Tempo

When I first started producing radio, I took it upon myself to enlighten my listeners with unusual sound combinations. I would edit my stories so that the fast and the slow were sporadically mixed. Long, slow fade-ins were placed between quick, short speech excerpts. Sometimes I would sandwich five minutes of music between fifteen-second intervals of an interview. I thought I was doing my audience a favor by challenging their normal listening habits. I thought that the element of surprise would foster their keen listening.

Now when I go back and listen to those stories, I realize that more than catching their attention, I was probably testing my listeners’ patience. The varying speeds of speech and music, and the unpredictability of it all, probably prevented the kind of attention I was hoping to encourage. In creating such a wild mish-mash of fast and slow, I think I thwarted my own attempt at producing immersive, engaging stories.

There’s nothing wrong with a slow or fast story, per se, but over time I’ve come to prefer one or the other, not both at the same time. Listening to a good story should be like walking, or rowing, or carrying on a comfortable conversation. It should have a rhythm, a tempo, and it should keep that pace from beginning to end. This, I think, is more likely to sustain a listener’s attention over a long period of time.

If you listen carefully to any great radio story, you’ll notice that there is usually a regular pace to its editing. The distance between speech, music, and ambient sound clips will be pretty consistent. Radiolab is super fast; This American Life tends to be on the medium side, sometimes slow. One venue that produces very immersive medium-paced stories, in which the balance between narration and scoring sustains a natural sense of momentum, is WNYC’s Studio 360. They cover the historical as well as the contemporary, in a sort of theme-based cultural exposé. Their Peabody-award-winning episode, Moby-Dick, traces the influence that Melville’s 1851 book has had on several artists. Host Kurt Andersen speaks with, among others, musician Laurie Anderson, painter/sculptor Frank Stella, playwright Tony Kushner, and Juilliard professor Stanley Crouch.

Towards the beginning of this episode, Andersen follows Professor Crouch into the classroom at Julliard, where he is teaching a class on jazz in American history. Crouch compares the prose of Herman Melville to the stride piano of James P. Johnson, even though Moby-Dick was written ‘half a century before jazz was born.’ This five and half minute vignette [7:00-12:30] follows a typical editing pattern of a just-right-paced story.

If you listen with a stopwatch, you’ll find that this story has a pretty even clip: 20-40 seconds of speech are followed by 10-20 seconds of music or ambient sound. There is some variation, but the regular rate of exchange between narration and music allows the listener to take in a reasonable amount of information, then have moment to process it, while anticipating the information to come.

The music in this piece is edited to round out the ideas of Professor Crouch, as well as to cue us as listeners about what to expect next. In the opening, Professor Crouch compares the ‘fearlessness’ of Melville’s prose to the improvisational technique in Johnson’s music. As Crouch draws this parallel, we hear the piano underneath, illustrating his idea. When he has finished a sentence, the piano music takes the stage for 10-20 seconds, as if adding color to the picture Crouch has created.

Then, just when we expect it, the music fades down slowly, but stays softly underneath, and Crouch comes in with a new idea. The music simultaneously begins a new motif, paralleling the change in the direction of the story. When Crouch finishes his sentence, the music surfaces again, as if it absorbed Crouch’s new idea and is further embellishing it. The balance between narration and scoring in this piece, and the steady tempo of the exchange, sets up a structure of anticipation and satisfaction which carries us listeners merrily along throughout.

A good tempo is the kind of thing your listeners will probably never notice. It only stands out when it’s missing. If you listen to this Studio 360 piece, you’ll find it much easier to pay attention to the story than to notice the pacing. This, I’ve realized, is a good thing.

Moby-Dick
Kurt Andersen interviews Stanley Crouch [7:00-12:30],
Produced by Studio 360, Episode 1252, Dec 2011


“I never would have thought of that, but now that you mention it…”

I care more about voices than words. The textures and emotions and cadences – all of these features, to me, carry the most important parts of communication. But every now and then, I’m reminded of the power of words.

