Revisiting: Nausea and Forehead Mics - Reporting in Zero Gravity

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Looking for the backstory to great audio storytelling? You found it. I’m Rob Rosenthal and this is Sound School. A production of PRX and Transom. 

Andrew Leland just used the word “festooned” in an article he wrote for Transom. I would like to honor Andrew with “word of the day.” “Festooned.” It’s got kind of an 1850s feel to it. Like “the parlor was ‘festooned’ with spring decorations. “

In his article, Andrew says Transom dot org is “festooned” with audio storytelling resources. He’s just added to the festooning with a manifesto called “Why (and How) to Hire a Blind Producer.” 

Andrew is an audio producer himself. In 2023, he published an intriguing book about losing his sight called “The Country of the Blind.” 

And he recently thought it was high time that he put together a kind-of manual for Transom that lays out quote “what it takes to be a successful blind radio reporter – and what it takes to support one, in the classroom or the newsroom.” 

It is an essential resource with insights on blind field recording, tracking, hiring, and digital editing in a little section he labeled “Reapers without Peepers” 

Given his manifesto at Transom , and the recent Artemis II flight around the moon, I thought it would be a good time to return to an interview I had with Andrew several years ago. We talked fairly soon after he reported a story that was like no other he’d worked on. So many unusual challenges. For starters, making sure not to puke. 

Andrew – I had to take an anti-nausea drug. 

There were recording issues, too. Sometimes he used a hand-held mic. Other times, a lavalier mic in order to be hands-free.  

Andrew – It was like this little mic that I think normally you would put on a collar but because they were afraid of everybody throwing up, they taped it to my forehead. 

And then there’s the part about reporting in zero gravity. 

Andrew – I think technically it’s not zero gravity. It’s just like effectively zero gravity. But why, why, why get into that now!? Why undermine your awesome set-up which that yeah, I flew in zero gravity. Yes. I did. Unless you’re a physicist in which case no, I did not. 

Rob – (Laughing hard) I love hearing you think out loud like that. 

Andrew – I don’t know what’s wrong with my brain or mouth but that’s how they work in tandem. 

Clip 1 – A few seconds of Radiolab theme. (fades under)

Andrew’s story aired on Radiolab back in March. It’s called “The Right Stuff.” A nod to a book with the same name by Tom Wolf. Here’s the opening.  

Clip 1 – continues. Lulu and Latif introduce Andrew. We hear Andrew interviewing people in a montage. They’re “ambassadors” and they’re preparing for a flight in what’s effectively zero gravity. 

Let me take a moment to explain the ambassadors. Andrew’s story asks a big question: who gets to go to space? Only people without disabilities? Well, what about people with disabilities – people with hearing impairments. People who are blind. People in wheelchairs. Can they be included – should they be included? And what are the advantages and challenges? 

That’s what The Ambassadors hope to figure out. They’re part of a project called “Mission: Astroaccess.” They will all board a special plane designed for training and testing astronauts and as the Astroaccess website puts it, the ambassadors will “experience weightlessness and carry out lunar gravity, Martian gravity, and zero gravity observations and experiments investigating how the physical environment aboard space vessels should be modified so that all astronauts and explorers, regardless of disability on Earth, can live, work, and thrive in space.”

Andrew went on that plane to document the tests, what’s known as a parabolic flight. 

Clip 2- Andrew describes parabolic flight 

The Ambassadors will experience weightlessness fifteen times. They’re weightless, then gravity returns… weightless… gravity… weightless… gravity… this is why the anti-nausea medicine comes in handy. I mean the plane is nicknamed the “vomit comet” and there’s a place on board called a “pain cave” for people when they’re feeling sick. 

Andrew – I was talking to a friend of mine who had also been on one of those planes and I said to her “Like 98% of the time I was deeply uncomfortable.” And her reply was “Yeah, but that 2% was amazing.” 

Consider this. Andrew will be floating in the air several times. He’ll need his hands to protect himself from crashing into walls, the floor, other people. That’s why he needed to record hands-free.  But, there was more to recording than mounting a mic on his forehead. Andrew and the team at Radiolab worked with a Hollywood sound guy to get it all right. 

Here's the set-up. Mic on the head. No bluetooth, that wouldn’t work in the plane. So, the mic was wired to a very small Lectrosonics recorder – smaller than a pack of cigarettes. The recorder was strapped to Andrew’s arm. A few other people had similar set ups. 

On the ground, before take-off, the sound guy controlled the recorders using an app on his phone. He synched the recordings, set the levels, and bam, off they went. 

Clip 3 – Take off and first experience of weightlessness. 

And they’re back to gravity. 

