NOTE: ALL THURSDAY CLASSES ARE IN-PERSON. TUESDAY CLASSES ARE ON ZOOM, UNLESS LISTED AS IN-PERSON BELOW. (For Zoom sessions, it’s important that you are in a place where you can concentrate and work with sound–not at work or on a bus or in a car or walking around.)
Thursday, January 26
Periodic Talks, “Roman Mars on the Anatomy of a Good Story” from Periodic Talks, with Gillian Jacobs and Diona Reasonover
Tuesday, January 31
NPR’s Podcast Startup Guide, Introduction: Podcasting with a Plan + Chapter 1: What Is a Podcast?
Starting Your Podcast: A Guide for Students (NPR)
99% Invisible, “Shirley Cards”
Recording experiment: Listening to your own voice
Thursday, February 2
NPR’s Podcast Startup Guide, Chapter 2: So . . . How Do I Get Started? & Chapter 6: The Well-Equipped Podcast
MIcropolis (with Arun Venugopal), “Serena Williams Shows Grace Under Fire, On and Off the Court” & “Why Political Correctness is So Annoying…and Why it Works,” Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar and the Power of Black Protest Music” & “Mapping Love, Hate & Loss in Manhattan”
Tuesday, February 7–In-person
NPR’s Podcast Startup Guide, Chapter 10: Acing the Interview
QC POD, Jason Tougaw Interviews Ann Powers
The Turnaround: Larry King and Audie Cornish
Mike Russell, Adobe Audition Tutorial
FilterGrade, The Basics of Adobe Audition
Thursday, February 9
NPR’s Podcast Startup Guide, Chapter 5: Finding Your Voice
The Turnaround: Terry Gross, Reggie Ossé, and Ira Glass
Tuesday, February 14–In-person
The Turnaround: Choose an episode to present to the group
Groups
Ariannna, Holden, Carlos
Angelina, Monica, Kristina, Edwin
Tatjana, Shmyah, Eduardo, Loida
Alessia, Grazelle, Torri, Kate
Thursday, February 16
Workshop, Part 1: Motives for Podcasting
Workshop, Part 2: Blueprint, one-liners (one for your series and one for your episode), title, and logo (see Weldon, pp. 34-36)
Workshop, Part 3: Interview Questions + Sound Collection (see Weldon, p. 105)
Lulu Garcia-Narvarro, First Person, “The Teenager Leading the Smartphone Liberation Movement” + See Episode website for the full episode description
Fill out a Podcast Analysis Worksheete for the episode of First Person and bring it to class.
Friday, February 17
Blog: By midnight, post your blueprint, title, one-liner, and interview questions. Then, in a paragraph or two, reflect on your motives, audience, interviewee, scheduling, and possible pre-interview. You don’t have to have all this figured out, but use the exercise to get thinking about it all. Respond to members of your workshop group with observations, questions, and suggestions by the following Tuesday.
Tuesday, February 21
No Class: Monday Schedule
Thursday, February 23
QC POD, “Why Do We Love Love True Crime?” (with Eden Ayala)
Tutorials: Zencastr and Zoom
Workshop: Why Should People Care? & What is the Heart, Soul, and Spirit of Your Podcast? (see Weldon pp. 26-27 & 32-33)
Tuesday, February 28–In-Person
Queens Podcast Lab, An Introduction to Podcast Editing
Mike Russell, Adobe Audition Tutorial (review)
Jordan Hauser, “Mastering Your Audio in Under Five Minutes”
Kevin Cassidy, “Remove Breaths and Mouth Noises”
For reference: Joseph Cohen, Audio Production Tutorial
For reference: Joseph Cohen, Podcast Production Basics
Workshop: Basic audio editing / Audition; bring a sound file and a device with Audition on it
Thursday, March 2
Notes from America with Kai Wright, “How Afrofuturism Shapes Our Past”
On Being, “How Ross Gay Finds Joy in the Smallest of ‘Delights’”
Workshop: Interview research & questions
Tuesday, March 7
NPR’s Podcast Startup Guide, Chapter 11: It’s All in the Mix
Interview Episode Checklist
Workshop: Audio editing for storytelling
Rough cuts of Interview Episodes due (by midnight, to your writing group, linked from SoundCloud, Mixcloud, Dropbox, or Google Drive; be sure to copy me)
Thursday, March 9
Workshop: Interview Episodes
Workshop: Rough cuts of your interview episodes
Tuesday, March 14–In-person
Workshop: Online show copy, logos, intros, outros, and final polishing
Interview Episodes due (by midnight, on the blog, linked from Soundcloud, Mixcloud, Dropbox, or Google Docs)
Thursday, March 16
NPR’s Podcast Startup Guide, Chapter 9: Audio Storytelling 101
Switched on Pop, “Summer Hits, BTS–“Butter,” hosted by Charlie Harding and Nate Sloan, with guest Jenna Andrews
Tuesday, March 21
Still Processing, “We, Tina,” with Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham
Hidden Brain, with Shankar Vedantam, Laura Krewel, and Tara Boyle, “Laughter: The Best Medicine”
Ira Glass on Storytellling
Workshop: Topic, Audience, Team
Thursday, March 23
Codeswitch, “Who Runs the World? Kids” & Even the Rich, “The House of Versace: Molly Young Breaks Down Donatella’s Excessive Vision,” with Aricia Skidmore-Williams and Brooke Shiffrin
Tuesday, March 28
Group Project: Find a discussion episode of an interesting podcast and break it down for the rest of us. See guidelines here.
Thursday, March 30
HANDOUT: Jessica Abel and Ira Glass, “Amuse Yourself: Ideas” (from Out on the Wire: Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Audio)
Group Project, Day 2: Story Ideas and Storytelling techniques
Episodes: Queen Sucks (Your Favorite Band Sucks); Versace, Season 5, Episode 2; Black Educator Takeover:Let’s Discuss Race, Equality, and Equity in the Classroom (Teachers off Duty); “Murder in the House of Gucci, Episode 1” (Even the Rich)
Tuesday, April 4–Online
Salia Hovanec, “TV Themes Songs” (QC POD, QC Student)
Micropolis, with Arun Venugopal, “Talib Kweli in Conversation,” “Meet the Guardians of Fashion Week: Behind the Scenes With a NYFW Security Guard,” & “Thousands Fill MetLife Stadium to Study the Talmud”
Come to class with two possible “story sentences”: “I’m telling a story about X, and it’s interesting because Y.”
Workshop: Editing multiple voices
NPR’s Podcast Startup Guide, Chapter 9: Collecting Audio Like a Pro
Thursday, April 6
Spring Break
Tuesday, April 11
Spring Break
Thursday, April 13
Spring Break
Tuesday, April 18–In-Person
One Year: 1977, “Jesus on a Tortilla”
Workshop: Story Shape
NPR’s Podcast Startup Guide, Chapter 12: Shaping the Story
Jessica Abel, “Keep or Kill” (from Out on the Wire: Storytelling Secrets from the New Masters of Radio)
Workshop: Editing for story; come to class with your “story sentence”: “I’m telling a story about X, and it’s interesting because Y.”
Thursday, April 20
Micropolis, with Arun Venogopal, “Muslim Parenting in an Age of Terror” & “A War on Christmas: Not in New York City”
Workshop: Story Shape
NPR’s Podcast Startup Guide, Chapter 12: Shaping the Story
Jessica Abel, “Keep or Kill” (from Out on the Wire: Storytelling Secrets from the New Masters of Radio)
Workshop: Editing for story; come to class with your “story sentence”: “I’m telling a story about X, and it’s interesting because Y.”
Saturday, April 22
Rough cuts of your episodes due by midnight (to me and your group by midnight).
Tuesday, April 25–Online
Workshop: Your rough cuts
Thursday, April 27
Serial, Season 1, Episode 1: “The Alibi”
NPR’s Podcast Startup Guide, Chapter 9: Collecting Audio Like a Pro
Friday, April 28
Discussion episodes due by midnight; post to our site.
Tuesday, May 2–Online
QC POD, Sammy Ali, “The Rise of AI: How a Board Game Changed the World” & “Sounds of the 20th Century: The History of Audio” by Sammy Ali
NPR’s Podcast Startup Guide, Chapter 9: Collecting Audio Like a Pro (revisiting)
Workshop: “First Bites” & Other Audio Elements
Thursday, May 4
Anything for Selena, with Maria Garcia, Episode 1: Selena y Yo (Español) Selena and Me (English)
NPR’s Three Tips for Training Your Voice (Revisit)
Workshop: What story do you want to tell?
Tuesday, May 9–In-person
Radiolab, with Jad Abumrad, Lulu Miller, and Latif Nasser, “Lebanon, USA”
Workshop: Editing for Narrative
Bloggers:
Thursday, May 11
Lost Notes, with Hanif Abdurraqib, The Sugarhill Gang
Workshop: Motive and Plot
Bring to class: Sound collection & plottng worksheet
Tuesday, May 16–In-person
Workshop: Rough Cuts + Show Descriptions and Episodes Descriptions (Bring all materials and files you have to class, along with a device to run Audition.)
Wednesday, May 17 – Sunday, May 21
I recommend sending a rough cut to your group or a classmate for feedback.
Tuesday, May 23
Narrative episodes due
