Are your interviews falling flat? Are the podcasts and stories you're creating on the foundation of those interviews just skimming the surface? Let's face it: Desiring candor from the human in front of you is one thing, but achieving it is another. Here's a transformative, counter-intuitive solution that will help you go to the heart of anyone's story. 

To read this issue of the newsletter on Substack and subcribe, visit "Interviews are the foundation of great storytelling. Are yours falling flat?"

Do you want more audio newsletters like this one? Give me feedback! 
This is an audio introduction to Sound Judgment, the newsletter. Let me know whether you want to hear more audio newsletters! Please email me at [email protected] or click Contact on soundjudgmentpodcast.com. 

Rate Sound Judgment and write a review
If you appreciate Sound Judgment, please give it a rating and a review.

Visit Apple Podcasts, pull up the Sound Judgment show page and scroll to the bottom of the screen. Below the trailers, you'll find Ratings and Reviews. Click on a star rating. Scroll down past the highlighted review and click on "Write a Review." You'll make my day. 

Apply by July 12, 2024 to the Medicine in the Media fellowship at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH.  Learn more about this incredible opportunity here. 

Read the newsletter The Marginalian by Maria Popova. Thanks to the Marginalian for introducing me to Simone Weil's essay on attention. 

Your homework: Listen to the following episodes to learn directly from interviewers who have a lot to teach about creating true intimacy and connection. 

How to Capture an Audience with Near Death’s Nikki Boyer

How to Tell the Truth: The Art of Memoir with Dana Black

How Anna Sale Invites Listeners In

Emotional Bravery on Last Day with Stephanie Wittels Wachs

Finding Your Voice with Shelter in Place Host Laura Joyce Davis

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. 

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. 

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. 

Connect:

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

✉️ Email Elaine at [email protected]

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 

🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: [email protected]. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits 

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. 

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

On May 6, 2024, The 13th Step team was honored with a Pulitzer Prize nomination for audio reporting "for their gripping and extensively reported investigation of corruption and sexual abuse within the lucrative recovery industry that sought accountability despite legal pressure.”

Today, we go behind the scenes, once again, with New Hampshire Public Radio Reporter Lauren Chooljian and Story Editor Alison MacAdam to learn their techniques for ensuring journalistic accuracy and fairness as they faced attempts at intimidation. And this close team learned how to create a "trauma-informed workplace" -- and how emotional support techniques helped them to keep going.  

This is Part 2 of "Behind the blockbuster investigative series The 13th Step: The best defense is the truth." 

Listen to Part 1
How to Find the Truth: Behind the Blockbuster Investigative Series The 13th Step

Takeaways from today's episode include: 

1. In today's journalistic and political environment, the best defense is the truth. That means using every reporting strategy you can to make sure all of your reporting is factual, precise, backed up with evidence and well organized.

2.  Corroborate, corroborate, corroborate. In your story or series, explain that you corroborated your facts and how you did.

3. Transparency is key. Paint thorough, fair portraits of your subjects. Human beings are complex and contradictory. This tension makes for fascinating stories and builds credibility.

4. Newsroom or network leadership needs to be as committed to your journalism as you are. Depending on the circumstances, they may need to pay legal fees, tap insurance and even fund security.

5. Chooljian had two huge reasons to continue reporting, even after she, her family, and her newsroom were targeted in a rash of criminal threats.  The first: Her sources had bravely stepped forward to share their stories with her. Doing so put them at risk — as she says, a risk they took without the kinds of organizational, financial and legal resources available to her. Second: Backing down would have sent a signal to others that retaliation works. That's unacceptable.

###

Follow Sound Judgment on your favorite podcast app or subscribe to our channel @SoundJudgmentPod
on Youtube. 

For more takeaways from this episode on crafting an investigative series and why accountability journalism is so important, visit Current. 

Listen to the series deconstructed on today's show: The 13th Step. 

