EDITOR’S NOTE: A revival of the Storyboard series “Audio Danger” updates the craft of narrative podcasts and introduces a new best-of collection. This introductory post will be followed by four posts that analyze outstanding podcasts and interview … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: Read our conversation with Robyn Semien of This American Life and Ken Armstrong, formerly of The Marshall Project, on how those two organizations and ProPublica partnered to tell this story across multiple platforms. CAUTION: The … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: Read an annotation of the prologue and first act of This American Life’s “Anatomy of Doubt.” CAUTION: The stories linked to and discussed in this package describe details of sexual assault, which some readers might … Read more
In The Armies of the Night (1968), his “nonfiction novel” about the Vietnam War, Norman Mailer made himself a central protagonist. Far from being defensive about this radical breach of journalistic convention, he advocated personalized reportage with gusto. “I … Read more
On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile was killed by police officer Jeronimo Yanez during a traffic stop in suburban St. Paul, Minnesota. In the car with Castile at the time of the shooting were his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and … Read more
The email response to my story pitch came from the senior producer. It read, more or less: We want this. But do you have a clue how to do it? The actual wording was kinder, but it was the … Read more
Jay Allison is a pioneer in the world of radio storytelling. Nearly 25 years ago, he founded Atlantic Public Media, which in turn birthed WCAI, the public radio station for Cape Cod and its surrounding islands; the Public Radio Exchange … Read more
When Jack Hitt got an assignment to write about Jerry Foster, a daredevil helicopter pilot who worked for a TV station in Phoenix in the ’70s and ’80s, he thought he had a plum adventure story. It turned out to … Read more
Barely three years ago, Aaron Mahnke, a part-time horror-thriller writer, sat at his computer and started to drag a document to the trashcan. Just as he was about dispose of the sprawling essay he’d written with outtakes from his supernatural … Read more
She has a Groucho Marx tattoo on her left wrist, and a biblically tinged Sufjan Stevens lyric inked on her right arm. So maybe it makes sense that radio producer Lily Percy has been exploring how people use humor to … Read more