Sound Judgment

On May 6, 2024, The 13th Step team was honored with a Pulitzer Prize nomination for audio reporting "for their gripping and extensively reported investigation of corruption and sexual abuse within the lucrative recovery industry that sought accountability despite legal pressure.” Today, we go behind the scenes, once again, with New Hampshire Public Radio Reporter Lauren Chooljian and Story Editor Alison MacAdam to learn their techniques for ensuring journalistic accuracy and fairness as they faced attempts at intimidation. And this close team learned how to create a "trauma-informed workplace" -- and how emotional support techniques helped them to keep going. This is Part 2 of "Behind the blockbuster investigative series The 13th Step: The best defense is the truth." Listen to Part 1 How to Find the Truth: Behind the Blockbuster Investigative Series The 13th Step Takeaways from today's episode include: 1. In today's journalistic and political environment, the best defense is the truth. That means using every reporting strategy you can to make sure all of your reporting is factual, precise, backed up with evidence and well organized. 2. Corroborate, corroborate, corroborate. In your story or series, explain that you corroborated your facts and how you did. 3. Transparency is key. Paint thorough, fair portraits of your subjects. Human beings are complex and contradictory. This tension makes for fascinating stories and builds credibility. 4. Newsroom or network leadership needs to be as committed to your journalism as you are. Depending on the circumstances, they may need to pay legal fees, tap insurance and even fund security. 5. Chooljian had two huge reasons to continue reporting, even after she, her family, and her newsroom were targeted in a rash of criminal threats. The first: Her sources had bravely stepped forward to share their stories with her. Doing so put them at risk — as she says, a risk they took without the kinds of organizational, financial and legal resources available to her. Second: Backing down would have sent a signal to others that retaliation works. That's unacceptable. ### Follow Sound Judgment on your favorite podcast app or subscribe to our channel @SoundJudgmentPod on Youtube. For more takeaways from this episode on crafting an investigative series and why accountability journalism is so important, visit Current. Listen to the series deconstructed on today's show: The 13th Step. Starting your own podcast? Be strategic with our Sound Judgment Show Bible Workbook. Want to learn more about how NHPR's Document Team greenlights projects like The 13th Step to begin with? Listen to "How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life story." More about The 13th Step Read about the team Check out the supporting legal documents Resources on addiction treatment, substance use disorder, sexual misconduct, and more Follow Lauren Chooljian LinkedIn Twitter/X: @laurenchooljian Follow Alison MacAdam LinkedIn Threads: @ajmacadam Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com. Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. Connect: Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram ✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com 💜 Leave a...

In 2020, New Hampshire Public Radio Lauren Chooljian received an email about Eric Spofford, the founder of New Hampshire's largest addiction treatment network. In it was an allegation that Spofford was sexually abusing female clients and employees. Chooljian set out to learn whether this could be true. Over the next three years, she would go on a journey to learn the truth, not just about this allegation, but about widespread sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment industry. The result of that journey is The 13th Step, a gripping series that won a slew of awards, including the duPont, sometimes considered the Pulitzer of broadcasting. This is Part 1 of a two-part episode that goes behind-the-scenes of The 13th Step. Along the way, Chooljian, her family, and her news director become targets of retaliation. What started as a reporting task would also become about another thing: Freedom of the press. And how, why, and for whom to persist with a story in the face of unnerving threats. You'll learn how to pursue a tough investigation; how to frame a complex series with many characters and themes; and how to craft a true, deeply relevant story that serves the public good. And you'll learn what this arduous journey required of everyone involved. This episode explores sensitive subjects including addiction and sexual assault. Please listen with care. Follow Sound Judgment on your favorite podcast app, or subscribe to our channel @SoundJudgmentPod on Youtube. For more takeaways from this episode on crafting an investigative series and why accountability journalism is so important, visit Current. Listen to the series deconstructed on today's show: The 13th Step. Starting your own podcast? Be strategic with our Sound Judgment Show Bible Workbook. Want to learn more about how NHPR's Document Team greenlights projects like The 13th Step to begin with? Listen to "How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life story." More about The 13th Step Read about the team Check out the supporting legal documents Resources on addiction treatment, substance use disorder, sexual misconduct, and more Follow Lauren Chooljian LinkedIn Twitter/X: @laurenchooljian Follow Alison MacAdam LinkedIn Threads: @ajmacadam Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com. Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. Connect: Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram ✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment. Credits Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. Host: Elaine Appleton Grant Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir Production Manager: Andrew Parrella Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

Sound Judgment is about the craft of audio storytelling. Not about the marketing of podcasts. But today, we're bringing you a gift from someone I trust completely when it comes to audience growth: Jeremy Enns of Podcast Marketing Academy, and his co-host, Justin Jackson, cofounder of Transistor.fm. They've teamed up to produce Podcast Marketing Trends Explained, a limited series that extracts proven audience growth techniques from Enns' comprehensive annual survey of podcasters about their marketing methods. In this episode, you'll learn: — Whether the famed "podcast discoverability problem" actually exists — The three types of marketing channels at your disposal & what the data shows about their effectiveness — Whether or not it's worth it (and when) to pay for ads — How to pick the right marketing channel for you — Why "owned media" is the low-hanging fruit for many creators — What most podcasters get wrong about growth through collaborations, and — How to kickstart word-of-mouth growth. (P.S.: Word-of-mouth growth is my favorite kind of growth, and IMHO, the best kind!) About Jeremy Enns About Justin Jackson Can't get enough of Podcast Marketing Trends Explained? Follow it now. Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com. Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. Connect: Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram ✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment. Credits Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. Host: Elaine Appleton Grant Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir Production Manager: Andrew Parrella Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