Starting your own podcast?  Be strategic with our Sound Judgment Show Bible Workbook. 

Want to learn more about how NHPR's Document Team greenlights projects like The 13th Step to begin with? Listen to  "How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life story." 

More about The 13th Step

Read about the team
Check out  the supporting legal documents

Resources on addiction treatment, substance use disorder, sexual misconduct, and more

Follow Lauren Chooljian
LinkedIn
Twitter/X:  @laurenchooljian

Follow Alison MacAdam
LinkedIn
Threads:  @ajmacadam

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. 

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. 

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. 

Connect:

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

✉️ Email Elaine at [email protected]

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 

🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: [email protected]. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits 

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. 

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

In 2020, New Hampshire Public Radio Lauren Chooljian received an email about Eric Spofford, the founder of New Hampshire's largest addiction treatment network. In it was an allegation that Spofford was sexually abusing female clients and employees. Chooljian set out to learn whether this could be true. Over the next three years, she would go on a journey to learn the truth, not just about this allegation, but about widespread sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment industry. The result of that journey is The 13th Step, a gripping series that  won a slew of awards, including the duPont, sometimes considered the Pulitzer of broadcasting. 

This is Part 1 of a two-part episode that goes behind-the-scenes of The 13th Step. Along the way, Chooljian, her family, and her news director become targets of retaliation. What started as a reporting task would also become  about another thing: Freedom of the press. And how, why, and for whom to persist with a story in the face of unnerving threats. 

You'll learn how to pursue a tough investigation; how to frame a complex series with many characters and themes; and how to craft  a true, deeply relevant story that serves the public good. And you'll learn what this arduous journey required of everyone involved. 

This episode explores sensitive subjects including addiction and sexual assault. Please listen with care. 

Follow Sound Judgment on your favorite podcast app, or subscribe to our channel @SoundJudgmentPod
on Youtube. 

For more takeaways from this episode on crafting an investigative series and why accountability journalism is so important, visit Current. 

Listen to the series deconstructed on today's show: The 13th Step. 

Starting your own podcast?  Be strategic with our Sound Judgment Show Bible Workbook. 

Want to learn more about how NHPR's Document Team greenlights projects like The 13th Step to begin with? Listen to  "How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life story." 

More about The 13th Step

Read about the team
Check out  the supporting legal documents

Resources on addiction treatment, substance use disorder, sexual misconduct, and more

Follow Lauren Chooljian
LinkedIn
Twitter/X:  @laurenchooljian

Follow Alison MacAdam
LinkedIn
Threads:  @ajmacadam

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. 

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. 

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. 

Connect:

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

✉️ Email Elaine at [email protected]

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 

🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: [email protected]. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits 

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. 

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

Sound Judgment is about the craft of audio storytelling. Not about the marketing of podcasts. But today, we're bringing you a gift from someone I trust completely when it comes to audience growth: Jeremy Enns of Podcast Marketing Academy, and his co-host, Justin Jackson, cofounder of Transistor.fm. They've teamed up to produce Podcast Marketing Trends Explained, a limited series that extracts proven audience growth techniques from Enns' comprehensive annual survey of podcasters about their marketing methods. 

In this episode, you'll learn: 

— Whether the famed "podcast discoverability problem" actually exists
— The three types of marketing channels at your disposal & what the data shows about their effectiveness
— Whether or not it's worth it (and when) to pay for ads
— How to pick the right marketing channel for you
— Why "owned media" is the low-hanging fruit for many creators
— What most podcasters get wrong about growth through collaborations, and
— How to kickstart word-of-mouth growth. (P.S.: Word-of-mouth growth is my favorite kind of growth, and IMHO, the best kind!) 

About Jeremy Enns
About Justin Jackson
Can't get enough of Podcast Marketing Trends Explained? Follow it now. 

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. 

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. 

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. 

Connect:

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

✉️ Email Elaine at [email protected]

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 

🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: [email protected]. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits 

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. 

