Transom.org bills itself as “A Showcase and Workshop for New Public Radio”. The focus is on the tools and techniques and discipline required to produce good radio—radio that’s creative, relevant, emotionally gripping, and clear. Alex and his students from the graduate class he’s teaching at Columbia are Transom guests for April and May, and will be talking about, and demonstrating, how to create a great radio story. They join some pretty distinguished company; former Transom guests include Sarah Chayes and Sarah Vowell, Studs Terkel, Errol Morris, Corey Flintoff, Lawrence Weschler, and Alex’s boss Ira Glass.
In his Manifesto, Alex talks about how to determine whether you’re onto something that has a chance to succeed as a story.
Alex gives lots of examples. He also includes links to three stories that his students have produced as class assignments. The first assignment was to produce an audio profile; I was particularly moved by Nazanin Rafsanjani’s story of a woman trying to live on minimum wage. Partway in, the story drops suddenly into one of the most clear-eyed and un-self-pitying introspections I’ve heard. Gripping work. I’m looking forward to following the class over the next couple of months, to see how they develop under Alex’s tutelage.
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