At some point, every one of us will reach a point in our professional lives where it's time to change — but the status quo, even when it's not working, is comfortable. Are you ready to say goodbye to your old life in order to find your way to a new, better one? But you don't have a map? That's what Daily Creative host Todd Henry and his "story architect" producer Josh Gott wrestle with in the episode we deconstruct together, "The Curious Death of Todd Henry." You won't be the same after you listen to this episode — a play in seven acts. Follow Sound Judgment on your favorite podcast app, or subscribe to our channel @SoundJudgmentPod on Youtube. Listen to the full episode deconstructed on today's show: Daily Creative: The Curious Death of Todd Henry Follow Daily Creative Join Us for New Sound Judgment Workshops! Improve your storytelling, interviewing, writing, producing, hosting and guesting skills! Sign up for new Sound Judgment workshops today at www.podcastallies.com/workshops. April 5, 2024: Mastering the Art of the Interview. Interviews are the foundation of all good storytelling, but we don’t get much instruction on the art and science of them. In this workshop, you'll get ten proven, transformative strategies that you can apply to your own work right away. April 11,2024: Success in Guesting: Be a Great Guest, Get a Great Guest Learn how to curate great guests and what it takes to be a phenomenal guest yourself. Learn how NPR producers curate and book guests – and how you can set yourself up for success no matter whether you're making a show — or seeking to be a guest yourself. Todd Henry Positioning himself as an “arms dealer for the creative revolution,” Todd Henry teaches leaders and organizations how to establish practices that lead to everyday brilliance. He is the author of seven books (The Accidental Creative, Die Empty, Louder Than Words, Herding Tigers, The Motivation Code, Daily Creative, and The Brave Habit) which have been translated into more than a dozen languages. He speaks and consults across dozens of industries on creativity, leadership, and passion for work. He began podcasting in 2005, founding The Accidental Creative. Before transforming it into Daily Creative, The Accidental Creative had been published continuously for 18 years and been downloaded 18 million times. Both podcasts help audiences become brave, focused, and brilliant. Joshua Gott Joshua Gott is a messaging strategist and creative director helping companies simplify their brand message so they can tell a better story. He's worked with organizations like P&G, Anthem, Nestle, Dropbox, Workday, Trip Advisor, ESPN and many others to make sense out of nonsense. His approach to crafting clear messaging is encapsulated in the Story Square®, a framework he developed based on many years of finding creative ways to explain complicated ideas. When he isn't playing pickleball or coaching girls volleyball he's telling stories with Todd Henry on the Daily Creative podcast. Connect with Todd Website: www.toddhenry.com Instagram and Twitter/X: toddhenry LinkedIn: toddhenry1 Facebook: toddhenry.ac Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com. Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio...

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 the audio team at The Washington Post have graciously done just that. They invited Sound School's Rob Rosenthal into their studio to witness Martine at work voicing an episode of The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop, with assistance from Rennie. Hearing how they work as tracking partners is a real gift for anyone who wants to perform better in the mic booth. Today on Sound Judgment, we’re excited to share this instructive, hilarious episode of Sound School. If you’ve spent much time behind a mic yourself, you know that tracking an episode – that is, narrating it – takes time, coaching, practice, a good ear, humility, a good sense of humor— and a great producer. *Update! Martine Powers won the 2024 Ambie Award for Best Host at The Podcast Academy's the fourth annual awards for excellence in audio. You will be a better narrator and a better in-studio producer after listening to this episode. Sound School is produced by Rob Rosenthal for PRX and Transom. Join Us for New Sound Judgment Workshops! Improve your storytelling, interviewing, writing, producing, hosting and guesting skills! Sign up for new Sound Judgment workshops today at www.podcastallies.com/workshops. April 5, 2024: Mastering the Art of the Interview. Interviews are the foundation of all good storytelling, but we don’t get much instruction on the art and science of them. In this workshop, you'll get ten proven, transformative strategies that you can apply to your own work right away. April 11,2024: Success in Guesting: Be a Great Guest, Get a Great Guest Learn how to curate great guests and what it takes to be a phenomenal guest yourself. Learn how NPR producers curate and book guests – and how you can set yourself up for success no matter whether you're making a show — or seeking to be a guest yourself. *** Sound School (formerly HowSound) is a bi-weekly podcast on audio storytelling produced by Rob Rosenthal for PRX and Transom. Listen to more episodes and follow the show at https://transom.org/topics/soundschool/ The episode featured on Sound Judgment: https://transom.org/2024/tracking-partners/ About Rob Rosenthal Rob Rosenthal is a freelance story editor, podcast producer/reporter, and a teacher. Longform, documentary podcasts are his sweet spot. He offers workshops for podcast companies and public radio stations. He hosts the Sound School Podcast, a joint project of PRX and Transom, on audio storytelling. Rob has been interviewing reporters, producers, editors and artists about the craft of audio storytelling since he began making his show in 2008 under the name How Sound. Rob says he still learns something every time he interviews someone. Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com. Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. Connect: Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram ✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com....

The six storytelling strategies you're about to learn are drawn from the patterns I've seen across more than 150 behind-the-scenes lessons — lessons learned from some of the best hosts, producers, writers and editors I've had on Sound Judgment. You can put these techniques to use right away in your studio or at your writing desk. This episode pulls together examples from compelling shows and award winners. In almost every case, the creators who use these strategies are multi-talented. They produce podcasts, they're writers and journalists, they speak on stages, they act, perform, and do live storytelling shows at places like The Moth. These days, we're all creating on multiple platforms — so take a journey with me to learn how sound vision, structure, scenes, surprise, suspense and specifics and take your storytelling to the next level. Apply the six storytelling strategies for creating unforgettable content to your own work! Sign up for our interactive, virtual Hook Your Audience & Keep Them Coming Back workshop Thursday, March 14, 2024 By developing storytelling skills from structure to scene-making, suspense to specifics, you'll learn to create or improve the show, story, article or speech that expresses what you want to express, captivates the people you want to reach, and achieves quality and depth you can be proud of. You'll move from likes and follows to building trusted, engaged relationships with your audience. These practices work separately and together to ratchet up both the substance and the "wow factor" of your content, no matter the platform. Reading these show notes too late to catch this Hook Your Audience workshop? Check out our other trainings on guesting and curating guests, interviewing, and more, at www.podcastallies.com/workshops. Want to listen to this series in digestible bites? Follow Sound Judgment and check out these six short episodes: Part 1: Sound Vision Part 2: Structure Part 3: Scenes Part 4: Surprise Part 5: Suspense Part 6: Specifics Don't miss a thing about the craft of audio storytelling: sign up for my Sound Judgment newsletter, which includes the popular hands-on segment "Try This in Your Studio," kudos to creators who are lifting up the art and business of audio storytelling, news about the show, and useful resources for content creators of all kinds. "Six S" Storytelling Resources Shows and storytellers mentioned in this series: Bone Valley Cohosts: Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker Marketplace John Barth, Creative Media LLC The 13th Step, an award-winning documentary series on sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment Reporter: Lauren Chooljian Story Editor: Alison Macadam New Hampshire Public Radio Daily Creative Host: Todd Henry Producer: Joshua Gott Famous & Gravy Cohosts: Amit Kapoor & Michael Osborne The Rich Roll Podcast Host: Rich Roll Guest: Charles Duhigg Book: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg Crime Show "Paging Dr. Barnes" Host & Executive Producer: Emma Courtland Katie Colaneri Senior Podcast Editor New Hampshire Public Radio Kelly Corrigan Wonders Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan "Bryan Stevenson" "Samantha Power" Host: Kelly Corrigan This American Life "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum" Reporter: Sarah Gibson Chameleon: Wild Boys Host: Sam Mullins Full Sound Judgment episodes featuring these storytellers Bone Valley: How to Make a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference (Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker) The Host Defines the Brand with John Barth How to Make Serious Topics Fun with the Hosts of Famous & Gravy (Amit Kapoor, Michael Osborne) Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show's Emma Courtland How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life Story (Katie Colaneri) The Art of True Curiosity with Kelly Corrigan of Kelly Corrigan Wonders How to Make Listeners Breathless for More with Wild Boys' Sam Mullins Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on...

