Author

Julia Barton

@bartona104

Julia Barton is a longtime audio story editor and author of a newsletter about broadcast history, Continuous Wave. She’s worked with nonfiction authors including Malcolm Gladwell, Michael Lewis, Jill Lepore, and Michael Spector to create original podcasts and audiobooks. Barton completed a Nieman Fellowship in 2024. Her work can be found at RadioWright.com.

How Jad Abumrad transports listeners to a legendary club in Lagos for the acclaimed podcast, ‘Fela Kuti: Fear No Man’

How Jad Abumrad transports listeners to a legendary club in Lagos for the acclaimed podcast, ‘Fela Kuti: Fear No Man’

Abumrad and his editor, Ben Adair, created a groundbreaking montage of music and voices for their episode “Enter the Shrine”
April 23, 2026
'Poetic explorations' in a podcast from inside and outside prison walls

‘Poetic explorations’ in a podcast from inside and outside prison walls

The final post in the revived "Audio Danger" series gives voice to the moments and memories of imprisoned people
May 18, 2023
A true crime podcast that is more about truth than crime

A true crime podcast that is more about truth than crime

The third post of the revived "Audio Danger" series explores the reporting that revealed indigenous lives "Stolen" in a residential school in Canada
May 8, 2023
A podcaster follows a then-cop into the breach of the U.S. Capitol

A podcaster follows a then-cop into the breach of the U.S. Capitol

EDITOR’S NOTE: This month, Pushkin Industries published  “The Best Audio Storytelling: 2022,” an audiobook compendium of English-language nonfiction. The collection’s curator, Pushkin’s Julia Barton spoke with creators of work in…
April 26, 2023
A new best-of collection of audio storytelling honors narrative podcasting

A new best-of collection of audio storytelling honors narrative podcasting

Julia Barton turned her public radio career to the development of story podcasts and now revives the Storyboard series "Audio Danger"
April 19, 2023
Third Coast Conference: Narrative off the news

Third Coast Conference: Narrative off the news

Editor’s note: In her third and final dispatch from the recent Third Coast audio storytelling conference, radio producer Julia Barton examines a dilemma  journalists in every medium face: how to create good narrative…
November 20, 2014
Third Coast Conference: the invisible craft of StoryCorps

Third Coast Conference: the invisible craft of StoryCorps

Editor’s note: In her second dispatch from the recent Third Coast audio storytelling conference, radio producer Julia Barton looks at the approach the producers of StoryCorps, the non-profit oral history project,…
November 17, 2014

Third Coast Conference: Are journalism and storytelling “frenemies?”

Editor’s Note: Every other fall, hundreds of radio producers, journalists, documentarians and other audio artists gather in Chicago for the Third Coast conference to examine, explore and celebrate the world…
November 14, 2014
Audio Danger: Radio storytelling and the perils of digital permanence

Audio Danger: Radio storytelling and the perils of digital permanence

Back in the distant 1990s, This American Life host Ira Glass described a recurring dream of NPR’s Scott Simon: Simon would shoot a basketball over and over, but then it…
March 20, 2014
Audio danger: Going live

Audio danger: Going live

One morning this summer, I got on the elevator with a colleague at WNYC, where I’m working as an interim producer for national programs. My elevator pal had just gotten…
October 4, 2012