PODCAST

Sound School Podcast

Rob Rosenthal/PRX/Transom.org

The Backstory to Great Audio Storytelling, hosted by Rob Rosenthal, for Transom and PRX.

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All Episodes

31:08

Going Behind the Mic On Climate Change Reporting

Sound School Podcast ·

2023/08/15

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.

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22:13

Revisiting: Sound Art Meets Poetry Meets Cicadas

Sound School Podcast ·

2023/08/01

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, marrying Mair's stellar recordings and sound design and Fiona's nuanced poetry.

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27:41

Next-level Scoring

Sound School Podcast ·

2023/07/18

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, and The Atlantic's "Holy Week," scored by David Herman.

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34:45

Lean In and Listen Like It’s Music

Sound School Podcast ·

2023/07/05

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 the way he listens. Alan Hall, of Falling Tree, the English production company, helps him listen in a new way.

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13:04

Revisiting: Avoiding Pesky Sound Problems

Sound School Podcast ·

2023/06/20

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 now the Technical Director at Criminal. His recording tips are invaluable. And so are the resources we used on the episode from NPR's "Ear Training Guide for Audio Producers.” You'll make better recordings after listening to this

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28:20

The Best Audio Storytelling According to Pushkin

Sound School Podcast ·

2023/06/06

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 down audio silos, and discusses a handful of stories from the collection, including selections from Radiotopia, NPR, Rumble Strip, and more.

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23:57

Happy 15th Sound School!

Sound School Podcast ·

2023/05/23

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 as an excellent example of documentary audio storytelling. To celebrate the show's 15th anniversary, Rob dusted off the very first Saltcast and this incredible story about a motivational speaker who can't talk.

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38:59

What's Grabbed Antonia's Ears?

Sound School Podcast ·

2023/05/09

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 second season of LaBrega, the Puerto Rican experience in eight songs, and Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong.

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52:01

The Fingerprint of Chris Brookes

Sound School Podcast ·

2023/04/25

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 — stories where Chris' clear, authorial voice, his fingerprint, is evident and inspiring.

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13:08

Producing a Non-narrated Obituary

Sound School Podcast ·

2023/04/11

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 recent remembrance he produced, he made sure to get out of the way of the tape.

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23:21

What’s Next for Munira?

Sound School Podcast ·

2023/03/28

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, she's at a crossroads: continue her path to engineering ("the sensible choice for a proper African child," she says) or make the leap into podcasting. Hear Munira's story, and the piece she produced at the workshop, in this episode of The Sound School

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26:22

Still More Darts and Laurels

Sound School Podcast ·

2023/03/14

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 plain crushing it.Rob opens this episode with a note about Transom.org. Transom is dreaming up a new project and could really use your input. If you have a minute, head on over to the Transom homepage and click the link to take a short survey.

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25:37

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

Sound School Podcast ·

2023/02/28

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 of notes - including WCAI in Falmouth, Massachusetts where he's the Managing Editor for News. In an effort to play a couple of other notes, he produced "Falmouth to Falmouth" a collaboration with another radio station in Falmouth -- Falmouth, England that is.

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38:41

Dear Birth Mother

Sound School Podcast ·

2023/02/14

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 Collison and Elizabeth Meister at Long Haul Productions.

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17:44

Studs Terkel Meets Brian Eno in the Woods

Sound School Podcast ·

2023/01/31

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 from us with his unique approach to audio storytelling. A meld of composition, fieldwork, oral history, and archive recordings coupled with listening events -- in the woods.

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27:44

This is Good, But I Have a Question

Sound School Podcast ·

2023/01/17

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 Podcast.

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18:41

Recording Sound Design in the Field

Sound School Podcast ·

2023/01/03

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 a podcast that sounds more organic, less manufactured in a studio. John explains why on this episode of Sound School.

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20:20

Why Two Narrators When One Will Suffice?

Sound School Podcast ·

2022/12/20

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.

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26:10

Caves and Bears and Neanderthal Flutes - Stories from...

Sound School Podcast ·

2022/12/06

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 10 reporters in Slovenia. Hear the results on this episode of Sound School.

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24:45

Writing An Audio Essay

Sound School Podcast ·

2022/11/22

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 provides sage advice for anyone thinking of turning a mic toward themselves.

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