This is the sixth and final part of our new Sound Judgment quick-hit series on storytelling strategies for hooking your audience and keeping them with you. Today: specifics. The more specific our language, the more sparkling and memorable it is. In the last 18 months of speaking with incredible storytellers for this podcast, no one has been better at this than Sam Mullins. In 2023, Sam won the the Best Podcast of the Year award at the Ambies, The Podcast Academy's attempt to rival the Oscars. He won it for his documentary series Chameleon: Wild Boys, from Campside Media. Learn how Sam's background as a comedy writer informs his approach to writing, and especially to choosing the extraordinarily specific ways he approaches building characters and enticing audiences to enter his world. Apply the six storytelling strategies for creating unforgettable content to your own work! Sign up for our interactive, virtual Hook Your Audience & Keep Them Coming Back workshop Thursday, March 14, 2024 By developing skills from story structure to scene-making, suspense to specifics, you'll learn to create or improve the show, story, article or speech that expresses what you want to express, captivates the people you want to reach, and achieves quality and depth you can be proud of. You'll move from likes and follows to building trusted, engaged relationships with your audience. These practices work separately and together to ratchet up both the substance and the "wow factor" of your content, no matter the platform. Reading these show notes too late to catch this Hook Your Audience workshop? Check out our other trainings on guesting and curating guests, interviewing, and more, at www.podcastallies.com/workshops. Did you miss the rest of the series? Be sure to follow Sound Judgment and check out the other other five bite-sized episodes: Part 1: Sound Vision Part 2: Structure Part 3: Scenes Part 4: Surprise Part 5: Suspense All of these segments — each around 10 minutes or less — will come together soon for a full episode on How to Hook Your Audience and Keep Them Coming Back. You won't miss a thing if you sign up for my Sound Judgment newsletter, which includes the popular hands-on segment "Try This in Your Studio," kudos to creators who are lifting up the art and business of audio storytelling, news about the show, and useful resources for content creators of all kinds. "Six S" Storytelling Resources Shows and storytellers mentioned in this series: Bone Valley Cohosts: Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker Marketplace John Barth, Creative Media LLC The 13th Step, an award-winning documentary series on sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment Reporter: Lauren Chooljian Story Editor: Alison Macadam New Hampshire Public Radio Daily Creative Host: Todd Henry Producer: Joshua Gott Famous & Gravy Cohosts: Amit Kapoor & Michael Osborne The Rich Roll Podcast Host: Rich Roll Guest: Charles Duhigg Book: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg Crime Show "Paging Dr. Barnes" Host & Executive Producer: Emma Courtland Katie Colaneri Senior Podcast Editor New Hampshire Public Radio Kelly Corrigan Wonders Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan "Bryan Stevenson" "Samantha Power" Host: Kelly Corrigan This American Life "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum" Reporter: Sarah Gibson Chameleon: Wild Boys Host: Sam Mullins Full Sound Judgment episodes featuring these storytellers Bone Valley: How to Make a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference (Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker) The Host Defines the Brand with John Barth How to Make Serious Topics Fun with the Hosts of Famous & Gravy (Amit Kapoor, Michael Osborne) Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show's Emma Courtland How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life Story (Katie Colaneri) The Art of True Curiosity with Kelly Corrigan of Kelly Corrigan Wonders How to Make Listeners Breathless for More with Wild Boys' Sam...

This is part 5 of our new Sound Judgment quick-hit series on six storytelling strategies for hooking your audience and keeping them with you. This one can mean the difference between ho-hum content and stories that your audiences will talk about. And I’m betting that you give it hardly any thought, if you think about it at all. What is it? Stick around to find out. Part 5 features Michael Osborne and Amit Kapoor of the podcast Famous & Gravy, New Hampshire Public Radio senior podcast editor Katie Colaneri, and Sarah Gibson, a New Hampshire Public Radio reporter who produced the segment "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum" for This American Life. Apply the six storytelling strategies for creating unforgettable content to your own work! Sign up for our interactive, virtual Hook Your Audience & Keep Them Coming Back workshop Thursday, March 14, 2024 By developing skills from story structure to scene-making, suspense to specifics, you'll learn to create or improve the show, story, article or speech that expresses what you want to express, captivates the people you want to reach, and achieves quality and depth you can be proud of. You'll move from likes and follows to building trusted, engaged relationships with your audience. These practices work separately and together to ratchet up both the substance and the "wow factor" of your content, no matter the platform. Did you miss Part 1 on Sound Vision? Listen here. Be sure to follow Sound Judgment so you don't miss the next bite-sized episodes on: Part 3: Scenes Part 4: Surprise Part 5: Suspense Part 6: Specifics All of these segments — each around 10 minutes or less — will come together soon for a full episode on How to Hook Your Audience and Keep Them Coming Back. You won't miss a thing if you sign up for my Sound Judgment newsletter, which includes the popular hands-on segment "Try This in Your Studio," kudos to creators who are lifting up the art and business of audio storytelling, news about the show, and useful resources. "Six S" Storytelling Resources Shows and storytellers mentioned in this series: Bone Valley Cohosts: Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker Marketplace John Barth, Creative Media LLC The 13th Step, an award-winning documentary series on sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment Reporter: Lauren Chooljian Story Editor: Alison Macadam New Hampshire Public Radio Daily Creative Host: Todd Henry Producer: Joshua Gott Famous & Gravy Cohosts: Amit Kapoor & Michael Osborne The Rich Roll Podcast Host: Rich Roll Guest: Charles Duhigg Book: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg Crime Show "Paging Dr. Barnes" Host & Executive Producer: Emma Courtland Katie Colaneri Senior Podcast Editor New Hampshire Public Radio Kelly Corrigan Wonders Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan "Bryan Stevenson" "Samantha Power" Host: Kelly Corrigan This American Life "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum" Reporter: Sarah Gibson Chameleon: Wild Boys Host: Sam Mullins Full Sound Judgment episodes featuring these storytellers Bone Valley: How to Make a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference (Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker) The Host Defines the Brand with John Barth How to Make Serious Topics Fun with the Hosts of Famous & Gravy (Amit Kapoor, Michael Osborne) Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show's Emma Courtland How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life Story (Katie Colaneri) The Art of True Curiosity with Kelly Corrigan of Kelly Corrigan Wonders How to Make Listeners Breathless for More with Wild Boys' Sam Mullins Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview;...

