Telling Stories Through Sound

March 13, 2018

The packed room of podcasters—current and aspiring—leaned in closer to absorb veteran radio producer Davia Nelson’s wisdom during a recent workshop, The Kitchen Sisters: Interviewing, Recording, and Podcasting. In the audience was GHELI’s Instructional Design Specialist, Nina Bhattacharya, who was awarded a scholarship from the PRX Podcast Garage to attend.  

Davia Nelson, one half of The Kitchen Sisters, led the workshop. Nelson is a Peabody Award winning independent producer who has co-created hundreds of stories for public radio about the “lives, histories, art, and rituals of people who have shaped our diverse cultural heritage.” During the workshop, Nelson shared best practices for recording interviews, testing out equipment, developing rapport with interview subjects, and using archival audio.

“The Kitchen Sisters are known for their sonically rich radio documentaries, which creatively and carefully weave archival audio, interview, and music to bring unexpected stories to life,” said Bhattacharya. Outside of her work at GHELI, Bhattacharya co-hosts the podcast Almirah Radio Hour. She hopes to leverage insights from the workshop for a personal, oral history project on the 1947 Partition, as well as creative, audio-based teaching tools and products for GHELI.