Sound Judgment
Elaine Appleton Grant
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How to Make Listeners Breathless for More with Wild Boys' Sam Mullins
When Sam Mullins was growing up in a small, almost utopian Canadian town, two boys appeared one summer as if from nowhere. They said they'd been raised in the woods, which accounted for why they were so...strange. And skinny. And would only eat fruit, and seemed to have only the ragged clothes on their backs. Sam was a teenager when a scandal exploded around the boys...and he remembered it 20 years later, when as a struggling — maybe failed — actor and writer, he was searching for a podcast to make and a mystery to unravel. On the basis of a cold email pitch from a novice podcaster, Sam's story became the acclaimed, award-winning Campside Media series Chameleon: Wild Boys. You'll learn from Sam the kinds of questions he asked multiple sources; how he convinced a reluctant protagonist to talk with him; why he didn't take the existing reporting at face value; how he uses language expertly to evoke characters and places; the critical role of the editor-writer relationship; and how to structure a series not just for plot but for momentum, emotional affect on the listener, and always for a bigger vision. And you'll learn what it means to ask, "But what is this story about, about?" The charming Sam Mullins is a gold mine of information and inspiration for any storyteller — in audio and beyond. A word of caution: There is a brief mention of suicide in this episode. Please use care while listening.
![[Bonus] Introducing Sound School Podcast: Tracking Partners](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts211/v4/d7/73/45/d77345b2-4678-b465-e6af-b1b0cac6cb1c/mza_11907346235826453168.jpg/160x160bb.jpg)
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