Our fourth S in the 6S framework for hooking your audience and keeping them with you is surprise. It's the left turn when we're expecting a righthand one that makes us listen. It's the twists and turns of an involved, high-stakes plot that we love, or the ending of the movie or the novel that we didn't predict. As New Hampshire Public Radio Senior Podcast Editor Katie Colaneri says, it's the "holy shit" moment. Part 4 features Katie Colaneri, NHPR reporter Sarah Gibson and her This American Life Story, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum," and Kelly Corrigan of the PBS show Tell Me More and the podcast Kelly Corrigan Wonders. Apply the six storytelling strategies for creating unforgettable content to your own work! Sign up for our interactive, virtual Hook Your Audience & Keep Them Coming Back workshop Thursday, March 14, 2024 By developing skills from story structure to scene-making, suspense to specifics, you'll learn to create or improve the show, story, article or speech that expresses what you want to express, captivates the people you want to reach, and achieves quality and depth you can be proud of. You'll move from likes and follows to building trusted, engaged relationships with your audience. These practices work separately and together to ratchet up both the substance and the "wow factor" of your content, no matter the platform. Did you miss Part 1 on Sound Vision? Listen here. Be sure to follow Sound Judgment so you don't miss the next bite-sized episodes on: Part 3: Scenes Part 4: Surprise Part 5: Suspense Part 6: Specifics All of these segments — each around 10 minutes or less — will come together soon for a full episode on How to Hook Your Audience and Keep Them Coming Back. You won't miss a thing if you sign up for my Sound Judgment newsletter, which includes the popular hands-on segment "Try This in Your Studio," kudos to creators who are lifting up the art and business of audio storytelling, news about the show, and useful resources. "Six S" Storytelling Resources Shows and storytellers mentioned in this series: Bone Valley Cohosts: Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker Marketplace John Barth, Creative Media LLC The 13th Step, an award-winning documentary series on sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment Reporter: Lauren Chooljian Story Editor: Alison Macadam New Hampshire Public Radio Daily Creative Host: Todd Henry Producer: Joshua Gott Famous & Gravy Cohosts: Amit Kapoor & Michael Osborne The Rich Roll Podcast Host: Rich Roll Guest: Charles Duhigg Book: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg Crime Show "Paging Dr. Barnes" Host & Executive Producer: Emma Courtland Katie Colaneri Senior Podcast Editor New Hampshire Public Radio Kelly Corrigan Wonders Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan "Bryan Stevenson" "Samantha Power" Host: Kelly Corrigan This American Life "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum" Reporter: Sarah Gibson Chameleon: Wild Boys Host: Sam Mullins Full Sound Judgment episodes featuring these storytellers Bone Valley: How to Make a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference (Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker) The Host Defines the Brand with John Barth How to Make Serious Topics Fun with the Hosts of Famous & Gravy (Amit Kapoor, Michael Osborne) Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show's Emma Courtland How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life Story (Katie Colaneri) The Art of True Curiosity with Kelly Corrigan of Kelly Corrigan Wonders How to Make Listeners Breathless for More with Wild Boys' Sam Mullins Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting,...

This is part 3 of our new Sound Judgment quick-hit series on six storytelling strategies for hooking your audience and keeping them with you. Today, we’re talking about scenes. They’re obviously a staple in longform narrative storytelling, like true crime and documentaries. Don’t ignore them, though, for interview shows; you just have to interview well to elicit good, sensory anecdotes from your guests. Between the lines, you’ll hear how useful they are on the page and the stage as well. As a reminder, all six strategies come from today’s best audio storytellers. But these are storytelling strategies that don’t care what media is yours, so stick around, writers, public speakers, screenwriters and video producers — and of course, podcasters. With examples featuring Rich Roll, author Charles Duhigg, and Crime Show's Emma Courtland. Apply the six storytelling strategies for creating unforgettable content to your own work! Sign up for our interactive, virtual Hook Your Audience & Keep Them Coming Back workshop Thursday, March 14, 2024 By developing skills from story structure to scene-making, suspense to specifics, you'll learn to create or improve the show, story, article or speech that expresses what you want to express, captivates the people you want to reach, and achieves quality and depth you can be proud of. You'll move from likes and follows to building trusted, engaged relationships with your audience. These practices work separately and together to ratchet up both the substance and the "wow factor" of your content, no matter the platform. Did you miss Part 1 on Sound Vision? Listen here. Be sure to follow Sound Judgment so you don't miss the next bite-sized episodes on: Part 3: Scenes Part 4: Surprise Part 5: Suspense Part 6: Specifics All of these segments — each around 10 minutes or less — will come together soon for a full episode on How to Hook Your Audience and Keep Them Coming Back. You won't miss a thing if you sign up for my Sound Judgment newsletter, which includes the popular hands-on segment "Try This in Your Studio," kudos to creators who are lifting up the art and business of audio storytelling, news about the show, and useful resources. "Six S" Storytelling Resources Shows and storytellers mentioned in this series: Bone Valley Cohosts: Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker Marketplace John Barth, Creative Media LLC The 13th Step, an award-winning documentary series on sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment Reporter: Lauren Chooljian Story Editor: Alison Macadam New Hampshire Public Radio Daily Creative Host: Todd Henry Producer: Joshua Gott Famous & Gravy Cohosts: Amit Kapoor & Michael Osborne The Rich Roll Podcast Host: Rich Roll Guest: Charles Duhigg Book: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg Crime Show "Paging Dr. Barnes" Host & Executive Producer: Emma Courtland Katie Colaneri Senior Podcast Editor New Hampshire Public Radio Kelly Corrigan Wonders Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan "Bryan Stevenson" "Samantha Power" Host: Kelly Corrigan This American Life "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum" Reporter: Sarah Gibson Chameleon: Wild Boys Host: Sam Mullins Full Sound Judgment episodes featuring these storytellers Bone Valley: How to Make a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference (Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker) The Host Defines the Brand with John Barth How to Make Serious Topics Fun with the Hosts of Famous & Gravy (Amit Kapoor, Michael Osborne) Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show's Emma Courtland How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life Story (Katie Colaneri) The Art of True Curiosity with Kelly Corrigan of Kelly Corrigan Wonders How to Make Listeners Breathless for More with Wild Boys' Sam Mullins Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. Hire Elaine to...

