilman's episode of Rumble Strip "The Party"
• Erica Heilman's episode of Rumble Strip "Thanksgiving"
• The Listeners from Transom.org

To explore the phenomenon of podcast bonus feeds, Rob and Britta start by discussing an episode of Yowei Shaw's podcast Proxy (with guest Alex Goldman) about the struggle of podcasters having to ask listeners for money. We then dig into several podcast bonus feeds (This American Life Partners, Slate Plus, and others), to find what they're offering. And we are pleasantly surprised.

To access our bonus feed story of Rob's harrowing Thanksgiving road trip back in 2008, follow this link to our Patreon. You can listen for free with a seven day trial membership and see if it's worth it.

Podcasts discussed in this episode:

• Alex and the Impossible Ask - Proxy with Yowei Shaw
• Hyperfixed with Alex Goldman
• Slate Culture Gabfest
• Slate Plus
• This American Life Partners
• If Books Could Kill Mile High Club
• The Selects Podcast

Our music comes from Blue Dot Sessions

Episode Description:

With the triumphant return of the podcast Heavyweight, Rob and Britta trace the career of Jonathan Goldstein through several of his stories, including his early work at This American Life, the CBC radio show Wiretap, and his podcast Heavyweight.

Stories and episodes discussed:

• "Baby Scientists with Faulty Data" - This American Life
• "You Call That Love?" - This American Life
• "A Fate Most Of Us Fear" - This American Life
• "Buddy Picture" - This American Life
• "Other People's Problems" - Wiretap
• "Jesse" - Heavyweight
• Jonathan Goldstein on the Longform Podcast
• Nieman Storyboard on The Little Mermaid story

Our music comes from Blue Dot Sessions. To support Phonograph, subscribe to our bonus feed, which features experiments in audio storytelling.