Reality Radio Telling True Stories in Sound

Over the last few decades, the radio documentary has developed into a strikingly vibrant form of creative expression. Millions of listeners hear arresting, intimate storytelling from an ever-widening array of producers on programs including This American Life, StoryCorps, and Radio Lab; online through such sites as Transom, the Public Radio Exchange, Hearing Voices, and Soundprint; and through a growing collection of podcasts.

Reality Radio celebrates today’s best audio documentary work by bringing together some of the most influential and innovative practitioners from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. In these nineteen essays, documentary artists tell — and demonstrate, through stories and transcripts — how they make radio the way they do, and why.

Whether the contributors to the volume call themselves journalists, storytellers, even audio artists — and although their essays are just as diverse in content and approach — all use sound to tell true stories, artfully.

Contributors:
Jad Abumrad
Jay Allison
damali ayo
John Biewen
Emily Botein
Chris Brookes
Scott Carrier
Katie Davis
Sherre DeLys
Lena Eckert-Erdheim
Ira Glass
Alan Hall
Natalie Kestecher
The Kitchen Sisters
Maria Martin
Karen Michel
Rick Moody
Joe Richman
Dmae Roberts
Stephen Smith
Sandy Tolan