In 2023, my writing found a new voice when I took a class called Tell Me A Story: Non-Fiction Radio & Podcasting. Taught Transom-style by Sophie Crane, the class introduced me to narrative journalism and unlocked my love for a new kind of storytelling. I learned how to interview, script, narrate, score, and engineer audio pieces.

In the class, I made three pieces. My very first (hopefully of many) was a vox pop. I accosted strangers on the street with a microphone and asked them important, hard-hitting questions. Listen:

The next was a 6-minute story about my best friend’s journey starting hormone therapy. This one is my personal favorite — I learned something new about someone I’ve known for years, and cherished the opportunity to showcase their joy. Listen:

Music and scoring were the trickiest things for me to get the hang of when I was first learning to make stories, so to practice, I made a story about a barbershop ensemble in the Upper Valley. It’s full of music, and working on it helped my mixing skills tremendously! Listen: