Storytelling Strategies to Grow Your Audience: Part 2, Structure

The six storytelling strategies you're about to learn are drawn from the patterns I've seen across more than 150 behind-the-scenes lessons — lessons learned from some of the best hosts, producers, writers and editors I've had on Sound Judgment. You can put these techniques to use right away in your studio or at your writing desk. This episode pulls together examples from compelling shows and award winners. In almost every case, the creators who use these strategies are multi-talented. They produce podcasts, they're writers and journalists, they speak on stages, they act, perform, and do live storytelling shows at places like The Moth. These days, we're all creating on multiple platforms — so take a journey with me to learn how sound vision, structure, scenes, surprise, suspense and specifics and take your storytelling to the next level. 

Apply the six storytelling strategies for creating unforgettable content to your own work!  
Sign up for our interactive, virtual Hook Your Audience & Keep Them Coming Back workshop
Thursday, March 14, 2024

By developing storytelling skills from structure to scene-making, suspense to specifics, you'll learn to create or improve the show, story, article or speech that expresses what you want to express, captivates the people you want to reach, and achieves quality and depth you can be proud of. You'll move from likes and follows to building trusted, engaged relationships with your audience. 

These practices work separately and together to ratchet up both the substance and the "wow factor" of your content, no matter the platform.

Reading these show notes too late to catch this Hook Your Audience workshop? Check out our other trainings on guesting and curating guests, interviewing, and more, at www.podcastallies.com/workshops. 

Want to listen to this series in digestible bites? Follow Sound Judgment and check out these six short episodes: 
Part 1: Sound Vision 
Part 2: Structure
Part 3: Scenes
Part 4: Surprise
Part 5: Suspense
Part 6: Specifics

Don't miss a thing about the craft of audio storytelling: sign up for my Sound Judgment newsletter, which includes the popular hands-on segment "Try This in Your Studio," kudos to creators who are lifting up the art and business of audio storytelling, news about the show, and useful resources for content creators of all kinds. 

"Six S" Storytelling Resources
Shows and storytellers mentioned in this series: 

Bone Valley

Cohosts: Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker

Marketplace
John Barth, Creative Media LLC

The 13th Step, an award-winning documentary series on sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment 

Reporter: Lauren Chooljian
Story Editor: Alison Macadam
New Hampshire Public Radio

Daily Creative 

Host: Todd Henry
Producer: Joshua Gott

Famous & Gravy
Cohosts: Amit Kapoor & Michael Osborne

The Rich Roll Podcast
Host: Rich Roll
Guest: Charles Duhigg
Book: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg

Crime Show
"Paging Dr. Barnes"
Host & Executive Producer: Emma Courtland

Katie Colaneri
Senior Podcast Editor
New Hampshire Public Radio

Kelly Corrigan Wonders
Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan
"Bryan Stevenson"
"Samantha Power" 
Host: Kelly Corrigan

This American Life
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum"
Reporter: Sarah Gibson

Chameleon: Wild Boys
Host: Sam Mullins

Full Sound Judgment episodes featuring these storytellers

Bone Valley: How to Make a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference (Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker)

The Host Defines the Brand with John Barth

How to Make Serious Topics Fun with the Hosts of Famous & Gravy (Amit Kapoor, Michael Osborne)

Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show's Emma Courtland

How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life Story (Katie Colaneri)

The Art of True Curiosity with Kelly Corrigan of Kelly Corrigan Wonders

How to Make Listeners Breathless for More with Wild Boys' Sam Mullins 

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, scriptwriting and more. 

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Storytelling Skills; How to Build Relationships through Storytelling, and more. 

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. 

Connect:

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 

🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits 

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. 

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

This is the sixth and final part of our new Sound Judgment quick-hit series on storytelling strategies for hooking your audience and keeping them with you. Today: specifics. The more specific our language, the more sparkling and memorable it is. In the last 18 months of speaking with incredible storytellers for this podcast, no one has been better at this than Sam Mullins. 

