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Mike Pesca, Andrea Silenzi and Andy Bowers Discuss The Gist with Adam Ragusea

Adam Ragusea Talks Audio Levels With Dylan Keefe And Rob Byers

Host Adam Ragusea dissects some public media show themes, talks with Current Senior Editor Dru Sefton about the demise of public TV's History Detectives, and interviews an frequently cited expert source about whether such sources should be paid for their contributions to newsgathering.

The Pub, Episode 2: Theme Songs, "History Detectives" and Paying Sources

Host Adam Ragusea goes in-depth on what exactly vocal fry even is, talks with NPR veteran Jacki Lyden about her new micro-news organization reporting on fashion, and hears from West Virginia Public Broadcasting CEO Scott Finn about five things that public media can learn from commercial media.

The Pub, Episode 5: Vocal fry redux, Jacki Lyden on fashion, and lessons from commercial media

One of the most effective public radio fundraisers ever wants to quit doing pledge drives. That’s the only way host Adam Ragusea can interpret what "This American Life" host Ira Glass said to "Ad Age" last week. On this week’s episode of "The Pub," we contemplate the notion that public radio’s biggest star evidently doesn’t want public radio to be public anymore.

Also on the show:

- Former NPR digital strategist Melody Kramer argues that all public media content should be licensed under Creative Commons so that people can republish it
- NPR’s top audio engineer Shawn Fox dishes on the “secret sauce” behind NPR’s bright, sharp studio microphone sound
- Jonah Sutton-Morse rebuts Adam's justification for using favored pronouns when describing transsexual people

The Pub #17: Ira hearts capitalism; The NPR sound's “secret sauce”; Creative Commons licensing

As more people use the NPR One app, NPR is finding out how long people listen to each segment, what they skip and what they share or like. “As people who make the craft of radio, getting this kind of information about how people listen to it is brand new and a little scary, but also priceless,” said Sara Sarasohn, who's in charge of content for NPR One.

This week’s on The Pub, recorded live in an actual pub (Lost & Found in Washington, D.C.), Sarasohn tells us what NPR is learning from this unprecedented peek at listeners' habits.

Also on the show:

- Current’s editors and reporters answer the public media questions you’ve always been afraid to ask, like “What do the hosts make?” and “I’m an intern, will I get a job?”

- Host Adam Ragusea contemplates NPR’s past use of “the R-word” (the racist name of Washington’s NFL team), and what other words we’re saying on the air that our children will be embarrassed to learn we ever said out loud.

- Live music buttons from Current’s Mike Janssen on banjo and Tyler Falk on shaker egg!

The Pub #27: NPR One’s Sara Sarasohn, live from Lost & Found in Washington, D.C.

"This American Life" producer Stephanie Foo is dismayed by all subpar storytelling, but especially that which can be attributed to the lack of diversity in public media workplaces. This week on The Pub, Foo talks about her frank and funny manifesto for Transom.org, “What To Do If Your Workplace Is Too White,” and offers examples of how reporters of any identity can tell better stories about people of color.

Also on the show:

• Novelist and journalist Teddy Wayne describes the contrived informality he hears in the voicing of narrative radio, which he decried in his New York Times piece, “ ‘NPR Voice’ Has Taken Over the Airwaves.”
• We’re at the dawn of a glorious new era! I talk about exciting emerging technologies for recording high-quality remote interviews, from VoLTE to Ringr, while NPR chief audio engineer Shawn Fox predicts the death of ISDN and its replacement.
• What the backlash to a "PBS NewsHour" story about charter schools and the backlash to the New York Times’ exposé about Amazon.com have in common.

This American Life’s Stephanie Foo on how to fix public radio’s whiteness problem

Martha Little is only a couple months into her new job in commercial media, as senior producer for original content development at Audible. But she previously worked everywhere in public radio — Marketplace, NPR, WNYC, WBUR, America Abroad — and she has a recommendation for her old field.

Public media workplaces work better when they are “feminized,” she says, meaning when workplaces are flatter and more collaborative, rather than being lorded over by an exalted boss, the conventional model she describes as more “masculine” (acknowledging that such gendered terms are merely a convenient shorthand).

Also on the show this week:

• Brooke Gladstone from WNYC’s On the Media helps me answer your random public media questions, including: Is it better to financially support your local station or the specific organizations that produce the shows you like?
• With the help of an excellent package of stories by Current’s Ben Mook about executive compensation, I argue that big-time public media leaders make too much money. Not way too much money, but too much.

Public media execs make too much

When you listen to a public radio station, can you tell immediately whether you’re hearing local or national programming? If yes, that no doubt owes to many factors, but one is NPR’s signature mic sound. It’s bright, it’s clear, it’s crisp, and it cuts over the noisiest of cars/trains/planes or whatever is competing with NPR’s programming for the listeners’ ears.

On this Thanksgiving episode of "The Pub," we reprise a pair of old segments we did about NPR’s secret mic sauce, including an interview with NPR’s chief audio engineer Shawn Fox, who gladly divulged the recipe.

Also, we revisit our conversation with former "Marketplace Money" host Tess Vigeland. Since we spoke, her book about quitting your job with no backup plan has come out, and she’s decided on yet another non-plan: traveling the world for who-knows-how-long.

Why Local Shows Sound Different From NPR

Is there such a thing as excessively authentic pronunciation? If it exists, it has certainly occurred on public radio, where everybody from classical music announcers to news reporters seem to have a little too much fun pronouncing foreign (to them) words and names.

In this holiday encore episode of The Pub, we revisit host Adam Ragusea’s guide to finding the sweet spot between insensitively Anglicized pronunciation and pretentiously exoticized pronunciation.

We also listen back to an interview with veteran public radio host Celeste Headlee about the art of writing pronouncers — rough textual representations of how a word or name should be said.

Plus, we listen again to a talk with political scientist Patrick O’Mahen, who says his research proves countries that spend more money on public broadcasting have better-informed citizens.

Authentic Vs. Pretentious Pronunciation

On this week’s episode of "The Pub," longtime public radio host Diane Rehm discusses her impending retirement, her advocacy for physician-assisted suicide, and who might replace her in the host chair. And host Adam Ragusea shares his thoughts on NPR’s recent controversial move to conspicuously brand its hourly newscasts as “live.”

NPR Adds “Live” To Newscast Intro

On this week’s episode, recorded live at the Public Radio News Directors Inc. conference in St. Louis, two editors play a game we call: Betcha Can’t Fix This Script!

Also, NPR Collaborative Coverage Senior Editor Bruce Auster discusses the impending editor shortage in public media and ways that the system could help foster the next generation of editors.

Plus, host Adam Ragusea considers whether public radio is really experiencing an “existential crisis,” as proclaimed recently by The Wall Street Journal.

Betcha Can't Fix This Script, With Alisa Barba And Ken Barcus

People (read: online commenters) ask NPR’s Code Switch team all the time: “Why do you guys make everything about race?”

Alicia Montgomery, supervising senior producer for Code Switch, sees that question and scratches her head.

“I wonder if these are the same people who read the sports section and say, ‘Why is everything in here about a game that was played?’”, she told us on The Pub.

This week on The Pub, Montgomery talks about the long-anticipated new Code Switch podcast, responds to criticisms of her unit from both the right and left, and her take on NPR’s broader efforts to sound more diverse.

Also on the show, host Adam Ragusea begs public media to stop referring to the podcasting market as the podcasting “space,” and three of public radio’s most exciting podcasters — Embedded’s Kelly McEvers, We Live Here’s Kameel Stanley and The Organist’s Andrew Leland — talk about how they made their shows stand out in an increasingly crowded space market.

Code Switch Editorial Lead Alicia Montgomery

Why has no one ever heard of Don Voegeli? He composed one of the most famous and enduring pieces of theme music ever written — the dignified fanfare that has played at the top of NPR’s “All Things Considered” every evening for four decades. It’s one of hundreds of pieces Voegeli composed for the early days of public radio.

Unlike “Morning Edition” theme composer BJ Leiderman, who negotiated a perpetual on-air credit for his work, Voegeli never asked for credit. He didn’t even ask for money. As a music professor at the University of Wisconsin and longtime employee of WHA (later Wisconsin Public Radio), Voegeli saw the music he contributed as simply an extension of his regular public service mission.

Don Voegeli died in 2009, but now his son Jim is hoping to remind the world just how talented, prolific and widely heard a composer his father was.

Jim has just completed assembling the four-CD collection Beautiful and Lovely: The Music of Don Voegeli. It includes many variations of the “ATC” theme, along with dozens of other early public radio themes, film scores, concert music and commercial jingles heard nationwide.

On this week’s episode of “The Pub,” Jim plays his favorite pieces from the collection and talks about his father’s remarkable and occasionally tragic life.

Also, in the Opening Shot, I talk about Ira Glass’ misnomer faux pas at PRPD, the BBC show “Sarah and Duck” and its amazing theme song, the resignation of BBC radio chief Helen Boaden, and the cancellation of Gimlet’s widely praised Mystery Show.

Opening Shot: Ira at PRPD, “Sarah and Duck” Theme Song, Etc.

NPR put out a crowing press release this week, headlined “NPR Sees Large Ratings Increase,” that I think made a complicated and perhaps unknowable situation seem a lot simpler — and perhaps a little rosier — than it really is. On this week’s episode of "The Pub," I invite NPR audience development chief Israel Smith and researcher Susan Leland to really flesh out the numbers and speculate about what’s driving them.

