Out on the Wire: an illustrated look at the world of radio

Mon, 11/23/2015 - 12:20pm by eapearce

Jessica Abel pulls off the counter intuitive—illustrating a purely auditory medium—in her new graphic novel Out on the Wire. The book goes behind the scenes at seven of today’s most popular narrative radio shows and podcasts including This American Life, The Moth, Radiolab, Planet Money, Snap Judgment, Serial and Invisibilia to show readers how the producers of these shows go from abstract ideas to the finished product that listeners hear. Narrative radio shows like the ones Out on the Wire focuses on have increased dramatically in popularity over the past few years, as smartphones and apps make it easier to listen to podcasts on the go. As a devoted podcast listener myself, I love how immersive the ones that Abel chose to focus on in this book are. It’s amazing that talk radio has risen to the level that it has! Abel was assisted by Ira Glass, of This American Life, and Jad Abumrad, of Radiolab in the creation of Out on the Wire and Glass even wrote the forward for the book. Although the book is fascinating for all readers, it’s particularly a must-read for fans of the podcasts and shows that Abel focuses on. The book is truly a novel and well-executed idea that gives readers an inside look into the world of the voices and stories that we hear every day.