Listening to Ira Glass and Jad Abumrad discuss the basics of talk radio really provided some insight for how to talk to people about my ideas without making it feel like I’ve wasted their time.  I walk away from about 90% of my rants feeling as though I’ve not said anything at all.  There are things in our lives that we are so accustomed to that we never stop to question which processes go into making them happen, and radio seems to be one of those things.

Before I had to consider making my own audio blogs or recordings, radio always sounded so easy;  you press record and just talk to people.  I sometimes imagined myself as a radio DJ, not because I aspired to become one but because I wondered what I would talk about.  The only conflict I ever an into in my imagination was not being sure that I had anything to talk about.  After watching Glass and Abumrad discuss their techniques, I’m seeing that having an idea for what you want to talk about is only one of the several building blocks you need to get going.

I really liked Glass’ emphasis on having both a story to tell and an explanation for why you would be telling that story.  I’m not sure that I wouldn’t have realized that on my own just from listening to it and being overly-self-conscious about my work, but it is definitely good information to have going into it.  The planning process is seeming much more important to me now than it might have otherwise.  I also appreciated the advice Abumrad provided on creating empathy via audio.  His description of the sun on the way into the studio was a great example of how you can create images in other people’s minds.  Where Glass stressed the story and the explanation, Abumrad focused more on the vocabulary and sounds used during the telling of the story.

Also, I have to wonder:  is there some correlation between good radio and having curly hair and glasses?