Podcast about Public Radio
May 27, 2018 12:19 PM Subscribe
A friend thinks I should have a podcast about public radio based on the book I'm writing about public radio pledge drives (in Metafilter Projects). Unlike most podcasts, it would look at the mechanism of public radio itself, not just the content it delivers. Are there any podcasts about public radio (other than that from NPR's Ombudsman, Elizabeth Jensen?)
The closest thing I can think of is On the Media, but typically when they turn the lens back on themselves it's more meta-coverage of what gets reported and how rather than how the sausage is made.
posted by Flannery Culp at 12:25 PM on May 27, 2018
posted by Flannery Culp at 12:25 PM on May 27, 2018
Current produces The Pub podcast, which mostly covers public radio, but also looks at public media more broadly.
posted by Dalton at 12:40 PM on May 27, 2018
posted by Dalton at 12:40 PM on May 27, 2018
TBTL podcast... It's not about media, but they make a lot of meta jokes about public radio. The two hosts have worked in public radio and commercial radio for years. The podcast has been part of several radio/podcast networks. It's a silly podcast with a large cult following.
You might join the "TBTL Seattle Tens" facebook group and pose your query there. You would get some interesting responses and some gentle wisecracks.
If you did a podcast, I would be interested to listen, and to read your book.
posted by valannc at 1:22 PM on May 27, 2018
You might join the "TBTL Seattle Tens" facebook group and pose your query there. You would get some interesting responses and some gentle wisecracks.
If you did a podcast, I would be interested to listen, and to read your book.
posted by valannc at 1:22 PM on May 27, 2018
Not about public radio specifically, but about something which often characterizes public radio and other news/talk stations and thus worth a listen: The Broadcast Clock, aka the hot clock, an episode of the podcast "99% Invisible"
posted by Sunburnt at 10:30 PM on May 27, 2018
posted by Sunburnt at 10:30 PM on May 27, 2018
Not a podcast but: You might find some interesting content in Jessica Abel's book "Out on the Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio," which is about how they discover narratives appropriate for radio, record them (both practically and technically), edit them, and produce them. I haven't read the book, but I read the 32-page comic book, "Radio: An Illustrated Guide," which was given as a premium for donors to This American Life a while ago, which was the original form of the work. You can get the comic for $2, which is really far less than it's worth.
On the Media, several years ago, had some summer-filler episodes of podcasts about the production process. They were short eps, but I recall one was about how they remove the uhs and ums from recorded content, and in general edit their way to that clean NPR voice, both in their hosts and their guests. Probably 4-5 years ago?
By the way, podcasts make me buy books-- "You Are Not So Smart" and "The Allusionist" are two podcasts, off the top of my head, whose guests caused me to buy their books in recent memory. I own at least one of the Nightvale books as well.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:40 PM on May 27, 2018
On the Media, several years ago, had some summer-filler episodes of podcasts about the production process. They were short eps, but I recall one was about how they remove the uhs and ums from recorded content, and in general edit their way to that clean NPR voice, both in their hosts and their guests. Probably 4-5 years ago?
By the way, podcasts make me buy books-- "You Are Not So Smart" and "The Allusionist" are two podcasts, off the top of my head, whose guests caused me to buy their books in recent memory. I own at least one of the Nightvale books as well.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:40 PM on May 27, 2018
Here we go, I found some. Via the link in my previous comment for "Out on the Wire," scroll down to "Other Resources," and there are some episodes there of the Longform podcast which are about making public radio. Longform is not about radio in general; rather it's about long non-fiction pieces, produced for your ear-holes.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:44 PM on May 27, 2018
posted by Sunburnt at 10:44 PM on May 27, 2018
Last summer, Mefi's own Jesse Thorn hosted a 16 episode podcast series called The Turnaround, spending an hour-ish per episode interviewing a professional interviewer. The following eps have some pretty heavy inside baseball discussions about Public Radio: Ira Glass, Audie Cornish, Brooke Gladstone, and Terry Gross.
The whole series is a pretty great listen and I hope there's a sequel (if nothing else, because the number of people in this series who cited Howard Stern as an exemplar and inspiration makes me hope Thorn eventually gets to interview Stern on the same terms). Most of the rest of the episodes only concern Public Radio tangentially if at all, although if you skip them you miss some pretty great thoughts from Dick Cavett and Susan Orlean, among others.
posted by ardgedee at 11:01 AM on May 28, 2018
The whole series is a pretty great listen and I hope there's a sequel (if nothing else, because the number of people in this series who cited Howard Stern as an exemplar and inspiration makes me hope Thorn eventually gets to interview Stern on the same terms). Most of the rest of the episodes only concern Public Radio tangentially if at all, although if you skip them you miss some pretty great thoughts from Dick Cavett and Susan Orlean, among others.
posted by ardgedee at 11:01 AM on May 28, 2018
Response by poster: Thank you all. I appreciate it.
posted by CollectiveMind at 11:48 AM on May 28, 2018
posted by CollectiveMind at 11:48 AM on May 28, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by CollectiveMind at 12:21 PM on May 27, 2018