Over the Transom | 06.12.26
Sounds Like America, the art of the lede, and The Living Fossil
Happy Friday! A few events to announce:
TONIGHT at the Woods Hole Community Hall, we’re hosting Two Truths and a Lie: a night of words and music about the stories we tell and what we leave out. Featuring stories from Saidu Tejan-Thomas Jr., Carla Kihlstedt, and Joel Francois in partnership with Atlantic Public Media. Get your tickets here!
And join us next month in Woods Hole for a night of live science storytelling, hosted by Steve Junker with live music from Mariel Baumgarten. 7:00 p.m. in the Clapp Auditorium of Marine Biological Laboratory’s Lillie Building. Tickets here!
What’s new on Transom
We launched The Listeners with the intention of inspiring producers across the country to pick up their microphones and record stories of everyday grace. We hoped to start a movement of sorts and get a whole bunch of people to look around their communities and listen for the stories. Which is why we’re so thrilled to be partnering with Hub & Spoke Audio Collective’s Sounds Like America initiative — a kindred project to ours.
As America approaches its 250th birthday, Hub & Spoke is inviting producers from all 50 states (and DC!) to create sonic postcards from where they live (learn more about how to submit your own piece here). They’ll be accepting submissions on a rolling basis until the end of 2026. And we are very excited to debut two stories from the ongoing project on Transom.org.
Listen to this piece from Luke Green about an 80 year old woman learning to ride a motorcycle in New York, NY:
And spend some time with a woman named Barbara in Sparks, NV in this piece from Fil Corbett:
More to explore on Transom.org:
Check out All Hear’s June edition! There are tons of opportunities featured, including The Audio Corpse Challenge – a challenge set by All The Best Radio in Australia, where participants write a 2-3 minute original story from scratch within 48 hours.
We’re hiring for THREE positions here at Transom! A full-time Programs Director, a full-time Operations & Development Director, and a part-time Communications Manager. Join us!
Tip of the week: the art of the lede
Hooking your listener within the first few minutes of a story is crucial, especially a narrative series. The lede is an art form — good ones keep people from turning the radio off or pressing next in their queue. In this episode of Sound School from 2022, Rob Rosenthal dissects what works and what doesn’t in the lede approach taken on two different narrative series. By breaking them down, he reveals what’s needed for an open to thread that needle:
Without tension, a quandry, something puzzling, a promise of a deep dive into something — I’ve got nowhere to go as a listener. To be fair, ledes are hard. There’s a dnace that’s required. Provide enough information to tantalize a listener — Ira Glass calls it “bait” — but not so much information that a listener feels like they’ve heard most of the story.
From the archives
The Living Fossil by Veronica Simmonds
Did you know that the bright blue blood of horseshoe crabs is one of the major components used to keep us alive? Listen to this story from producer Veronica Simmonds about the strange and serendipitous journey of the horseshoe crab. It all started with a walk on the beach, a dead crab, and some coagulated blood…
Community corner
This week’s question: Have you attended a Transom Traveling Workshop this year? What was your favorite part? Let us know in the comments!