Sound School Podcast (Rob Rosenthal/PRX/Transom.org)

Headed out to report in a faraway place? Dan Grossman says "Be prepared." Dan shares intriguing sounds and important field preparation tips on this HowSound.

It's good to hear constructive (and, sometimes, not-so-constructive) feedback. However, a LOT of criticism, especially if it's pointed, well....is hard to take. Dan Collison & Elizabeth Meister talk about how to handle tough reviews from listeners.

Happy Birthday to Teenage Diaries! To mark the occasion and the production of five updated stories, HowSound features a story dissection with producer Joe Richman recorded in 2009.

Reporter Sasha Aslanian on balanced reporting during Minnesota's gay marriage debate.

Lilly Sullivan relates the curious tale of "52 Hertz," the whale who sings at the "wrong" frequency.

"Witness to an Execution," another addition to my Top 10 list of radio documentaries. "Witness" was produced by Stacy Abromson and Dave Isay in 2000. The prison warden and staff of a prison in Texas recount their experiences and the process of putting people to death in Texas.

Nick van der Kolk on "auteurship" and the incredibly unique sound of the "Love + Radio" podcast.

Molly Menschel's radio story about a beached whale in Lubec, Maine is so good, you'll be jealous of her storytelling and production skills. In fact, you might not want to listen.

Interviewing traumatized people is no easy task. Zach Hirsch, a radio producer, and Bruce Shapiro, Director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, offer suggestions for treating victims with respect.

New producers Conor Gillies and Zack Ezor get it right, right out of the gate with their documentary "Stylus" on music and sound.

Capital Public Radio's Catherine Stifter and jesikah maria ross (no caps) are tasked with changing the sound of the station's documentary unit.

Producer Matt Kielty wonders about "objectification" and advancing a career reporting on the suffering of others.

A recent episode of "99% Invisible" employed a dramatic recreation to bring the past to life. Producers Alex Goldman and Sam Greenspan explain how they did it.

"Hafid is Free" is a solid example of what a story needs when it doesn't have a narrative hook.

Yowei Shaw amassed 325 pages of transcripts for her This American Life story on Eritrean hostages and the reporter who uncovered the story. And that was just the beginning of Yowei's long, grueling production process assembling the story.

Here it is, the first HowSound, the backstory to great radio storytelling. We kick things off in a graveyard -- hopefully, that's not foreshadowing! Producer Clay Bolton digs deep for the universal in a story about gravediggers. (Pun intended.)

David Schulman usually produces non-narrated stories on music. Recently, he stepped out of his usual style to produce a narrated science story focused on the acoustics of reproducing the sound of a Stradivarius electronically.

Mary Helen Miller encourages station-based producers to "Sneak out the back door with the tape recorder and make something good."

Headphones are mandatory for this episode of HowSound. Kathy Tu's second radio story ever will set your ears ablaze.

Julia Scott says "participant observation" is a valuable reporting tool, even if it means climbing into an "iron lung" which looks like something only Dracula would lay in.

Three radio greats -- Chris Brookes, Paolo Pietropaolo, and Alan Hall -- explore the sound of England 400 years ago along with our modern soundscape.

Keys to good storytelling: strong, simple writing; solid voicing; professional recording & mixing; compelling characters; a seductive narrative; visuals.....What else? John Biewen describes "sure-handedness" in radio storytelling.

Laura Starecheski should win a radio endurance award. Laura tells the story of her decade -- ten years! -- of research and production on "The Hospital Always Wins."

Tight budgets, technological advances, and the impulse to experiment are leading some producers to record "not by the book." Does it work?

On this edition of HowSound, a 2005 Third Coast Festival award-winner from Long Haul Productions about a transracial adoption.

NPR's legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg finds on-scene narration canned and phoney and she says ambient sound often gets in the way of a story. Yet, her recent report on buffer zones around health clinics proves otherwise.

A painful reminiscence about preserving old reel-to-reel tapes by baking them. No, that's not a typo. Baking.