In this series you'll learn how to use sound vision, structure, scenes, surprise, suspense, and specifics to make content that audiences love and share. Each of these bonus episodes is bite-sized and features examples from today's best audio storytellers. Growing your audience depends on more than marketing: It depends on creating compelling content that hooks your audience and keeps them with you. Apply the six storytelling strategies for creating unforgettable content to your own work! Sign up for our interactive, virtual Hook Your Audience & Keep Them Coming Back workshop Thursday, March 14, 2024 By developing skills from story structure to scene-making, suspense to specifics, you'll learn to create or improve the show, story, article or speech that expresses what you want to express, captivates the people you want to reach, and achieves quality and depth you can be proud of. You'll move from likes and follows to building trusted, engaged relationships with your audience. These practices work separately and together to ratchet up both the substance and the "wow factor" of your content, no matter the platform. Did you miss Part 1 on Sound Vision? Listen here. Be sure to follow Sound Judgment so you don't miss the next bite-sized episodes on: Part 3: Scenes Part 4: Surprise Part 5: Suspense Part 6: Specifics All of these segments — each around 10 minutes or less — will come together soon for a full episode on How to Hook Your Audience and Keep Them Coming Back. You won't miss a thing if you sign up for my Sound Judgment newsletter, which includes the popular hands-on segment "Try This in Your Studio," kudos to creators who are lifting up the art and business of audio storytelling, news about the show, and useful resources. "Six S" Storytelling Resources Shows and storytellers mentioned in this series: Bone Valley Cohosts: Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker Marketplace John Barth, Creative Media LLC The 13th Step, an award-winning documentary series on sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment Reporter: Lauren Chooljian Story Editor: Alison Macadam New Hampshire Public Radio Daily Creative Host: Todd Henry Producer: Joshua Gott Famous & Gravy Cohosts: Amit Kapoor & Michael Osborne The Rich Roll Podcast Host: Rich Roll Guest: Charles Duhigg Book: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg Crime Show "Paging Dr. Barnes" Host & Executive Producer: Emma Courtland Katie Colaneri Senior Podcast Editor New Hampshire Public Radio Kelly Corrigan Wonders Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan "Bryan Stevenson" "Samantha Power" Host: Kelly Corrigan This American Life "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum" Reporter: Sarah Gibson Chameleon: Wild Boys Host: Sam Mullins Full Sound Judgment episodes featuring these storytellers Bone Valley: How to Make a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference (Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker) The Host Defines the Brand with John Barth How to Make Serious Topics Fun with the Hosts of Famous & Gravy (Amit Kapoor, Michael Osborne) Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show's Emma Courtland How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life Story (Katie Colaneri) The Art of True Curiosity with Kelly Corrigan of Kelly Corrigan Wonders How to Make Listeners Breathless for More with Wild Boys' Sam Mullins Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate...

This is Part 1: Sound Vision. Be sure to follow the show so you don't miss the next bite-sized episodes on: Part 2: Structure Part 3: Scenes Part 4: Surprise Part 5: Suspense Part 6: Specifics All of these segments — each around 10 minutes or less — will come together soon for a full episode on How to Hook Your Audience and Keep Them Coming Back. Apply these six storytelling strategies for creating unforgettable content to your own work! Sign up for our interactive, virtual Hook Your Audience & Keep Them Coming Back workshop Thursday, March 14, 2024 By developing skills from story structure to scene-making, suspense to specifics, you'll learn to create or improve the show, story, article or speech that expresses what you want to express, captivates the people you want to reach, and achieves quality and depth you can be proud of. You'll move from likes and follows to building trusted, engaged relationships with your audience. These practices work separately and together to ratchet up both the substance and the "wow factor" of your content, no matter the platform. "Six S" Storytelling Resources Shows and storytellers mentioned in this series: Bone Valley Cohosts: Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker Marketplace John Barth, Creative Media LLC The 13th Step, an award-winning documentary series on sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment Reporter: Lauren Chooljian Story Editor: Alison Macadam New Hampshire Public Radio Daily Creative Host: Todd Henry Producer: Joshua Gott Famous & Gravy Cohosts: Amit Kapoor & Michael Osborne The Rich Roll Podcast Host: Rich Roll Guest: Charles Duhigg Book: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg Crime Show "Paging Dr. Barnes" Host & Executive Producer: Emma Courtland Katie Colaneri Senior Podcast Editor New Hampshire Public Radio Kelly Corrigan Wonders Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan "Bryan Stevenson" "Samantha Power" Host: Kelly Corrigan This American Life "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum" Reporter: Sarah Gibson Chameleon: Wild Boys Host: Sam Mullins Full Sound Judgment episodes featuring these storytellers Bone Valley: How to Make a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference (Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker) The Host Defines the Brand with John Barth How to Make Serious Topics Fun with the Hosts of Famous & Gravy (Amit Kapoor, Michael Osborne) Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show's Emma Courtland How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life Story (Katie Colaneri) The Art of True Curiosity with Kelly Corrigan of Kelly Corrigan Wonders How to Make Listeners Breathless for More with Wild Boys' Sam Mullins Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com. Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. Connect: Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram ✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment. Credits Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. Host:...

