43: Nadia Sirota Nadia Sirota is the host and co-creator of Meet the Composer and an acclaimed violist. “I actually feel like somebody being joyful about something in their life is wonderful. ... There's this temptation when you're in college, and definitely when you're in conservatory, to try to find the right constellation of things to hate. That will make other people think you're smart. And it's really tempting, and it's really easy, in some levels, to sort of fall into that kind of negative world. In classical music, God knows there's so much tearing down of people and of technique and of whatever. ... It's so boring, and it's fascinating to listen to people talk about stuff they love because it requires a little bit of vulnerability. And also that's the kind of excitement that brings you to love something yourself.”

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43: Nadia Sirota

Avery Trufelman is a producer of 99% Invisible and the host of Articles of Interest. “The literal battleground of interior and exterior forces in your world is what you’re wearing.”

42: Avery Trufelman

Ira Glass is the host and executive producer of This American Life. “It’s not an accident I made a radio show where I am having intimate conversations with people on tape. ... Like the only person who would go to the trouble to invent something like that is somebody who has difficulty with intimacy, you know what I mean? And I think that I totally was inventing a thing to do in conversations with people on tape that I was having so much trouble doing in real life.”

41: Ira Glass

Julie Snyder is the co-creator of Serial and S-Town. Prior to that, she was the senior producer of This American Life. "So the original conceit [of This American Life] was using the tools of journalism to [tell stories from] everyday life but then I felt like we flipped it back. ... Like why can’t we take then the same sort of narrative tools that we have, that people use to just talk ... and apply that back to things that are traditionally topical stories and news stories?"

40: Julie Snyder

Robert Smith is a correspondent for NPR's Planet Money. "I've done [radio] for 30 years. I don't want to come in and do the same story every time. Like I want things to be challenging. … And it's solely for myself. It's solely so I don't sound like a lot of NPR reporters — they've been there, they've seen it, they've done it. ... Even ones who are really good. They're just like, "I am good at this, I am doing what I always do." And so if the very least thing that comes out of [experimenting] is, "My God! That reporter sounds excited to be in a place, that reporter sounds engaged with people, that reporter feels like he or she is present, is listening," it's exciting! And so, that may be the only thing that people hear, is that — "Wow! You know, Robert seems like he really likes his job."

39: Robert Smith

Alex Blumberg is the co-founder of Gimlet Media. Prior to that he was a producer for This American Life. "A big lesson for me is that there aren't really rules. If [the radio story] is really fun, and you really love it, it's probably going to work. ... And if it doesn't, if it drags, then you should come in with script. ... In the beginning, I was always asking myself, here's this like 3 minute piece of tape in my story — and every other piece of tape had been like 30 to 45 seconds, and here's this one that's a 3 minute chunk — but I think I like it at 3 minutes. Can I do it at 3 minutes or do I have to break it up? And the answer is yeah, if it works at 3 minutes then you can do it at 3 minutes. And if it doesn't, then it doesn't. And the more that happens where I am like my whole story was a piece of teaser tape — 12 seconds of tape here, and 12 seconds of tape here — and then 5 minutes where everything happens, that's fine. If it works, it works."

38: Alex Blumberg

Lu Olkowski, an independent radio producer, is the host of CBC's Love Me. "You spend so much time with people and I just think it's so shitty to suddenly — the story airs and you — disappear. ... I think that's terrible. And I just don't want to do that."

37: Lu Olkowski

Lewis Wallace was a reporter for Marketplace. "I think our listeners and audiences are strong enough to hold that I can have a credible voice in reporting a story, and a truthful voice in reporting a story, and also have a perspective."

36: Lewis Wallace

Julia Barton is a freelance editor who edits for Revisionist History, The World, and Studio 360. She reports for Radiolab, Marketplace, 99% Invisible, and more. "If people think they might want to be an editor the first step is to pitch to places that have good editors and get edited and really pay attention to that process. ... But also the second thing is to just listen to work — work that you like and work that you don't like — and figure out how are you reacting to it. Like where am I bored? Where am I confused? Where am I checking Twitter? Alternately, why am I unable to do what I thought I was doing because the story is so damn good that I can't do anything but listen to it?"

35: Julia Barton

Mike Pesca is the host of Slate's The Gist. "There was a time when the most intelligent guy in your town was just the guy who knew the most — he knew the family genealogy, he knew facts. We've gotten away from that. The facts are there on a computer. So I think the definition of intelligence has a lot to do with synoptical connections — the ability to make connections, the ability to make analogies. So I have these conceptual scopes — I find a way to tie seemingly disparate things together. This is how my mind naturally thinks, but this is also — since I have this show I know that I have to turn out content for it — this is how I've conditioned my mind to think."

34: Mike Pesca

Sruthi Pinnamaneni is a producer at Reply All. “It’s almost like me and the other person were learning about each other. And I don’t ever think about it like oh this is what makes this person weird or this is a weird moment. It’s just like moments where a thing feels real. You hear somebody tell you something and you feel like they’re telling it for the first time, and you just can’t get that quickly. It just takes time.”

33: Sruthi Pinnamaneni

Jonathan Menjivar is a producer at This American Life. "When I started in radio I imagined myself on the radio more. But I've come to a place where it doesn't matter to me. I just want to make stuff."

32: Jonathan Menjivar

Emily Botein is the Vice President for On-Demand Content of WNYC. "I feel like as a producer, the whole goal is to have someone become more human, reveal something more personal, say something surprising. So it's your job to make an unrealistically good situation — everything has to be perfect for the host, you want the host to be super comfortable, whatever the host likes. And stupid things, from like what they want to drink, to how they want the mic positioned, to where they want to sit, to anything. It's like you want to make a heightened version of life because you're trying to create a moment. You're not just trying to go gather a story. Something is supposed to happen on the tape. So you need to do everything possible to think about what can happen, and how can you try to trigger it."

31: Emily Botein

Jessica Abel is the author of Out on the Wire. "The group edit format, while emotionally difficult, actually is an incredibly efficient tool. In an hour, two hours, you can get the intellectual work done on a piece that could take weeks without it.”

30: Jessica Abel

Tim Howard is the senior producer of Reply All. "You can do radio stories without stakes they just have to be really fun."

29: Tim Howard

A radio show about people who make radio, hosted by Mooj Zadie and Mickey Capper.

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