Out on the Wire
The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
A Library Journal Best Book of 2015
Go behind the scenes of seven of today’s most popular narrative radio shows and podcasts, including This American Life and RadioLab, in graphic narrative.
Every week, millions of devoted fans tune in to or download This American Life, The Moth, Radiolab, Planet Money, Snap Judgment, Serial, Invisibilia and other narrative radio shows. Using personal stories to breathe life into complex ideas and issues, these beloved programs help us to understand ourselves and our world a little bit better. Each has a distinct style, but every one delivers stories that are brilliantly told and produced. Out on the Wire offers an unexpected window into this new kind of storytelling—one that literally illustrates the making of a purely auditory medium.
With the help of This American Life's Ira Glass, Jessica Abel, a cartoonist and devotee of narrative radio, uncovers just how radio producers construct narrative, spilling some juicy insider details. Jad Abumrad of RadioLab talks about chasing moments of awe with scientists, while Planet Money’s Robert Smith lets us in on his slightly goofy strategy for putting interviewees at ease. And Abel reveals how mad—really mad—Ira Glass becomes when he receives edits from his colleagues. Informative and engaging, Out on the Wire demonstrates that narrative radio and podcasts are creating some of the most exciting and innovative storytelling available today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This instructive, impassioned, and educational volume uses a deliberate and friendly approach in the vein of Scott McCloud. Abel (La Perdida) brings readers on a tour of radio shows and podcasts that specialize in innovative storytelling techniques. Not surprisingly, Ira Glass of This American Life wrote the foreword and appears in Abel's simple, sturdy, black-and-white line drawings as something of a quirky but eager and well-informed cohost. The shows covered vary in style, from the long-form essays of This American Life to the more out-there sonic experiments of Radiolab or epic personal histories of Radio Diaries, but their staff all share a deep and abiding curiosity. Abel digs into the structural details of how the shows are produced, from the obsession with "getting great tape" to the "ruthlessly collaborative" editorial meetings where feelings are rarely spared. A must-read not just for listeners of today's great flowering of audio storytelling but for those who want to learn how to do it themselves.