Producer Will Coley and editor Viki Merrick offer HowSound listeners a gift by talking about their editorial process, a working relationship that is usually not shared publicly.

Michael Raphael of Rabbit Ears Audio talks sound effects recording: winter scenes, rockets, cityscapes, and the soul destroying typewriter.

NPR foreign correspondent Anthony Kuhn on the risks involved reporting at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The new podcast "Criminal," is well worth a listen. Find out what it's all about from the program's host, Phoebe Judge.

Transom Story Workshop student, Alex Kapelman, with the story of a drummer with a hook for a hand and a 50-year old rock and roll mystery.

Interviewing tricks and tips from NPR science reporter Alix Spiegel. You'll want to take notes.

Producer Jakob Lewis on "parachuting in" to produce a story about a funeral and a grieving family.

If I had to pick a story for a "Top Ten Favorite Student Features," "Five Things" by Matt Largey would be one of them because of the incredible intimacy.

Stories about drawing, getting old, stuffed animals, and what to do when you get a magnet stuck up your nose. It must be David Green's "Third Grade Audio."

The Third Coast International Audio Festival is 3 days of ear candy. On this HowSound, I present one of the stories featured at this year's Filmless Festival, "Seizure's Lament" by producer Carma Jolly. You might want headphones for this one.

The staff at Studio 360 dissects the production, writing, and voicing of their recent broadcast from 1914.

On this HowSound, Scott Carrier, Alex Chadwick, and the legendary story behind Scott's first radio piece "The Hitchhiker," produced in 1983.

On this episode, a 2004 "Best New Producer" award-winner from Third Coast and a real tearjerker produced by Bente Birkeland.

Natasha Haverty talks about her path from reporting on dairy princess pageants to award-winning investigative stories on prisons for North Country Public Radio in upstate New York.

A HowSound first: a live recording in front of an audience. The guest is Michael May who talks about his story "Death of a Bangalore Law Student."

On this edition, we follow the path from script to a produced story about plant communication with Peter Frick-Wright and Robbie Carver.

Listen to the audio in this video. It's perfect for radio. With some editing, narration, & other content, you could easily turn this into a radio story. Joe Richman on the power and pleasure of storytelling with archive tape.

There seems to be a trend afoot in documentary radio -- working directly with musicians to compose music for a story. Andy Mills won "Best New Artist" at the 2011 Third Coast Filmless Festival. Well deserved. Have a listen.

Imagine this: You've met a total character. She's kind of eccentric. She has forty-one animals in her backyard and it's not a farm. And, just about every time she talks, she says something amazing. But, there's no story. What do you do?

Hillary Frank launched a decade-long career in radio with an answering machine as a tape recorder. Hillary talks about microcassettes, boomboxes, podcasting, and motherhood.

99% Invisible is my new favorite podcast. A little bit RadioLab, a touch of This American Life, and a lot of Roman Mars, the producer. Roman talks about a bit about the design of the podcast and podcasting writ large.

Radio storytelling is an excellent teaching tool for young people in practically any classroom. Here's a quick primer on youth radio and a commentary about Aspbergers syndrome by seventeen year old Ian Kathen.

Kelly McEvers is a mic-slinger. Draws from the hip. Records with precision. Not afraid. (Okay, maybe a little afraid.) On this HowSound, she is unabashed about her adrenaline addiction, her critique of the NPR sound, & her approach to radio stories.

Once you've finished producing a story, what are you supposed to do with all the tape? Just let it sit on a shelf? This HowSound will stretch your ears with a sound art piece by Kara Oehler, Jason Cady, and Ann Heppermann.

Radio stories usually aren't very complicated. Generally, you can place stories into two categories--the argument story and the narrative story. Whitney Jones produced a somewhat different story last fall while he was at the Transom Story Workshop.

Robert Krulwich's stories are always ear-catching and dramatic whether they're on radio, television, or in person at conferences. He practically forces you to want to know what happens next. How the heck does he do that?! I asked him.

"I can’t think of anything more fraught than doing a story that explores intimate things about your relationship with your parents." On this HowSound, Richard Paul talks about interviewing his dad and the epiphany that lead to breaking all ties.

