Raise your hand to host a listening party on Thursday, June 16 with a sneak peek of episode one of Invisibilia’s new season! RSVP here.
Have you heard? INVISIBILIA IS COMING BACK!
We’re stoked, of course, because we love the show. But we’re extra excited because it’s one of our favorite programs for listening parties.
The way Alix, Lulu and (now) Hanna tell stories is captivating. Their discoveries and insights offer unique windows into unexpected parts of the human experience. They go deep and don’t shy away from the juicy stuff.
Which makes Invisibilia perfect for sparking thoughtful conversations.
And so for the launch of season 2, we dream to spark thoughtful conversations across the whole country in ONE SINGLE NATIONAL LISTENING EVENT!
We’re looking for listeners like YOU to raise your hand and host an Invisibilia Listening Party on Thursday, June 16. That’s one day before the show officially drops, meaning you get an exclusive sneak peek of Invisibilia.
Nothing captures the spirit of summer quite like a road trip with great friends. That sense of adventure and possibility makes you feel alive as you explore the world around you and see things through fresh eyes.
We were lucky enough to kick off our summer this year with a 3,000-mile road trip from NPR West in LA to NPR HQ in Washington DC. We’re excited to share some of our favorite scenes from our nine-city Listening Tour — and introduce you to the amazing people we met at NPR Member Stations and cites across the American South.
We were, and continue to be, moved by the stories we heard — and inspired by the power of really, truly listening to other people.
To everyone we met along the way: We can’t thank you enough for following along as we went city to city, coming to our Listening Parties with open minds and hearts, hosting us in your homes, and showing us your cities. You changed us, and we can only hope we changed you a little bit, too.
Our mission to spread the power of listening doesn’t end here. We hope you pick a story and grab some friends to host your own Listening Party. Here’s how. And make sure to tag your posts and grams #whylisten #listeningparty so we can find you and so we can all feel a little more connected through great storytelling. We’ll repost our favorites every Why Listen Wednesday.
We’re off to keep scheming our next adventure. More on that soon. ;)
Idea: take a break from TV for a bit, grab some friends and gather around a radio (and yes, it can be the radio that fits in your pocket, too). Because, what’s better than listening to an amazing, thoughtful story? Listening to an amazing, thoughtful story with friends!
That’s what we did at NPR West to celebrate the launch of NPR’s newest show, Invisibilia. The podcast explores the intangible forces that shape human behavior - things like ideas, beliefs, assumptions, and emotions.
We loved this chill listening session, taking in the story how it used to be done: sitting together around a radio. (Although, full disclosure, it took us a minute to figure out where to look with no screen in sight!). It was so nice to be still for a while, and then have real live humans to talk through our ideas with afterwards.
Intrigued? Pick a podcast and grab some friends! We highly recommend it.
What an experience. Last night we had our third listening party on the Listening Tour in a hidden garden on William Faulkner’s historic Rowan Oak property in Oxford, MS.
Tucked away in the trees, we listened to an episode of nprinvisibilia on the psychology of categories. Invisibilia hosts, Alix Spiegel and Lulu Miller presented an intimate story about gender flipping and fluidity.
Why as humans do we inherently want to categorize everything we see? Boy or girl, dog or cat, black or white, gay or straight. The categories that we all strive to fit into are innately human, yet often times punishing. It was so awesome hearing the diverse quilt of perspectives that y'all shared with such openness and vulnerability.
The Mississippians that we’ve been blessed to meet so far have been refreshingly hospitable, direct, and real in what they share. As one of our guests said, “People like to actually listen to people here. That’s what I like about Oxford."
As a group we questioned whether a pervasive sense of love in the world could inspire the elimination of categories. We talked about how when someone has been searching their whole life for their true identity, it feels good to finally “check a box” in the list of socially accepted categories. This seemed sad, but real. We unearthed that both Hemingway and Faulkner had grandsons that ultimately transitioned into becoming women, and reflected on the public position that Bruce Jenner has now taken on.
Ultimately, we talked about how great it feels to be wrong about something. To have your assumptions and judgements shattered. About people. About what it’s like to live in Mississippi. About how to raise your kids.