In 2023, Sam won the the Best Podcast of the Year award at the Ambies,  The Podcast Academy's attempt to rival the Oscars. He won it for his documentary series Chameleon: Wild Boys, from Campside Media. 

Learn how Sam's background as a comedy writer informs his approach to writing, and especially to choosing the extraordinarily specific ways he approaches building characters and enticing audiences to enter his world. 

Apply the six storytelling strategies for creating unforgettable content to your own work!  
Sign up for our interactive, virtual Hook Your Audience & Keep Them Coming Back workshop
Thursday, March 14, 2024

By developing skills from story structure to scene-making, suspense to specifics, you'll learn to create or improve the show, story, article or speech that expresses what you want to express, captivates the people you want to reach, and achieves quality and depth you can be proud of. You'll move from likes and follows to building trusted, engaged relationships with your audience. 

These practices work separately and together to ratchet up both the substance and the "wow factor" of your content, no matter the platform.

Reading these show notes too late to catch this Hook Your Audience workshop? Check out our other trainings on guesting and curating guests, interviewing, and more, at www.podcastallies.com/workshops. 

Did you miss the rest of the series?  Be sure to follow Sound Judgment and check out the other other five bite-sized episodes: 
Part 1: Sound Vision 
Part 2: Structure
Part 3: Scenes
Part 4: Surprise
Part 5: Suspense

All of these segments — each around 10 minutes or less — will come together soon for a full episode on How to Hook Your Audience and Keep Them Coming Back. 

You won't miss a thing if you sign up for my Sound Judgment newsletter, which includes the popular hands-on segment "Try This in Your Studio," kudos to creators who are lifting up the art and business of audio storytelling, news about the show, and useful resources for content creators of all kinds. 

"Six S" Storytelling Resources

Shows and storytellers mentioned in this series: 

Bone Valley

Cohosts: Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker

Marketplace
John Barth, Creative Media LLC

The 13th Step, an award-winning documentary series on sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment 

Reporter: Lauren Chooljian
Story Editor: Alison Macadam
New Hampshire Public Radio

Daily Creative 

Host: Todd Henry
Producer: Joshua Gott

Famous & Gravy
Cohosts: Amit Kapoor & Michael Osborne

The Rich Roll Podcast
Host: Rich Roll
Guest: Charles Duhigg
Book: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg

Crime Show
"Paging Dr. Barnes"
Host & Executive Producer: Emma Courtland

Katie Colaneri
Senior Podcast Editor
New Hampshire Public Radio

Kelly Corrigan Wonders
Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan
"Bryan Stevenson"
"Samantha Power" 
Host: Kelly Corrigan

This American Life
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum"
Reporter: Sarah Gibson

Chameleon: Wild Boys
Host: Sam Mullins

Full Sound Judgment episodes featuring these storytellers

Bone Valley: How to Make a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference (Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker)

The Host Defines the Brand with John Barth

How to Make Serious Topics Fun with the Hosts of Famous & Gravy (Amit Kapoor, Michael Osborne)

Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show's Emma Courtland

How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life Story (Katie Colaneri)

The Art of True Curiosity with Kelly Corrigan of Kelly Corrigan Wonders

How to Make Listeners Breathless for More with Wild Boys' Sam Mullins 

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, scriptwriting and more. 

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Storytelling Skills; How to Build Relationships through Storytelling, and more. 

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. 

Connect:

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 

🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits 

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. 

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

This is part 5 of our new Sound Judgment quick-hit series on six storytelling strategies for hooking your audience and keeping them with you. This one can mean the difference between ho-hum content and stories that your audiences will talk about. And I’m betting that you give it hardly any thought, if you think about it at all. What is it? Stick around to find out.  Part 5 features Michael Osborne and Amit Kapoor of the podcast Famous & Gravy, New Hampshire Public Radio senior podcast editor Katie Colaneri, and Sarah Gibson, a New Hampshire Public Radio reporter who produced the segment "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum" for This American Life. 

