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Sound Judgment

By: Elaine Appleton Grant
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  • Summary

  • Become a better storyteller, in audio and beyond. Sound Judgment takes listeners into the studios — and the minds — of your favorite audio storytellers. In each episode, lifelong journalist Elaine Appleton Grant and a top host, producer or editor dive into their creative choices. It’s a revealing conversation about the storytelling craft, and it’s show and tell: Elaine plays back clips from her guest’s podcast. Tune up your storytelling by learning from today's best creators! www.soundjudgmentpodcast.com podcastallies.com soundjudgment.substack.com Threads: @elaineagrant
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Episodes
  • Behind The 13th Step, Part 2: The best defense is the truth

    Behind The 13th Step, Part 2: The best defense is the truth
    May 8 2024
    On May 6, 2024, The 13th Step team was honored with a Pulitzer Prize nomination for audio reporting "for their gripping and extensively reported investigation of corruption and sexual abuse within the lucrative recovery industry that sought accountability despite legal pressure.”Today, we go behind the scenes, once again, with New Hampshire Public Radio Reporter Lauren Chooljian and Story Editor Alison MacAdam to learn their techniques for ensuring journalistic accuracy and fairness as they faced attempts at intimidation. And this close team learned how to create a "trauma-informed workplace" -- and how emotional support techniques helped them to keep going. This is Part 2 of "Behind the blockbuster investigative series The 13th Step: The best defense is the truth." Listen to Part 1How to Find the Truth: Behind the Blockbuster Investigative Series The 13th StepTakeaways from today's episode include: 1. In today's journalistic and political environment, the best defense is the truth. That means using every reporting strategy you can to make sure all of your reporting is factual, precise, backed up with evidence and well organized.2. Corroborate, corroborate, corroborate. In your story or series, explain that you corroborated your facts and how you did.3. Transparency is key. Paint thorough, fair portraits of your subjects. Human beings are complex and contradictory. This tension makes for fascinating stories and builds credibility.4. Newsroom or network leadership needs to be as committed to your journalism as you are. Depending on the circumstances, they may need to pay legal fees, tap insurance and even fund security.5. Chooljian had two huge reasons to continue reporting, even after she, her family, and her newsroom were targeted in a rash of criminal threats. The first: Her sources had bravely stepped forward to share their stories with her. Doing so put them at risk — as she says, a risk they took without the kinds of organizational, financial and legal resources available to her. Second: Backing down would have sent a signal to others that retaliation works. That's unacceptable.###Follow Sound Judgment on your favorite podcast app or subscribe to our channel @SoundJudgmentPodon Youtube. For more takeaways from this episode on crafting an investigative series and why accountability journalism is so important, visit Current. Listen to the series deconstructed on today's show: The 13th Step. Starting your own podcast? Be strategic with our Sound Judgment Show Bible Workbook. Want to learn more about how NHPR's Document Team greenlights projects like The 13th Step to begin with? Listen to "How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life story." More about The 13th StepRead about the teamCheck out the supporting legal documentsResources on addiction treatment, substance use disorder, sexual misconduct, and moreFollow Lauren ChooljianLinkedInTwitter/X: @laurenchooljianFollow Alison MacAdamLinkedInThreads: @ajmacadam Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com. Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. Connect:Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socialsHelp us find and celebrate today’s best hostsWho’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment. Credits Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. Host: Elaine Appleton GrantPodcast Manager: Tina BassirProduction Manager: Andrew ParrellaAudio Engineer: Kevin KlineProduction Assistant: Audrey Nelson
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    41 mins
  • How to find the truth: Behind the blockbuster investigative series The 13th Step