Improve your storytelling, interviewing, writing, producing, hosting and guesting skills! Sign up for new Sound Judgment workshops today at www.podcastallies.com/workshops. On this episode, Emily Silverman and host Elaine Appleton Grant discuss: — Why she thought starting a live storytelling event for physicians should be her next step as she was coming to terms with being in the wrong career while also searching for her biological parents and considering becoming a mother. — How leaving the full-time practice of medicine felt like an "identity death" to Emily — and how journalists and podcasters navigating media in 2024 are also experiencing identity death, and — How Emily found her way to a new career through her love of theater and storytelling, and how bringing the arts to medicine is serving the Nocturnists' goal of shattering the myth of the physician God and humanizing medicine. Emily and Elaine break down two episodes of The Nocturnists: "Pass/Fail," Episode 4 of the 10-part documentary series Shame in Medicine: The Lost Forest, takes listeners into the stressful world of medical students taking an exam that has the power to dictate the rest of their lives. Put yourself in the shoes of students wondering if this one test will prevent them from becoming a doctor — or if it will bar them from pursuing their passion for their specialty? Emily gives us some lessons on getting listeners to contribute personal stories — and how her team weaves them together in heart-stopping fashion. We also examine the the power of novels to help us deeply understand the harmful consequences of medicine practiced for the wrong reasons, and how art can help us empathize in a way that journalistic accounts of history do not. In "Conversations: Dolen Perkins-Valdez" Emily learns more about the 1973 case of the Relf sisters, who were forcibly sterilized at a Montgomery, Alabama health clinic. We discuss strategies for how to hold intimate, revealing interviews — and when you should break the rules. Plus: Emily shares the single most important key to producing sound-rich, highly produced longform audio stories. Emily Silverman, MD is an internal medicine physician at UCSF, writer, and creator/host of The Nocturnists, an award-winning medical storytelling organization that has uplifted the voices of 450+ healthcare workers since 2016 through its podcast and sold-out live performances. The Nocturnists' work has been presented on CBS This Morning and NPR's Morning Edition, and at Pop Up Magazine and South By Southwest (SXSW). In 2020, its "Stories from a Pandemic" documentary podcast series was acquired by the U.S. Library of Congress for historic preservation. The Nocturnists has been honored by the Webby Awards, Anthem Awards, Ambie Awards, and more. Dr. Silverman's writing has been supported by MacDowell and published in The New York Times, Virginia Quarterly Review, JAMA, CHEST, and McSweeneys. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and daughter. Follow the show on Instagram @Thenocturnists and on Facebook and LinkedIn at The Nocturnists Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com. Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. Connect: Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram ✉️ Email...

Don’t miss today’s takeaways! Scroll down for lessons from this episode. The episodes we discussed on today’s episode are History Daily: Silent Spring Sparks the Modern Environmental Movement and American History Tellers Season 61: Salem Witch Trials. Lindsay Graham Lindsay Graham (no, not that Lindsey Graham) is a podcast creator, producer and host known for compelling narratives and in-depth exploration of pivotal moments in American and world history. His chart-topping shows American Scandal, American History Tellers and History Daily reach millions every month, using immersive sound design, a rich original score, and meticulous research to bring moving, character-driven stories that demonstrate “history is human.” His newest podcast is American Criminal, a “true crime podcast that tells the stories of the most infamous criminals in the history of the United States, revealing the men and women who cheated, lied, and murdered in their own twisted pursuit of the American dream.” Graham is the CEO and founder of Airship, a podcast publishing company. He is a podcast producer, sound designer and composer who has worked on Dirty John, Dr. Death, Bad Batch and others, reaching hundreds of millions of listeners. If you liked this episode, you’ll love Sound Judgment Season 1, Episode 8, How Top Hosts Hook Their Listeners in 60 Seconds or Less. Takeaways from my conversation with Lindsay: American History TellersAmerican Scandal,History DailyBusiness Wars,American History Tellers Into History. Visit Lindsay online: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsayagraham/ Twitter/X: @lindsayagraham Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com. Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. Connect: Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram ✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment. Credits Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. Host: Elaine Appleton Grant Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir Production Manager: Andrew Parrella Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

Sharing a personal experience, especially a traumatic one, is a particularly popular scripted podcast form. Memoir done well often shoots to the top of the podcast charts or the bestseller list. It moves us, leaves us breathless, inspires standing ovations and prompts us into conversations and confessions of our own. Sometimes memoir creates change. But memoir produced without first grappling with why your experience matters to others can sound cheap, sensation-grabbing, and empty. As listeners, readers, and viewers, we are bombarded with confessions. There is a fine line between transformative and indulgent. Moreover, stories of heartbreak are hard to choose to listen to these days, because the world is showering us with trauma. Given the circumstances, why make memoir? The decision to make the private public isn’t easy. Nor should it be. In the first episode of Sound Judgment, Season 4, I explore this question with producer Maribel Quezada Smith, who shares her extraordinary experience with life and death in The Pulso Podcast piece, “The Latino Experience of Fertility: A Story of Pregnancy Loss.” It took Maribel two years to write and produce this remarkable story about the birth of her son — and the death of her daughter. Her story succeeds, in part, because she identified something fresh: Miscarriage and other forms of pregnancy loss are particularly common in the Latino community, Pulso’s audience. And so is the incredible societal pressure to bear children, setting up an impossible, often hidden, conflict. That her story succeeds in transforming, not indulging, is evident in the piles of grateful responses she received from listeners who shared her experience, but who had never heard their story reflected out loud. Shame and secrecy had dogged their lives. Maribel’s story brought in the light. Along the way, Maribel had to answer several questions for herself about motivation, format, theme, mood, and point of view. Which private moments should she capture on tape? How much could she bear? To whom did she owe privacy? Which scenes and reflections would create momentum — and which pieces would she have to leave out? Maribel Quezada Smith is a bilingual video and podcast producer and the founder of Diferente Creative. Her video credits include producing TV shows for Discovery Networks, Netflix, TLC and A&E, and digital content for brands like AARP, NBC GolfNow and SquadCast FM. Her podcasting credits include Sacred Scandal (iHeart), Birdies Not BS and Pulso Podcast, to name a few. In 2021, Maribel co-founded BIPOC Podcast Creators, an organization devoted to amplifying the voices and stories of people of color. Maribel’s passion is creating meaningful, standout content. Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com. Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. Connect: Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram ✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment. Credits Sound...