Apply the six storytelling strategies for creating unforgettable content to your own work!  
Sign up for our interactive, virtual Hook Your Audience & Keep Them Coming Back workshop
Thursday, March 14, 2024
By developing skills from story structure to scene-making, suspense to specifics, you'll learn to create or improve the show, story, article or speech that expresses what you want to express, captivates the people you want to reach, and achieves quality and depth you can be proud of. You'll move from likes and follows to building trusted, engaged relationships with your audience. 

These practices work separately and together to ratchet up both the substance and the "wow factor" of your content, no matter the platform.

Did you miss Part 1 on Sound Vision? Listen here. 

Be sure to follow Sound Judgment so you don't miss the next bite-sized episodes on: 
Part 3: Scenes
Part 4: Surprise
Part 5: Suspense
Part 6: Specifics

All of these segments — each around 10 minutes or less — will come together soon for a full episode on How to Hook Your Audience and Keep Them Coming Back. 

You won't miss a thing if you sign up for my Sound Judgment newsletter, which includes the popular hands-on segment "Try This in Your Studio," kudos to creators who are lifting up the art and business of audio storytelling, news about the show, and useful resources. 

"Six S" Storytelling Resources

Shows and storytellers mentioned in this series: 

Bone Valley

Cohosts: Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker

Marketplace
John Barth, Creative Media LLC

The 13th Step, an award-winning documentary series on sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment 

Reporter: Lauren Chooljian
Story Editor: Alison Macadam
New Hampshire Public Radio

Daily Creative 

Host: Todd Henry
Producer: Joshua Gott

Famous & Gravy
Cohosts: Amit Kapoor & Michael Osborne

The Rich Roll Podcast
Host: Rich Roll
Guest: Charles Duhigg
Book: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg

Crime Show
"Paging Dr. Barnes"
Host & Executive Producer: Emma Courtland

Katie Colaneri
Senior Podcast Editor
New Hampshire Public Radio

Kelly Corrigan Wonders
Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan
"Bryan Stevenson"
"Samantha Power" 
Host: Kelly Corrigan

This American Life
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum"
Reporter: Sarah Gibson

Chameleon: Wild Boys
Host: Sam Mullins

Full Sound Judgment episodes featuring these storytellers

Bone Valley: How to Make a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference (Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker)

The Host Defines the Brand with John Barth

How to Make Serious Topics Fun with the Hosts of Famous & Gravy (Amit Kapoor, Michael Osborne)

Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show's Emma Courtland

How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life Story (Katie Colaneri)

The Art of True Curiosity with Kelly Corrigan of Kelly Corrigan Wonders

How to Make Listeners Breathless for More with Wild Boys' Sam Mullins 
 

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, scriptwriting and more. 

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Storytelling Skills; How to Build Relationships through Storytelling, and more. 

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. 

Connect:

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 

🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits 

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. 

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

Our fourth S in the 6S framework for hooking your audience and keeping them with you is surprise. It's the left turn when we're expecting a righthand one that makes us listen. It's the twists and turns of an involved, high-stakes plot that we love, or the ending of the movie or the novel that we didn't predict. As New Hampshire Public Radio Senior Podcast Editor Katie Colaneri says, it's the "holy shit" moment. Part 4 features Katie Colaneri, NHPR reporter Sarah Gibson and her This American Life Story, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum," and Kelly Corrigan of the PBS show Tell Me More and the podcast Kelly Corrigan Wonders. 

Apply the six storytelling strategies for creating unforgettable content to your own work!  
Sign up for our interactive, virtual Hook Your Audience & Keep Them Coming Back workshop
Thursday, March 14, 2024
By developing skills from story structure to scene-making, suspense to specifics, you'll learn to create or improve the show, story, article or speech that expresses what you want to express, captivates the people you want to reach, and achieves quality and depth you can be proud of. You'll move from likes and follows to building trusted, engaged relationships with your audience. 

