Two Weeks

Crow’s Lightwriter speech synthesizer. (Photo by Emily Bender)


Crow bathes with a caregiver. (Photo by Emily Bender)


Crow died of ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2007. (Photo by Emily Bender)

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A very successful radio and multi-media producer got her start at Salt. She’s worked for a major public radio program and a major newspaper conducting training and producing audio slideshows. She once told me she sat in her car and cried for a half hour before finding the courage to walk down the street and interview people for a vox pop project at Salt.

Fear runs rampant in the early weeks at Salt. Students fear cold-calling a source, or pulling out recording gear for a first interview, or standing like a gear-laden mannequin in a crowd collecting ambient sound .

On this edition of the Saltcast, we feature Andrea Silenzi’s Salt story “Two Weeks” — Andrea’s first ever. (Andrea is not who I’m referring to above.) The story is about Crow, a woman dying of Lou Gehrig’s Disease, or ALS. Talk about tackling a subject matter that might cause even a seasoned producer to freeze in their tracks! But even with butterflies in her stomach, Andrea crossed the fear threshold with grace to produce a stunning story of courage and the life beyond.

We’d love to hear your stories of “producer fear” and how you overcame it — or didn’t. Please post ’em here at the blog.

Cheers,

Rob


  1. One Response to “Two Weeks”

  2. By Emily on May 29, 2012

    I thought this was a really excellent piece. Can’t believe it was her first story!

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