Ben, I'm wondering if or how gender dynamics played into that interview. Do you think he would have been as honest (or said what he said) if you were a woman? How parallel or divergent were your thoughts and what you said? Were there any moments where you weren't sure what to say next? Did you ever have doubts about the authenticity of what he was saying, even when it sounded sincere?
Sam Stern is one of the most remarkable guys I've had the fortune to meet. I first met him through his online diary (this was in the days before "blogs") jewishcheerleaders.com where he chronicled his adventures in the adult industries with huge doses of intelligence, compassion, confusion and humanity. I had known Sam for a while before we did this interview -- in fact, he worked for me collecting tape: recorded that interview with Julian Hoeber that you heard in the Uses of Fear piece -- and I think that made more of the difference in his being forthcoming (more so than gender, for example).
Last I heard from Sam, he had moved back East. I'm not sure what he's up to now, but I hope to run into him again.
The above discussion about narrative voice intrigues me. Can you talk specifically about how your narrative presence changed over the run of the show? In finding your voice, are there differences between your radio voice and your "real" voice? Or do they converge?
I think I got more comfortable in my host role. And also Queena got better at coaching me. Most of my improvement in this regard is due to her excellent direction. I think you can hear a big difference in my voicing if you listen to the first show here (about different communities in LA):
That said, my sister says the only time she's ever heard my "actual voice" on the radio is in the Deep End Dining story that Eddie Lin and I recorded at the end of the Fear show (also listed above).
Since you talk about how L.A. is the narrative ocean in which these stories swim-- do you think your production aesthetic would work effectively in other geographic regions?
I don't see why not. I'm still a big fan of this type of radio and it makes a lot of intuitive sense to me. However, I'm not sure it will ever live on public radio in any kind of ambitious or creative way. Audiences these days seem to want their radio very cut and dry -- that report that the PRPD did about local news speaks to this point. I think this will always be a very niche way of producing, for better and worse.
The only two shows I can think of that approach what I was trying to get at are the old Joe Frank shows (he played with narrative in very elegant ways, especially in his last few seasons on KCRW) and sometimes Radio Lab (although it's still unclear to me where that show will end up, production-wise, and whether it will ever reach more than a very limited (and hence, niche) distribution).
And since you mentioned that finding some of the really great stories can be a "pain in the butt"-- do you have any tales of fortuitous or particularly hard-won story ideas?
I love Queena's two interviews with Baba Funkee. And two pieces we ran in the love show (click on Sexual Healing above) -- interviews with Pamela Dewalt and Elinor Casteneda, recorded by Polly Striker -- are pretty darn amazing.
HI, I'm an old friend of Sam's from Italy. I knew him when he was self-publishing a comic book called masturbating into a sock. I'm trying to get in touch with him. Could you pass my email along for me? thank you, Paul Beel. Gecko.2@tin.it
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