These practices work separately and together to ratchet up both the substance and the "wow factor" of your content, no matter the platform.

Did you miss Part 1 on Sound Vision? Listen here. 

Be sure to follow Sound Judgment so you don't miss the next bite-sized episodes on: 
Part 3: Scenes
Part 4: Surprise
Part 5: Suspense
Part 6: Specifics

All of these segments — each around 10 minutes or less — will come together soon for a full episode on How to Hook Your Audience and Keep Them Coming Back. 

You won't miss a thing if you sign up for my Sound Judgment newsletter, which includes the popular hands-on segment "Try This in Your Studio," kudos to creators who are lifting up the art and business of audio storytelling, news about the show, and useful resources. 


"Six S" Storytelling Resources

Shows and storytellers mentioned in this series: 

Bone Valley

Cohosts: Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker

Marketplace
John Barth, Creative Media LLC

The 13th Step, an award-winning documentary series on sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment 

Reporter: Lauren Chooljian
Story Editor: Alison Macadam
New Hampshire Public Radio

Daily Creative 

Host: Todd Henry
Producer: Joshua Gott

Famous & Gravy
Cohosts: Amit Kapoor & Michael Osborne

The Rich Roll Podcast
Host: Rich Roll
Guest: Charles Duhigg
Book: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg

Crime Show
"Paging Dr. Barnes"
Host & Executive Producer: Emma Courtland

Katie Colaneri
Senior Podcast Editor
New Hampshire Public Radio

Kelly Corrigan Wonders
Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan
"Bryan Stevenson"
"Samantha Power" 
Host: Kelly Corrigan

This American Life
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum"
Reporter: Sarah Gibson

Chameleon: Wild Boys
Host: Sam Mullins

Full Sound Judgment episodes featuring these storytellers

Bone Valley: How to Make a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference (Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker)

The Host Defines the Brand with John Barth

How to Make Serious Topics Fun with the Hosts of Famous & Gravy (Amit Kapoor, Michael Osborne)

Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show's Emma Courtland

How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life Story (Katie Colaneri)

The Art of True Curiosity with Kelly Corrigan of Kelly Corrigan Wonders

How to Make Listeners Breathless for More with Wild Boys' Sam Mullins 
 

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, scriptwriting and more. 

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Storytelling Skills; How to Build Relationships through Storytelling, and more. 

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. 

Connect:

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 

🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits 

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. 

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

This is part 3 of our new Sound Judgment quick-hit series on six storytelling strategies for hooking your audience and keeping them with you. Today, we’re talking about scenes. They’re obviously a staple in longform narrative storytelling, like true crime and documentaries. Don’t ignore them, though, for interview shows; you just have to interview well to elicit good, sensory anecdotes from your guests. Between the lines, you’ll hear how useful they are on the page and the stage as well. As a reminder, all six strategies come from today’s best audio storytellers. But these are storytelling strategies that don’t care what media is yours, so stick around, writers, public speakers, screenwriters and video producers — and of course, podcasters.  With examples featuring Rich Roll, author Charles Duhigg, and Crime Show's Emma Courtland. 

Apply the six storytelling strategies for creating unforgettable content to your own work!  
Sign up for our interactive, virtual Hook Your Audience & Keep Them Coming Back workshop
Thursday, March 14, 2024
By developing skills from story structure to scene-making, suspense to specifics, you'll learn to create or improve the show, story, article or speech that expresses what you want to express, captivates the people you want to reach, and achieves quality and depth you can be proud of. You'll move from likes and follows to building trusted, engaged relationships with your audience. 

These practices work separately and together to ratchet up both the substance and the "wow factor" of your content, no matter the platform.

