Sound Judgment Bone Valley: How to Create a True Crime Podcast That Makes a Difference
If you like this episode, you’ll also like Episode 3:
Cinematic Storytelling with Crime Show’s Emma Courtland
and Episode 1: Emotional Bravery on Last Day with Stephanie Wittels Wachs.
Scroll down for takeaways you can use from today’s show.
About the creators
Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker are the team behind Bone Valley, a groundbreaking, 9-episode true crime podcast from Lava For Good. The series explores the case of Leo Schofield, a man convicted of murder in a gross miscarriage of justice. King, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Devil in the Grove, and Decker, a producer with a background in sociology and oral history, came together in a four-year quest to peel back the layers of Schofield’s case, uncovering startling new evidence and chilling confessions that are a call to action for long-awaited justice and redemption.
Takeaways from Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker
1. Does your idea need to be told in audio? Bone Valley did.
As storytellers, we have many formats to choose from. So how do you know when your idea is well-suited to audio, versus a book, a film, or a video? As an author, King’s first instinct was to write a longform article about Leo Schofield’s case. But as soon as he and Decker talked with Leo, they realized that the story begged for audio. “The power of their voices made us pivot,” King says. “I don't think they would have been the same in print. I love the way their voices break and crackle and emote.”
2. Start with a sound vision
Second, you may have noticed that King and Decker had a pretty clear “sound vision” for Bone Valley. I always remember producer John Barth saying, in episode 2, “You have to have a distinctive sound vision.” When he develops a new show, he imagines the kind of listener he wants to attract. That determines what the show needs to sound like. In Bone Valley, the two producers made sure to simply lay out fact after fact, so the listener couldn’t escape the conclusion or emotion. They used both sound design and language to create a work of narrative nonfiction and made sure not to sensationalize or cheapen the story. Furthermore, Decker could hear how the narration should sound in her head. She and other producers directed King to voice the narration to match that sound. And sound designer Britt Spangler attended story conferences – and helped shape the scripts from the start.
3. Podcasts are a team sport
Gilbert King won a Pulitzer for his book Devil in the Grove. So you might imagine he had nothing else to learn as a writer. But he’d never done a podcast before. His early drafts were written for the page, with too much narration, and quotes, which don’t work in audio. When he and Decker hooked up with the production company Lava for Good, he learned from their producers how to write for the ear.
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Connect with Gilbert King
Connect with Kelsey Decker
The episode discussed on today’s Sound Judgment:
Bone Valley, Episode 5: Bam Bam
A note about Sound Judgment: We believe that no podcast host does good work alone. All hosts rely on their producers, the hidden hands that enable a host to shine. We strive to give credit to every podcast producer whenever it’s possible to do so.
Bone Valley’s team is:
Executive Producer Kevin Wortis
Producers Kara Kornhaber and Britt Spangler
Sound designer Britt Spangler
Story editor Ruxandra Guidi
Bone Valley is produced by Lava for Good.
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Credits
Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC.
Host: Elaine Appleton Grant
Project Manager: Tina Bassir
Sound Design and Audio Editing: Andrew Parrella
Illustrator: Sarah Edgell
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Credits
Sound Judgment is a production of Podcast Allies, LLC.
Host: Elaine Appleton Grant
Podcast Manager: Tina Bassir
Production Manager: Andrew Parrella
Audio Engineer: Kevin Kline
Production Assistant: Audrey Nelson