For a while now I’ve been on a mission to find as many different learning resources as possible, because it seems I cannot get enough of learning about making stories in audio. I listen to a lot of stuff, and I’m always trying to work out what it is that makes the good stuff so good.

Aside from listening intently, there are loads of great resources out there to learn from, so I’m starting a reference list here that I can update whenever I find new things. Some of these are incredibly obvious, but I am going to list everything I can think of for completeness!

Listen

• Third Coast Pocket Conference – a podcast featuring talks from previous Third Coast Festivals. This is a treasure trove!
• HowSound from Transom – a podcast where Rob Rosenthal gets radio-makers to explain how they made something, and they discuss the techniques at play.
• Brian Reed on Longform – a great episode of the Longform podcast where the producer of S-Town talks about how they made the show.
• Audiocraft Podcast – Audiocraft is an organisation in Australia which – among other thing – runs a conference similar to Third Coast. This podcast is recordings of talks and panels from their events, similar to the Pocket Conference podcast above.

Read

• Transom.org – incredible resource for learning practically anything about making audio, from technical stuff, to storytelling, to sound design, and whatever else you can think of.
• NPR’s audio training – in-depth training material for making great audio.
• Podcasters’ Support Group – amazing Facebook group where friendly people help each other out with podcasting queries.
• Radio Diaries DIY Handbook – Radio Diaries describe their handbook as a ‘citizen journalism guide… for anyone who wants to try their hand at making radio’.
• Reality Radio: Telling True Stories in Sound edited by John Biewen and Alexa Dilworth – a great book of essays by people who make audio documentaries (and similar types of programme) through radio and podcasts. Really interesting in general but there’s also loads to learn from the contributors.
• Out On The Wire by Jessica Abel – Jessica Abel is a cartoonist who is also obsessed with how great radio gets made. She interviewed loads of the greats, and created this incredible book explaining how people like Ira Glass, Jad Abumrad and lots of others make their stories.

Leave your house

• RIGtrain – training courses from the Radio Independents Group.
• Strange & Charmed – school for audio storytelling run by Cathy Fitzgerald.