Did you miss Part 1 on Sound Vision? Listen here. 

Be sure to follow Sound Judgment so you don't miss the next bite-sized episodes on: 
Part 3: Scenes
Part 4: Surprise
Part 5: Suspense
Part 6: Specifics

All of these segments — each around 10 minutes or less — will come together soon for a full episode on How to Hook Your Audience and Keep Them Coming Back. 

You won't miss a thing if you sign up for my Sound Judgment newsletter, which includes the popular hands-on segment "Try This in Your Studio," kudos to creators who are lifting up the art and business of audio storytelling, news about the show, and useful resources. 


"Six S" Storytelling Resources

Shows and storytellers mentioned in this series: 

Bone Valley

Cohosts: Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker

Marketplace
John Barth, Creative Media LLC

The 13th Step, an award-winning documentary series on sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment 

Reporter: Lauren Chooljian
Story Editor: Alison Macadam
New Hampshire Public Radio

Daily Creative 

Host: Todd Henry
Producer: Joshua Gott

Famous & Gravy
Cohosts: Amit Kapoor & Michael Osborne

The Rich Roll Podcast
Host: Rich Roll
Guest: Charles Duhigg
Book: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg

Crime Show
"Paging Dr. Barnes"
Host & Executive Producer: Emma Courtland

Katie Colaneri
Senior Podcast Editor
New Hampshire Public Radio

Kelly Corrigan Wonders
Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan
"Bryan Stevenson"
"Samantha Power" 
Host: Kelly Corrigan

This American Life
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum"
Reporter: Sarah Gibson

Chameleon: Wild Boys
Host: Sam Mullins

Full Sound Judgment episodes featuring these storytellers

Bone Valley: How to Make a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference (Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker)

The Host Defines the Brand with John Barth

How to Make Serious Topics Fun with the Hosts of Famous & Gravy (Amit Kapoor, Michael Osborne)

Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show's Emma Courtland

How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life Story (Katie Colaneri)

The Art of True Curiosity with Kelly Corrigan of Kelly Corrigan Wonders

How to Make Listeners Breathless for More with Wild Boys' Sam Mullins 


 

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, scriptwriting and more. 

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Storytelling Skills; How to Build Relationships through Storytelling, and more. 

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. 

Connect:

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 

🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits 

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. 

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

In this series you'll learn how to use sound vision, structure, scenes, surprise, suspense, and specifics to make content that audiences love and share. Each of these bonus episodes is bite-sized and features examples from today's best audio storytellers. Growing your audience depends on more than marketing: It depends on creating compelling content that hooks your audience and keeps them with you. 

Apply the six storytelling strategies for creating unforgettable content to your own work!  
Sign up for our interactive, virtual Hook Your Audience & Keep Them Coming Back workshop
Thursday, March 14, 2024
By developing skills from story structure to scene-making, suspense to specifics, you'll learn to create or improve the show, story, article or speech that expresses what you want to express, captivates the people you want to reach, and achieves quality and depth you can be proud of. You'll move from likes and follows to building trusted, engaged relationships with your audience. 

These practices work separately and together to ratchet up both the substance and the "wow factor" of your content, no matter the platform.

Did you miss Part 1 on Sound Vision? Listen here. 

Be sure to follow Sound Judgment so you don't miss the next bite-sized episodes on: 
Part 3: Scenes
Part 4: Surprise
Part 5: Suspense
Part 6: Specifics

All of these segments — each around 10 minutes or less — will come together soon for a full episode on How to Hook Your Audience and Keep Them Coming Back. 

You won't miss a thing if you sign up for my Sound Judgment newsletter, which includes the popular hands-on segment "Try This in Your Studio," kudos to creators who are lifting up the art and business of audio storytelling, news about the show, and useful resources. 