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

At some point, every one of us will reach a point in our professional lives where it's time to change — but the status quo, even when it's not working, is comfortable. Are you ready to say goodbye to your old life in order to find your way to a new, better one? But you don't have a map?  That's what Daily Creative host Todd Henry and his "story architect" producer Josh Gott wrestle with in the episode we deconstruct together, "The Curious Death of Todd Henry." You won't be the same after you listen to this episode — a play in seven acts. 

Follow Sound Judgment on your favorite podcast app, or subscribe to our channel @SoundJudgmentPod
on Youtube. 

Listen to the full  episode deconstructed on today's show: Daily Creative: The Curious Death of Todd Henry

Follow Daily Creative

Join Us for New Sound Judgment Workshops!

Improve your storytelling, interviewing, writing, producing, hosting and guesting skills! Sign up for new Sound Judgment workshops today at www.podcastallies.com/workshops. 

April 5, 2024: Mastering the Art of the Interview. Interviews are the foundation of all good storytelling, but we don’t get much instruction on the art and science of them. In this workshop, you'll get ten proven, transformative strategies that you can apply to your own work right away. 

April 11,2024: Success in Guesting: Be a Great Guest, Get a Great Guest
Learn  how to curate great guests and what it takes to be a phenomenal guest yourself. Learn how NPR producers curate and book guests – and how you can set yourself up for success no matter whether you're making a show — or seeking to be a guest yourself.  

Todd Henry
Positioning himself as an “arms dealer for the creative revolution,” Todd Henry teaches leaders and organizations how to establish practices that lead to everyday brilliance. He is the author of seven books (The Accidental Creative, Die Empty, Louder Than Words, Herding Tigers, The Motivation Code, Daily Creative, and The Brave Habit) which have been translated into more than a dozen languages. He speaks and consults across dozens of industries on creativity, leadership, and passion for work.

He began podcasting in 2005, founding The Accidental Creative. Before transforming it into Daily Creative, The Accidental Creative had been published continuously for 18 years and been downloaded 18 million times. Both podcasts help audiences become brave, focused, and brilliant. 

Joshua Gott
Joshua Gott is a messaging strategist and creative director helping companies simplify their brand message so they can tell a better story.  He's worked with organizations like P&G, Anthem, Nestle, Dropbox, Workday, Trip Advisor, ESPN and many others to make sense out of nonsense.  His approach to crafting clear messaging is encapsulated in the Story Square®, a framework he developed based on many years of finding creative ways to explain complicated ideas.  When he isn't playing pickleball or coaching girls volleyball he's telling stories with Todd Henry on the Daily Creative podcast. 

Connect with Todd
Website: www.toddhenry.com
Instagram and Twitter/X: toddhenry
LinkedIn: toddhenry1
Facebook: toddhenry.ac

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. 

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. 

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. 

Connect:

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

✉️ Email Elaine at [email protected]

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 

🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: [email protected]. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits 

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. 

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

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 the audio team at The Washington Post have graciously done just that. They invited  Sound School's Rob Rosenthal into their studio to witness Martine at work voicing an episode of The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop, with assistance from Rennie. Hearing how they work as tracking partners is a real gift for anyone who wants to perform better in the mic booth.

Today on Sound Judgment, we’re excited to share this instructive, hilarious episode of Sound School.  If you’ve spent much time behind a mic yourself, you know that tracking an episode – that is, narrating it – takes time, coaching, practice, a good ear, humility, a good sense of humor— and a great producer.

*Update! Martine Powers won the 2024 Ambie Award for Best Host  at The Podcast Academy's the fourth annual awards for excellence in audio.

You will be a better narrator and a better in-studio producer after listening to this episode. 

Sound School is produced by Rob Rosenthal for PRX and Transom.

Join Us for New Sound Judgment Workshops!

Improve your storytelling, interviewing, writing, producing, hosting and guesting skills! Sign up for new Sound Judgment workshops today at www.podcastallies.com/workshops. 

