Episode 058 Alex Blumberg

Summary

• Alex Blumberg is a producer for This American Life, cohost of Planet Money, and cofounder of Gimlet Media.
• In this episode, Alex talks about the business of storytelling, the art of storytelling, and the gear he uses.
• The second part of the episode is an excerpt from a class Alex taught on CreativeLive.com about the art of the interview and crafting the perfect question.
• Alex talks about the process of creating a documentary podcast, including gathering tape in the field, editing it down, writing a script, and tracking it in the studio.
• When reviewing the tape, Alex looks for moments with deep emotional resonance, unexpected events, and authentic emotion. He also looks for stories with a narrative progression and rising action.
• Alex Blumberg is the editor of Gimlet Media's podcast Startup and Reply All.
• He works with a team of three people on Startup and two people on Reply All.
• The team includes a producer, an engineer, and other staff to help with the edit.
• The engineer mixes the episode, making it sound good and adjusting the levels.
• Alex's primary skill is being an editor, which involves collaborating with the host to get the best show possible.
• This includes planning who to talk to, designing questions, and editing the script.
• Alex learned this skill from his time at This American Life, where editing was an elevated job.
• As an editor, Alex encourages the reporter to think big about what they're trying to say and how to make it new.
• Editing is an important job that requires paying attention to one's own boredom and listening for confusion in the story.
• A producer helps think through interviews, transcribes tape, pulls interesting pieces of tape, structures the story, and provides a roadmap for the writer.
• At Gimlet Media, the producer handles high level conceptual structuring, transcribing, and details such as booking plane tickets and studios.
• Alex Blumberg uses ProTools for editing software.
• Reply All episodes are planned out a month or a month and a half in advance, but the goal is to be a week ahead.
• Tools used for organizing include whiteboards, Google docs, Slack, and Google calendar.
• For capturing tape in the field, they use flash card recorders, Task M recorders, Sonys, and nice microphones.
• Alex Blumberg recommends the Task Cam recorder, but any recorder will work as long as the microphone is good.
• The boom microphone is used out of habit, as it is what was used at This American Life.
• Alex Blumberg worked as a social worker, caterer, eighth grade science teacher, and graduate level journalism professor before getting into radio.
• He was inspired to pursue a career in media after dating a girl from New York who knew people who were getting jobs at magazines.
• He got his start in radio as the administrative assistant at This American Life, where he learned on the job and eventually produced an hourlong documentary about Harold Washington.
• He checks SoundCloud numbers to track listening numbers and Reply All hosts look at Chartbeat.
• Alex Blumberg learned the importance of never returning his key card from WBEZ, the radio station where he had been working, which allowed him to pick up freelance work in radio and writing.
• He put in his notice and took out a loan from his parents to pursue his dream of becoming a freelance writer.
• After a year and a half of freelancing, he was offered a job at This American Life, which he initially declined.
• He eventually accepted the job and worked there for a decade, learning how to produce documentary radio and executive producing a TV show for Showtime.
• He learned that what works for radio does not necessarily work for television, and that reality television is popular because it requires more visual information than just people talking.
• Alex Blumberg explains that creating a visual story to accompany an audio story is expensive and time consuming, and requires inventing imagery.
• Reality TV is popular because it is cheaper and viewers are hardwired to watch it.
• Alex learned from Ira Glass that a lot of the time it takes to create something excellent is just putting in the effort and going through a lot of bad ideas to get to a good one.
• Alex also picked up a commitment to excellence from Ira, and an uncomfortable comfort with crisis.
• Alex Blumberg learned that the commitment to excellence means being comfortable hurting people's feelings and having his own feelings hurt.
• Ira Glass, the editor of This American Life, never accepted a first draft and always gave specific feedback.
• Alex and his team made the mistake of trying to put up a show on Christmas and New Year's Eve, leading to burnout.
• Alex's team recorded conversations about the burnout and scripted an episode, but something about Alex saying he was on vacation put a scoldy tone on the episode.
• An employee pointed out the issue and they recrafted the beginning to give the episode a better context.
• Alex Blumberg and Tim Ferriss discussed a mistake made by Alex's company, Gimlet Media, in an episode of their podcast, Startup.
• The mistake was not informing a child and his mother that their interview was for an advertisement.
• Alex and his team had to spend a few days reworking the episode to make it work.
• Alex learned from Ira Glass that excellence is about managing time and expectations.
• Alex also learned that mistakes can be fixed and it is not the end of the world.
• Alex's feelings as a journalist have changed since becoming a target himself, and he now takes it more seriously.
• Alex Blumberg regrets not taking a more openminded approach to a story he did about standardized testing in North Carolina.
• He was a teacher and had an agenda, but wishes he had tried to understand the other side of the story.
• Alex Blumberg is now on the other side of the Twitter thing, feeling misunderstood and unable to convince people of his innocence.
• He has difficulty finding time to read due to his young children and demanding job.
• His favorite documentary is Man on Wire and his favorite book is On the Run by Alice Goffman.
• When he hears the word successful, he thinks of people like Barack Obama who have achieved outsized success, and people who have managed to carve out a nice life for themselves.
• He does not have a mentor, but found one in his job at This American Life.
• Alex Blumberg is a cofounder of a startup and admires Ira Glass from This American Life for making people excited about the mission and caring about the quality of the work.
• Tim Ferriss mentions Chris Sacca, Mike Maples Junior, and Neval Ravikant as people he admires in the startup world.
• Morgan Spurlock is someone Alex Blumberg finds fascinating in the content sphere.
• Alex Blumberg reflects on his transition from the nonprofit world to the forprofit sector and how it has been freeing.
• Alex's advice to his 20yearold self is "don't" implying to not worry and enjoy life.
• Alex Blumberg advises to not be so afraid and to be willing to fail in order to pursue what you want.
• People can find out more about Alex and his work at Gimlet Media's website.
• Tim Ferriss recommends Onnit and 99designs to his listeners.
• Alex Blumberg explains the power of narrative and how it can be used to capture people's attention.
• He uses the example of a story from This American Life to demonstrate how stories can be used to engage listeners.