I wanted to explore texture further after this week. It strikes me, like many things in this course, that you have to immerse yourself to properly understand and learn – reading and conversation only goes so far.

With this in mind, I listened to my favourite podcast episode of all time to hear what the team at 99% Invisible use to create texture. I don’t love this particular episode because it has a fascinating topic or includes brilliant & captivating characters; I love it because it demonstrates the power of radio. At the end of 20-odd minutes, you realise you listened for 20-odd minutes to the story of reinforced concrete. And you enjoyed it. I took a closer look at ‘Rebar and the Alvord Lake Bridge’ to see what kind of techniques it uses to stay captivating. You can listen here.

Music
Background music is used to set the tone for the speakers and their place in the story arc. When the ‘villain’ of the piece (time and poor upkeep combined) is introduced, for example, the atmosphere of the music shifts to be more ominous.

Location & style
A variety of voice recordings are made. Roman Mars narrates from within the studio and then moves out into the field or onto the phone to interview experts.

Rhythm 
There’s a distinct rhythm between the studio and field records, narration and interview. The situation is introduced from the studio, then the listener is taken on-site; the audio moves between the two to provide exposition and context for what’s being said in on location.

Humanisation
I don’t know if it’s specifically texture but I noticed that anecdotes – both personal (and semi-irrelevant) and from history – are used to frame a dry and impersonal topic in a human light.