April 5, 2024: Mastering the Art of the Interview. Interviews are the foundation of all good storytelling, but we don’t get much instruction on the art and science of them. In this workshop, you'll get ten proven, transformative strategies that you can apply to your own work right away. 

April 11,2024: Success in Guesting: Be a Great Guest, Get a Great Guest
Learn  how to curate great guests and what it takes to be a phenomenal guest yourself. Learn how NPR producers curate and book guests – and how you can set yourself up for success no matter whether you're making a show — or seeking to be a guest yourself.  

***

Sound School (formerly HowSound) is a bi-weekly podcast on audio storytelling produced by Rob Rosenthal for PRX and Transom. Listen to more episodes and follow the show at https://transom.org/topics/soundschool/

The episode featured on Sound Judgment: https://transom.org/2024/tracking-partners/

About Rob Rosenthal

Rob Rosenthal is a freelance story editor, podcast producer/reporter, and a teacher. Longform, documentary podcasts are his sweet spot. He offers workshops for podcast companies and public radio stations. He hosts the Sound School Podcast, a joint project of PRX and Transom, on audio storytelling. 

Rob has been interviewing reporters, producers, editors and artists about the craft of audio storytelling since he began making his show in 2008 under the name How Sound. Rob says he still learns something every time he interviews someone.

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. 

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. 

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. 

Connect:

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

✉️ Email Elaine at [email protected]

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 

🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: [email protected]. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits 

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. 

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

The six storytelling strategies you're about to learn are drawn from the patterns I've seen across more than 150 behind-the-scenes lessons — lessons learned from some of the best hosts, producers, writers and editors I've had on Sound Judgment. You can put these techniques to use right away in your studio or at your writing desk. This episode pulls together examples from compelling shows and award winners. In almost every case, the creators who use these strategies are multi-talented. They produce podcasts, they're writers and journalists, they speak on stages, they act, perform, and do live storytelling shows at places like The Moth. These days, we're all creating on multiple platforms — so take a journey with me to learn how sound vision, structure, scenes, surprise, suspense and specifics and take your storytelling to the next level. 

Apply the six storytelling strategies for creating unforgettable content to your own work!  
Sign up for our interactive, virtual Hook Your Audience & Keep Them Coming Back workshop
Thursday, March 14, 2024

By developing storytelling skills from structure to scene-making, suspense to specifics, you'll learn to create or improve the show, story, article or speech that expresses what you want to express, captivates the people you want to reach, and achieves quality and depth you can be proud of. You'll move from likes and follows to building trusted, engaged relationships with your audience. 

These practices work separately and together to ratchet up both the substance and the "wow factor" of your content, no matter the platform.

Reading these show notes too late to catch this Hook Your Audience workshop? Check out our other trainings on guesting and curating guests, interviewing, and more, at www.podcastallies.com/workshops. 

Want to listen to this series in digestible bites? Follow Sound Judgment and check out these six short episodes: 
Part 1: Sound Vision 
Part 2: Structure
Part 3: Scenes
Part 4: Surprise
Part 5: Suspense
Part 6: Specifics

Don't miss a thing about the craft of audio storytelling: sign up for my Sound Judgment newsletter, which includes the popular hands-on segment "Try This in Your Studio," kudos to creators who are lifting up the art and business of audio storytelling, news about the show, and useful resources for content creators of all kinds. 

