Ancient High School Regrets
Phonograph
On this episode, a break from the usual format. About a year ago, Rob came home from his 30th high school reunion with a story he couldn’t stop telling: how he tried to apologize to a woman that reunion whose friendship he’d ended their junior year of high school. To get to the bottom of what the story meant, Rob sat down with a close friend, set up two microphones, and told her the whole thing. Rob and Britta talk about what happened when he did, and why a story might mean something different depending on who’s listening when you tell it. Links for this episode: Music from
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Julia Barton and the Invisible Clock of Audio Stories
Phonograph
Overview: On this episode, Rob and Britta dig into the career of editor and writer Julia Barton, whose incredibly varied career has spanned the golden era of public radio, an experimental podcast recorded while doing the dishes, and an executive editing role at Pushkin Industries. Along the way she’s traced the hidden architecture of radio—where it came from and what it costs the people who work inside it. Links for this episode: — Julia’s Website — Julia’s Newsletter — Julia Barton — 99% Invisible — 99% Invisible — Radiolab — Anxious Machine — HowSound...
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Its Own Kind of Clock: “24 Hours at the Golden Apple” with guest Joe Richman
Phonograph
On this episode, Rob and Britta dig into the classic This American Life episode "24 Hours at the Golden Apple," (November 17, 2000) in which a team of producers spent a full day and night at a 24-hour diner on Chicago's north side, trying to interview everyone who was willing to talk. Special guest Joe Richman, founder of Radio Diaries, joins us to talk about the segment he produced for the episode, and what it felt like to revisit that story more than two decades later. Links for this episode: This American Life: (Episode 173) Nancy Updike's talk at the Third Coast International Audio...
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Knob Feel: the Story of the Greatest Podcast Ad Campaign of All Time
Phonograph
On this episode, Rob and Britta tell the story of the golden age of podcast advertising — how it started, why it worked, and why it seems to be over. Along the way we tell the story of what happened when Cards Against Humanity partnerned with a very opinionated tech podcaster to create the most entertaining ad campaign in the history of the medium. Guests include Lex Friedman, one of the first people to sell podcast ads, and John Siracusa and Casey Liss, co-hosts of Accidental Tech Podcast. Discussed in this episode: The Wolf Den: (Episode 71) Hypercritical: Hypercritical: (Episode 42)...
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Found Footage Horror: Podcast Coverage of the Ice Invasion
Phonograph
In the weeks since Alex Pretti's murder, Rob and Britta have been listening to numerous podcasts that covered the ICE invasion of American cities over the past year. Ingesting a year of audio ICE coverage puts this story (not to mention our conception of audio journalism) into a whole new perspective. Come for the heartfelt media criticism. Stay for Rob's brutal takedown of The Daily. If you’d like to donate to people helping those targeted by ICE in Minneapolis, . If you like the work we’re doing, you can . Our music comes from Blue Dot Sessions. Discussed in this Episode:...
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To Show What’s Going On - Photojournalists in Minneapolis
Phonograph
Rob and Britta both live in the Twin Cities, so on this episode, we took a break from discussing audio storytelling, and Britta interviewed two photojournalists who’ve been covering ICE in Minneapolis. It’s a conversation about what they’ve seen, about the vital role of photojournalism at this moment, and the personal toll of doing this work. Our Guests: Media: Music by
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Some Crazy Joyous Thing - Apocalyptic Vox Pop from Scott Carrier and Erica Heilman
Phonograph
At the tail end of 2025, Rob and Britta discuss work by Scott Carrier and Erica Heilman that captures something about how it felt to live through this harrowing year. To support our show and access our bonus story feed, . Show Links: from Scott Carrier’s Home of the Brave from Erica Heilman’s Rumble Strip Rob and Britta’s Erica Heilman’s episode of Rumble Strip Erica Heilman’s episode of Rumble Strip from Transom.org
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Weirdly Fun - What Podcast Bonus Feeds Are Offering
Phonograph
To explore the phenomenon of podcast bonus feeds, Rob and Britta start by discussing an episode of Yowei Shaw’s podcast Proxy (with guest Alex Goldman) about the struggle of podcasters having to ask listeners for money. We then dig into several podcast bonus feeds (This American Life Partners, Slate Plus, and others), to find what they’re offering. And we are pleasantly surprised. To access our bonus feed story of Rob’s harrowing Thanksgiving road trip back in 2008, . You can listen for free with a seven day trial membership and see if it’s worth it. Podcasts discussed in this episode:...
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Hey Jackie - The Evolution of Jonathan Goldstein
Phonograph
Episode Description: With the triumphant return of the podcast Heavyweight, Rob and Britta trace the career of Jonathan Goldstein through several of his stories, including his early work at This American Life, the CBC radio show Wiretap, and his podcast Heavyweight. Stories and episodes discussed: Our music comes from . To support Phonograph, , which features experiments in audio storytelling.
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What a Wonderful Thing - 99% Invisible
Phonograph
As the 15th anniversary of 99% Invisible approaches, Rob and Britta dig into four very different episodes from the first four years of that show’s run (as well as the story of the time Rob met Roman Mars): Episode 6: “” Episode 29: “” (Produced with Katie Mingle) Episode 103: “” (Produced with Sam Greenspan) Episode 83: “” (Produced with Alex Goldman) To support Phonograph, , which features experiments in audio storytelling, including this month’s story about a young mother’s relationship to her hearing aids, having refused to wear them since she started losing...
info_outlineA 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 what it's like to listen to this old episode of TAL on the topic of closeted gay men.
Links and Show Notes:
Coffero’s Theme by Bill Frisell Quartet
It Might Get Loud - a documentary about Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White
Another Version of You by Chris Zabriskie
Tell Me I’m Funny - a podcast by Peter Alexander Bresnan
Catalog & Classify by Mark Robinson