The place was packed out and when Ira took the stage it was dark. “Well, it is radio so there is no need to see my face. It’s just you and me.” After some humor about the uniqueness of radio the house lights came up.

The first really important thing he said to me was that if you are going to do any type of storytelling you need a sense of fun, and that was the one thing they did not teach in journalism classes or writing classes. Then he led us through a series of This American Life stories and gave us further insight as to how they “happened” and what made them interesting or compelling to tell.

He revealed that in college he enjoyed the teacher that taught him not just to analyze plot, but what compelled him to keep reading until the end of the article or story. For him the answer was action, action, action, a twist and a point.

His best example was a story about dads at the Bronx Zoo with sons and daughters that they only get to see once a week due to divorce. The dads talk to their children through the animals: “Oh, see the mommy bear being mean to the daddy bear? I don’t know why she is hitting him, but I know he is not happy.” None of the animals at the Bronx Zoo seem happy on this particular Saturday. “What kind of mother bird would peck her husband on the head like that? She must want him to go away. I wonder if she will be happier if he leaves?”

And he records one more bit of action and then is on his way out of the zoo when he hears a voice coming from the girl’s bathroom. The voice repeats three times: “I love you, I love you, I love you, but I don’t know how to love you.” He thinks this is such an amazing confession he is willing to wait to see who comes out of the rest room. Finally a mother and daughter come out. They are wearing identical plaid skirts, white blouses and red ribbons in their hair and black Mary Janes on their feet. The little girl is still trying to explain things one more time to her mother as they hold hands and walk toward the exit: “I love you, I love you, I love you, but I don’t know how to love you.” And the reporter says: “And that conversation will be repeated one way or another for the rest of their lives.”

The twist at the end and revealing what he thinks this means for the mother and daughter is his own personal insight. It is his way of bringing closure to the story. He leaves us with something more to contemplate than just the funny story of a day at the zoo. He gives us a take away that will keep us thinking about the story for hours or even days.

Ira says that in radio you give the reason why you are telling the story or the point of the story from your personal view. Your main job is to create characters that listeners can identify closely with.

Lastly he spoke of the music they use to connect the story by saying: “It helps make the story seem more important as it moves the narrative along.”