Colin Marshall has worked in both public and commercial radio, both musical and verbal, for years. His weekly radio interview show/podcast, The Marketplace of Ideas, specializes in interviews of fascinating guests from many walks of life. In his own words, “The Marketplace of Ideas is a radio show and podcast about books, culture, commerce and fascinating concepts.”
I recently discovered the Marketplace of Ideas podcast and it’s now a mainstay on my iPod.
Colin recently took some time to answer some questions for us as a part of the Thoughts From series. Have a read!
In one paragraph or less how would you describe The Marketplace of Ideas?
The official “slogan” calls it a public radio program about “books, commerce, culture and fascinating concepts.” You’ll notice that’s a pretty open mandate. After some discussions I’ve been having lately, I’ve come to think of it more as a show about ideas and the people behind them. In purer terms, it’s a weekly broadcast and podcast featuring an in-depth 55-minute-ish interview with some sort of creator: writer, filmmaker, musician, artist, broadcaster, blogger, what have you.
How did The Marketplace of Ideas get started?
I got hooked on watching Charlie Rose’s interviews in high school, but dropped television entirely when I got to college. One winter, I found myself briefly living in some internetless house in the middle of nowhere, but my room did have a TV. I flipped it on and caught Charlie’s interview with Brian Grazer. Immediately re-absorbed, I suddenly knew, on a visceral level, that I could and should interview, do it in the same long form, and do it with the same flavor of aesthetic minimalism.
Happening upon Jesse Thorn’s public radio program and podcast The Sound of Young America about a year later, I assumed that I, too, could have my interview program with only a reasonable level of hassle. I bought some space from the same hosting service Jesse used, re-applied for a time slot on a local public radio station I used to spin music on, and hit a few of my favorite bloggers up for their time and conversational acumen. This got the train out of the station, and my production M.O. has remained just about the same since.
How do you select the various individuals that you’ll be interviewing?
It’s a mix of those who have recently done something I find interesting, those I find interesting and have been keeping my eye on, and those who have been out-of-the-blue recommended to me. The majority of the time, a book, film or other production catches my eye and I track down its creator. The rest of the time, someone drops a certain person’s name (or I hear that name often enough, fro a variety or sources) and I’m moved to see if they have something out to promote.
Does any interview material wind up on the “cutting room floor” i.e. are there any unused bits that don’t appear in your interviews?
Nah. If I were to start cutting, I’d run the risk of undermining what I consider to be the show’s very purpose: serving up long-form interviews with the flow of actual, real-life conversations. I do cut out “umm”s if they’re numerous enough to become distracting, and of course I smooth out the most serious stumbles or technical glitches. But as far as real content, it’s all in there.
As a Toastmaster, one thing I’ve been taught is to eliminate “crutch words” from my public speaking:the aahs, the ums, and so on. One thing I’ve noticed with a number of radio personalities is that there are occasionally some prominent “crutch words”, as well as pauses, used in some of the interviews and some of the other on-air segments. I’ve often wondered if those are done on purpose as part of a vocal style. Can you confirm if this is the case and why on air personalities would use these “crutch words” in recorded audio segments?
I can confirm that the guys I’ve worked with in various radio jobs have talked about “crutch words” and how they all had to get over their reliance on them. I suppose we do all have tics. I don’t use very many “umm”s, etc., on the radio, but then again, I don’t use them much in real life, either.
The only crutch of mine that I can readily point to is how I start so many questions with the word “now,” or by verblessly invoking “the idea of x” or “the notion of y.” These seem pretty harmless to me, but I’d rather I didn’t cause them to lose what meaning they still have by repetition. I think they develop like a hitch in one’s otherwise serviceable golf swing: you could iron it out, but it’s basically “worked” for so long as-is that the ironing gets de-prioritized.
Looking at your international competition for a moment, are there any particular PRI, NPR, BBC, ABC, CBC, etc. radio shows or podcasts that you particularly enjoy? If so, can you elaborate on what makes those programs special to you?
Jesse Thorn’s aforementioned The Sound of Young America, distributed by PRI, should get first billing here. Jesse’s interviews have the rhythm, range and casual feel of the best non-mediated conversations. I routinely give him a hard time about how they’re too short, but he also gets a hard time on the other side from program directors who think they’re too long. Between a rock and a hard place, that man is.
BBC Radio 4′s In Our Time, hosted by the House of Lords’ one and only Melvyn Bragg, has been one of my very favorite programs since it began podcasting. Brag leads a weekly discussion of three experts, usually all academics, about a different unfailingly interesting subject each time: Edmund Burke, the vacuum of space, Kierkegaard, pastoral literature, Roman Britain. I don’t know why the show isn’t better known, since it’s one of the best things you can listen to.
Entitled Opinions (About Life and Literature), which airs on Stanford’s station KZSU, is something of a cross between the two programs above: super-fascinating topics — Proust, mimetic desire, 1910, Borges, the inflationary universe — covered in one-on-one conversations. The host, a professor of Italian literature names Robert Harrison (whom I actually interviewed on MOI last year), has the ideal voice and personality for this sort of forum.
What’s the best part of interviewing people on the radio?
Getting to connect with people I admire and converse directly with them for an hour a week is a rare privilege indeed. This answer may seems obvious, so I’ll specify that the best part of that is the challenge of asking these luminaries questions that will surprise them, that will make them consider their own works or lives from a newish angle. From the sound of it, they’re often as appreciative of this as I am. (It’s shockingly common how often, after we’re done recording, a guest will express surprise: “You actually read my book!”)
Are there any parts of interviewing which aren’t so much fun?
Oh, the buildup to the conversation itself, when I go over my own insecurities about whether I’ve done enough research and preparation. This always happens, since there’s an infinite amount of background to go into: you read the guest’s books, then the books that influenced those books, then the guest’s previous interviews, then everything mentioned in those interviews, and so on.
The fears are always totally unfounded, since I gather by now that most radio interviewers do their preparation, if they do any, with half of the book’s press release and whatever they’ve gleaned from the back of sugar packets. The standard excuse for this is that it’s really hard to familiarize yourself with all the relevant source material if you’re interviewing on a daily basis, but I’d say that indicates a flaw in the basis of your project — i.e., “interviewing” so many people — not in my expectations.
What would you do if you lost your ability to speak?
I suppose I’m well placed if fate were to pull an Ebert on me, since broadcasting is only one of my four primary pursuits. Sans voice, I could still make movies, could still work with sound art, could still write. (Certainly, loss of voice didn’t slow down Ebert’s pen; in fact, it seems to have sped way up, presumably through the miracle of overcompensation.) I’d double down on all that and probably be fine.
Any final thoughts for our readers?
When you make your own thing, try not to neglect building some promotional skills. I feel as if I’ve somehow “forgotten” to promote MOI, and now I’m sort of scratching my head about how to take it to the next level of listenership. But at least I know I’m making a product I genuinely believe is good. There are broadcasters with millions of listeners who can’t say the same.
