Episode Description: Rob and Britta discuss Nancy Updike’s podcast “We Were Three,” which tells the story of one family devastated by Covid and what that devastation revealed. Also discussed: Nancy Updike’s status as as one of the all time great audio producers. To support Phonograph, subscribe to our new bonus feed , which features experiments in audio storytelling. This month’s story comes from Rob: a collage of recordings he made in the spring of 2020 around the theme of anxiety and grocery s...
Jul 03, 2025•1 hr 14 min
Rob and Britta discuss the new podcast Signal Hill, which takes its inspiration from the world of print magazines. Rob talks to Liza Yeager and Jackson Roach about the project, and then we dive into a handful of the stories from Signal Hill’s first “issue.” Show Notes: Signal Hill Fishing the Sky by Jackson Roach Desperado by Neena Pathak A Porous Place by Hannah Sassoon On the Family Group Chat by Hannah Kingsley-Ma Music by Blue Dot Sessions...
May 29, 2025•47 min
Rob and Britta discuss the classic Alix Spiegel story “Pray” from This American Life, including Spiegel’s origin story as a producer and what happened to her when members of the megachurch she was reporting on urged her to become a Christian. This is the second of three episodes Rob and Britta recorded in 2019 and never released until now. The first of those was our episode about TAL’s “Notes on Camp.” Show Notes: Pray - This American Life Tape: A radio show about people who make radio, hosted a...
Apr 29, 2025•44 min
Rob is joined by the audio producer Sophie Nikitas to discuss Susan Burton 's Peabody award winning podcast from 2023: The Retrievals . Show Notes: Sophie's online dating podcast miniseries The Zoo Sophie's horror anthology podcast Out Cold Susan Burton's story " In The Event Of An Emergency, Put Your Sister In An Upright Position " Susan Burton's story " Tornado Prom " Music from Blue Dot Sessions...
Apr 03, 2025•51 min
Rob is joined by the podcast critic Samantha Hodder, who writes the newsletter Bingeworthy, to discuss the podcast Cement City: a sound-rich, character-rich, immersive exploration of the struggling rust belt town Donora, Pennsylvania. Show Notes: Cement City Samantha Hodder’s website Samantha Hodder’s newsletter Bingeworthy Music - Blue Dot Sessions...
Mar 06, 2025•51 min
Rob and Britta discuss a ten year old story from This American Life called "The Problem We All Live With" produced by Chana Joffe-Walt and reported by Nikole Hannah-Jones. It's an example of the kind of documentary journalism we need more than ever, in a world where such journalism is increasingly under threat. Show Notes: TAL Episode 562: The Problem We all Live With Longform Podast interview with Nikole Hannah-Jones Third Coast Audio Festival Session: Make Them Care Saint Louis Public Radio's ...
Jan 16, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Rob and Britta dig into two classic episodes of the podcast Love and Radio, "The Wisdom of Jay Thunderbolt" and "Choir Boy," sparking a discussion about the appeal of abrasive art. Show Notes: The Wisdom of Jay Thunderbolt - Love and Radio Choir Boy - Love and Radio Love and Radio on How Sound Salvatore Scibona reads Denis Johnson - New Yorker Fiction Podcast Music: Silence Kid - Pavement You’re Killing Me - Pavement Prefect Depth - Pavement The Bus at Dawn - Blue Dot Sessions Orchard Lime - Blu...
Dec 05, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Rob and Britta share a discussion they had in 2019 (but never released) about the classic This American Life episode "Notes on Camp." Topics include their own camp experiences, the power of scary stories, Rob's favorite thing ever recorded by any radio show ever, and the wild back story of the beloved camp counselor David Himmel, aka Mr. Popluar. Show Notes: Notes on Camp - This American LIfe “Ira Glass Is a Douche” - Literate Apecast Longform Interview with Julie Snyder Music: Calisson - Blue D...
Oct 22, 2024•46 min•Season 2Ep. 3
On the second of a two-part series about the podast Startup, Rob and Britta talk about how the mini-seasons of the podcast Startup about the growth of Gimlet revealed all kinds of details about the troubles at the company, the ill-fated sale to Spotify, and what all this means for the state of narrative audio. Show Notes: Skye Pillsbury's newsletter The Squeeze Galen Beebe's website Music: A Simple Plan Soundrack Nine Count by Blue Dot Sessions Within the Garden Walls by Blue Dot Sessions Gentle...
Sep 25, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 2Ep. 2
On the first episode of the new season Rob and Britta talk about what made them want to restart a show about narrative audio. And they discuss the complicated legacy of a podcast that's having its tenth anniversary this year. Show Notes: Music: Coffaro’s Theme by Bill Frisell "Arabic Tallow" and "At Our Best Alone" from Blue Dot Sessions Gentle Chase - Podington Bear Audio Excerpts: This American Life - Double Lives Constellation Prize Startup Alex Blumberg on Longform Heavyweight TLDR...
Sep 05, 2024•56 min•Season 2Ep. 1
After more than five years of silence, new episodes of this podcast finally are on their way. Season 2 starts September 5, 2024.
Sep 03, 2024•3 min
Rob and Britta discuss This American Life Episode 37 - The Job that Takes Over Your Life, as well as Britta’s former job fixing scandals for big companies, and Rob’s former job working for Garrison Keillor. Other topics include the great radio reporter Scott Carrier and his masterpiece of a story The Test, and Rob interviews Peter Clowney, one of the original producers of This American Life, about what it was like to work on the show in the early days. Links and Show Notes: The Job that Takes Ov...
Jan 24, 2019•55 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Rob and Britta discuss whether this episode is TAL’s first real masterpiece, the role of David Sedaris in the show’s early years, why “The Man in the Well” is the rare example of great audio fiction, the bone-chilling music of the Bulgarian State Television Female Choir, and why an effort to keep children from excluding each other makes Rob weirdly emotional. And we talk to the amazing Marlo Mack, from the podcast How to Be a Girl, about her own unique perspective on the cruelty of children. Lin...
Jan 10, 2019•51 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Rob and Britta discuss This American Life Episode 14: Accidental Documentaries, including their own experience creating accidental documentaries. The main focus of the discussion is the centerpiece of this episode, a documentary edited out of reel to reel tapes that a family sent back and forth to each other back in 1967. And Rob talks to Joe Silovsky, the man who originally found those tapes and gave them to Ira Glass, and whose work as a performance artist echos the experience he had with thos...
Dec 05, 2018•52 min•Season 1Ep. 3
A discussion of This American Life Episode 10: Double Lives. Topics include Rob and Britta's own experiences leading double lives, Rob's childhood habit of breaking into schools at night, why this episode feels like the birth of This American Life, why parents so often hide secrets from their children, what Britta’s parents have been hiding from her, and how it feels to hear Ira Glass talk about sex. This episode also includes an interview with Peter Bresnan, a podcast producer for Gimlet, about...
Nov 21, 2018•58 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Rob and Britta discuss the very first episode of This American Life, as well as why the show is worth discussing, how they and others became fans of the show, and why they love Ira Glass’s mother. Clips from following were used in this episode: Coffaro’s Theme by Bill Frisell Episode of Tape with Jonathan Menjivar Episode of Tape with Ben Calhoun Ira’s talk at the Third Coast Audio Festival Longform Podcast, Episode 159: Ira Glass This American Life, Episode 1: New Beginnings Ira’s talk at the G...
Nov 08, 2018•48 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Episode 0 Show Notes Clips from following were used in this episode: This American Life, Episode 1: New Beginnings This American Life, Episode 17: Name Change/No Theme Longform Podcast, Episode 159: Ira Glass Coffaro’s Theme by Bill Frisell...
Oct 10, 2018•7 min
