SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling

Series produced by Salt Institute for Documentary Studies

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The SaltCast was a bi-weekly podcast produced from 2008-2010, aimed at pulling back the curtain on radio storytelling. From fieldwork and recording techniques to narrative and ethics, Saltcast explored the ins-and-outs of radio production.

If you want to hear more Salt radio work, including that produced by more recent students, check out http://www.prx.org/group_accounts/1185-salt !

The SaltCast was produced by Rob Rosenthal for the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine (salt.edu) and the Public Radio Exchange (prx.org).

The podcasts are available as free MP3 streams and downloads at www.saltcast.org, iTunes, other podcast directories, and here at PRX.


59 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
#1 - Getting In
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
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Welcome to the first Saltcast! We want to start the podcast with a bang and Matt Largey’s piece “Five Things” fits the bill.

Bought by Radio Newark and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 03, 2010
  • Length: 13:15
  • Purchases: 2
#2 - Putting Words in the Mouth
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
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Radio producers face ethical questions every day. When we remove words, flip sentences, delete a pause, etc., we make ethical choices involving the...

Bought by Radio Newark, WOUB, Radio Newark, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 03, 2010
  • Length: 12:26
  • Purchases: 4
#3 - Sea Cucumbers, Blood Worms, and Russian Mail Order Brides
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
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Moral – The path to a story is not always straight. Sometimes it’s circular.

Bought by Radio Newark, WOUB, Radio Newark, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 04, 2010
  • Length: 15:21
  • Purchases: 4
#4 - Knockin' the Rust Out
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
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For this SaltCast, we check out the piece we listen to first in radio class: “Tony Schwartz: 30,000 Recordings Later” by the Kitchen Sisters. It’s ...

Bought by Radio Newark, KUER, Radio Newark, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 04, 2010
  • Length: 25:02
  • Purchases: 4
#5 - Hearing Blindness
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
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Producing non-narrated radio stories is a real challenge. There’s no narrator to synthesize, describe, and guide. Your tape has to carry the ball —...

Bought by WOUB, Radio Newark, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 04, 2010
  • Length: 12:13
  • Purchases: 3
#6 - Learning from Bad Luck
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
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Sometimes, hitting a wall is a good thing.

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  • Added: Jun 07, 2010
  • Length: 12:21
  • Purchases: 3
#7 - O, To Be Invisible
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
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In the field, a documentarian is supposed to be a fly on the wall. You blend in so the people you are reporting on forget you are there. Well, with...

Bought by WOUB, Radio Newark, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 07, 2010
  • Length: 12:46
  • Purchases: 3
#8 - Just Hand Over the Mic
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
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It’s so elegant. Genius really. Hand a mic to someone and let them record. In general, the tape they collect will be intimate, honest, and revealin...

Bought by WOUB, Radio Newark, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 07, 2010
  • Length: 11:12
  • Purchases: 3
#9 - Hafid Is Free
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
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All too often, on public radio we tend to only meet newsworthy people. Little time is made for an “average” person with a unique story.

Bought by WOUB, Radio Newark, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 07, 2010
  • Length: 08:58
  • Purchases: 3
#10 - Insomnia and the Meaning of Life
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
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An unusual way to find a story is with posters. Make a flyer, tack ‘em up around town. See what happens. That’s what Matt Swenson did. Matt was in...

Bought by WOUB, Radio Newark, The Story, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 07, 2010
  • Length: 08:32
  • Purchases: 4
#11 - Dissecting "Dead Animal Man"
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
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On this Saltcast, we listen to “Dead Animal Man” by Ira Glass the whole way through, then play it again and dissect it. Get out your radio notebook...

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  • Added: Jun 07, 2010
  • Length: 27:42
  • Purchases: 3
#12 - Best New Producer 2008
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
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Kudos to Erin Davis. Erin won the Best New Producer award at this year’s Third Coast International Audio Festival. The piece, “Except Me” was produ...

Bought by Radio Newark and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 09, 2010
  • Length: 10:29
  • Purchases: 2
#13 - Truckstop Love Affair
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
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When Sara Paul's subject got “mic fright,” Sara had to go with the tape she had — the tape rules.

Bought by WOUB, Radio Newark, WMPG, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 09, 2010
  • Length: 10:33
  • Purchases: 4
#14 - Dogs, Cats, Parakeets, a Moleskin, and the Squirm Test
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
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If Annie Larmon had asked me if it was okay to record with a mic in her pocket, I would have said “No.” For a story on a woman who lived with nearl...

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  • Added: Jun 09, 2010
  • Length: 13:44
  • Purchases: 2
#15 - Listening to the Northern Lights
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
Caption: United States Air Force photo of Northern Lights at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska , Credit: Senior Airman Joshua Strang
What’s it take to produce a radio piece that doesn’t have conflict, tension, or some universal we all can relate to?

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  • Added: Jun 09, 2010
  • Length: 08:33
  • Purchases: 2
#16 - I'm Relatively Human
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
Caption: Marty Hagland, a transgendered woman, says it was a long time before her neighbors accepted her. “It took them a good three years to finally realize that I don’t bite. At least not very hard. And, if you stick a pin in me I bleed. I’m relatively human.”, Credit: Selena Simmons-Duffin
Scenic writing is visual. It’s active. And, it takes listeners on a journey. It’s also a great way to organize a radio piece.

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  • Added: Jun 09, 2010
  • Length: 12:54
  • Purchases: 3
#17 - Come Soul, I Have Need of Thee
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
Caption: Folk singer Kendall Morse woos his partner, Jacqui., Credit: Jen Leahy courtesy of the Salt archive
For this Saltcast, we present a new radio feature that I believe exemplifies intimate journalism for radio.

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  • Added: Jun 10, 2010
  • Length: 12:13
  • Purchases: 2
#18 - The Sound of Democracy
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
Caption: Banging out a tune on the Portland Public Library piano., Credit: Cecelia Duchano courtesy of the Salt archive
Elizabeth Chur spent several weeks of her Salt semester hunkered down outside the piano room at the Portland Public Library, waiting for hours and ...

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  • Added: Jun 10, 2010
  • Length: 13:46
  • Purchases: 2
#19 - Studs, Natasha, and the Power of Sound
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
Caption: Studs Terkel waxing about “vox humana” in Storycorps’ mobile recording booth.
Here are a few thoughts I have on the power of sound. Studs Terkel offers his take on the human voice. And, Salt radio grad Natasha Haverty talks a...

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  • Added: Jun 10, 2010
  • Length: 08:54
  • Purchases: 3
#20 - The Angel Warrior on His Way to the Top
From: Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Series: SaltCast: the Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling
Caption: The Angel Warrior and his chariot. , Credit: Maisie Crow courtesy of the Salt archive
If you learn something about a character in a story that is unflattering, do you put it in your story? Even if it’s so loaded it may throw off the ...

Bought by Radio Newark and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 10, 2010
  • Length: 13:30
  • Purchases: 2

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