Ira Glass had very insightful views of radio storytelling in his four video segments. (one, two, three, four) First, he talks about the two major building blocks of storytelling, the anecdote and the moment of reflection. The anecdote is the sequence of events, this sequence should begin with a question that you will answer and then go on to ask another question and so on. The moment of reflection is vital when telling a story; it provides the main point of the story. The goal should be to have an interesting anecdote that will lead to an interesting moment of reflection.

Then Glass goes on to say that finding an interesting story is often the hardest part. Finding the right story takes a lot of trial and error. Sometimes you might think something is interesting and then record it to find out it is “crap.” He says you must abandon the “crap” to find something good.  You have to be tough and skip the boring stories; you want to make a memorable story. When you have good taste, you go through a phase where you can tell your work is crappy. Practice is the best cure for crappy work. With radio storytelling failure really is a big part of success!

Finally Glass advises his viewers to talk like themselves and really try to make their personality clear when interviewing someone else. The interaction with others creates the drama, you should make sure to give both sides of the story.

In addition, I found Jad Abumrad’s view on “How Radio Creates Empathy” very interesting. He says that radio is empowered by the lack of pictures. This lack allows some collaboration in imagining the pictures in your head.  According the Abumrad, this creates empathy between the broadcaster and the listener. The lack of pictures helps the listener understand and relate to the broadcaster. This makes radio more intimate. In Abumrad’s view, this intimacy will cause radio to survive forever.

I really enjoyed hearing both, Glass’ and Abumrad’s views and ideas about radio storytelling. I especially like the message portrayed by Glass that failure is a big part of success!