This episode was sponsored by Signal Hill Insights. Want to know how your podcast is affecting listeners? Need to plan to share outcomes with a branded client? Visit measureyourpodcast.com for a free 4-part email series that will tell you how and why to measure the unique impact of branded podcasts. Go beyond counting downloads. Instead, obtain real responses from real listeners to demonstrate the ROI of branded podcasts. You’ll learn how research generates practical insights to optimize your production and drive renewals. Read her books: Tell Me More: Stories About the Hardest Things I’m Learning to Say The Middle Place Glitter and Glue Hello World! Other books by Kelly’s guests mentioned on this episode: The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson If you liked this episode, you’ll love Sound Judgment Episode Season 1, Episode 5, “Finding Your Voice with Shelter in Place Host Laura Joyce Davis.” Takeaways from my conversation with Kelly: 1. The thing we are asking for when we put our podcast, our book, or our speech out there is attention. And there is no more exquisite currency than attention. So how can we reveal something, or elicit something from our guest, that will make the listener feel like the time they spent with us was worth it? That’s Kelly’s guiding principle. 2. Carefully time the three questions you’re a little afraid to ask. Don’t ask your toughest ones first – and feel for the opening, like Kelly did with Samantha Power. 3. The purest motivation to start a podcast is to follow your curiosity. When it’s there, it’s evident to the listener. And it’s evident when it’s not there. 4: Kelly knows when an interview is going great when she’s saying something she hasn’t said before or when she knows that her guest is saying something they haven't said before. Visit Kelly online: www.kellycorrigan.com Instagram: @kellycorrigan LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kellycorrigan Facebook: kellycorriganauthor Twitter/X: @corrigankelly Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com. Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. Connect: Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram ✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment. Credits Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. Host: Elaine Appleton Grant Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir Production Manager: Andrew Parrella Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

If you liked this bonus episode introducing Podcast Perspectives with host Jeff Umbro and guest Jessica Cordova Kramer of Lemonada Media, you'll love: SJ S1/E1: Emotional Bravery on Last Day with Stephanie Wittels Wachs. Not only is she an amazing, evocative storyteller who knows how to get the best out of her team and guests, but she's cofounder and chief creative officer of Lemonada Media. We love hearing from you and getting your support! Please give Sound Judgment a five-star rating and a review. Visit our website to easily give us a 5-star rating and a review that’ll go to Apple or Spotify instantly. We’re grateful. And please share Sound Judgment with a friend. The Sound Judgment team is: Host & Producer: Elaine Appleton Grant Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson Audio engineer/sound designer: Kevin Kline Podcast manager: Tina Bassir Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC, a boutique production and consulting company serving chief creative officers and content directors in the media and at nonprofits, higher ed, and social impact businesses. Contact Us To contact us with collaborations, media interviews, speaking engagements, or sponsorships, email allies@podcastallies.com. We encourage your voice memos! Click the microphone icon at soundjudgmentpodcast.com. To follow Elaine Appleton Grant and the show: Subscribe to the Sound Judgment newsletter, about creative choices in audio storytelling Sound Judgment website Elaine's LinkedIn Elaine's Facebook Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com. Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. Connect: Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram ✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment. Credits Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. Host: Elaine Appleton Grant Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir Production Manager: Andrew Parrella Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

This episode was sponsored by Signal Hill Insights. Want to know how your podcast is affecting listeners? Need to plan to share outcomes with a branded client? Visit measureyourpodcast.com for a free 4-part email series that will tell you how and why to measure the unique impact of branded podcasts. Go beyond counting downloads. Instead, obtain real responses from real listeners to demonstrate the ROI of branded podcasts. You’ll learn how research generates practical insights to optimize your production and drive renewals. More on today's episode: When Anne Bogel was offered the plum gig of moderating a panel discussion with four famous authors at the Bookmarks NC Festival of Books and Authors, she knew it would be fun. But she had no idea of the turn it would take when her guests — authors TJ Klune, Andrew Sean Greer, Brendan Slocumb, and Tia Williams — began one-upping each other with wild tales from book club experiences like no other. Anne Bogel's been hosting her literary matchmaking show since 2016. This show is always at the top of the charts, in great company with shows like Fresh Air, NPR’s Book of the Day, and The New York Times Book Review. There's a reason for that. Anne is purposeful about how she hosts, whether that's holding a deep conversation about a guest's reading life in-studio, or fielding unexpected stories, and a ton of laughs, on stage in front of hundreds. Anne has spent the last seven years of her life doing something uncanny: Every week on her hit show, What Should I Read Next, she excavates a guest’s reading life in fine detail. Then she recommends books that always seem to be the perfect choices for that guest, no matter who they are. It’s not just her unusual ability to pair book with reader that keeps her show at the top of the charts. It’s also the way Anne approaches hosting – as the art of practicing deep hospitality. That keeps her in listeners’ hearts, year after year. It also makes Anne in demand as a public speaker. As intimate as she is with her podcast guests, you might never guess how raucously fun she is in front of a live audience! If you dream of moving effortlessly between studio and stage, you’ll love this episode. Anne Bogel is an author, the creator of the blog Modern Mrs Darcy, and host of What Should I Read Next? podcast and Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club. Anne loves talking to readers about their favorite books, reading struggles, and of course what they should read next. Anne lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with her husband, four children, and a yellow lab named Daisy. Follow Anne on Instagram. What Should I Read Next episode discussed on today's show: Ep 351 “Book Club Favorites: LIVE from Bookmarks!” Anne Bogel's holiday gift book recommendations for your favorite hosts and producers: Scroll down for hosting takeaways from today's show. Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. Connect! Follow Elaine: Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram Let's talk! ✉️ Email me at allies@podcastallies.com 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials Anne Bogel's Takeaways for Podcasters and Public Speakers 1. Offer radical hospitality. We may not think of it this way, but the word “host” comes from the word “hospitality.” Anne takes that literally – she and her team practice hospitality consciously. They do everything they can to make their guests feel welcome and at ease. That hospitality starts with the way they invite guests, to how they prepare them, to the ways in which Anne calms their nerves at the start of an interview. The result of such care shows in the relationships she builds with her guests – and, as a consequence, with devoted listeners. 2. State your purpose. Anne practices hospitality in the manner that Priya Parker describes in her book The Art of Gathering. That means understanding and explaining the...