"Six S" Storytelling Resources

Shows and storytellers mentioned in this series: 

Bone Valley

Cohosts: Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker

Marketplace
John Barth, Creative Media LLC

The 13th Step, an award-winning documentary series on sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment 

Reporter: Lauren Chooljian
Story Editor: Alison Macadam
New Hampshire Public Radio

Daily Creative 

Host: Todd Henry
Producer: Joshua Gott

Famous & Gravy
Cohosts: Amit Kapoor & Michael Osborne

The Rich Roll Podcast
Host: Rich Roll
Guest: Charles Duhigg
Book: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg

Crime Show
"Paging Dr. Barnes"
Host & Executive Producer: Emma Courtland

Katie Colaneri
Senior Podcast Editor
New Hampshire Public Radio

Kelly Corrigan Wonders
Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan
"Bryan Stevenson"
"Samantha Power" 
Host: Kelly Corrigan

This American Life
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum"
Reporter: Sarah Gibson

Chameleon: Wild Boys
Host: Sam Mullins

Full Sound Judgment episodes featuring these storytellers

Bone Valley: How to Make a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference (Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker)

The Host Defines the Brand with John Barth

How to Make Serious Topics Fun with the Hosts of Famous & Gravy (Amit Kapoor, Michael Osborne)

Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show's Emma Courtland

How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life Story (Katie Colaneri)

The Art of True Curiosity with Kelly Corrigan of Kelly Corrigan Wonders

How to Make Listeners Breathless for More with Wild Boys' Sam Mullins 

 

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, scriptwriting and more. 

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Storytelling Skills; How to Build Relationships through Storytelling, and more. 

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. 

Connect:

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 

🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits 

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. 

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

This is Part 1: Sound Vision. Be sure to follow the show so you don't miss the next bite-sized episodes on: 
Part 2: Structure
Part 3: Scenes
Part 4: Surprise
Part 5: Suspense
Part 6: Specifics

All of these segments — each around 10 minutes or less — will come together soon for a full episode on How to Hook Your Audience and Keep Them Coming Back. 

Apply these six storytelling strategies for creating unforgettable content to your own work!  
Sign up for our interactive, virtual Hook Your Audience & Keep Them Coming Back workshop
Thursday, March 14, 2024
By developing skills from story structure to scene-making, suspense to specifics, you'll learn to create or improve the show, story, article or speech that expresses what you want to express, captivates the people you want to reach, and achieves quality and depth you can be proud of. You'll move from likes and follows to building trusted, engaged relationships with your audience. 

These practices work separately and together to ratchet up both the substance and the "wow factor" of your content, no matter the platform.

"Six S" Storytelling Resources

Shows and storytellers mentioned in this series: 

Bone Valley

Cohosts: Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker

Marketplace
John Barth, Creative Media LLC

The 13th Step, an award-winning documentary series on sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment 

Reporter: Lauren Chooljian
Story Editor: Alison Macadam
New Hampshire Public Radio

Daily Creative 

Host: Todd Henry
Producer: Joshua Gott

Famous & Gravy
Cohosts: Amit Kapoor & Michael Osborne

The Rich Roll Podcast
Host: Rich Roll
Guest: Charles Duhigg
Book: Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg

Crime Show
"Paging Dr. Barnes"
Host & Executive Producer: Emma Courtland

Katie Colaneri
Senior Podcast Editor
New Hampshire Public Radio

Kelly Corrigan Wonders
Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan
"Bryan Stevenson"
"Samantha Power" 
Host: Kelly Corrigan

This American Life
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum"
Reporter: Sarah Gibson

Chameleon: Wild Boys
Host: Sam Mullins

Full Sound Judgment episodes featuring these storytellers

Bone Valley: How to Make a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference (Gilbert King, Kelsey Decker)

The Host Defines the Brand with John Barth

How to Make Serious Topics Fun with the Hosts of Famous & Gravy (Amit Kapoor, Michael Osborne)

Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show's Emma Courtland

How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life Story (Katie Colaneri)

The Art of True Curiosity with Kelly Corrigan of Kelly Corrigan Wonders

How to Make Listeners Breathless for More with Wild Boys' Sam Mullins 

 

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, scriptwriting and more. 