"Six S" Storytelling Resources
Shows and storytellers mentioned in this series: 

Bone Valley

Cohosts: Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker

Marketplace
John Barth, Creative Media LLC

The 13th Step, an award-winning documentary series on sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment 

Reporter: Lauren Chooljian
Story Editor: Alison Macadam
New Hampshire Public Radio

Daily Creative 

Host: Todd Henry
Producer: Joshua Gott

Famous & Gravy
Cohosts: Amit Kapoor & Michael Osborne

The Rich Roll Podcast
Host: Rich Roll
Guest: Charles Duhigg
Book: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg

Crime Show
"Paging Dr. Barnes"
Host & Executive Producer: Emma Courtland

Katie Colaneri
Senior Podcast Editor
New Hampshire Public Radio

Kelly Corrigan Wonders
Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan
"Bryan Stevenson"
"Samantha Power" 
Host: Kelly Corrigan

This American Life
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum"
Reporter: Sarah Gibson

Chameleon: Wild Boys
Host: Sam Mullins

Full Sound Judgment episodes featuring these storytellers

Bone Valley: How to Make a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference (Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker)

The Host Defines the Brand with John Barth

How to Make Serious Topics Fun with the Hosts of Famous & Gravy (Amit Kapoor, Michael Osborne)

Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show's Emma Courtland

How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life Story (Katie Colaneri)

The Art of True Curiosity with Kelly Corrigan of Kelly Corrigan Wonders

How to Make Listeners Breathless for More with Wild Boys' Sam Mullins 

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. 

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. 

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. 

Connect:

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

✉️ Email Elaine at [email protected]

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 

🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: [email protected]. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits 

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. 

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

This is the sixth and final part of our new Sound Judgment quick-hit series on storytelling strategies for hooking your audience and keeping them with you. Today: specifics. The more specific our language, the more sparkling and memorable it is. In the last 18 months of speaking with incredible storytellers for this podcast, no one has been better at this than Sam Mullins. 

In 2023, Sam won the the Best Podcast of the Year award at the Ambies,  The Podcast Academy's attempt to rival the Oscars. He won it for his documentary series Chameleon: Wild Boys, from Campside Media. 

Learn how Sam's background as a comedy writer informs his approach to writing, and especially to choosing the extraordinarily specific ways he approaches building characters and enticing audiences to enter his world. 

Apply the six storytelling strategies for creating unforgettable content to your own work!  
Sign up for our interactive, virtual Hook Your Audience & Keep Them Coming Back workshop
Thursday, March 14, 2024

By developing skills from story structure to scene-making, suspense to specifics, you'll learn to create or improve the show, story, article or speech that expresses what you want to express, captivates the people you want to reach, and achieves quality and depth you can be proud of. You'll move from likes and follows to building trusted, engaged relationships with your audience. 

These practices work separately and together to ratchet up both the substance and the "wow factor" of your content, no matter the platform.

Reading these show notes too late to catch this Hook Your Audience workshop? Check out our other trainings on guesting and curating guests, interviewing, and more, at www.podcastallies.com/workshops. 

Did you miss the rest of the series?  Be sure to follow Sound Judgment and check out the other other five bite-sized episodes: 
Part 1: Sound Vision 
Part 2: Structure
Part 3: Scenes
Part 4: Surprise
Part 5: Suspense

All of these segments — each around 10 minutes or less — will come together soon for a full episode on How to Hook Your Audience and Keep Them Coming Back. 

You won't miss a thing if you sign up for my Sound Judgment newsletter, which includes the popular hands-on segment "Try This in Your Studio," kudos to creators who are lifting up the art and business of audio storytelling, news about the show, and useful resources for content creators of all kinds. 

"Six S" Storytelling Resources

Shows and storytellers mentioned in this series: 

Bone Valley

Cohosts: Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker

Marketplace
John Barth, Creative Media LLC

The 13th Step, an award-winning documentary series on sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment 

Reporter: Lauren Chooljian
Story Editor: Alison Macadam
New Hampshire Public Radio

Daily Creative 

Host: Todd Henry
Producer: Joshua Gott

Famous & Gravy
Cohosts: Amit Kapoor & Michael Osborne

The Rich Roll Podcast
Host: Rich Roll
Guest: Charles Duhigg
Book: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg

Crime Show
"Paging Dr. Barnes"
Host & Executive Producer: Emma Courtland

Katie Colaneri
Senior Podcast Editor
New Hampshire Public Radio

Kelly Corrigan Wonders
Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan
"Bryan Stevenson"
"Samantha Power" 
Host: Kelly Corrigan

This American Life
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum"
Reporter: Sarah Gibson

Chameleon: Wild Boys
Host: Sam Mullins

Full Sound Judgment episodes featuring these storytellers

Bone Valley: How to Make a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference (Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker)

The Host Defines the Brand with John Barth

How to Make Serious Topics Fun with the Hosts of Famous & Gravy (Amit Kapoor, Michael Osborne)

Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show's Emma Courtland

How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life Story (Katie Colaneri)

The Art of True Curiosity with Kelly Corrigan of Kelly Corrigan Wonders

How to Make Listeners Breathless for More with Wild Boys' Sam Mullins 

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. 

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. 

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. 

Connect:

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

✉️ Email Elaine at [email protected]

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 

🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: [email protected]. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits 

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. 

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

This is part 5 of our new Sound Judgment quick-hit series on six storytelling strategies for hooking your audience and keeping them with you. This one can mean the difference between ho-hum content and stories that your audiences will talk about. And I’m betting that you give it hardly any thought, if you think about it at all. What is it? Stick around to find out.  Part 5 features Michael Osborne and Amit Kapoor of the podcast Famous & Gravy, New Hampshire Public Radio senior podcast editor Katie Colaneri, and Sarah Gibson, a New Hampshire Public Radio reporter who produced the segment "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum" for This American Life. 

Apply the six storytelling strategies for creating unforgettable content to your own work!  
Sign up for our interactive, virtual Hook Your Audience & Keep Them Coming Back workshop
Thursday, March 14, 2024
By developing skills from story structure to scene-making, suspense to specifics, you'll learn to create or improve the show, story, article or speech that expresses what you want to express, captivates the people you want to reach, and achieves quality and depth you can be proud of. You'll move from likes and follows to building trusted, engaged relationships with your audience. 

These practices work separately and together to ratchet up both the substance and the "wow factor" of your content, no matter the platform.

Did you miss Part 1 on Sound Vision? Listen here. 

Be sure to follow Sound Judgment so you don't miss the next bite-sized episodes on: 
Part 3: Scenes
Part 4: Surprise
Part 5: Suspense
Part 6: Specifics

All of these segments — each around 10 minutes or less — will come together soon for a full episode on How to Hook Your Audience and Keep Them Coming Back. 

You won't miss a thing if you sign up for my Sound Judgment newsletter, which includes the popular hands-on segment "Try This in Your Studio," kudos to creators who are lifting up the art and business of audio storytelling, news about the show, and useful resources. 

"Six S" Storytelling Resources

Shows and storytellers mentioned in this series: 

Bone Valley

Cohosts: Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker

Marketplace
John Barth, Creative Media LLC

The 13th Step, an award-winning documentary series on sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment 

Reporter: Lauren Chooljian
Story Editor: Alison Macadam
New Hampshire Public Radio

Daily Creative 

Host: Todd Henry
Producer: Joshua Gott

Famous & Gravy
Cohosts: Amit Kapoor & Michael Osborne

The Rich Roll Podcast
Host: Rich Roll
Guest: Charles Duhigg
Book: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg

Crime Show
"Paging Dr. Barnes"
Host & Executive Producer: Emma Courtland

Katie Colaneri
Senior Podcast Editor
New Hampshire Public Radio

Kelly Corrigan Wonders
Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan
"Bryan Stevenson"
"Samantha Power" 
Host: Kelly Corrigan

This American Life
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum"
Reporter: Sarah Gibson

Chameleon: Wild Boys
Host: Sam Mullins

Full Sound Judgment episodes featuring these storytellers

Bone Valley: How to Make a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference (Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker)

The Host Defines the Brand with John Barth

How to Make Serious Topics Fun with the Hosts of Famous & Gravy (Amit Kapoor, Michael Osborne)

Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show's Emma Courtland

How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life Story (Katie Colaneri)

The Art of True Curiosity with Kelly Corrigan of Kelly Corrigan Wonders

How to Make Listeners Breathless for More with Wild Boys' Sam Mullins 
 

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. 

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. 

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. 

Connect:

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

✉️ Email Elaine at [email protected]

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 

🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: [email protected]. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits 

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. 

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

Our fourth S in the 6S framework for hooking your audience and keeping them with you is surprise. It's the left turn when we're expecting a righthand one that makes us listen. It's the twists and turns of an involved, high-stakes plot that we love, or the ending of the movie or the novel that we didn't predict. As New Hampshire Public Radio Senior Podcast Editor Katie Colaneri says, it's the "holy shit" moment. Part 4 features Katie Colaneri, NHPR reporter Sarah Gibson and her This American Life Story, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum," and Kelly Corrigan of the PBS show Tell Me More and the podcast Kelly Corrigan Wonders. 

Apply the six storytelling strategies for creating unforgettable content to your own work!  
Sign up for our interactive, virtual Hook Your Audience & Keep Them Coming Back workshop
Thursday, March 14, 2024
By developing skills from story structure to scene-making, suspense to specifics, you'll learn to create or improve the show, story, article or speech that expresses what you want to express, captivates the people you want to reach, and achieves quality and depth you can be proud of. You'll move from likes and follows to building trusted, engaged relationships with your audience. 

These practices work separately and together to ratchet up both the substance and the "wow factor" of your content, no matter the platform.

Did you miss Part 1 on Sound Vision? Listen here. 

Be sure to follow Sound Judgment so you don't miss the next bite-sized episodes on: 
Part 3: Scenes
Part 4: Surprise
Part 5: Suspense
Part 6: Specifics

All of these segments — each around 10 minutes or less — will come together soon for a full episode on How to Hook Your Audience and Keep Them Coming Back. 

You won't miss a thing if you sign up for my Sound Judgment newsletter, which includes the popular hands-on segment "Try This in Your Studio," kudos to creators who are lifting up the art and business of audio storytelling, news about the show, and useful resources. 


"Six S" Storytelling Resources

Shows and storytellers mentioned in this series: 

Bone Valley

Cohosts: Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker

Marketplace
John Barth, Creative Media LLC

The 13th Step, an award-winning documentary series on sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment 

Reporter: Lauren Chooljian
Story Editor: Alison Macadam
New Hampshire Public Radio

Daily Creative 

Host: Todd Henry
Producer: Joshua Gott

Famous & Gravy
Cohosts: Amit Kapoor & Michael Osborne

The Rich Roll Podcast
Host: Rich Roll
Guest: Charles Duhigg
Book: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg

Crime Show
"Paging Dr. Barnes"
Host & Executive Producer: Emma Courtland

Katie Colaneri
Senior Podcast Editor
New Hampshire Public Radio

Kelly Corrigan Wonders
Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan
"Bryan Stevenson"
"Samantha Power" 
Host: Kelly Corrigan

This American Life
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum"
Reporter: Sarah Gibson

Chameleon: Wild Boys
Host: Sam Mullins

Full Sound Judgment episodes featuring these storytellers

Bone Valley: How to Make a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference (Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker)

The Host Defines the Brand with John Barth

How to Make Serious Topics Fun with the Hosts of Famous & Gravy (Amit Kapoor, Michael Osborne)

Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show's Emma Courtland

How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life Story (Katie Colaneri)

The Art of True Curiosity with Kelly Corrigan of Kelly Corrigan Wonders

How to Make Listeners Breathless for More with Wild Boys' Sam Mullins 
 

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. 

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. 

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. 

Connect:

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

✉️ Email Elaine at [email protected]

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 

🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: [email protected]. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits 

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. 

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson