Tape

By Mooj Zadie

News & Politics Personal Journals Society & Culture Arts Education Design

What's Tape about?

A radio show about people who make radio. Hosted and edited by Mooj Zadie.

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Tape episodes:

08.21.2020
46: Sayre Quevedo
Sayre Quevedo is a producer at VICE. “I'm not like a cinephile at all but in a movie nobody says, ‘And then he revealed to me a deep, dark secret.' You discover the deep, dark secret as the main character...
07.16.2020
45: Bianca Giaever
Bianca Giaever is the host of Constellation Prize and a producer at The Daily. "My favorite radio stories are ones that were passion projects to begin with, that would be un-pitchable from the start because the idea sounds so mundane. .......
06.23.2020
44: Wendy Zukerman
Wendy Zukerman is the host and executive producer of Science Vs. "There is an expectation that if you have a platform you have an agenda. And whereas — for better or worse — me, personally, I don't have particularly strong opinions...
10.24.2019
43: Nadia Sirota
Nadia Sirota is the host and co-creator of Meet the Composer and an acclaimed violist. “I actually feel like somebody being joyful about something in their life is wonderful. ... There's this temptation when you're in college, and definitely when...
10.18.2018
42: Avery Trufelman
Avery Trufelman is a producer of 99% Invisible and the host of Articles of Interest. “The literal battleground of interior and exterior forces in your world is what you’re wearing.”
10.03.2018
41: Ira Glass
Ira Glass is the host and executive producer of This American Life. “It’s not an accident I made a radio show where I am having intimate conversations with people on tape. ... Like the only person who would go to...
09.26.2018
40: Julie Snyder
Julie Snyder is the co-creator of Serial and S-Town. Prior to that, she was the senior producer of This American Life. "So the original conceit [of This American Life] was using the tools of journalism to [tell stories from] everyday life...
11.08.2017
39: Robert Smith
Robert Smith is a correspondent for NPR's Planet Money. "I've done [radio] for 30 years. I don't want to come in and do the same story every time. Like I want things to be challenging. … And it's solely for...
05.10.2017
38: Alex Blumberg
Alex Blumberg is the co-founder of Gimlet Media. Prior to that he was a producer for This American Life. "A big lesson for me is that there aren't really rules. If [the radio story] is really fun, and you really...
02.21.2017
37: Lu Olkowski
Lu Olkowski, an independent radio producer, is the host of CBC's Love Me. "You spend so much time with people and I just think it's so shitty to suddenly — the story airs and you — disappear. ... I think that's...
02.08.2017
36: Lewis Wallace
Lewis Wallace was a reporter for Marketplace. "I think our listeners and audiences are strong enough to hold that I can have a credible voice in reporting a story, and a truthful voice in reporting a story, and also have a...
01.24.2017
35: Julia Barton
Julia Barton is a freelance editor who edits for Revisionist History, The World, and Studio 360. She reports for Radiolab, Marketplace, 99% Invisible, and more. "If people think they might want to be an editor the first step is to pitch...
06.27.2016
34: Mike Pesca
Mike Pesca is the host of Slate's The Gist. "There was a time when the most intelligent guy in your town was just the guy who knew the most — he knew the family genealogy, he knew facts. We've gotten...
06.21.2016
33: Sruthi Pinnamaneni
Sruthi Pinnamaneni is a producer at Reply All. “It’s almost like me and the other person were learning about each other. And I don’t ever think about it like oh this is what makes this person weird or this is...
05.24.2016
32: Jonathan Menjivar
Jonathan Menjivar is a producer at This American Life. "When I started in radio I imagined myself on the radio more. But I've come to a place where it doesn't matter to me. I just want to make stuff."
04.14.2016
31: Emily Botein
Emily Botein is the Vice President for On-Demand Content of WNYC. "I feel like as a producer, the whole goal is to have someone become more human, reveal something more personal, say something surprising. So it's your job to make an...
03.01.2016
30: Jessica Abel
Jessica Abel is the author of Out on the Wire. "The group edit format, while emotionally difficult, actually is an incredibly efficient tool. In an hour, two hours, you can get the intellectual work done on a piece that could take...
01.26.2016
29: Tim Howard
Tim Howard is the senior producer of Reply All. "You can do radio stories without stakes they just have to be really fun."
12.09.2015
28: Jacob Goldstein
Jacob Goldstein is a reporter for NPR's Planet Money. "I've never been that interested in the classic investigative story — here's this victim and here's this villain, and implicitly, I, the reporter, am the hero. ... They were never the kind...
10.14.2015
27: Audie Cornish
Audie Cornish is the host of All Things Considered. "I ran a gauntlet of people who underestimated me. Every subject is like, "Are you the intern?" Every lawmaker is like, "I don't understand who you are?" People don't see me so...
09.21.2015
26: Sean Rameswaram
Sean Rameswaram is the host of sideshow. "On the outside, which I was on the outside for a long time, I thought public radio takes itself too seriously. My favorite moments in public radio are when Scott Simon interviews Ke$ha. We...
07.09.2015
25: Kaitlin Prest
Note: This episode is explicit. Kaitlin Prest is the host and creative director of The Heart. "My whole thing about making stuff is I want it to *feel* like the thing. If you're making a show about love, I want to feel...
05.27.2015
24: Anshuman Iddamsetty
Anshuman Iddamsetty is Hazlitt’s art director and audio/visual producer.* "I stare at waveforms constantly. So like I'm staring at the layout of the waveforms more than anything. There is a sort of visual component to how the show finally comes together,...
05.19.2015
23: David Weinberg
David Weinberg, a former Marketplace producer, is part of KCRW's Independent Producer Project and the creator of Random Tape. "I felt so trapped before I found and decided that radio is what I wanted to do. I placed a lot on...
05.05.2015
22: Nate DiMeo
Nate DiMeo is the host of The Memory Palace. "I struggled a lot when I first got into journalism because I knew every Q&A I edited ... something would get cut. And that the person interviewed would not be entirely represented...
04.29.2015
21: Scott Carrier
Scott Carrier is an independent producer and the host of Home of the Brave. "It's what makes us human, is our storytelling ability. Animals can't do that. They can communicate. They can talk to each other. They understand, they know what's...
04.17.2015
20: Dana Chivvis
Dana Chivvis is a producer at Serial. "I thought it was important to be really devoted to your medium. ... I thought I have to love video. And what I realized is that it didn't matter to me what medium I...
04.02.2015
19: Lulu Miller
Lulu Miller, a former producer at Radiolab, is the co-host of NPR's Invisibilia. "I think there's this thing that goes hand in hand with journalism, or with radio, which is that professionally, you're an amateur, so you have to ask, and...
02.27.2015
18: Alix Spiegel
Alix Spiegel, a former producer at This American Life, is the co-host of NPR's Invisibilia. "I always want to understand like why? What do you know that I don't know? What is your life? And how do you see the world?...
01.22.2015
17: Andrea Silenzi
Andrea Silenzi is the creator and host of Why Oh Why?. She's also the Senior Producer of Slate's The Gist.* "I listen to a lot of radio and there's so much of 'This person wrote a book.' 'This person has a...
12.30.2014
16: Hillary Frank
Hillary Frank is the host and creator of The Longest Shortest Time. "I hate small talk, and it makes me very uncomfortable. I don't know how to do it well. I want to have a real conversation with a person."
12.04.2014
15: Lynn Levy
Lynn Levy is a producer at Radiolab. "Sometimes if you’re interviewing an author they’ve already worked out the best way to tell the story. They’ve been through all the options in their head, they figured out what to omit and what...
11.03.2014
14: Pejk Malinovski
Pejk Malinovski is a poet and a radio producer. "I feel like when I make structure it's not a traditional Hollywood storyline where there's a beginning and a middle and an end and a conflict and resolution I think it's more...
09.29.2014
13: Michael May
Michael May, a Third Coast Gold Award winner, is a freelance radio and print journalist. He teaches radio documentary at the Salt Institute. "I'm not interested in doing stories where I just label somebody some clinical label — a misogynist, sociopath....
09.11.2014
12: Stephanie Foo
Stephanie Foo, a former producer at Snap Judgment, is a producer at This American Life. "I think everybody has a story that is worth telling, but I think most people don't know what their best story is. At all. They'll think...
08.26.2014
11: Alex Goldman + PJ Vogt
Alex Goldman and PJ Vogt are the creators of TLDR. "The internet can feel like the same thing over and over again, and sometimes that's because the internet is the same thing over and over again. But sometimes it's because you've...
08.08.2014
10: Tamara Keith
Tamara Keith is NPR's White House Correspondent. She also co-founded B-Side Radio. "There's drama in the human experience, and if people are willing to share that, there's a way to make it into a good story... says the person who only...
07.16.2014
9: Ann Heppermann
Ann Heppermann, a Peabody Award winner, produces Slate's Culture Gabfest. She teaches radio writing and radio drama at Sarah Lawrence College. "I don't think you want all crappy tape, but there's something about texture of crappy tape and Skype tape....
07.01.2014
8: Jeff Emtman
Jeff Emtman is the creator and host of Here Be Monsters. "You can think of your memory as a box full of photographs, like the ones your parents have in your basement. Just like old glossy prints. ... And unfortunately, when...
06.17.2014
7: Zoe Chace
Zoe Chace is a reporter for NPR’s Planet Money. "A lot of times people don't pay enough attention to their voicing at all. They don't realize that their story doesn't exist, unless people are grabbed by their voice. The story literally...
06.03.2014
6: Ellen Horne
Ellen Horne is the Executive Producer of Radiolab. “When you’re trying to create something new, that kind of risk-taking has to happen in a low-stakes environment.”
05.19.2014
5: Eric Mennel
Eric Mennel is a producer for WUNC and Criminal. "People pooh-pooh the idea of logging like it’s the worst thing in the world. Some of the best techniques I’ve learned, in terms of interviewing, was from logging good interviewer's tape. ... Listening to...
05.05.2014
4: Sean Cole
Sean Cole, a producer at This American Life, has also reported for Radiolab, Marketplace, and 99% Invisible. "Journalism is a translation of madness, and poetry is a transcription of madness."
04.23.2014
3: Stan Alcorn
Stan Alcorn, a freelance multimedia journalist, is a contributor to WNYC and NPR. “I love stories but I’m very interested in how they pertain to some larger truth that you’re not going to know without quantifying it.”
04.10.2014
2: Jennifer Brandel
Jennifer Brandel is the Senior Producer of Curious City. "I don't think that soft or fluffy news should be given such a bad rap. When you have a question that ignites someone's curiosity and gets them interested in thinking about the...
03.30.2014
1: Ben Calhoun
Ben Calhoun is a producer at This American Life. "The nature of covering politics is one where often people don’t want to say to you the things that they are feeling or thinking. ... You can create the diorama of that...