BUILD | Storytelling BUILD

Whether you're guiding listeners through a complex investigative case or making a catchy intro to a roundtable discussion with friends, narration is ultimately what defines your podcast for listeners. Emmanuel Dzotsi talks about how to write for your voice, and goes through different methods for recording narration.

Emmanuel Dzotsi is a journalist and podcast host. He’s reported stories on everything from backroom deals for political power, the strange phenomenon of white people sending Black folks venmo payments as reparations, to vast money making phone scams hidden in plain sight.
As a co-host of the third season of the critically acclaimed podcast Serial, Emmanuel spent a year embedded in Cleveland’s criminal courts investigating police misconduct, and chronicling the stories of hundreds of people whose run-ins with the justice system often didn’t make front page news. For his work on Serial, Emmanuel was a recipient of the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for National Reporting. Most recently, Emmanuel was the co-host of the popular podcast about the internet, Reply All, where he was a National Magazine Award finalist for his 3-part series on a years-long feud in the Alabama Democratic Party. Emmanuel also produced the show’s most downloaded and celebrated episode, “The Case of the Missing Hit”, about an earworm very few people remember. Emmanuel has also contributed to radio shows like the critically-acclaimed This American Life, and has been profiled in publications like the New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Guardian, among others.

Interested in the role story-editing plays in the world of narrative podcasting? Lacy Roberts discusses the editorial process.

Carolina Murriel explains how to implement trauma-informed practices into storytelling, and why this is important.

Carolina Murriel is a writer, ceramic artist, audio journalist and death doula in New Orleans. Barro y Luna is her trauma-informed practice for using clay and storytelling as healing mediums, and collecting oral histories to preserve community legacies. Her award-winning podcast studio, Pizza Shark, strives for radical inclusivity in media.

This course will help you navigate that horrible period when your reporting has hit a dead end. We’ll cover how to track people down, tips for reaching out to sources, and ways to pivot in your storytelling.

You can find all the 'Heavyweight' episodes mentioned in this class at gimletmedia.com/heavyweight.

Kalila Holt is the senior producer of Gimlet Media’s 'Heavyweight', which has been running since 2016. She’s written for 'The New
York Times', and published fiction in a number of literary journals. She’s taller than most people are expecting. You can follow her on Twitter @kalilaholt.

Feminist audio creator, Kaitlin Prest, walks you through her multi-stage process of making personal narratives. Kaitlin begins with the belief that personal stories are not about you, and from there she gives you tasks and tips for churning up the personal content that allows you to tell stories that connect to larger ideas with the world. She goes through the tricky question of ethics, and explains how you might approach chalenging sources, all with the aim of creating compelling (and experimental) audio.

Kaitlin Prest is an artist working in audio, film, performance and installation. The New Yorker describes her work as “elaborately sound-designed productions, [where] she whispers, self-examines, and confides, blending reënactment with verité excerpts of her real life.” She’s the founder of Mermaid Palace, the innovative audio arts studio behind Asking For It (CBC) and Appearances (Radiotopia). From 2014 - 2017 she was the creator and host of the award winning podcast The Heart (Radiotopia). In 2018 she wrote and directed The Shadows (CBC) a form breaking and award winning audio fiction podcast. She has been named a Peabody finalist (2017), awarded the Third Coast International Gold Award (2016) and the Prix Italia Golden Award for New Formats (2015). Her rich sound universes transcend the world of the podcast and enter living breathing reality in sound walks, installations works and performances that she presents at galleries and theaters worldwide.

Investigative reporting can intimidate even seasoned journalists. Ciaran Tracey, founder of Big City Nights, provides a thorough primer on how to use investigative techniques to create documentaries that speak truth to power. In this class, Ciaran talks through the ethics, responsibilities and technical know-how that is necessary for creating successful investigations.

After spending years as an investigative journalist for BBC News & Current Affairs, executive producer Ciaran Tracey founded Big City Nights in 2021 after a career in. He series produced and exec’d three keynote BBC box set podcasts, including the award winning ‘End Of Days’ - now in development for television drama. His podcast series have been heard by millions of people across all major podcast platforms including iTunes, Spotify and BBC Sounds.