We recently connected with Nina Porzucki and have shared our conversation below.
Nina, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
Before I became an audio producer I fell in love with radio and podcasts. I listened to everything including a lot of audio stories by greats like Dave Isay, Joe Richman, the Kitchen Sisters, Scott Carrier, and the legend, Studs Terkel. I listened A LOT. I think tuning my ears was crucial to understanding the medium and the first step on a long path towards becoming an audio maker.
Ira Glass famously says, “All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But it’s like there is this gap. For the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good. It’s not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not that good. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you. A lot of people never get past that phase. They quit.”
This is so true. I have made (and continue to make) things that don’t meet up to my aesthetic taste. However, the more that I make the closer I get to finally making something that I really love, something that seems worthy of my many radio idols. I don’t think you can speed up the process. I think you just have to do the work and keep doing the work. That’s not a very sexy answer but it’s what I’ve found to be true.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m an audio producer based in Cambridge, MA. Today I work as a freelancer producing audio stories for radio and podcasts. I produce everything from interview shows to narrative non-fiction to fiction podcasts. I got my start traveling across the US in an Airstream trailer recording oral histories for the Library of Congress with StoryCorps. I was privileged to listen to a lot of stories and I learned from some of the best audio producers at StoryCorps how to edit these stories for broadcast on NPR. It was a crash course in the art of the interview and how to listen for good tape. On the road I had a lot of time to listen to things. And on a whim, I emailed Patrick Cox the host of one of my favorite podcasts, The World in Words. He was making a really rich, narrative podcast about language. I emailed as a fan to give him a suggestion for a segment of the podcast about untranslatable words. Unbelievably he took the time to write me back and suggested that I do the story. He didn’t promise to air anything but he promised that he’d listen to whatever I produced. And so I did. My first audio piece was about the Yiddish word, “dafka.” He thought it was good enough to put it on his show. And from there I just kept pitching and making things for Patrick and other radio shows. Years later I actually co-hosted The World in Words (now re-named Subtitle) with Patrick. It was fundamental to my development as a maker and audio journalist. I have gone on to work on so many projects that I love.
Most recently, I’m excited that a pilot for a fiction podcast I conceived of during COVID and then bootstrapped together was an “official selection” at the 2024 Tribeca Film (& Audio Storytelling) Festival. It’s called Bird Talk and it’s a fictional interview show with birds.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I suppose I’m driven by curiosity and the desire to entertain myself. If I’m not learning or having fun or both then I am off-mission. Oh, and most importantly if something scares me then I often push myself to say, yes.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
A few years ago, I quit a good job. I was managing podcast production at a big public radio station. And while I really enjoyed the people and the content I felt myself getting farther and farther away from the actual making of the work. I made a big decision to leave and try my hand at freelance producing. I wanted to create again. It’s not always easy and certainly it can be feast or famine as a freelancer but I feel happier in my day-to-day. I’ve gotten back to making things and that feels good.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.porzucki.com
- Instagram: @porzucki
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-porzucki-03553b7/
- Twitter: @porzucki
