Sound School Podcast
The Backstory to Great Audio Storytelling, hosted by Rob Rosenthal, for Transom and PRX.
- Update frequency
- every 14 days
- Average duration
- 22 minutes
- Episodes
- 364
- Years Active
- 2011 - 2025
Revisiting: Should I or Shouldn’t I — Recording in Stereo
One of the top three questions Rob often hears when he's teaching is, "Should I record in stereo?" Rob says mono is usually the way to go. But on this archive episode of Sound School, former NPR engi…
00:19:28 |
Tue 12 Mar 2024
Small, Random, and Meaningful
In the tsunami of serialized documentary making over the last decade, what happened to the short story? Where are the one-off curious and creative sound portraits or essays or found sound or audio po…
00:50:50 |
Tue 27 Feb 2024
For the Love of Radio, Get Out of the Studio!
In honor of World Radio Day this week, The Sound School Podcast is celebrating with a story that exemplifies the power of radio to evoke striking images — a story reported from a remote hillside in S…
00:18:29 |
Tue 13 Feb 2024
A Triple Whammy
Katz Laszlo says writing and tracking for herself is complicated enough. But it's an even greater challenge writing for and tracking with the two co-hosts of The Europeans podcast. Katz lays out how …
00:20:26 |
Tue 30 Jan 2024
Tracking Partners
It's a brave thing to share the outtakes from a tracking session. All the blemishes are right there. But, Martine Powers and Rennie Svirnovsky from audio team at The Washington Post have graciously d…
00:24:24 |
Tue 16 Jan 2024
Revisiting: Goldstein on Writing, Fonts, and The Goldstein
While there were many great podcasts released in 2023, no one will remember the year as a good one for the people who make podcasts. There were far too many layoffs and cancellations including a show…
00:41:49 |
Tue 02 Jan 2024
Which Is the Better Open?
Rob takes himself to task on this episode. He felt the beginning of the last episode of Sound School was so boring, he rewrote it. Compare the old version with the new version be sure to tell us at T…
00:11:50 |
Tue 19 Dec 2023
Reporting Out at the Edge
Theo Greenly reports for a public radio station in the far-flung Aleutian Islands in Alaska. When he started, about two and a half years ago, he thought he'd hit the ground running reporting in-depth…
00:19:52 |
Tue 05 Dec 2023
Mixing Fiction with Non-Fiction
Fiction should stay in its corner, non-fiction in its corner. Or so Rob thought until he heard producer Pippa Johnstone seamlessly and effectively mix the two in her memorable podcast "Expectant," wh…
00:23:15 |
Tue 21 Nov 2023
Interview Strangers on the Street, Make a Podcast
Catherine Carr has turned vox into artful conversation with a deceptively simple question: Where are you going? That's also the name of the podcast she makes (a recent British Podcast Award winner) w…
00:20:19 |
Tue 07 Nov 2023
Revisiting: Remembering Studs
Studs Terkel is considered by many to be a patron saint of documentary radio journalism. It's been 15 years since his death. On this archive episode of Sound School from 2012, Rob talks to Syd Lewis …
00:24:27 |
Tue 24 Oct 2023
Pleasing to the Ear
Rob acts as a story DJ on this episode, featuring excerpts from stories he’s recently found pleasing to the ear. His "playlist" includes work from "More Perfect," the BBC Radio 4 podcast "Seriously,"…
00:38:28 |
Tue 10 Oct 2023
Salt at 50!
What do radio producers Phoebe Judge (Criminal), Zoe Chase (This American Life), Greg Warner (Rough Translation), Matt Kielty (Radiolab), Emily Kwong (NPR) and dozens if not hundreds of others you've…
00:32:53 |
Tue 26 Sep 2023
Revisiting: Dead Mom Talking
This year's Third Coast Festival winners and finalists produced incredible work. It got us thinking about winners from previous years. So, we dug up this fantastic interview with Rachel Matlow who wo…
00:25:34 |
Tue 12 Sep 2023
So You STILL Want to Start a Podcast, Eh?
It's unusual for a producer to share a work in progress. It's rarer still to do it twice. Nina Porzucki updates Rob on the progress of Bird Talk, her comedy podcast in-the-making and the steps it too…
00:19:15 |
Tue 29 Aug 2023
Going Behind the Mic On Climate Change Reporting
Rebecca Hersher, a climate science reporter at NPR, offers excellent tips on reporting on climate change. But, at the heart of Rob's interview with her is something more philosophical: the role of ho…
00:31:08 |
Tue 15 Aug 2023
Revisiting: Sound Art Meets Poetry Meets Cicadas
Summer means cicadas. Those crackly, buzzy bugs that drone and drone in the heat like a live electrical wire spewing sparks. Mair Bosworth and Fiona Benson took that sound and crafted "Magicicada," a…
00:22:13 |
Tue 01 Aug 2023
Next-level Scoring
Get your headphones on for this episode! Rob dives into three remarkable examples of scoring. He features examples from the Serial/NYT series "The Retrievals," scored by Phoebe Wang, "My Mother Made …
00:27:41 |
Tue 18 Jul 2023
Lean In and Listen Like It’s Music
Rob's a fan of the "radio art" style of audio storytelling from Europe but often, after listening, he finds himself scratching his head. "What was that about?!" He wonders if the problem isn't the st…
00:34:45 |
Wed 05 Jul 2023
Revisiting: Avoiding Pesky Sound Problems
No matter how good you are recording in the field, you're going to encounter challenges. Rob Byers does an incredible job explaining how to avoid and fix those problems on this archive episode of Sou…
00:13:04 |
Tue 20 Jun 2023
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