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Storytelling Skills; How to Build Relationships through Storytelling, and more. 

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. 

Connect:

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 

🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits 

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. 

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

Improve your storytelling, interviewing, writing, producing, hosting and guesting skills! Sign up for new Sound Judgment workshops today at www.podcastallies.com/workshops. 


On this episode, Emily Silverman and host Elaine Appleton Grant discuss: 

— Why she thought starting a live storytelling event for physicians should be her next step as she was coming to terms with being in the wrong career while also searching for her biological parents and considering becoming a mother.

— How leaving the full-time practice of medicine felt like an "identity death" to Emily — and how journalists and podcasters navigating media in 2024 are also experiencing identity death, and 

— How Emily found her way to a new career through her love of theater and storytelling, and how bringing the arts to medicine is serving the Nocturnists' goal of shattering the myth of the physician God and humanizing medicine. 

Emily and Elaine break down two episodes of The Nocturnists:

"Pass/Fail," Episode 4 of the 10-part documentary series Shame in Medicine: The Lost Forest, takes listeners into the stressful world of medical students taking an exam that has the power to dictate the rest of their lives. Put yourself in the shoes of students wondering if this one test will prevent them from becoming a doctor — or if it will bar them from pursuing their passion for their specialty? Emily gives us some lessons on getting listeners to contribute personal stories — and how her team weaves them together in heart-stopping fashion. 

We also examine the the power of novels to help us deeply understand the harmful consequences of medicine practiced for the wrong reasons, and how art can help us empathize in a way that journalistic accounts of history do not. In "Conversations: Dolen Perkins-Valdez" Emily learns more about the 1973 case of the Relf sisters, who were forcibly sterilized at a Montgomery, Alabama health clinic. We discuss strategies for how to hold intimate, revealing interviews — and when you should break the rules. 

Plus: Emily shares the single most important key to producing sound-rich, highly produced longform audio stories. 

Emily Silverman, MD is an internal medicine physician at UCSF, writer, and creator/host of The Nocturnists, an award-winning medical storytelling organization that has uplifted the voices of 450+ healthcare workers since 2016 through its podcast and sold-out live performances.

The Nocturnists' work has been presented on CBS This Morning and NPR's Morning Edition, and at Pop Up Magazine and South By Southwest (SXSW). In 2020, its "Stories from a Pandemic" documentary podcast series was acquired by the U.S. Library of Congress for historic preservation. The Nocturnists has been honored by the Webby Awards, Anthem Awards, Ambie Awards, and more.

Dr. Silverman's writing has been supported by MacDowell and published in The New York Times, Virginia Quarterly Review, JAMA, CHEST, and McSweeneys. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and daughter.

Follow the show on Instagram @Thenocturnists
and on Facebook and LinkedIn at The Nocturnists

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, scriptwriting and more. 

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Storytelling Skills; How to Build Relationships through Storytelling, and more. 

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. 

Connect:

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 

🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits 

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. 

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

Don’t miss today’s takeaways! Scroll down for lessons from this episode. 

The episodes we discussed on today’s episode are History Daily: Silent Spring Sparks the Modern Environmental Movement and American History Tellers Season 61: Salem Witch Trials.