When I listened to T.C. Boyle read Tobias Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain”, in The New Yorker Fiction Podcast, I had a minor epiphany. In the second half of the podcast, the host Deborah Triesman says that this particular story is really about language… and even though that’s not why I fell in love with the story, or why I wanted to listen to it, I immediately knew that she was right.

For me the New Yorker podcast can be hit-or-miss, since some written stories don’t translate well into audio, and since some New Yorker writers seem lost in a culture of writers, and/or the culture of New York…

The STRUCTURE of the podcast, however, is solid: A writer reads another writer’s story, then discusses the story in an interview with the New Yorker Fiction Editor, who hosts the podcast. This interview is where, for me, the story is able to grow some wings and fly, because these New Yorker people really know how to read stories in a way that I don’t, and when they talk about the story with each other, I start seeing things that I never would have seen otherwise.

When I first read “Bullet in the Brain,” I admired its structure: it begins with a curiously hatable character, then quickly (…fast as a bullet?), it coaxes you into empathising with him. It’s like a 3 page version of Citizen Kane. I love that.

But Triesman and Boyle don’t really discuss the story’s structure during their conversation. Instead, they focus on the fact that the protagonist cares deeply about words – In fact, it’s his dedication to language that allows the reader to be curious about him in the beginning, and then empathize with him in the end.

This analysis – delivered with casualness and ease – augments the story, bringing it to life by revealing why Boyle and Triesman love it. And you’ll find yourself loving it too, for the same reasons they do. Their pleasant discussion will guide your attention toward aspects of the story that you may not have otherwise noticed.

Hear it for yourself.

One With a Bullet
by The New Yorker Fiction Podcast
T. C. Boyle reads Tobias Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain,”
and discusses it with Deborah Treisman
19 minutes (discussion of language begins at 15:40)


An Evening with David Whyte: Life at the Frontier: Human Identity and the Conversational Nature of Reality

David Whyte
David Whyte book

Thursday, May 10, 2012
7:30 p
CEMEX Auditorium, Knight Management Center
FREE; no registration is required

The truth is not the truth until it can be heard and recognized, no matter how well it is said, and one of the difficult truths is that human beings arrive at newness, revelation, and understanding through recognition of something already established within them. To tell the truth, therefore, is not to fire off the right ammunition at an established target, but rather to create a live frontier, a field of communion, between a deep internal core and something that, to begin with, looks like the otherness of the world. Living and breathing at this frontier is what most of our religious and contemplative traditions have called enlightenment. Join poet and philosopher David Whyte for what is sure to be an enlightening experience of this frontier through poetry, the imagination at play, and storytelling.

David Whyte
 is the author of six books of poetry and three books of prose. He also holds a degree in marine zoology and has traveled extensively, including living and working as a naturalist guide in the Galapagos Islands and leading anthropological and natural history expeditions in the Andes, the Amazon, and the Himalaya. He brings this wealth of experience to his poetry, lectures, and workshops. His most recent books are The Three Marriages, River Flow, and Crossing the Unknown Sea.

This program is co-sponsored by The Stanford Storytelling Project and Stanford Continuing Studies.


“Making up the Truth” with Jack Hitt

Jack Hitt
Jack Hitt Poster

Friday, May 4, 2012
7:30PM
Cubberley Auditorium
FREE; no registration is required

In his new solo show, Jack Hitt tells extravagant, almost unbelievable, true stories that take him from his early childhood in South Carolina (where his flamboyant neighbor, a British novelist, became global news as one of the world’s first transsexuals) through his trek to New York (where his apartment super kept a deadly secret identity). “Making Up the Truth” weaves these and other stories together with the latest experiments in cognitive research. Scientists of the mind are now studying the mechanics of how we all narrate our own stories in our brains, and Jack searches them out to answer the question everyone always asks him, “Why do these things always happen to you?” They don’t, the experiments show. We are all making up the truth, often to shield ourselves from what Jack discovers: the uncanny wonders that lie just beyond our brain’s notice. And that tale, it turns out, is another extravagant, almost unbelievable, true story.

