Podcast Inspiration

Podcasts are a relatively new medium that builds off of the form of radio. These can be a great source of inspiration for new ways of telling a story with audio only.

Here are some examples of podcasts that you may find inspirational for your Audio Interview piece:

This American Life – this is kind of the standard bearer for radio/podcast journalism these days. Hosted by Ira Glass. I recently really enjoyed listening to their episode “Private Geography”

RadioLab – another heavy hitter in the audio world - they generally have one theme per show and explore it in various different ways. It started out as more science based topics, but they definitely have expanded and explore lots of different "big" topics. They are known for their extensive sound design (Host Jad Abumrad even won a MacArthur Genius grant for it). Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich. My favorite episode is an older one called “Cities”

There Goes The Neighborhood – From The Nation and WNYC Studios, hosted by Jim O’Grady. This show started last year and their first season looked at gentrification in New York City through the lens of long-time residents in Williamsburg, Bed-Stuy, and East New York. Their second season is on air right now and focuses on L.A.

Serial – You probably heard about this one in passing two years ago when Season 1 was blowing up late 2014. Hosted by Sarah Koenig, it is a long form journalism piece told week to week investigating the murder of a high school student Hae Min Lee in Baltimore in the late 90s. But it's really a study of memory and ideas of subjective truth. The second season looks into the story of officer Bowe Bergdahl who walked out of camp in Afghanistan in 2009 and was held as a prisoner by the Taliban for 5 years. 

The S-Town podcast is one of the best things I have ever listened to, produced by This American Life and Serial, hoted by Brian Reed. Here’s their logline: “John despises his Alabama town and decides to do something about it. He asks reporter to investigate the son of a wealthy family who’s allegedly been bragging that he got away with murder. But then someone else ends up dead, sparking a nasty feud, a hunt for hidden treasure, and an unearthing of the mysteries of one man’s life.” The show is mysterious, and completely based on interview material.

 
Ghetto Life 101 – One of the best radio documentaries of all time. “Ghetto Life 101 is a 30-minute radio broadcast documentary exploring the lives of residents of the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. The documentary was created by teenagers LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman and produced by David Isay for National Public Radio. The broadcast garnered international acclaim and won several awards.”

99% Invisible - hosted by Roman Mars, this show is all about the things we see all the time but don't think about. I reccomend their recent series on “Containers” and their show on the history of the “I Heart NY” logo.

Started in mid-2014, Gimlet Media is a new specifically podcast based company. They have been producing top notch audio ever since. They even got super meta and created a podcast about starting a podcast company (which is actually really good. It's called Start Up) Here are some of their other shows:

Heavyweight – Hosted by Johnathan Goldstein. Johnathan goes around and asks people to dig up really tough issues in their lives, and then forces them to do something about them. I loved episode #5 where reconnects with his high school girlfriend “Galit”

Mystery Show - Hosted by Starlee Kine, she solves a mystery week to week of varied subjects. Lots of fun and takes you in many unexpected directions. 

Reply All - Hosted by PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman, it's a podcast about the internet. But really interesting weird stories.