Out on the Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio

As hard as it is to believe that This American Life turns 20 this fall, it's equally hard to imagine public radio without the imaginative long-form storytelling it introduced. Using another recently blossoming medium—comics—Jessica Abel goes behind the curtain with Ira Glass and his fellow audio artists (on Radiolab, Snap Judgment, Planet Money, etc.) in a way that will fascinate fans of the shows but will also enlighten anyone interested in storytelling in any form, revealing the intense planning, editing, and theoretical disagreements that produce those well-crafted vignettes. Your ears will be a lot smarter after you see this book.