Jack Hitt is a contributing writer for Harper’s and GQ. He also writes for The New York Times Magazine, Outside, and Mother Jones, and contributes frequently to public radio’s This American Life.


Ubiquitous Audio-tastic Material: Learning How to Listen

Ever since I listened to this piece of audio, I’ve been a more informed inhabitant of the modern world. That’s because listening to this piece taught me how to listen to the wide array of sounds that are bombarding me from every direction, all the time.

In “Hearing,”(act II in This American Life’s episode on Mapping) Jack Hitt does something very simple, very well: he gives me the tools to more fully experience something that I was already experiencing, even though I wasn’t yet aware of it.

The piece is about a writer, Toby Lester, who learns how to notice sounds around him. In the piece, Hitt and Lester peruse the inhabited world for the types of sounds that we tend to ignore: air conditioner, refrigerator compressor, microwave beep; and when they find these sounds, they figure out the exact note (on the musical scale) of each sound. They then make chords out of those notes, and describe (using splendidly antiquated vocabulary) the effect that those chords can have on our emotional state.

One great thing about this story is that it’s inherently aural. Hitt and his companion are studying sound, therefore the thing that they study will translate very well via headphones, computer speakers, car stereos, or whatever the listener might be using, to access the thing that Hitt is communicating. I’ve written about this “audio-tastic” quality in another piece.

What’s particularly profound about this piece, though, is that he’s doing more than giving us a sonically rich story, and more than making the sounds the subject of the piece. He is taking us along on a well-informed experiment with the sounds that surround most of us—sounds from things that are in the space you’re inhabiting, right now. By doing this, Hitt moves away from the trappings of a standard analytical argument and pushes us into the realm of experiential learning. As listeners, we know what he is saying is true, because we can identify it within our immediate environment.

Hitt highlights this experience by employing a not-often used trick: radio silence. During an astounding six-second pause, he gives you time to identify the sounds being created by the mechanical things within your hearing distance. It’s as if Hitt is sitting right next to you, listening while you direct your attention toward each little harddrive fan as it clicks on or off, and comparing its frequency to the frequency of the engine of the plane that’s flying overhead, or the train that’s passing through town.

We’re living in a world of sound, and it becomes quite obvious as soon as you start to listen.

Hitt takes his argument to the next level when he addresses the moods that these chords evoke. We’re not usually conscious of these buzzes, whirrs and hums, but the combination of these sounds has a profound effect on how we feel.

It might seem ridiculous when you read it in text (i.e., right now), and this is why you need to hear it for yourself. With the experiential insight that this story brings to bear, you will hear the pitches and chords of the humming, buzzing, droning electronics that surround you, and become better attuned to the feelings that they evoke… it’s funny, but the descriptions really resonate: the sounds make you feel the way that Hitt says they make you feel.

When you listen to this piece (and, by association, to the sounds that occur all around you), it makes sense that we are, as Lester claims, products of our modern aural environment.

Hearing ”, by Jack Hitt
Act II in This American Life’s Mapping episode, originally aired in 1998
12 minutes
Originally suggested by Jonah Willihnganz


Darth Vader Impersonator

I do not recommend this piece to children (seriously). I recommend it to basically everyone else, though.

I play it for my friends, I’ve played it for romantic partners, and I’ll be playing it long after radio is succeeded by whatever medium comes next. “Darth Vader Impersonator Impersonator” was put together by Sean Cole and Benjamen Walker– two public radio stalwarts– and it has to be one of my all-time favorite pieces of radio.

So what have we got here? What we have is, not to overstate it, but, the perfect story. A compelling character? Check. A struggle? Check. Change? Check. Something to teach us? Check.