We can’t wait to hear about the listening parties that each of you will host in the future on your own, and we hope you’ll bring those five people that wouldn’t normally choose to listen to stories that challenge their view points.
Thank you for all of your help Erin, Bill and Rebecca. We’re more inspired than ever.
On Tuesday night, Texas Public Radioofficially kicked off Worth Repeating, a celebration of San Antonio, its people, and their stories. Hosted downtown at the Geekdom Events Center, the evening featured seven local San Antonians telling true, seven-minute stories.
The theme was “I’m Going to Go Back There Someday.” We heard a huge variety of stories, ranging from being interrogated by the Syrian intelligence to someone else learning to love running. Martine told us about moving to a foreign country while trying to manage Lupus. Drew and Victor recounted near death experiences. Each story described a poignant, life-altering experience that changed the storytellers’ perspectives on travel, health, politics, life, or family. We got to hear about these momentous moments in our neighbors’ lives and travel with them to Antarctica, India, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and back home to SA. You can listen to the stories on SoundCloud here.
And when we weren’t hearing amazing stories, local musician Stephen Brady Dietert treated us to some awesome acoustic guitar tunes.
The evening was a great opportunity to meet listeners, the behind-the-scenes public radio magicians, and new friends with the best stories in Alamo City. Free drinks and delicious food was just another perk.
Thanks to everyone who came out for our series’ pilot event! We can’t wait to do it again on November 3rd. The theme for that night is going to be “On The Street Where I Live.”
Make sure to follow us on Twitterand Instagram for up-to-date info on other upcoming events.
Folks on both sides of the aisle agree: The Iowa Caucuses are a big deal in the presidential election process. So we’re thrilled to announce that we’re heading to Des Moines with NPR’s David Greene, who will host Morning Edition LIVE in Iowa from Smokey Row Coffee during the caucuses. That’s right: we’re hosting two MEGA LISTENING PARTIES, live from Iowa, and we hope that YOU come join the excitement and become a part of the most listened-to weekday show in the country.
Politics nerds everywhere have been counting down the days to this major milestone in the 2016 presidential race. You may be wondering: Why are the Iowa caucuses first, why are they important, and why are they called caucuses? NPR’s own Sam Sanders went to Iowa recently to break it down.
You can learn even more starting at 4am on February 1 and February 2 (yes, AM - which is why we’ll have free coffee from 4-6am). Get the chance to meet David and the NPR Politics team, participate in a Q&A, and feed your curiosity – all while seeing live radio made for broadcast and connecting with new friends as part of NPR Generation Listen’s community of curious citizens.
Mon, 2/1 and Tues, 2/ 2 Smokey Row Coffee 1910 Cottage Grove Des Moines, IA
4am – 6am: Free Coffee and first run of Morning Edition 6am – 8 am: The main event! Watch a live recording of Morning Edition with David Greene and NPR Generation Listen 8am – 11am: Have a chance to meet David Greene and hang with other guests
The Listening Parties are open to the public on a first come, first serve basis so get there early and let us know you’re coming here.
We want to pack Smokey Row with great people so make sure to share the Facebook invite with your friends in Iowa! Not from Des Moines? See who’s down for a road trip. We have a Gen Listen crew coming up from Kansas City already. Drop us a note if you want to sync up with them. GenListen@Npr.org.
Welcome to #FollowFriday: Public Radio Edition. On select Fridays, we’ll introduce you to rad young radio makers at NPR and from public radio stations across the country. They’ll share work they’re excited about, insights into how they got their start, and who they are when they’re not on the mic.
Our first feature is Laine Kaplan-Levenson of WWNO in New Orleans. She founded the Big Easy’s local storytelling event, Bring Your Own, and is now producing and hosting WWNO’s first long-form podcast, TriPod. We caught up with her to get the scoop (and hope some of her contagious joy would rub off on us).
Name: Laine Kaplan-Levenson Age: 28 Hometown: Larchmont, NY Current City: New Orleans Station: WWNO Role: Producer and Host of Documentary series ‘Tripod: New Orleans at 300’
Laine: Who are you? Tell us a story that captures you as a person.
