While it may seem like a simple form of storytelling, audio is actually a complex medium. If the audio storyteller does their job right, listeners will engage in the story with their imagination, resulting in a connection to the story that other mediums don’t create. It’s not a new medium; radio dramas were wildly popular in the mid-20th century. Now, we are in the middle of a renaissance of high-quality audio programming as audiences for podcasts have consistently grown since the release of the iPhone. But it’s not as simple as sitting down to a microphone and pushing record. There’s a lot of work to do both before and after you press record. How well you know how to do those things makes the difference between a story that your listener can’t turn off and something that goes in one ear and out the other.

After this lesson, you should be able to:

• Identify the different types of audio used in audio storytelling

• Explain the editorial production process for an audio story

• Explain the advantages of the audio medium in storytelling 

• Identify stories ideal for the audio medium

• Demonstrate strategies for pre- and post-production that would result in a high quality audio story

• Identify ways that professional audio storytellers utilize these strategies in their stories