guides, advice, & how-tos

• Podcasting and Audio Recording Research Guide by the UM library (lots of overlap with this resource guide, but also lots more)

• Intro to Audio Pt. 1 - Slides from an in-class presentation by Tom Bray and Ryan Wilcox of the University of Michigan Duderstadt Center on 1/20/22

• Transom.org is the mother of all online podcasting and radio production resources. (be sure to check publication dates on articles, since this site has been around a long time and some of the technical info is dated at this point. but so much more is still surprisingly current!)

• Podcasting 101 - a short but comprehensive video how-to series from Google and PRX

• How To Make a Podcast - a step by step personal narrative and how-to by former-podcast-beginner-turned-radio-journalist Misha Euceph about how she started her career. includes great tips

  • includes a great Resources page of its own

• Starting Your Podcast: A Guide for Students - on NPR

• DIY Radio Handbook - from Radio Diaries 

  • Their 12-Step program for producing good radio is a great place to start

• Make Radio - a catchall of resources from the This American Life team (will have some overlap with this page, but many many more too)

• Radio Rookies DIY Toolkit - another link aggregator for lots more great beginner resources

• Glossary of Audio Production Terms (NPR)

• Ira Glass on Storytelling - 5 minute video by the original host of This American Life. a cult favorite of creatives across media.

• Why Audio is Perfect for Storytelling - a 30-min video by Gimlet co-founder Alex Blumberg. (note it’s part of a longer paid course on podcasting, but this first one is free to watch)

• What Should You Ask Before starting a story? helpful checklist on NPR

• Recording and Interviewing Basics worksheet - by WNYC Radio Rookies

• Recording Audio & Interviewing Tips - quick how-to videos from Podcasting 101

• Voice Recording Gear guide - from Podcasting Basics series on Transom.org

• What Gear Should I Get? on Transom.org

• Things to think about when pointing a microphone - created by Tom Bray of UM's Duderstadt Center for an in-class presentation in January 2022

• "I'm sorry - a micro-what?" - Overview of microphone science and types of mics by Tom Bray (same presentation as above)

• Interviewing tips - by Radio Diaries

• Interview advice ("treat an interview like a relationship") from Death, Sex and Money's Anna Sale on Transom.org

• Tips for a Great Conversation - more basic interviewing tips from Storycorps

• How to Record and Use Active Sound - i.e. background or street noise that becomes part of the story and helps paint a full picture of the scene

• A Beginner's Guide to Field Recording - on FACT Mag

• Why Should I Tell You?: A Guide to Less Extractive Reporting - a comprehensive resource on interview ethics in investigative journalism from the Center For Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Oral History Association: Principles and Best Practices

• Consider Your Ears - an essay by Radiolab’s Robert Krulwich

• Writing for Radio - abridged version of an article by NPR journalist Alex Chadwick (edited and revised for classroom use by Lis Fertig)

• Writing Tips - by Radio Diaries

• Writing For the Ear - 5-minute video of tips from NPR Senior Editorial Leader Tamar Charney

• Writing Scripts - quick video from Podcasting 101 by Google & PRX

• Narration advice from How Sound— episodes of a podcast called How Sound, on sounding natural when scripting and narrating your podcast

• ​​How Sruthi Tracks / How Sound

• How Not To Write For Radio / How Sound

• Sounding Like Yourself / How Sound

• The producer’s handbook to mixing audio stories on NPR

• The ear training guide for audio producers on NPR

• Editing tips - by Radio Diaries

• Editing audio - quick video from Podcasting 101 by Google & PRX

• How to record, edit and mix a great-sounding podcast guide

• Introduction to Mixing Techniques module (note: for UM students only. This is part of the Shapiro Design lab Canvas course. You will need to enroll yourself and complete the Policies and Protocols module first to access this content.)

• also check out the detailed Audio Software page on this site

• Using Music - advice from a This American Life producer on Transom

• Music: A Force for Good (and Sometimes Evil) - Radiolab producer and host Jad Abumrad offers his perspective on using music

• Sound as a Place - by Misha Euceph on How To Make a Podcast

• Sound Design advice by podcast producer Haley Shaw (Gimlet) on Transom

• Sound Design advice by podcast producer Jonathan Mitchell (Radiotopia) on Transom

• Sound Design advice by podcast producer Mark Henry Phillips (Serial, Radiolab) on Transom

• ...or check out the full Transom series on Sound Design

Public Domain and Fair Use audio

If you plan to publish your audio piece, you should only use music that is in the public domain or published under a Creative Commons license.

• To find free Creative Commons music archives online, start here. Some audio editing programs, such as GarageBand, also include an internal library of public domain music. Feel free to use them.

• To learn more about fair use in podcasting, read this article

• To learn more about Creative Commons licenses, read this page

• Watch these Podcasting 101 videos:

  • Publishing and distributing

  • Reaching your listeners

  • Making Money

  • Keeping your podcast going

• Hosting and distribution tips - on UM podcasting guide

• Marketing your Podcast and Make Money from Your Podcast on How To Make a Podcast

• also check out the Careers in Audio page on this site

While all the above resources on this page are intended both for students and for educators building podcasting into their syllabi, here are a few resources that I've found particularly useful for higher-level course planning:

• Humanities Podcast Network Teaching Manual

• Transom.org

• Navigating the Soundscape, Composing with Audio by Tanya K. Rodrigue, Kate Artz, Julia Bennett, M.P. Carver, Megan Grandmont, Dan Harris, Danah Hashem, Anne Mooney, Mike Rand, and Amy Zimmerman

• Preserve This Podcast: Reading List

Books

• Out on the Wire: the Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio by Jessica Abel (I use this as a course textbook)

• Sounding Composition: Multimodal Pedagogies for Embodied Listening, by Stephanie Ceraso

• Soundwriting: A Guide to Making Audio Projects by Tanya K. Rodrigue and Kyle D. Stedman

• Re-Making Sound: An Experiential Approach to Sound Studies by Justin Patch and Thomas Porcello

• Deep Listening: A Composer's Sound Practice, by Pauline Oliveros

Please feel free to reach out to me directly via my website linked below—I am always interested in connecting and collaborating with others who are using sound work in their teaching.