A production from Podcast Allies. Become a better storyteller, in audio and beyond.

Season 4

May 8, 2024

Behind The 13th Step, Part 2: The best defense is the truth

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 indu…
May 1, 2024

How to find the truth: Behind the blockbuster investigative series The 13th Step

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 femal…
April 17, 2024

How to Grow Your Show — Without Social Media

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 Mark…
April 3, 2024

Courage vs comfort: Is it finally time to pursue your dreams?

At some point, every one of us will reach a point in our professional lives where it's time to change — but the status quo, even when it's not working, is comfortable. Are you ready to say goodbye to your old life in order t…
March 27, 2024

[Bonus] Introducing Sound School Podcast: Tracking Partners

It's a brave thing to share the outtakes from a tracking session. All the blemishes are right there. But Martine Powers and Rennie Svirnovsky from the audio team at The Washington Post have graciously done just that. They in…
March 13, 2024

Storytelling Strategies to Hook and Keep Your Audience

Marketing might get you new listeners, new readers — new audiences for whatever kind of content you create. But to hook those new people and keep them coming back? To create a relationship with them? That's a whole other thi…
March 13, 2024

Storytelling Secrets, Part 6: Specifics

When award-winning podcast producer, host, actor and The Moth storyteller Sam Mullins describes a place, a character, or a situation, you'll never see him simply say: "John Doe was of average height, with brown hair, a sad f…
March 12, 2024

Storytelling Strategies, Part 5: The Missing Ingredient

Today's episode dives into critical storytelling technique that you may not be thinking about — but you should.
March 11, 2024

Storytelling Strategies, Part 4: Surprise!

There is no story without a left turn. As you write a feature, produce a podcast, construct a speech or make a video, always be thinking: What's the new information here? What's the new angle? Have I uncovered a fresh, pers…
March 11, 2024

Storytelling Strategies, Part 3: Scenes

Does your content come to life or lie there flat on the page, uninspiring on the stage, or dull in people's ears? Take a cue from filmmakers and be intentional by using scenes wisely to make your content come alive.
March 10, 2024

Storytelling Strategies to Grow Your Audience: Part 2, Structure

Welcome to Part 2 of our new series on six storytelling strategies for making your content unforgettable, no matter whether it's for the ear, the page, the stage, or the screen. In this bite-sized episode, learn how to use s…
March 9, 2024

New Series: Storytelling Strategies to Hook & Keep Your Audience, Part 1

Over the last 18 months, storytelling patterns have emerged from the on-the-ground experiences shared with us by today's best audio storytellers. Welcome to Part 1 of our new series on six strategies for making your content …
Feb. 28, 2024

How Storytelling Can Heal Your Life

Did you ever work brutally hard to achieve your goal — but when you got there, it didn't feel like what you'd imagined? The Nocturnists host Emily Silverman did. She'd wanted to become a doctor since she was a little girl. B…
Feb. 14, 2024

Drama! Characters! Conflict! History podcasts have them all, with American History Tellers' Lindsay Graham

Podcasts may be the best thing to happen to history class since we stopped teaching history as a list of battles. After all, what could be more dramatic than stories about the people who changed society, for good and ill? Bu…
Jan. 31, 2024

Should you tell your own story? Navigating the tricky art of memoir

In Season 4, we're examining the roles of bravery, fear and authenticity in storytelling. This episode explores the kind of story you may have written or reported yourself — or thought about, and maybe even chickened out on…