Livin' It Up With Lu Olkowski

"The best tape usually doesn't come from questions, but from some shared experience . . ."

Producer Lu Olkowski recently won a 2006 Gracie Allen Award "National - Outstanding Feature - Soft News Radio" for her piece Born Into Brothels. You can download her piece "A Painting a Day" on the PRX podcast from a couple weeks back; she's produced for Studio 360 and Weekend America, and has covered topics from tractor love to quidditch love to, well, Joe Davis. PRX curious. PRX email Lu.


Lu (right/pink) celebrates Holi the traditional way - playing with friends in New Delhi.

PRX:
What prompted the change from Nickelodeon to public radio?

Lu:
Well, I was there a long time - almost 8 years - and it was good a lot of that time, but towards the end it was all ratings and unit sales - every creative decision was made with ratings and unit sales in mind. Not just thinking about the audience, but thinking about the audience in a lowest common denominator kind of way - what do the most people want. It's bad for them? That's okay - they want it.

At some point, someone asked me what I did for a living and I said, with no hint of humor or sarcasm, "I take advantage of kids and their families - that's what I do." It made me feel like this:


Reptar rips apart the building where I worked. The building always looked evil. It had it coming.
(From a Rugrats episode entitled "Reptar 2010.")

Plus all of the MTV Networks kind of eat you up. You work incredibly hard. It's very competitive. You are rewarded, but most people don't want to work like that forever.

At one point my main job was to work with Paramount and Rhino Records. One company was very big and arrogant and the other small, sweet, but afraid to take chances. I had to get us to compromise and agree on anything from album concepts, to script notes, to marketing plans and ad buys. I hated that part of the job. I remember my mother asking me - what I did all day - she just couldn't understand my job because she didn't see my name on TV and all I could say was, "Mother, I yell at people all day." When it gets to that point, you know, it is just time to go.

But at the same time a little window opened up and that was radio. I would be sitting in the car or be passed out on the sofa half-awake half-listening and I would drift and think of people who would be hilarious on the radio. Stories I could do myself would pop into my head. It seemed so simple. Do-able. That never happened in all my TV years at Nickelodeon or anywhere else. It doesn't happen when I listen to music - or when I go see art - or go to the movies. To be perfectly cornball, I was inspired - I would hear stories and I would get ideas. Can't get simpler than that.

PRX:
How did the experiences from that first career influence the way you produce audio?

Lu:
Well now, I don't know. I had been out of producing for a while and I was an exec, so mainly I needed to learn how to make things again. I still really don't have much of an idea of what I'm doing.

I'm not really interested in doing stories about famous musicians or movie stars or writers or artists or anyone famous really because I just think, you know, they are getting their fair share of air time already. Let's give someone else a chance to say something.

I think being in that atmosphere did teach me to think about the audience - I think it is ingrained in me. It is important - it's just that, it is also a dangerous game - you can go to far. As an independent in public radio, I find that it is not so much, about the audience, but what X-person at X-show wants or likes. Very few shows are good at saying what their audiences are looking for. It doesn't seem like they know. As far as I can see, there is no dialogue happening.

So in terms of radio making, it's much simpler - you just have to follow your own internal compass and hope that it makes sense to someone else. And if you're in doubt, ask someone if you're off.


Godwin listens to recordings of himself. Ziavi-Bamefedo, Ghana.

PRX:
A lot of the pieces you have on PRX are fascinating character portraits of unusual people - or usual people, who you've managed to find the unusual in. Where do you meet your interview subjects?

Lu:
Some are people I've met somewhere. Others are friends of friends. Or people friends have met somewhere along the line. Sometimes a show has someone in mind (that is always a gift!) Sometimes you have to go out and seek and hope and pray you find someone. Like the other night I had to go out an find a good polar bear - you know, those guys who swim all winter in Coney Island. Now the chances are already very good that you are going to find an interesting character - I mean these guys are out swimming in the freezing cold - at night - under the moonlight - they are crazy - but romantically so - so your chances of finding someone interesting are good - but then you have to find the right crazy guy. How do you know who, an hour later, will close his eyes and envision his past life as a polar bear? I don't know - sometimes it really is a sparkle in the eye - it's chemistry between you and some stranger. That's my favorite part of doing radio.

In terms of questions, I always go out with a prepared list of questions. I try not to pull them out - but I find the process of writing questions before hand helps me structure the interview. I write main areas of interest out on little index cards and put it in my back pocket - so if I space out, I can reach back and get myself on track. Or at the end of the interview, take a peek to make sure I didn't miss anything crucial. The best tape usually doesn't come from questions, but from some shared experience - like at the end of that Painting a Day piece or the end of the Tractor story - when a guy tells you he wants to be buried with his seven tractors when he dies - that's funny and loveable. And I wouldn't have gotten that if I weren't riding a tractor with him. And I wouldn't have understood why he loved those damn tractors if I hadn't ridden up the hill. So I try to stick around and record as long as someone will tolerate me.


The young Lu

PRX:
What's your aesthetic goal in creating a radio piece?

Lu:
Man, this is a tough question. I don't really know. I am no expert. I am so new at this. Mainly, I try just describe what I witnessed or felt - I just want things to feel real. And then, when I'm writing or editing, I'm just trying to make it, make sense. And hopefully, it will not sound dead - I want some sounds other than voices in there. There are people who are far better at all of this than me.

I dated a children's book author/illustrator for a long time and what I gleaned from him about picture books was that in the very best ones, the pictures and words do different things. The pictures do not repeat what the words say, but they add new information to the story. I have a feeling the very best radio is like that too - that the voices and sounds give different information to the listener - and that if you remove one or the other, the story won't make sense. I've never tried to pull apart a radio story to test that theory, but I bet it's true.

PRX:
What aspect of the radio story do you find most important?

Lu:
The questions get tougher and tougher. The story. I guess for radio, I really do like actually telling a story. Some people don't like that, but I do. And quite honestly, I don't think I'm there yet. I think most of my radio pieces are pieces - not real stories. I think my stuff is 'about' something, rather than something happening. I love those This American Life stories that go by like a movie or short story, but I haven't been able to make one yet. That's my goal. It's where I want to be.

PRX:
So, what are your plans moving forward? What's the big dream?

Lu:
The big dream is to divest my possessions and to become a radio nomad of sorts. To get back to India and Africa and roam from country to country with my gear over the course of a few years filing stories as I go. Because as much as I love meeting strangers here, I really love meeting strangers from other places. It feels like the most natural thing it the world to me. It's when I feel most comfortable. So the plan has been to get my skills good enough and my connections solid enough, so it is a viable venture. Then, I'm off... That's the big dream.


Harvest season in Keroda, Rajasthan

PRX:
Who'd win in one of those sumo-wrestling-costumed fights: AIR, Salt, or PRX? Those costumes are pretty heavy.

Lu:
You know, I once saw a can of chicken noodle soup wrestle a club sandwich. I bet you think you know who won. Well, you're wrong. These things are utterly unpredictable.

© 2006, The Public Radio Exchange