So, yeah. Between fighting off the nausea and the recording complexities and learning to be weightless, Andrew navigated a slew of weird reporting challenges. And there was one more – participant observation. That’s what a sociologist might call it. Journalists refer to it as immersion journalism. Think of it as not just reporting by observation, but actually joining in. Understanding something by direct experience. 

Of course in this case, how could Andrew not be immersed? He was on the plane! But what makes this more of a participatory reporting trip is Andrew’s disability. He’s losing his sight.  

Andrew - I have a retinal disease called retinitis pigmentosa. 

It’s a kind of tunnel vision that gradually narrows from the outside in. Andrew was diagnosed with it as teen. At first he noticed he had trouble seeing in the dark. Then his daytime vision became impaired. Now he’s in his forties and his sight has diminished further. 

Andrew - I use a white cane walking around and I've started to listen to… my emails and web pages and stuff using a screen reader. Books, you know, I tend to listen to rather than read visually. And if I do want to read a book that's not available digitally, I'll use magnification stuff. 

Andrew told me he has “low vision.” So he can still see things. But he’s legally blind. Like when he recorded his side of our conversation, he could see the red lights on his recorder to make sure he’s recording but he goes by ear for levels.   

Andrew - I don't know for sure, like, you know, when my vision will change more. But I think it's safe to assume that like over the next ten years it will significantly change. And yeah, so I'm kind of like preparing for that and thinking about that and dealing with that.  

One of the ways he’s been making sense of what’s happening to his eyes is by reporting. Asking questions like “what constitutes disability? How does society view disability and does it need to change?” 

He’s written for the New Yorker about “protactile,” a way of communicating through touch for deaf/blind people. He had an article in the New York Times Magazine about acting blind on TV. And, of course, there’s this Radiolab story where he is  immersing himself wearing two hats – reporter and someone who is experiencing the parabolic flight with a disability.  

That dual role was helpful. He says the team at Radiolab saw the value. That Andrew could offer unique insight and maybe, maybe even have his own story arc, too, as he progresses through the reporting. Same with getting on the plane.  

Andrew - I don't think I would have gotten access if I wasn't disabled, you know, like if I hadn't been a disabled journalist who made this argument that like, you know, they had a film crew, but like for blind people, wouldn't it be better to do a radio documentary, you know, like they had a person on their staff who was, like, super stoked on that idea. And so I think that that's how I got there in the first place.

But, wearing two hats did cause confusion for participants from time to time. 

Clip 4 – Scientist couldn’t figure out if he was an ambassador or a reporter. 

Rob – I do want to get your response to something you wrote to me in an email. And here’s what you said: “Pretty much every story I’m doing these days, is tension between being a participant and observer. That is always a tension with that kind of “stunt” slash “adventure” slash “action” journalism — you’re doing the thing that your subjects are, which makes you a bit more than a fly on the wall. But I think disability complicates that, since it’s part of an identity, so it’s not just like I’m a rock-climbing journalist rock climbing with rock climbers, it’s more complicated. Complicated even more by my complicated relationship with the moving target of my own identity as disabled. 

Rob - What do you mean? 

Andrew – (laughs) Ummmm. (clears throat) 

Rob – And you’re welcome. 

Andrew – (laughs harder) Ummm… like in some ways I think what I was trying to get at when I said that to you, Rob, was that like the immersion that I was doing wasn't just about going on the plane. It was about like being the blind guy on the plane specifically and complicated more by the fact that I was like an ambiguously blind guy who was like trying to figure out what that means to be on that the plane flight in some ways and talking to the people on it helped me a little bit figure that out. One or two degrees more than I had before I got on the plane. 

Rob – How so? 

Andrew - I think… it's about how nondisabled people relate to you. You know, it's in that moment, in the very beginning, when the former astronaut says to me, like, “Oh, so you're obviously one of the ambassadors.” And, you know, and there was a lot more of it that didn't make it into the story. It was like tons of these interactions between the nondisabled people who are there to help and the disabled people… It’s something around how to negotiate unnecessary help and low expectations from people who look at a disabled person and think like, “Oh, that person is definitely going to need help and is definitely not here, just like in the normal capacity that everybody else is here.” 

Clip 5 – Another weightless moment. Andrew describes what’s happening. (fades under)

Turns out there was a narrative arc to Andrew’s experience. Initially, in the story, he’s more of an observer. You hear him describing what he’s seeing. And each time he goes weightless, he and the others become more acclimated. 

Clip 5 – Sound of people being more acclimated. 

But then, there’s a turn in the story. And Andrew’s personal connection to the experience becomes clear. 

Clip 5 – Andrew crying seeing people use their bodies in ways they haven’t been able to. He explains why he was crying to Latif and Lulu – that he’s embarrassed he cried because he was “cheering” for people overcoming/erasing their disability when he actually believes their disability should not be erased.  

