Radio show story structures

Bradley Campbell drew the story structures of various public radio shows down on cocktail napkins. Here’s the structure of This American Life:

“Napkin #1” is Bradley’s drawing for This American Life, a structure Ira Glass has talked about ad infinitum: This happened. Then this happened. Then this happened. (Those are the dashes.) And then a moment of reflection, thoughts on what the events mean (the exclamation point).

The description of Radiolab is the most fun to read. That show doesn’t quite have the non-linearity of Pulp Fiction, but it’s a good example of hyperlink radio (a la hyperlink cinema). (via explore)

• audio
• Bradley Campbell
• Radiolab
• This American Life