Podcasting Stories: Finding The Universal Hooks In Specific Details

The D Brief, our podcast about the Detroit arts and entertainment scene, is patterned after commercial radio morning shows, but it aims to convey more information. We've often described it as "hipster NPR" because it sets out to inform like public radio but have the loose conversational style of commercial radio. These hasn't always been an easy balance to strike.

In the beginning, our podcast contained a lot of lists: lists of upcoming concerts, lists of upcoming plays, lists of upcoming comedy shows, etc. As we realized that audio is not the best format for conveying information this way, we shifted towards news stories. We never abandoned talking about upcoming events, but we began to place higher priority on being conversational than being comprehensive. In other words, we covered fewer events, and our criteria for selecting which events we would cover now focused how interesting a conversation it could spawn.

Initially, our show prep - checking dozens of websites to find out what was going on around town - was the most important step in the process. But over time, the rundown - in which we review our completed show prep sheets together, looking for interesting tangents to talk about - has become a key element.

For example, our show prep might unearth a new Korean restaurant opening up near the train station that Ford had just bought in the Corktown neighborhood. On its face, it's a minor story that's not of much interest to people outside of Corktown. During our show prep, we try to find a way to give this story more universal appeal. I'll spit out questions to my co-hosts to see if anything gets a strong emotional reaction:

"How do you feel about Korean food?"

They reply with apathetic muttering.

"When's the last time you went down to Corktown?"

Nobody has been recently.

"How do we feel about Ford moving in to the train station?"

My co-hosts perk up, expressing a mix of optimism and concern about what it could mean for the neighborhood. There's disagreement about whether or not it will be a good thing for the city, and I know we've found our angle.

During the rundown, we repeat this process for each news story. Sometimes, we find incredibly interesting tangents to chase. Other times, we don't, and we decide that we'll whip through a story with a straight read. But this planning often leads us to topics that we wouldn't delve into otherwise. For example, one week, the podcast My Favorite Murder was taping a live show at the Fox Theatre. None of us listen to that particular podcast, but it led us to ask each other, "What's your favorite murder?"

"Jimmy Hoffa," our guest co-host replied.

Which led us into a discussion of other famous murders that took place in Detroit.

We often look for these ways to find universal appeal - we call them "hooks" - for the opening line of a story. For example, a local celebrity chef is opening a restaurant, but he isn't a name that everybody will recognize, we'll try to find a way to "zoom out" to capture more interest. The hook might be, "Celebrity chefs are a huge thing with guys like Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, and Tom Colicchio all over television. But did you know that we've got celebrity chefs right here in Detroit?" By framing the story this way, we hopefully catch the interest of people who like television cooking shows even if they are unfamiliar with this particular chef.

Of course, some hooks and some tangents are ultimately more successful than others. But by making a conscious effort to broaden the appeal of the stories and keep them conversational, we've improved the podcast by making it more accessible.

LISTEN: Hear the latest episode of The D Brief podcast.

More Glimpses Behind the Scenes:

1. A Podcast Evolution: What Changed Over 100 Episodes
2. Lessons From Our First Live Podcast Taping
3. Using Artist IDs in Podcast Production
4. A Minute-By-Minute Look At Our Podcast Recording Process
5. Connecting with Other Local Podcasters