The story goes through a series of extremely interesting events and revelations: the main character Bo was teased as a child, which prompted him to embrace Darth Vader. He built himself a Darth Vader suit, and obtained a contract from Lucas Films to officially represent their company. He even got a tracheotomy so that his voice would have that metallic, Vader ring to it, and then. . .

Let’s pause for a moment, and go back to our list of perfect story ingredients.

Compelling Character: The Character of Bo is every radio producer’s dream: a compelling and articulate individual who is totally different from you or me. All three parts of that equation are important. If the person isn’t compelling, no one will want to hear their story. It’s up to you, the radio producer, to figure out what compelling is. If the person is too much like you or me, well, that works for some stories, but I already know what I think and what I want. I want to know what someone who is completely different from me wants. And what does this character want?

To be evil. How beautiful. And an evil we all know, an iconic evil from one of the best known stories of our generation, Star Wars. Something we all can relate to. Except this is reversed. Here’s someone who wants the bad guy to win. I want to hear more.

Struggle: For most of the story, everything goes well for Bo. Or as well as things can go for an adult obsessed with a movie character. But we need a problem. Otherwise this won’t be an interesting story. And what’s that problem? Bo gets a request from Lucas Films to represent Vader’s “inner goodness.” He fights.

Change: Bo ends up losing what he’s worked so hard for. He’s in trouble. Then we see him get into (more) trouble, choking the kid at the mall, getting caught masturbating in the security booth, being mocked online. So things get pretty bad.

Something to learn: In the end, we see how Bo’s doing today. We find out he’ll be ok (because we really don’t want anything that bad to happen to him.) So we have a beautiful story, well-told. We also have a narrator who remembers to wrap the story up with a moral: “Evil chooses its own constituency.”

And did I mention it’s all made up? (But you knew that all along, didn’t you?)

Darth Vader Impersonator Impersonator
Produced by Benjamen Walker and Sean Cole for Your Radio Nightlight.
[10:43] (includes some profanity)


Giving

This week on our show, four stories of giving. First, it’s a story about a charity fundraiser, and the woman who comes to question why fundraisers even exist. Then it’s the story of a t-shirt entrepreneur’s attempt to send one million shirts to Africa. Third, it’s two interviews with people who had to decide if they were willing to donate bone marrow. Last, the story of Odyssey Works, a group of artists that create works of art for a single person.

 Producer: Charlie Mintz

Featuring: Rachel Hamburg, Will Rogers, Jason Sadler, Saundra Schimmelpfennig, TMS Ruge, Nick Hartley, Mandeep Gill, Kristina Kulin, Abraham Burickson, and Jen Harmon

Release Date: 18 April 2012

 

 

Story 1: Me and the 49ers Cheerleaders

State of the Human producer Rachel Hamburg had the chance to cater a charity fundraiser. She got to see what enticements were used to get people to give. She started to wonder, what was the point of it all?

 

Featuring: Rachel Hamburg

 

 

Story 2: How Not To Give

It was an epic project: send one million shirts to Africa. But before it even got off the ground, it hit a snag. Is sending a million used shirts across the Atlantic ocean even a good idea?

 

Producer: Will Rogers and Charlie Mintz

Featuring: Jason Sadler, Saundra Schimmelpfennig, TMS Ruge

Links: Good Intents; Project Diaspora; I Wear Your Shirt

 

 

Story 3: A Tale of Two Donors

No one said donating bone marrow was a trip to the water park. But if it’s a choice between avoiding pain, and saving a life, how do you decide what to do? 

 

Featuring: Nick Hartley, Mandeep Gill

Links: Stanford BLood Center

 

Story 4: Odyssey Works

What would it be like to have a play made just for you? One that incorporated your dreams, and your wishes, and brought you into its world to participate?