    How to find the truth: Behind the blockbuster investigative series The 13th Step
    May 1 2024
    In 2020, New Hampshire Public Radio Lauren Chooljian received an email about Eric Spofford, the founder of New Hampshire's largest addiction treatment network. In it was an allegation that Spofford was sexually abusing female clients and employees. Chooljian set out to learn whether this could be true. Over the next three years, she would go on a journey to learn the truth, not just about this allegation, but about widespread sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment industry. The result of that journey is The 13th Step, a gripping series that won a slew of awards, including the duPont, sometimes considered the Pulitzer of broadcasting. This is Part 1 of a two-part episode that goes behind-the-scenes of The 13th Step. Along the way, Chooljian, her family, and her news director become targets of retaliation. What started as a reporting task would also become about another thing: Freedom of the press. And how, why, and for whom to persist with a story in the face of unnerving threats. You'll learn how to pursue a tough investigation; how to frame a complex series with many characters and themes; and how to craft a true, deeply relevant story that serves the public good. And you'll learn what this arduous journey required of everyone involved. This episode explores sensitive subjects including addiction and sexual assault. Please listen with care. Follow Sound Judgment on your favorite podcast app, or subscribe to our channel @SoundJudgmentPodon Youtube. For more takeaways from this episode on crafting an investigative series and why accountability journalism is so important, visit Current. Listen to the series deconstructed on today's show: The 13th Step. Starting your own podcast? Be strategic with our Sound Judgment Show Bible Workbook. Want to learn more about how NHPR's Document Team greenlights projects like The 13th Step to begin with? Listen to "How to Pitch an Audio Documentary and the Unusual Origin of a This American Life story." More about The 13th StepRead about the teamCheck out the supporting legal documentsResources on addiction treatment, substance use disorder, sexual misconduct, and moreFollow Lauren ChooljianLinkedInTwitter/X: @laurenchooljianFollow Alison MacAdamLinkedInThreads: @ajmacadam Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more. Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more. Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com. Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling. Connect:Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify 🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socialsHelp us find and celebrate today’s best hostsWho’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment. Credits Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC. Host: Elaine Appleton GrantPodcast Manager: Tina BassirProduction Manager: Andrew ParrellaAudio Engineer: Kevin KlineProduction Assistant: Audrey Nelson
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    47 mins
  • How to Grow Your Show — Without Social Media

    How to Grow Your Show — Without Social Media
    Apr 17 2024

    Sound Judgment is about the craft of audio storytelling. Not about the marketing of podcasts. But today, we're bringing you a gift from someone I trust completely when it comes to audience growth: Jeremy Enns of Podcast Marketing Academy, and his co-host, Justin Jackson, cofounder of Transistor.fm. They've teamed up to produce Podcast Marketing Trends Explained, a limited series that extracts proven audience growth techniques from Enns' comprehensive annual survey of podcasters about their marketing methods.

    In this episode, you'll learn:

    — Whether the famed "podcast discoverability problem" actually exists
    — The three types of marketing channels at your disposal & what the data shows about their effectiveness
    — Whether or not it's worth it (and when) to pay for ads
    — How to pick the right marketing channel for you
    — Why "owned media" is the low-hanging fruit for many creators
    — What most podcasters get wrong about growth through collaborations, and
    — How to kickstart word-of-mouth growth. (P.S.: Word-of-mouth growth is my favorite kind of growth, and IMHO, the best kind!)

    About Jeremy Enns
    About Justin Jackson
    Can't get enough of Podcast Marketing Trends Explained? Follow it now.

    Improve your storytelling Check out our popular workshops on interviewing, story editing, story structure, longform narrative, audience engagement, guesting, scriptwriting and more.

    Hire Elaine to speak at your conference or company. Subjects include: Effective Storytelling; Communicating for Leaders; Communicating about Change; Mastering the Art of the Interview; Success in Guesting, and much more.

    Discover our strategic communication services and coaching for thought leaders using storytelling tools to make the world a better place. Serving writers, podcasters, public speakers, and others in journalism & public media, climate change, health care, policy, and higher education. Visit us at www.podcastallies.com.

    Subscribe to Sound Judgment, the Newsletter, our twice-monthly newsletter about creative choices in audio storytelling.

    Connect:

    Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

    ✉️ Email Elaine at allies@podcastallies.com

    💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

    🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify

    🗣️ Share the show by word of mouth and on your socials

    Help us find and celebrate today’s best hosts
    Who’s your Sound Judgment dream guest? Email me: allies@podcastallies.com. Because of you, that host may appear on Sound Judgment.

    Credits

    Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC.

    Host: Elaine Appleton Grant

    Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir

    Production Manager: Andrew Parrella

    Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline

    Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson
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    1 hr and 4 mins
Art Entertainment & Performing Arts Career Success Economics
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