Also, in the Opening Shot, I talk about the abortive prosecution of Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman and whether the First Amendment really does grant special rights to journalists (short answer: no).

Opening Shot: Reporters Don't Have Special Rights

Why did McDonald’s heiress Joan Kroc leave more than $200 million of her wealth to NPR and not a cent to PBS? Because no one at PBS returned a phone call. That’s one of the revelations reported by longtime public radio journalist Lisa Napoli in her new book, "Ray & Joan: The Man Who Made the McDonald's Fortune and the Woman Who Gave It All Away."

Also on The Pub this week, we continue our conversation with UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh about whether journalists are at all different from regular people in the eyes of the law, apropos of a prosecutor’s attempt to charge "Democracy Now!" host Amy Goodman in connection to her Dakota Access Pipeline reporting.

Lisa Napoli on Joan Kroc, NPR's Biggest Donor Ever

Intro: It Wasn't McDonald's, It Was Joan

Lewis Wallace says he’ll “cop to clickbait” on the headline that marked the beginning of the end of his reporting job at “Marketplace” — “Objectivity is dead and I’m ok with it.” 

But he was shocked that his bosses found the actual content of the essay — a not especially edgy or unusual meditation on the evolving nature of journalistic standards — to be so objectionable as to immediately suspend him after he posted it last Wednesday.

They also ordered him to take down the post, which he did. And when he put it back up Saturday in direct defiance, he had to know what was coming next; “Marketplace” chief Deborah Clark fired him Monday.

Wallace declined a modest severance offer in order to preserve his legal right to talk about what happened, and this week he brings his story to The Pub.

Also on the show this week, NPR’s dilemma about whether to use the L-word or the F-word in reference to President Trump (or rather, his statements), and one station news director’s dilemma over a T-shirt printed with words that shouldn’t be political but are.

Lewis Wallace on Getting Fired from “Marketplace” and Reporting While Trans

Ben Harrison Via IpDTL

Ben Harrison Via Zencastr's VOIP Connection, Then Via WAV Delivered By Zencastr

Kevin Leach Explins Why IpDTL Sounds Better Than Skype

Tim Sinclair Via Ringr's VOIP Connection, Then Via WAV Delivered By Ringr

Public media has an obsession lately with a certain word. As Only A Game senior producer Karen Given observes in this week’s episode of The Pub, “Just say the word ‘narrative’ and program directors and editors suddenly start paying attention. Everyone wants narrative. But what the f*** is it? I mean, we all use the word, but what does it even mean?”

Raise your hand if you’ve ever had the same question. All of the hottest shows — in particular those like This American Life and Snap Judgment that seem to transfer especially well from public radio to the podcasting market — feature what is often called “narrative storytelling.” And yet most people, when pressed, probably couldn’t explain the difference between “narrative storytelling” and any other method by which reporters and producers craft stories.

On this week’s episode, Given consults with TAL producer Sean Cole, among other sources, and finally comes up with a satisfying definition of “narrative,” though her journey there is surprisingly perilous and she is forever transformed by an experience that also hints at universal themes about life. (Am I doing narrative right?)

Also on the show, Niala Boodhoo celebrates the first anniversary of her new daily talk show, Illinois Public Media’s The 21st, and she shares her philosophy on how to make an interesting, inclusive local talk show in the 21st century (yes, that’s partly where the name comes from).

Opening Shot: Only a Game's Karen Given Figures Out What the #$%^ Narrative Is

This episode of "Made Possible By..." brings together Ross Terrell and Jack Mitchell. Terrell is a reporter/producer at Public Broadcasting Atlanta. Mitchell was the first employee of NPR and the first producer of All Things Considered. He later worked as director of Wisconsin Public Radio and as a professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has also written about the history of NPR and public broadcasting.

The producer who made Susan Stamberg the first woman to anchor a nightly news broadcast in the U.S. gives some advice to those starting out in public media. “Do not take everything as gospel," Mitchell says. "Just because we’ve always done it this way doesn’t mean you can’t try something a little different.”

Please subscribe to Made Possible By… in iTunes or your favorite podcast app and leave us a rating and a comment! That will help boost our search results and allow people to find the show more easily. Made Possible By… is also available on NPR One.

We welcome your feedback on the show: You can reach us at news@current.org or on Twitter at @currentpubmedia.

NPR Founder Jack Mitchell

Terry Gross Doesn't Want a World of Just Podcasts

Opening Shot: To Raise the Bar, or to Fill the Gaps?

You’ve done your interviews, written your script and filed your story. But did you do one last fact-check?

No longer just for magazines or long-form projects, some public media newsrooms have begun to apply more robust fact-checking to their daily and feature work.

Our audiences expect our stories to be accurate, and on top of that, they expect our journalists to hold newsmakers to account for falsehoods that come out in interviews.

