Friday, Feb. 28, 2025
Promotional support is brought to you by the Power of Narrative Conference, celebrating its 26th year on the last weekend of March 28 and 29. 300-400 journalists from around the world are coming. Keynote speakers Susan Orlean, Connie Schultz, Dan Zak and Connie Chung will deliver the knowledge. Listeners of this podcast can get 15% off your enrollment fee by using the code CNF15. To learn more visit combeyond.bu.edu … and use that CNF15 code.
Become a Patron!Two pods in one day? It happened! Allegra Rosenberg (@tchotchke.bsky.social) is here to talk about her Atavist story “From Antarctica with Love“: Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s doomed journey to the South Pole captivated the world. But hidden with the legend was a story that has never been told—a love affair between two of the crew who survived.
Allegra’s work has appeared in WIRED, National Geographic, Slate, and The Atlantic. She writes about tech, fandom, media, AI, history, science, music and, of course, polar exploration.
We also hear from lead editor Jonah Ogles about his side of the table on what was one of his all-time favorite stories for The Atavist. He brings up some great points about what editors are always looking out for.
Allegra talks about how her pandemic obsession of polar exploration narratives led to this and a whole lot more.
This episode pairs well with:
Parting Shot: Renovations?
OK, so listen, though … I’ve long thought about how I can renovate the interior of this podcast. I’ve long admired how Hrishikesh Hirway of Song Exploder edits his episodes. He’s rarely on tape in the final cut. Episodes are always under 30 minutes and I think that’s a real sweet spot to get to. I’m beginning to think asking for an hour of someone’s time is rude.
I was thinking how to energize the show a bit and that might mean getting BUH-rutal with the edit. If I find myself drifting at all during the edit, gotta cut it. And I can’t “um” and “ah” my way to a tight edit. It’s gotta be the great stuff or it goes. And that’s not an insult to the guest. I’ve long thought that if you spend an hour with me, we’re going to keep most of that hour. If I speak with Isabel Wilkerson, how do I cut that down to 30 minutes from 60? You monster!
I listened to a conversation with Hanif Abdurraqib on the Song Exploder feed and it was 30 minutes and that felt like enough. I’m guessing it was close to hour of raw tape and the edit brought it down to the gold. You wouldn’t think of leaving the fat on a piece of writing and many podcasts have fat. Many of mine do despite my editing.
So I’m going to try and see what happens when I get savage with an edit. Problem is we talk about the work at hand, and we also talk about process and craft and that can get long and wordy, probably enough for two episodes. But I think I can make a tighter product that’s not as bloated, that still has what you love in a fraction of the time. That’s my goal … while also not dumbing it down to TikTok-levels of attention. We’ll see if it sticks because sometimes all I want to do is clip out the verbal ticks and move on with my day. I’d welcome your feedback. Email the show at and let me know what you think.
