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

23:13

Silence Is Worth Your Time

Sound School Podcast ·

2026/04/07

Back when I worked at radio stations, people joked "Silence is bad juju." We're not supposed to include much, if any, silence in audio stories -- for broadcast or podcast. Noam Hassenfeld went the opposite direction and embraced silence -- lots of it! -- on a recent episode of Unexplainable, the science podcast from Vox. Noam explains how he craftily deployed silence in his storytelling on this episode of Sound School.

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25:16

Revisiting: A Cow A Day

Sound School Podcast ·

2026/03/24

The first question I had to ask Pejk Malinovsky was "Why the hell did you think that would make for a good radio story?" Of course it was. Pejk followed a cow for eleven hours recording her every move and turned it into a 30-minute documentary. Naturally, Pejk answered saying "A cow a day keeps the boredom away." Find out what he means on this episode of Sound School.

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33:00

Dialing In the Audio Flux Podcast

Sound School Podcast ·

2026/03/10

Julie Shapiro and John Delore made a pilot for the Audio Flux podcast. Okay, now what? How did they go from pilot in 2024 to podcast in late 2025? On this episode of Sound School, a deep dive comparing the Audio Flux pilot to the first episode of the podcast and the thinking behind Julie and John's production choices.

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13:32

The Naked Pitch

Sound School Podcast ·

2026/02/24

Short Cuts said no. WNYC said no. Hell Gate said no. Even Transom said no. Finally, after about six months of pitching, Will Coley heard "Yes." Will regales us with his story of how he made it to "yes" with his pitch about public nudity on the latest Sound School.

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12:46

Revisiting - Don't Write, Tell

Sound School Podcast ·

2026/02/10

Noel King says first things first. Before writing a story, take a friend to a bar and tell them the story. On this archive episode of Sound School, Noel says that's the approach she took back when she reported for Planet Money and it worked like a charm. Her writing was more like telling.

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18:49

Reporting on Emotions in South Africa

Sound School Podcast ·

2026/01/27

Twenty-one year old reporter Kabir Jagram says young men in South Africa are stoic. Holding back emotions is a survival mechanism in a country wracked with youth unemployment and that can lead to serious mental health issues. So, how then, as a young man himself struggling with expressing feelings, did Kabir manage to produce a captivating radio documentary about emotions?

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19:25

What If the Main Character Narrates?

Sound School Podcast ·

2026/01/13

We're starting the new year with an antidote to 2025 -- two episodes featuring inspiring early-career producers. On this episode, 28-year-old Anna Van Dine from Vermont who deployed an unusual storytelling maneuver that Rob hasn't heard in years.

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25:19

Revisiting: Two From the Road in Nashville

Sound School Podcast ·

2026/01/06

Here's your New Year's resolution: Attend a Transom Traveling Workshop. That's right. You know you wanna. The year 2026 is the year to give yourself a treat -- a little radio self-love. For inspiration, here are two stellar stories produced by new and emerging audio producers at a Transom workshop in Nashville back in 2019.

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15:56

It’s Magic

Sound School Podcast ·

2025/12/16

If you're just beginning in audio storytelling or have some experience under your belt, you could toil alone making and making and making stories hoping to get better. And that might be the exact right thing for you. But, if you'd like a hand up from experienced producers, sign up for a Transom Traveling Workshop. For inspiration, listen to the story Champika Fernando produced at a Workshop this summer. And be sure to listen for the surprising maneuver they pulled at the end of the piece.

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23:33

Revisiting: We Need More Words to Describe Audio Stories

Sound School Podcast ·

2025/12/02

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. In this archive episode from 2022, producer Jazmine Green says we need new language to describe our work. And we can start by borrowing from art and architecture.

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32:53

Seeking Small True Things

Sound School Podcast ·

2025/11/18

Audio reporter Samantha Broun says young people are "full of life, complicated, passionate, confused, and they want to talk and want to be heard." That's why Sam offers them her curiosity and her caring ear for her project "Small True Things." Rob spoke to Sam in October for Sound School on the mainstage at the annual Audio Festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

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14:04

Revisiting: Hang A Picture In Front of the Microphone

Sound School Podcast ·

2025/11/04

Susan Stamberg sang her own song at NPR. Her writing and her voice, you could always tell it was Susan behind the mic. She died at the age of 87 in October. In honor of Susan, we present this archive episode of Sound School where she lays out her best practices for reporting on the visual arts.

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24:49

When Funny Points to Truth

Sound School Podcast ·

2025/10/21

Neena Pathak produced a very touching story about grieving the death of her father. She says the humor in the story wasn't uncouth. It was how she captured the truth.

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15:16

Revisiting: Fill Your Notebook with Color Notes

Sound School Podcast ·

2025/10/07

In this archive episode from 2018, legendary NPR reporter and raconteur John Burnett answers a perplexing question "How to make an immigration story visual when no mics are allowed in the courtroom?" Answer: Fill your note book with color notes.

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15:30

Host Sits Down With a Reporter

Sound School Podcast ·

2025/09/23

"Host sits down with a reporter." That's a good way to describe how Radiolab stories are produced. Same with "two-ways" on NPR. You can hear those approaches everywhere. But, how else can a "host sit down with a reporter?" The Ghost of a Chance podcast from the Minnesota Star Tribune offers a solid example.

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28:05

Writing Like TV in a Podcast

Sound School Podcast ·

2025/09/09

Writing like it's a television drama complete with instructions for a camera operator. That's an unusual maneuver for a podcast. One I'd never heard before. Neither had Susan Burton until she wrote that way herself in the latest season of The Retrievals, a production from Serial and The New York Times.

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22:01

Fill Your Pockets With Endings

Sound School Podcast ·

2025/08/26

NPR's Robert Smith says when he's writing and gets to the end of a story he has empty pockets. He's used all the good stuff and left nothing for the end. To combat that problem, Robert studied endings from some of his favorite reporters and put together a list of categories that broadly describe memorable story endings.

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16:08

Sound Design - Don't Say Rabbit, See Rabbit

Sound School Podcast ·

2025/08/12

"Don't say rabbit, see rabbit." Write it on a sticky note and post it where you can see it at all times. It's a mantra that will save you from cheesy sound design.

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33:10

Revisiting: Interviewing Shy People

Sound School Podcast ·

2025/07/29

A constant piece of advice for producers is "Find a good talker." But what about shy people? Given their reticence, they may not be great talkers but they may have a good story to tell. The question is "How do you help shy people open up?" Erika Lantz and her sister Elin Lantz-Lesser of The Turning podcast have answers. Good ones.

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30:13

Asking Dad Dicey Questions

Sound School Podcast ·

2025/07/15

Zach Mack really put it to his father. For "Alternate Realities," a series from NPR's "Embedded" podcast, Zach asked his dad pointed questions about the conspiracy theories he believes in that are driving a wedge into the family. On this episode of Sound School, Zach talks to Sally Herships of Radio Boot Camp about the challenges of asking dicey questions.

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