Andrew says those complicated emotions are what he’s after in his reporting on disability. The issues he faces are not clear cut. 

Andrew - The thing that's exciting for me about this Radiolab story and like a lot of the other stuff I'm working on right now is that like I feel very clear about the kind of story I'm trying to make, which is that as we discuss like that, I'm in this really interesting place right now where like I can sort of pass as non-disabled, like less and less…But at the same time, I'm like, all this stuff is new to me. And so like, I'm sort of undergoing this, like, active identity transformation. And so it puts me in this cool what I think of I'm coming to think of as like a really almost privileged spot where I can sort of still be an outsider and still be like, Huh? Like, what is that about disability? You know, and ask those questions in sort of an earnest way that I think would bring a non-disabled listener into it. But then also like. Because I have. Skin in the game. Like it also gives it sort of an urgency that makes the storytelling feel really exciting and fun to me too.

That’s Andrew Leland. From an episode of Sound School produced in 2022. Remember, his manifesto “Why (and How) to Hire a Blind Producer” is on Transom.

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Heads up audio people. There is a Transom Festival on the horizon. Ira Glass, Al Letson, Erica Heilman, Jay Allison, Nichole Hill …. All those folks and many others, are coming together to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Transom. Think of it as a big radio, podcasting, audio storytelling party in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. On Cape Cod.

The Transom Festival is happening this September. The 17th – 19th to be exact. What happens at a Transom Festival? Other than watching Ira Glass compete in a Lobster Roll Eating Contest? Well, there will be listening sessions, masterclass workshops, performances, and hopefully a swim or two or three in the ocean. I recommend a dip at Nobska Beach. There’s a lighthouse and a great view of the ferry’s going back and forth to Martha’s Vineyard. 

Keep an eye peeled on Transom dot org for ticket and lodging information. Of course, I’ll keep you updated, too.
 
Genevieve Sponsler and Jay Allison probably pop anti-nausea pills every time I send them a Sound School script. Jennifer Jerrett probably does the same when she sees an email from me with all the material for the Sound School post at Transom.

PRX and Transom co-produce Sound School. I’m Rob Rosenthal. Thanks for listening. 

Rob – Here’s my next question: Can you riff out a radio poem for me right now? 

Andrew – (laughs). Ummm. The brine of Rob Rosenthal’s mind is kind-of sonic time. That dilates in the Hindenburg session of the wind. 
 
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I mean that any journalist who's doing a story where they're in doing stuff alongside their subject, like I said, like rock climbing with rock climbers or, you know, like, you know, traveling the route with the people who are going somewhere, you know, … the point of doing that is not only to observe it, but to, like, feel a little bit about what it feels like. You know, you're like “the ground was burning hot” and, you know, “the birds were attacking us.” Like, whatever. Like you're having that experience, too. And so if the goal is to put the listener or the reader or whoever, you know, give them the most vivid account and the most direct access to what that experience is like, one school of thought is that you do it yourself as well….

And then what I was saying about disability is…it's not just like that I was experiencing Zero-G, it’s like I was experiencing Zero-G as somebody with six degrees of my visual field remaining, you know?... 

So

here's the thing. I think. I think I think it's artificial when people are characters in their stories or when they when they insert themselves in this way, when those interests aren't aligned. But like in this story, it it was it was lucky in a way that like, you know, my asking the main character, Cherie, about questions about disability or questions about disabled people entering the space program and so on. Like those questions really happened to align with like my own questions about what it means to be disabled and, and, and they supported each other. Like I think it gave listeners a kind of way to connect to the story more than if I had just been like, you know, some disinterested person being like, you know, not even disinterested, but just like somebody who was more traditionally journalistically interested, you know. So I think I think when that opportunity appeared, I think that, you know, Pat Walters and the folks at Radiolab recognized it. I certainly recognized it, you know, as in my pitch. But but like, it didn't necessarily have to work out that way. But as as it did and as it started becoming clear through the reporting process, like as I'm having these conversations with Sherri, as we're listening to this tape, and it's clear that like, I'm having this thing that I'm sort of wrestling with, that that the interests of the emotional part of the story for me really did align with the kind of larger narrative about disabled people and space that we were telling. And so, yeah, it kind of made sense to develop both of those in tandem.



were just so involved and really every step of the way and kind of like checking back in at every step with that arc, you know, and, and it changed a lot over the time. But like, there was always this question of like. How is how is this journey like what we know? Where are we getting to? Where are we going? What? What does it mean? You know, are people going to be following it? And yeah, they were really rigorous about that



Thought it wasn’t going to be unpleasant. More physically taxing than he imagined. No sleep. Took anti-nausea pill. Caffeine pill side effects 

He had radiolab in mind. How could he not after listening for so many years. 

He can edit audio. PT is accessible and Reaper. They are the most used by blind people.