But how do we balance the need for rigorous fact-checking with the daily pressures of filling newscasts and covering our communities? WFPL News Director Erica Peterson shares what her newsroom has done to avoid errors big and small.

What is your newsroom doing? Share your fact-checking tips (or horror stories) with me at annie.m.russell@gmail.com.

Please subscribe to The Pub in iTunes or your favorite podcast app and leave us a rating and a comment! That will help boost our search results and allow people to find the show more easily.

We welcome your feedback on the show: You can reach me on Twitter; Current’s digital editor, Mike Janssen, is at mike@current.org; and you can contact Current generally at news@current.org or on Twitter.

If you’d like to offer a comment to be used in the program, please send on-mic tape (recorded in a studio, with a kit, a smartphone, anything) to mike@current.org either as an attachment or through Google Drive. Please keep it short!

Accuracy matters more than ever — so check your facts

If you work in public radio, you might just be on a sugar detox right now. And no, that’s not a comment on the stereotypically healthy diets of public media staffers.

Public radio folks across the country recently took part in the 6th annual Public Radio Cake Week. The tradition started at Vermont Public Radio when several staffers’ birthdays fell around the same time in April. Rather than have one cake to celebrate, the station leaned into the sugar consumption and celebrated with a week of cake. As other member stations learned about the sugar binge, the event took on a competitive quality.

Stations spend all week baking, with each day centered around themes like news story of the year, historic events depicted in cake, “this is not a cake,” station pride and public radio stereotypes. This year a record number of stations participated with cakes that were as visually impressive as they were hilarious and, one can assume, delicious. On this week’s episode of The Pub, we hear from four Cake Week winners about their sweet victories and why they think the event is so special. See their cakes at current.org/thepub!

And there’s no use having a surplus of cake if you have no utensils to eat it with. We hear from staffers at two public media stations who recently found themselves short of forks and spoons at their stations. They took to Twitter to complain and got packages from a little utensil fairy at NPR.

Please subscribe to The Pub in iTunes or your favorite podcast app and leave us a rating and a comment! That will help boost our search results and allow people to find the show more easily.

We welcome your feedback on the show: You can reach me on Twitter; Current’s digital editor, Mike Janssen, is at mike@current.org; and you can contact Current generally at news@current.org or on Twitter.

If you’d like to offer a comment to be used in the program, please send on-mic tape (recorded in a studio, with a kit, a smartphone, anything) to annie@current.org either as an attachment or through Google Drive. Please keep it short!

Winners of Public Radio Cake Week Describe Their Winning Desserts

When Sarah Delia at WFAE in Charlotte, N.C., got the idea for what would become the new investigative podcast "She Says," she wasn’t sure what form the project would take, or even whether the person at the center of the story would be willing to participate.

But as Delia followed the story of a woman she calls Linda, her reporting sent her on a deep dive to find out more about how the criminal justice systems handles sexual assault cases. Listeners will hear about Linda’s case, still unsolved, even though the survivor says she knows who’s to blame.

The podcast launches Thursday. I talked with Delia about how the story found her and what listeners can expect.

New WFAE podcast focuses on survivor of sexual assault

What do you do when the show you are hosting comes to an end? To find out, I talked this week with Lauren Ober, the former host of WAMU’s The Big Listen.

The Washington, D.C., station announced in March that it would end “the broadcast about podcasts” after two years because it wasn’t picked up by enough stations. Ober just wrapped up the show in May. We talked about what she gained from the experience, how she’s using her newfound free time and what she’s planning next.

I wanted to talk to Ober about her show ending because this show is ending. Current announced this week that it is ending production of The Pub. The podcast didn’t draw enough underwriting support to cover costs. And if you work in public media, you know that making something good takes resources and time.

Though this is the last episode of The Pub, Current may well get back into the podcasting game in the future if we can cover the costs. We welcome your ideas and proposals, so don’t be a stranger. Get in touch with Digital Editor Mike Janssen at mike@current.org.

And if you want to keep in touch with me, I’m on Twitter, and you can still find me at my desk at WBEZ in Chicago. Many thanks to our fans for your support and listening over the years.

As we sign off, lessons from someone who's been there

WBUR Third Love podcast ad

"Story Princess of the Music Box" — Alice in Wonderland (excerpt)

"If you're stir-crazy..."

"If social distance..."

"Our Show" — Tasmania

"Our Show" — Amsterdam

Arlo Guthrie performing "Alice's Restaurant" live on Bob Fass' "Radio Unnameable" show on WBAI in New York City, 1966. Also featuring David Bromberg, Jerry Jeff Walker and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.

Radio debut of "Alice's Restaurant"

NPR freelancers Jeff Lunden and Naomi Lewin sing a tribute to retiring Arts Desk Editor Tom Cole to the tune of "Mame."

Tom Cole Tribute

Current provides news and commentary for and about the world of public media. You'll mostly find our weekly podcast, "The Pub," here.

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