I lived in Staten Island, NY until I was five, where most of my neighbors and the kids I went to nursery school with were Italian. I didn’t talk for the first two years of my life, or have any hair. My fellow toddlers thought I was an alien. So did my parents, who were actually slightly concerned. When I finally did start talking, still without any hairs on my head, I spoke with an Italian accent, saying my ABCs ‘Ay-uh, Bee-uh, Cee-uh, Dee-uh…’. My mom always tells me about this one time, I had just started saying a few words (mostly ‘I dunno’), and we had to take my older sister to ballet class. I was playing by myself, something I was very happy to do, undisturbed, all day long. My mom came and scooped me up into her arms, taking me from my Little Tikes kitchen set, and said ‘Laine, we have to take Sara to dance now!’. And her two year old daughter looked at her and said, ‘You’s-a-bad-a-mama’. I eventually lost the accent, but not the love for seafood fra diavolo and eggplant parm.
Tell us about your new podcast!
Tripod: New Orleans at 300 launched in October of 2015, and we just released our 10th episode. The three-year project is WWNO’s first long-running podcast and will lead up to the city’s tricentennial (hence the name). What I love about the idea is that instead of doing a typical, PBS-style, one or two-hour documentary, we’ve designed a series to put out weekly episodes that tell the history of New Orleans, one story at a time. The episodes are made for broadcast, and air Thursday mornings, but are also available as a podcast on iTunes, which has been a great way to expand the reach of the audience.
We’re working with the Historical New Orleans Collection and the Midlo Center at the University of New Orleans, who are content advisors and liaisons; I have an editorial committee that has been amazing at helping brainstorm episode topics (there’s a lot to cover in 300 years of history) and connecting me to people who can speak on the stuff. They fact check my scripts, and then I do a traditional radio editor with my news director, Eve Troeh.
The process has more steps than what I was used to, coming from producing and reporting news, but I am thrilled to be making documentaries now. It allows me to bring more of myself into the show’s voice, and be more creative in style and tone with story structure, mixing in music, etc. And to have support from a team of advisors, as well as from the station, has been invaluable in the experience so far. And making content like this is really gratifying when working in a smaller market- a podcast coming from a local station really lets listeners engage with the producers and staff, share thoughts, and contribute to the development of the product they consume. I look forward to discovering, along with the audience, what TriPod becomes.
How did you end up becoming a media maker and was the very first radio piece you made?
I always knew I wanted to be a ‘producer’ even though I didn’t know what that meant, because it means everything and nothing. I’d say the first piece of radio I made was during my senior year of high school. The year prior I became obsessed with Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ (‘how weary and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world’). And so a year later, my business-savvy friend and I decided if we made a study guide for the play, we could sell it to the juniors- like a hyperlocal cliff notes. I then realized that it would be way sexier to make a book on tape, because high schoolers don’t want to read, but if they could listen…so we came up with Hamlet: Book On Tape, also known as ‘H-BOT’. I held auditions, where members of my graduating class tried out for the various roles; the only ones that were already taken were Hamlet, played by me, obviously, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, both played by my business-savvy friend). We made our selections, and then actually recorded the play onto a cassette. I never made the next step of mass producing the audio, aka we made no money, but boy do I still have that tape.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to get into radio?
If you want to get into radio, I think the best thing is to avoid trying to figure out what ‘being good at radio’ means, and just focus on getting to know yourself, and being as comfortable in your own skin as possible. The more comfortable and relaxed you are, the more at ease your interviewee will be, which will lead to the type of conversation you want to have. You can’t make good radio without good tape, and you can’t get good tape without real, raw, expression. It sounds counterintuitive, but learning how to be natural is truly the most important skill in radio, both when engaging with someone else, and when you’re alone with your mic. This is fortunate, because this ‘professional advice’ will also make you a happier person!
What is something you love to do that has nothing to do with your job?