Seek the truth and report it. That's the core of journalism. But the truth needs to be checked -- fact checked. And when you don't.....well, just ask the folks at This American Life. Columbia University's John Dinges talks about fact checking.

Studs Terkel, America's interviewer, would be 100 today! Happy Birthday Studs!! Syd Lewis worked with Studs for a 25 years. I chat with Syd about Studs and her documentary Working With Studs, produced by Atlantic Public Media.

There's a compelling story to be found in every day life, even a ukulele orchestra.

A few years ago, right around the time newspaper readership plummeted and papers shut-down one after another, Reporter Sean Corcoran left newspaper reporting for radio. He talks about how reporting differs in the two media.

If NPR reporter Robert Smith isn't the king of the stand-up, he surely is the prince. Robert lays out his methodology for solid stand-ups.

Initially, "The Secret" by Carma Jolly seems like it might be a story about Carma's brother and his near-death experience. Then, suddenly, story takes a sharp turn. In that moment, I was hooked by the story and Carma as a producer.

Imagine spending 5 years working on your PhD studying killer whale vocalization. Then imagine deciding you don’t want to be an ocean biologist. That's how Ari Daniel got into radio. Hear his secret to clear and understandable science reporting.

I hope you're not squeamish. On this HowSound, I take a scalpel to a profile on papermaker Joanne Rosser. Let's peel back the surface of the story to reveal its narrative and production innards.

Finally. A LONG overdue HowSound on scoring --- using music in a story. I dissect Jonathan Mitchell's use of scoring in his provocative story "She Sees Your Every Move."

Pejk Malinovksy on producing audio tours including Passing Stranger: The East Village Poetry Walk

Criminal justice reporter Ailsa Chang on her duPont-Columbia award winning story for WNYC.

You'll probably get dizzy listening to "A Trip to the Dentist," a legendary, psychedelic story from Larry Massett.

Avoiding the pitfalls of "parachute journalism" with Marketplace reporter Krissy Clark.

Boo! Here's your Halloween edition of HowSound featuring "The Seance" by Bob Carlson.

We're goin' in! Grab your earbuds and don your spelunking light. Our destination? Jad Abumrad's brain. Jad's a co-host and the producer of Radiolab, a science (and more) program produced at WNYC. This could get weird.

The amount of effort Sally Herships put into her first investigative journalism piece….. well, it’s enough to drive you to smoke!

“The Five Percent Rule” is Sally’s 10-month-long foray into investigative reporting, a story on the under-pricing of tobacco on military bases. The piece aired on Marketplace in June of 2011 as part of a series on tobacco.

On this edition of HowSound, Sally talks about some of her behind-the-scenes work on the project. It’s a bit startling, actually. Huge spreadsheets, hundreds of phone calls…. even a new pair of special glasses to prevent the headaches she was getting from looking at a computer screen too long.

Sally says she received assistance from I.R.E. — Investigative Reporters and Editors. They were a tremendous help for this kind of deep reporting and exacting work.

Have a listen then let us know about your investigative work.

Here’s Sally’s blog for “The Five Percent Rule.” And, no, Sally doesn’t smoke.

This edition of HowSound was produced on Hindenburg software rather than ProTools, my usual audio editor of choice for a good dozen years. I haven’t switched to Hindenburg, but I sure like it a lot.

The interview may be the core of what we do as radio producers. Who better to talk about interviewing than Audie Cornish who says she conducts fifteen interviews a week for NPR's All Things Considered. Take notes on her tips.

On the radio, why don't we hear more conversations with interesting people? Emily Hsiao's radio story, "Leaving A Mark," is just that. You'll want to listen twice.

Producers Sara Archambault and Heather Radke talk about how they responded when characters in stories they produced died.

WLRN reporter Kenny Malone offers his strategy for creative storytelling: a clever central question, story motion, and place. This episode features Kenny's ear catching story about Florida's Unclaimed Property Auction, "The Tale of Lot 180."

