2.27.2014

Two Tucsons: A Gentrification Story

I should have posted this back in January, but my Latino USA piece is online. It's the first time I have produced a story expressly for a network program and worked with their editors and engineers from the first draft. The experience demanded a different type of storytelling than I'm used to and I think Two Tucsons sounds far more like an NPR story than an Aengus Anderson one, which actually makes me happy. It's fun to be challenged by other narrative forms and speak in a voice that isn't one's own. Hopefully I pulled it off. And because we all like symbolism: I recorded the story while trapped at home with the flu, rendering my voice literally, as well as figuratively, different. Whoa.

Narrative challenges aside, I'm excited to throw out the time constraints and simplification of broadcast radio and edit a few new episodes of The Conversation. The epic house-restoration project that inspired Two Tucsons is finally coming under control, yielding the free time necessary for editing. Expect the first new episode soon, ideally before March 10th, when Micah Saul and I present a critique of our typical ideas of progress at South by Southwest. Drop by and heckle us if you're going to be out there.