What’s in My Buds? With Catherine from ‘The Moth’
This month, we chatted with Catherine Burns, longtime artistic director of The Moth. As one of the lead directors on The Moth’s MainStage for more than a decade, Catherine has helped hundreds of people craft their stories — including a Nobel Laureate, a retired New York City cop, a jaguar tracker and an exonerated prisoner. Along with Jay Allison, she is the producer of The Moth Radio Hour, and the editor of the international best seller The Moth: 50 True Stories. Here’s what she’s listening to now.
What show do you wake up to?
On my best days, I start with a very early morning workout. My constant companion is the radio show/podcast On Being, which is hosted by the ethereal Krista Tippett.
In 2010 I became a parent for the first time. Those first months are a precious time in your life, but also completely exhausting and kind of isolating. But then one morning, Krista’s voice came over my public radio station (WNYC), and I was mesmerized.
The show features interviews with physicists, novelists, musicians, you name it — all discussing the “big questions.” Why are we alive? How do we live into our questions and create a life for ourselves that is in tune with our deepest values? This was just what I needed. On the longest nights when I was up with my beloved infant son, barely staying awake and hanging on, I knew that if I could just make it until Krista’s voice came on the air, everything would be OK. I subscribed to the podcast and haven’t missed an episode since.
What show do you fall asleep to?
I adore The Memory Palace. I tend to listen to it at night when I’m getting ready for bed, trying to wind down from my day, because the host, Nate DiMeo, has a very soothing voice. Each episode takes you into a specific time in the past, as if you are a person living in that time.
I first got hooked on an episode about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. I grew up in Alabama, but have lived in New York City for nearly two decades, and I’m obsessed with stories about the city’s past. I knew a lot about the building of this iconic bridge, and honestly didn’t think there was much more I could learn. I was wrong.
Nate pulled me into the perils and challenges of that construction site in a completely fresh way. You feel like you are there, deep under the water, digging through the muck. More recent episodes cover a show lion named Leo, and what it was like to be a homesteader in the late 1800s (my now six-year-old son and I listened to that last one together, as we’re currently reading all the Little House on the Prairie books and are fascinated with that time period.)
What is your favorite listening environment?
I do much of my listening while commuting by foot and train. Like most of our artistic staff, I listen to 2-3 hours of audio a week, screening stories from The Moth’s 500+ annual live storytelling shows to determine what we’re going to put on The Moth Radio Hour and podcast. I have a 15-minute walk to the subway, and then a half hour ride to get to our office.
I love listening on the go because I figure most of our fans also listen to The Moth in this way, so if I have trouble following a story while crossing the street or transferring trains, then so will they. We sometimes call this “the laundry test”: Can you fold laundry and follow this story? It’s important because few people listen to a podcast while sitting, staring at a blank wall with fancy headphones.
What’s a podcast that doesn’t currently exist that you think should?
Hands down, one hosted by Sharon Salzberg. She’s one of the greatest meditation teachers alive. She is so wise and funny (I’ve heard people refer to her as a “sit-down comic”). She has this way of humanizing meditation and Buddhism, and making it easy to understand and put into practice. She’s one of the greatest storytellers alive (we’re working on getting her on The Moth stage). She’s also a columnist for On Being’s website. Maybe they’ll do a spin-off with her!
* Editor’s note: it turns out, Sharon does have a podcast! Take a listen.
Originally published by Maggie Taylor at blog.prx.org on June 3, 2016.