The episode discussed on today's Sound Judgment is Believable: The Coco Berthmann Story. Karen worked with reporter/host Sara Ganim to create Believable. This episode was sponsored by Signal Hill Insights. Want to know how your podcast is affecting listeners? Need to plan to share outcomes with a branded client? Visit measureyourpodcast.com for a free 4-part email series that will tell you how and why to measure the unique impact of branded podcasts. Go beyond counting downloads. Instead, obtain real responses from real listeners to demonstrate the ROI of branded podcasts. You’ll learn how research generates practical insights to optimize your production and drive renewals. Karen Given’s takeaways These are the takeaways from the end of the episode. For more takeaways from all of our guests, subscribe to the Sound Judgment newsletter and visit our blog. Believableevery Karen Given is a podcast story editor, producer and host. Her most recent project was Believable: the Coco Berthmann Story. A veteran of public radio, Karen started out as a technical director and worked her way up to executive producer and host. Along the way, she won the national Edward R. Murrow award twice, in 2007 and 2017. She also writes Narrative Beat, a free newsletter for journalists and podcast makers who want to tell better stories. Follow Karen Given: Subscribe to her newsletter, Narrative Beat Website: Karen Given Instagram: karengiven LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/klgiven/ Facebook: karenlgiven If you liked my conversation with Karen Given, you’ll love: Sound Judgment Season 2/Episode 8: The Heist: How to Produce an Award-Winning Investigative Series with Sally Herships Sound Judgment Season 2/Episode 5: Bone Valley: How to Produce a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference We need your support! Please give Sound Judgment a five-star rating and a review. Visit our website to easily give us a 5-star rating and a review that’ll go to Apple or Spotify instantly. We’re grateful. The Sound Judgment team is: Host & Producer: Elaine Appleton Grant Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson Audio engineer/sound designer: Kevin Kline Podcast manager: Tina Bassir Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC, a boutique production and consulting company making magical podcasts for NGOs and nonprofits, higher ed, and social impact organizations. Contact Us To contact us with collaborations, media interviews, speaking engagements, or sponsorships, email allies@podcastallies.com. We encourage your voice memos! Click the microphone icon at soundjudgmentpodcast.com. To follow Elaine Appleton Grant and the show: Subscribe to the Sound Judgment newsletter, about creative choices in audio storytelling Sound Judgment website Elaine's LinkedIn Elaine's Facebook Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com. Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. Connect: Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram ✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of...

The episode discussed on today's Sound Judgment is Near Death: Death Party. Near Death is a Dying For Media production with sales and distribution by Lemonada Media. Nikki Boyer's takeaways These are the takeaways from the end of the episode. For more takeaways from all of our guests, subscribe to the Sound Judgment newsletter and visit our blog. Dying for Sex Near Death: Credits Nikki Boyer: Dying for Media CEO and cofounder and host, Near Death Kevin Sabbe: Dying For Media cofounder and executive producer, Near Death Reverend Peggy: cohost and executive producer Katie Amanda Keane: producer/writer Tommy Fields: head of audio Nikki Boyer Nikki Boyer is the founder and CEO of Dying For Media and a three-time Emmy® award-winning TV host, producer, actress and podcaster. She created, hosted, and is executive producer of the breakout Wondery podcast, “Dying for Sex,” which won the 2021 Ambie Award for Podcast of the Year — and was named one of Apple’s favorite podcasts of 2020. In the midst of the global pandemic, Nikki hosted nearly 200 episodes of Wondery’s “The Daily Smile,” a podcast about good news, and recently launched “Call Me Curious” via Wondery+, a lighthearted investigative series that delves into offbeat topics. Nikki cohosts the popular weekly podcast, “Straight Talk with Ross Mathews,” which recently recorded its 400th episode. Nikki cohosted the 2021 Ambie Awards show and was a regular guest contributor to The Wendy Williams Show for over eight seasons. She has appeared on virtually every major television talk show, most recently as a guest on The Drew Barrymore Show, supporting the launch of “Call Me Curious.” Along with Kevin Sabbe, she co-created and was co-executive producer of Step Girlfriends, a television concept based on her real life, optioned by CBS Studios. Nikki made her mark hosting Yahoo!’s ultra-popular Daytime in No Time, where she was the most watched host on the internet during the series' five-year run. Follow Nikki Boyer: www.dyingformedia.com www.nikkiboyer.com Instagram: @nikkiboyer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikki-boyer-6873b847/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/itsnikkiboyer If you liked this episode, you’ll love: Sound Judgment Season 2/Episode 10: How to Tell the Truth: The Art of Memoir with Dana Black Sound Judgment Season 2/Episode 2: Standing Ovation Host Jay Baer: How to Craft a Million-Dollar Story Sound Judgment Season 1/Episode 8: How Top Hosts Hook Listeners in 60 Seconds or Less We need your support! Please give Sound Judgment a five-star rating and a review on Apple Podcasts. We’re grateful. The Sound Judgment team is: Host & Producer: Elaine Appleton Grant Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson Audio engineer/sound designer: Kevin Kline Podcast manager: Tina Bassir Cover art by Sarah Edgell Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC Contact Us To contact us with questions, collaborations, media interviews, speaking engagements, or sponsorships, write to us at allies@podcastallies.com. We encourage your voice memos! Click the microphone icon at soundjudgmentpodcast.com. To follow Elaine Appleton Grant and the show: Subscribe to the Sound Judgment newsletter, about creative choices in audio storytelling Sound Judgment website Elaine's LinkedIn Elaine's Facebook Sound Judgment Instagram http://podcastallies.com Podcast Allies is a boutique production and consulting company making magical podcasts for NGOs and nonprofits, higher ed, and media organizations. Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. Discover our strategic communication services and...