"Tiny Spark" is an impressive new podcast from Amy Costello. Amy produces in-depth investigative stories about non-profits and foundations.

Producer Charles Maynes crafted the perfect tone for his documentary on singer Nick Drake called "Three Records from Sundown." It's almost as though Drake and his producer, Joe Boyd, were in the studio recording a Nick Drake documentary like it was a Nick Drake song.

"Curious City" loves the local. Hear how this project at WBEZ brings listeners into the making of radio and on-line content.

If only there was a quadratic equation for ethics, right? Plug in the variables and the equation spits out the answers. No such luck which means we've got to talk it through, like we do on this episode of HowSound with Radiolab reporter Pat Walters.

Katie Davis doesn't look very far for the stories she produces. In fact, they often come to her.... on her front porch. We feature Katie's essay produced in the aftermath of 9/11 -- An Inner-City Reality Check.

International reporting is an order of magnitude more challenging than local reporting. Producers Sarah Partnow & Sarah Stuteville talk about the travails of overseas reporting in the former Soviet Union for their latest doc, Generation Putin.

Producer Bradley Campbell says story structure is a like a map, it shows you were to go. For this episode of HowSound, Bradley drew story structures on napkins (really) and we dissect his drawings.

Lea Thau, host of the "Strangers" podcast on podcasting, journalism, and turning the mic toward yourself.

Rob Stein and Rebecca Davis reveal the backstory to their working relationship as reporter and producer.

On this HowSound, how a story about a skydiving accident nearly drove Anna Rose MacArthur away from radio and what brought her back.

Producer Annie McEwen talks about her award winning piece, "Here I Am and Here Be Danger."

An Australian radio sampler with Julie Shapiro, Executive Producer for the Creative Radio Unit at Australian Public Broadcasting.

"Burroughs at 100" with Iggy Pop. What's not to like? A HowSound recorded live at the Third Coast International Audio Festival with award winning producer Colin McNulty.

The podcast, “Criminal” has enjoyed a big jump in popularity. Rob Rosenthal talks with “Criminal’s” host Phoebe Judge about growth—how good press and partnership helps, how doing good work helps, and the “Serial” effect.

Rob Rosenthal talks with producer Bradley Campbell about "barf drafts." A technique for producing radio stories that Bradley swears by. Especially when he's on a tight deadline.

A live interview with 2014 Third Coast International Audio Festival Award winners, Luke Malone and Pat Walters.

This episode of HowSound features Joe Richman of Radio Diaries talking about his Third Coast Award winning piece, Teenage Diaries Revisited: Melissa's Story.

Anna Sale, the host of the podcast "Death, Sex and Money" talks with Rob Rosenthal in front of a live audience about the art of interviewing and getting people to talk about difficult things.

This week on HowSound, Rob Rosenthal shares one of his favorite pieces of all time, "Concerning Breakfast" produced by Annie Cheney and Jay Allison for the series, “Life Stories,” (Associate Producer, Christina Egloff).

On this edition of HowSound, Alex Chadwick and Rob Rosenthal trade tips on writing for radio that new producers will find invaluable.

In this episode of HowSound, Rob Rosenthal talks with producer Karen Brown about her piece, "The Path to Primary Care: Who Will Be the Next Generation of Frontline Doctors." A local piece with national appeal.

Neenah Ellis talks with Rob Rosenthal about her series "One Hundred Years of Stories" and she shares some of her tips for first-person stories.

In a character driven story, producer Hillary Frank says the story will be more satisfying if the character changes, evolves. Hillary got "radio lucky" when the kids in her story "Real Teens, Fake Babies" shifted 180 degrees.

In 2008, student producer Jamie Yuenger recorded a remarkably private moment during a moose hunt. How she got that recording may cause you to raise your "ethics eyebrow."

Producer Marlo Mack on the impulse to pick up a microphone and record her transgender daughter for her podcast “How to Be a Girl.”

HowSound's Rob Rosenthal remixes a story from Latino USA by producer Neena Pathak to reveal a different way to score a piece.