Takeaways from my conversation with Lindsay: 

1. In several of its shows, including American History Tellers, American Scandal, History Daily and Business Wars, Wondery employs a format that’s always been controversial. They call it “immersive storytelling.” It relies on a single narrator to voice all or most of the characters in an episode. It also employs fictionalized reenactments. As Lindsay says – some people hate this. “I can’t do anything about it,” he says, “cause that’s the show.” He also says, “I can’t help those people who want it to be different than it is.” And that’s the lesson: Choose what your show IS and lean into it. YOUR people will love it. If you do your job well, some people may, in fact, hate it. That’s OK. It’s not for them.
2. When they conduct historical research, Lindsay and his writers aren’t just cataloging facts. They’re on a treasure hunt to learn how the characters felt and how people in their lives felt about them. Those emotions make the historical world feel real, increase the stakes, and keep listeners glued to their headphones. This isn’t your father’s history class.
3. Here’s a tip for anyone leading a team: Create editorial guidelines and share them with everyone – writers, producers, sound designers, and engineers. Guidelines are great for onboarding newcomers. They also help make sure everyone is on the same page. Originally, Lindsay made a narrative podcast out of the American History Tellers guidelines; that’s a memorable way to get this information across. Whatever you do, remember that editorial guidelines are living documents – keep them up to date. 
4. Lindsay calls himself a champion thinker, but an “apprentice do-er.” Self-doubt and perfectionism gets in his way, as they did with his long-delayed introduction of the subscription service Into History. Once he stopped overthinking and started taking one step after another, introducing this new product turned out to be easier than he thought. Taking action brings confidence, and confidence, as Lindsay says, breeds more confidence. 
    

Visit Lindsay online:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsayagraham/

Twitter/X: @lindsayagraham

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, scriptwriting and more. 

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Storytelling Skills; How to Build Relationships through Storytelling, and more. 

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. 

Connect:

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 

🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits 

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. 

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson

Sharing a personal experience, especially a traumatic one, is a particularly popular scripted podcast form. Memoir done well often shoots to the top of the podcast charts or the bestseller list. It moves us, leaves us breathless, inspires standing ovations and prompts us into conversations and confessions of our own. Sometimes memoir creates change.

But memoir produced without first grappling with why your experience matters to others can sound cheap, sensation-grabbing, and empty. As listeners, readers, and viewers, we are bombarded with confessions.

There is a fine line between transformative and indulgent.
Moreover, stories of heartbreak are hard to choose to listen to these days, because the world is showering us with trauma. 

Given the circumstances, why make memoir?

The decision to make the private public isn’t easy. Nor should it be.
In the first episode of Sound Judgment, Season 4, I explore this question with producer Maribel Quezada Smith, who shares her extraordinary experience with life and death in The Pulso Podcast piece, “The Latino Experience of Fertility: A Story of Pregnancy Loss.”

It took Maribel two years to write and produce this remarkable story about the birth of her son — and the death of her daughter. Her story succeeds, in part, because she identified something fresh: Miscarriage and other forms of pregnancy loss are particularly common in the Latino community, Pulso’s audience. And so is the incredible societal pressure to bear children, setting up an impossible, often hidden, conflict.

That her story succeeds in transforming, not indulging, is evident in the piles of grateful responses she received from listeners who shared her experience, but who had never heard their story reflected out loud. Shame and secrecy had dogged their lives. Maribel’s story brought in the light. 

Along the way, Maribel had to answer several questions for herself about motivation, format, theme, mood, and point of view. Which private moments should she capture on tape? How much could she bear? To whom did she owe privacy? Which scenes and reflections would create momentum — and which pieces would she have to leave out?

Maribel Quezada Smith is a bilingual video and podcast producer and the founder of Diferente Creative. Her video credits include producing TV shows for Discovery Networks, Netflix, TLC and A&E, and digital content for brands like AARP, NBC GolfNow and SquadCast FM. Her podcasting credits include Sacred Scandal (iHeart), Birdies Not BS and Pulso Podcast, to name a few. In 2021, Maribel co-founded BIPOC Podcast Creators, an organization devoted to amplifying the voices and stories of people of color.

Maribel’s passion is creating meaningful, standout content.

Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, scriptwriting and more. 

Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Storytelling Skills; How to Build Relationships through Storytelling, and more. 

Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. 

Connect:

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 

🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

Credits 

Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. 

Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson