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Tag Archives: This American Life

The best in narrative, 2012: Storyboard’s top picks in audio, magazines, newspapers and online

December 20, 2012 – 8:34 am

Welcome to Storyboard’s first annual year-end roundup of top storytelling: 34 of our favorite pieces in audio, magazines, newspapers and online, with three of the categories guest curated by Mark Armstrong (online), Julia Barton and Julie Shapiro (audio), and Ben Montgomery, Michael Kruse and Thomas Lake (newspapers). This was a strong year for storytelling, and it was hard to choose. You’ll find pieces that [...]

By Paige Williams | Posted in #longreads, audio narratives, narrative news, what we're reading etc. | Also tagged Adrian Chen, Al Letson, Anne Hull, Barry Bearak, BBC, Ben Austen, BuzzFeed, Christopher Goffard, Dan Barry, Deadspin, Eli Saslow, Gawker, Gizmodo, Grantland, Guernica, Ira Glass, Jad Abumrad, Julia Barton, Julie Shapiro, Katherine Goldstein, Kelley Benham French, Kelly McEvers, longreads, Lu Olkowski, Mark Armstrong, Mark Collette, Matt Kallman, Matter, McKay Coppins, Michael Kruse, Mike Albo, Mike Daisey, Narratively, NPR, Paige Williams, Pat Walters, Pejk Malinovski, Radiolab, Randa Jarrar, Rob Schmitz, Rob Trucks, Robert Krulwich, SB Nation, Slate, Splitsider, Sports Illustrated, Tampa Bay Times, The Awl, The Billfold, The Classical, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, The Hairpin, the Los Angeles Times, The New Inquiry, The New York Times, The Oregonian, The Rumpus, The Verge, The Washington Post, Thomas Lake, Tom Hallman Jr. | Comments (3)

“The Power of Storytelling,” Part 3: Starlee Kine on story forms, Mike Sager on suspending disbelief and Alex Tizon on writing your own story

October 31, 2012 – 8:41 am

In Part 2 of our recap of Romania’s “Power of Storytelling” conference on narrative journalism, Pulitzer winner Jacqui Banaszynski wrote a short essay about why she and eight other North American storytellers traveled to Bucharest to talk stories before a sold-out audience of journalists. She talked about the future of storytelling. And Evan Ratliff, founder of The [...]

By Paige Williams | Posted in #longreads, narrative news | Also tagged Alex Tizon, Chris Jones, Cristian Lupsa, Decat o Revista, Esquire, Evan Ratliff, Harper's, Jacqui Banaszynski, Mike Sager, Pat Walters, Paul Tough, Radiolab, Starlee Kine, The Atavist, The Thing, Walt Harrington | Comments (0)

“The Power of Storytelling,” Part 2: Jacqui Banaszynski on the future of stories and Evan Ratliff on digital entrepreneurship

October 26, 2012 – 8:28 am

The day I left Bucharest, the International Herald-Tribune ran a front-page story about the shambles that is Romania. After three visits there in three years, I can tell you that it is, indeed, a mess. Communism is lifted and people no longer fear to speak, or to hope. But promises of political reform are broken [...]

By Paige Williams | Posted in #longreads, narrative news | Also tagged Alex Tizon, Chris Jones, Cristian Lupsa, Decat o Revista, Esquire, Evan Ratliff, Jacqui Banaszynski, Mike Sager, Pat Walters, Radiolab, Starlee Kine, The Atavist, Travis Fox, Walt Harrington | Comments (5)

“The Power of Storytelling,” Part 1: A bunch of American storytellers go to Romania…

October 25, 2012 – 9:01 am

Early this month, an all-star pack of North American storytellers flew halfway around the world, to Romania, to talk about narrative journalism. They took the stage before a sold-out audience and one by one talked about stories. They got into fear, hope, death, courage, insecurity, and a dozen other things, but above all they talked about [...]

By Paige Williams | Posted in #longreads, narrative news | Also tagged Alex Tizon, Chris Jones, Cristian Lupsa, Decat o Revista, Esquire, Evan Ratliff, Frontline PBS, Jacqui Banaszynski, Jonathan Yardley, Mike Sager, National Magazine Award, Pat Walters, Pulitzer Prize, Radiolab, Starlee Kine, The Atavist, Travis Fox, Walt Harrington | Comments (1)

Kiera Feldman on investigative narrative, trauma reporting, true believers and tricky description

June 1, 2012 – 7:31 am

In “Grace in Broken Arrow,” our newest Notable Narrative, Brooklyn-based freelancer Kiera Feldman unfurls an investigative story about child sex abuse and institutional accountability at a private evangelical Christian school outside of Tulsa, Okla. The piece ran last week in This Land, a two-year-old web/print magazine in Tulsa that’s drawing acclaim for its long-form stories and [...]

By Paige Williams | Posted in #longreads | Also tagged Alisa Solomon, Beyond the Pale, Brian Lehrer, Columbia School of Journalism, DART Center for Journalism & Trauma, Dave Cullen, David Sedaris, Esther Kaplan, GQ, Harper's, Investigative Reporters & Editors, Ira Glass, Janet Malcolm, Jeff Sharlet, JoAnn Wypijewski, Josh Kline, Kathy Dobie, Kiera Feldman, Killing the Buddha, Kristen Lombardi, Legal Affairs, Michael Mason, n+1, New York magazine, NPR, PBS, Robert Kolker, The Center for Public Integrity, The Nation, The New York Times, the Tulsa World, Third Coast International Audio Festival, This Land, Truman Capote, WNYC | Comments (0)

What we’re following: truthiness in narrative

May 17, 2012 – 8:31 am

It’s been a volatile few months for ethics in storytelling, what with the unprecedented “This American Life” retraction of monologist Mike Daisey’s Apple story, and with the unfurled furor over John D’Agata’s anti-accuracy screed in The Lifespan of a Fact. Of all the reactions to the Daisey fiasco, a couple stood out. Steve Myers and [...]

By Paige Williams | Posted in narrative news | Also tagged Craig Silverman, David Grann, David Sedaris, Hampton Sides, Hellhound on His Trail, James Fallows, John D'Agata, Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference, Mike Daisey, NPR, Poynter, Roy Peter Clark, Santaland Diaries, Steve Myers, The Atlantic, The Lifespan of a Fact, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post | Comments (1)

“Why’s this so good?” No. 8: Katherine Boo takes on the ties that bind

August 16, 2011 – 10:03 am

I only saw my great-aunt a few times – she lived far away – but in my family, she was kind of a legend. She wore purple every day, and kept a stash of matching purple toilet paper that she’d break out for company. She watched the Denver Broncos every Sunday with her old lady friends and yelled at the television [...]

By Douglas McGray | Posted in why's this so good?, words | Also tagged Alexis Madrigal, Douglas McGray, Katherine Boo, longreads, My Life Is True, New America Foundation, Pop-Up Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker | Comments (4)

“Long-form is absolutely not dead”: insights from ProPublica, “Frontline,” The New Yorker and “This American Life”

March 17, 2011 – 1:35 pm

The New School and ProPublica co-hosted a panel on long-form journalism last night at The New School’s Tishman Auditorium in New York City. David Remnick of the The New Yorker, Ira Glass of “This American Life,” Raney Aronson-Rath of “Frontline,” and Steve Engelberg of ProPublica sat down with moderator Alison Stewart (of PBS’ “Need to Know”) [...]

By Andrea Pitzer | Posted in audio narratives, images, words | Also tagged Alison Stewart, CPB, David Remnick, Frontline, Ira Glass, John McPhee, Lawrence Wright, Megan Garber, Need To Know, PBS, ProPublica, Raney Aronson-Rath, Steve Engelberg, The New Yorker | Comments (3)

The future of long-form journalism: Frontline’s Aronson-Rath and ProPublica’s Engelberg on multimedia collaboration

March 16, 2011 – 3:16 pm

It’s always “The Future of Long-form Week” here at Nieman Storyboard, but we’re excited to note that this week, some key storytellers from different media are getting together in New York to talk about long-form, well, at length. Tonight at 7.pm., ProPublica and The New School are hosting “Long-form Storytelling in a Short-Attention-Span World.” Alison Stewart, co-anchor of the [...]

By Andrea Pitzer | Posted in narrative news | Also tagged Alison Stewart, David Remnick, Frontline, Ira Glass, Lenoard Lopate Show, Need To Know, PBS, ProPublica, Raney Aronson-Rath, Steve Engelberg, The New Yorker | Comments (1)

Statistics vs. storytelling: the grudge match?

November 19, 2010 – 11:09 am

Narrative journalism has been dogged for years by the idea that it is too subjective or somehow less capable of conveying hard numbers to the public than a traditional news story. In a world where data mining and visualizations have become more fluid and accessible, it’s no surprise that the tension between numbers and narrative [...]

By Andrea Pitzer | Posted in words | Also tagged C.P. Snow, Center for Future Civic Media, Gapminder, Jay Rosen, John Allen Paulos, Los Angeles Times, Many Eyes, Megan Garber, Michael Jones, MIT Communications Forum, Nassim Taleb Media, Numbers Rule Your World, Randy Olson, Safra Center, Slate, The New York Times, Thomas Curwen, Tom Hallman, Tyler Cowen | Comments (1)