Over the past year, I’ve been really into lying on the floor. I’ll use a yoga mat, but I don’t do yoga. I just lie on the floor. On my back. Sometimes I listen to music, or talk on the phone, or do nothing. But it’s the best. Better than lying in bed, if you can even imagine. I love it because it feels more restorative than anything else I can do for my body- I love running and swimming, too, but there’s a sense of calm and control when lowering yourself, seeing the dust under your dresser, and knowing there’s only so much one can expect you to do when in that position. It’s compromising and safe at the same time. Sometimes I do good thinking when I lie on the floor, and sometimes I go completely blank. Which is ideal.
What are you reading / listening to right now?
Right now I’m reading “How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America” by Kiese Laymon, an amazing collection of essays. I’ve been listening to a lot of Joey Bada$$, Hop Along, Eddie Kendricks, and ‘The Things I Say’ off Joanna Newsom’s new Divers.
Where can people get into contact with you?
Believe it or not, I have an email address! Feel free to use it: laine@wwno.org. I’m also on twitter: @lainekaplev. And I run a live storytelling event and podcast called Bring Your Own- you can get in touch at bringyourownstories@gmail.com
Tonight, the Gen Listen crew gets hooked up with early access to the episode to play at over 200 Listening Parties across the country. That’s the full premiere episode, a day before the podcast drops.
Check out #NPRListeningParty to see how people get creative.
Feeling the FOMO? Don’t worry. You can still host a party using our kit, which comes out tomorrow and includes tons of goodies.
Including a music playlist curated by Invisibilia’s very own Lulu Miller, snack ideas from the Invisibilia hosts, discussion starters and tips from Hanna Rosin, coloring pages and more!
On June 16, NPR fans will come together to celebrate the return of Invisibilia with listening parties at Member stations, in living rooms, and other intimate spaces across the country.
Our DIY kit makes it super easy to invite some friends over and host your own listening party.
Or, you can join in on the fun by attending a Listening Party hosted by your local Member station! Head over to your station’s web site for more info.
Dr. Kevin Olival from EcoHealth Alliance (left) and NPR’s science correspondent Michaeleen Doucleff lead our NYC discussion on pandemics.
Over 30 listeners filled a rooftop terrace blocks from Central Park to listen to reporting from Goats & Soda.
As the sun started to set, our group walked over to Central Park to observe some local bats.
Dr. Olival brought two bat detectors that allowed us to listen to, record, and even identify bat species by their echolocation calls.
Success! We found bats right as we entered Central Park.
We detected multiple bat species using the echolocation app.
We walked over to the bridge near W. 77th, which is known for bats.
The Manhattan skyline lit up the sky as Central Park grew dark and we wrapped our immersive experience.
photos: @hopeleigh
Did you know there are bats living in Central Park?! Neither did we, until Dr. Kevin Olival from the EcoHealth Alliance mentioned NYC as a cool place for an immersive Listening Party a few months back when we started designing this project.
You may recognize his name from Michaeleen Doucleff’s reporting on pandemics from Borneo. He’s the voice of the virus hunter who guides her and senior producer Jane Greenhalgh through the rainforest, where he and his team work to identify new viruses in bats.
Yesterday, he joined us on a rooftop terrace on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, just a few blocks from an area of Central Park known for bats. Our group of 30 has gathered for a listening session and discussion around two of Michaeleen’s stories: one about the rainforest in Borneo and one about the Gomantong Cave, also in Borneo, which is full of bats.
The group was engaged and curious, full of questions about the practical applications of Olival’s research and ideas about future pandemic prevention.
When the sun started to drop over the horizon, it was time to go look for bats. As we entered Central Park, Olival pulls two bat detection tools from his backpack: one that attaches to his cellphone and one that stands alone. He turns them on and BAM - immediately we pick up the sounds of bats! The device connected to his phone has the ability to record and identity the bat calls. We hear and see big brown bats as well as hoary bats. And we’re not even at the bridge at W. 77th known for bat sightings yet!
Olival guided us through the park to the lake, where he answered people’s bat questions and busted bat myths (they are NOT blind, they actually have great vision). We wrapped the evening with a newfound awe for bats and a continued curiosity around the ways humans interact with the animals all around us.
Budding bat enthusiasts, follow Kevin Olival at @nycbat on twitter for the latest on bats in NYC and beyond.
