BRUSSELS - Over the last five years, podcast listening has nearly doubled on a global scale, and the industry has grown from a niche medium into a mainstream audio format. So what does it take to turn an environmental investigation into a successful podcast?
In this session three podcast experts walked the a through all aspects of production, from deciding the format, to learning about audio recording, scripting and editing, using concrete examples from their practice. They discussed different types of narration, gave some tips on interviewing that make a listener feel as if they are right there on the scene, and suggested which equipment constitutes a useful starter kit.
Speakers:
Susanne Reber: a 3X Peabody award-winning Executive Producer of Investigative podcasts and series. She is the creator of Verified, an investigative podcast series and co-founder of Reveal, the first investigative radio programme and podcast in the United States.
Russel Finch: Executive Producer on Audible’s US non-fiction team, focusing on character-driven, investigative narrative series. He previously helped develop and produce limited-run series at Wondery including Dr. Death, Flesh and Code, and Kill List, which recently received an Edward R. Murrow Award and the British Podcast Awards’ Podcast of the Year.
Lucy Taylor: Lucy is a British investigative journalist, presenter and producer specialising in gripping environment stories for audio, TV and film. She co-founded Smoke Trail Productions with Dan Ashby in 2020.
The discussion was moderated by Juliana Ruhfus, investigative filmmaker and journalism trainer, as well as a long-standing mentor for the Earth investigations programme (see the list of investigations supported by this grant programme).