 

Featuring: Kristina Kulin, Abraham Burickson, and Jen Harmon

Links: Odyssey Works


Seeing Ourselves

Since the days of Narcissus and the looking pool, we’ve known there’s a danger in seeing ourselves. There’s a possibility of caring too much, or seeing something we don’t want to see. But that hasn’t stopped humans from trying to see more and more. Today we have more ways to see ourselves than ever before. So it’s time to take a look at looking. What do we want to see, and what do we do with that information? Today on our show, four stories of people who tried to see themselves clearly. A woman views her genetic profile, and learns why her tendency towards depression might be an asset. A true mirror–one that doesn’t reverse your image–is deployed on Stanford students. A personality test called the Meyers Briggs profile is taken to the max. And a girl explains her point system that lets her keep track of exactly how people feel about her.

Producer: Jonah Willihnganz

Host: Xandra Clark

Featuring: Daniel Steinbock, Lone Frank, Colleen Caleshu, Hank Greely, John Nantz, Rachel Hamburg, Xandra Clark, Iris Clayter, Christy Hartman, and Alexzandra Scully

Release Date: 11 April 2012

 

 

Story 1: The True Mirror

Every day we look in the mirror to see what we look like. But that reflection is a lie. It’s flipped. The face you see in a mirror is a face only you know. Maybe that’s fine, but if you want to see how you look to other people–and not just frozen in a photograph–you need a “true mirror”. State of the Human brought one to Stanford’s White Plaza, in the heart of campus, to see how students reacted to seeing themselves, truly.

Producers: Xandra Clark and Rachel Hamburg

Featuring: Daniel Steinbock

 

Story 2: The Human Map

For seeing one’s self, there’s no portrait more fundamental than the genetic code. But the genome is a frustrating way to see ourselves because there’s still so much we don’t know. Hear how three individuals deal with this incomplete information to see themselves, others, and the future of genetics.

Producers: Raj Bhandari and Jonah Willihnganz

Featuring: Lone Frank, Colleen Caleshu and Hank Greely

Image via flickr

 

Story 3: I Have Enough T For 1000 People

Personality tests are ubiquitous today. You could spend a life time answering multiple choice questions, figuring out which brand of sports drink you are, what animal you most resemble, and which pop star is your psychological twin. But how helpful are any of these? And which just feed our desire about ourselves? In our next story, you’ll hear about one test known as the Myers-Briggs. It’s about someone who was exposed to the test at 14, and hasn’t stopped pondering it since.

Producers: Rachel Hamburg and Xandra Clark

Featuring: John Nantz

 

Story 4: Keeping Score

The most powerful mirror we use may be other people. We all know the cliche, true self-worth comes from within. But what if that’s wrong? Like it or not, we see ourselves how other people see us. We like to know what other people think. But not too many of us, probably, have developed a point system for keeping track, like in our next story.

Producers: Christy Hartman and Alexzandra Scully

Featuring: Iris Clayter

 


An Evening with Peter Guber

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Tuesday, April 17, 2012
7:30PM
CEMEX Auditorium, Knight Management Center
FREE; no registration is required

Today, all of us—whether we know it or not—are in the emotional transportation business. More and more, success is achieved by using compelling stories that move audiences—media, donors, consumers, and employees—to action. In this special event, executive, entrepreneur, and bestselling author Peter Guber will share what he has learned over decades in the entertainment and communications industries about finding and telling authentic stories that make deep emotional connections with audiences. Through his own entertaining and enlightening stories, Guber will share how to capture the attention of your audience, connect your story to the audience’s self interest, and especially how to turn passive listeners into active advocates for your cause. Join us for an evening that will demonstrate how to transform information into compelling narrative and will empower you to employ purposeful storytelling as your “secret sauce” to propel greater good and social change.

Peter Guber is Chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment
 and has been a producer or the executive producer of five films that have received Best Picture Academy Award nominations. His box office hits include The Color Purple, Midnight Express, Batman, Flashdance, and The Kids Are All Right. He is a professor at UCLA, and is the owner and co-executive chairman of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. His newest book, Tell to Win, became an instant #1 New York Times bestseller.

This program is co-sponsored by The Stanford Storytelling Project, Stephanie and Fred Harman, and Stanford Continuing Studies.