November FableFriday: Anne Richards, Vice President, audiyo-yo

As a natural storyteller eager to connect with children in different media, Anne Richards, VP of FableVision’s audio division audiyo-yo, has done it all – television, publishing, games, edtech, and more. Once she found her calling in audio, she knew that she wanted to keep exploring this intimate format that lets listeners paint their own picture of the characters and story as they process what they hear.

“Even though audio is a classic form of storytelling going all the way back to radio plays, there’s so much work happening in this space right now,” says Anne. “There’s a lot of room for innovation and emerging voices to make an impact.”

And innovating is exactly what Anne is doing. This summer, audiyo-yo released its first project – the interactive, voice-activated Pinna Original Yes No Audio Escape series (check out the October/November Kidscreen print issue) – where listeners co-create the story by answering “yes” or “no” to questions presented to them. This fall, audiyo-yo delights listeners with Pinna Original Roasting Vegetables, a short-form audio series full of silly vegetable puns, original beats (or should we say beets?), and nutritious, delicious characters. 

Anne is your comprehensive guide to podcast knowledge. Keep reading to learn more about the future of podcasts, audiyo-yo’s upcoming projects, and Anne’s advice for aspiring kids’ podcast creators. 

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What’s your “journey to FableVision” story?
I feel like I’ve been journeying to FableVision for a long time! I first met Gary Goldberger about 15 years ago through kids’ industry conferences. A few years later, I hired FableVision to create learning games for a non-profit I was working with and had a great experience with the team. Fast forward another few years and I started working for FableVision as a freelance game designer and producer. I’ve been in the orbit for a long time one way or another, so when Gary and I hatched the idea to bring an audio division to the studio, it felt like a really natural progression. I’ve always been a fan of FableVision’s work and the amazing and talented team, so officially being a FableVisionary at long last feels like a homecoming. 

Anne’s nephews meeting Bear

You’ve been a writer, producer, game designer, and more! How did you end up focusing on podcasts?
My work in audio came out of my experience in other kids’ media. I’ve worked in almost every form of children’s entertainment, starting in television on Bear in the Big Blue House way back in the day, then exploring game design, educational technology, publishing, you name it. I have always loved storytelling and wanted to work in different places where kids seek out narrative experiences.

In terms of how I found my way to audio, I was lucky enough to know Amy Kraft at Pinna through kids’ media circles. A few years ago, Amy came to me and asked me to create a podcast to teach kids the ABCs – in audio, which was an interesting challenge! That show turned into the podcast series Quentin and Alfie’s ABC Adventures, and eventually led to me becoming the Executive Producer at Pinna, where I oversaw different kinds of podcasts for a wide range of kids. So I’m really grateful to Amy and the team at Pinna for taking a chance on me and understanding that there’s a lot of creative overlap in other media formats and audio work. It’s always about the kid audience at the center and finding different ways for them to connect with stories and characters that are meaningful to them.

Family photo!

What do you love about podcasts and why do you think they’re a special form of media?
I think what makes audio special is how intimate it is. There’s nothing like hearing someone speaking in your headphones to feel like a story is being told just for you. Audio is a form of entertainment that asks the audience to meet it halfway – when you don’t know what characters look like or you can’t see an animated view of a setting, you become a co-creator of the narrative experience, using your imagination in a way that I think is really special. 

Why are children’s podcasts important right now?
I’ve worked in so many different roles over the course of my career because I’m excited about new formats and emerging media, and I think that’s where kids’ audio is right now. There’s a lot of room for new voices.

I also think that dealing with the pandemic, caregivers of young children were drawn to audio as something families could enjoy together, or that their kids could enjoy on their own without being glued to screens after long days of remote learning. That has contributed to audio becoming a medium with an interested, engaged audience that is still hungry for more great content. It’s served a really tangible role in the life of families these past few years and folks want more of it.

Anne’s dog Pip

What’s the future of children’s podcasting? Where is audio going next?
Right now, I’m interested in interactive audio and I think there is huge potential in voice recognition and truly responsive storytelling. This year, I created and produced three titles in the Pinna Original Yes No Audio Escape series through audiyo-yo. They’re audio escape rooms where the child actually speaks out loud to the podcast and gets different outcomes if they say “yes” or “no” to different questions. If you’re trying to escape a haunted house in five minutes, you have to choose whether to walk down that one hallway or stop and talk to a couple of ghosts who seem interested in you. It’s an innovative way to play with audio, and, given FableVision’s deep experience in interactive experiences, it feels like a perfect fit for audiyo-yo.

Alaska

What are you excited to work on at audiyo-yo? How does audiyo-yo stand out from other audio production companies?
I’m excited to work on original projects we’re developing at FableVision, like Tone Thyne’s big sweeping musical series Cummerbund. And I’m equally excited to work with clients who are interested in making audio for kids but who might need expertise in how to bring characters and worlds to life in this medium. 

This role is also a huge opportunity for me to work with creators who may be new to audio, or to kids’ media in general, to broaden the range of voices we have in the space. For instance, we just made a show called Roasting Vegetables with Postell Pringle, who’s a theater and musical artist and all around huge talent, but who hasn’t made a kids’ podcast before (though his group, Q Brothers Collective, has made an awesome hip-hop album for kids, Buggin’ ). They also created the soundtrack for Long Way Home, a sweeping musical epic based on Homer's The Odyssey for the renowned United Voices Chicago – check them out! Pos and I created and wrote the show together and I’m excited about all of the things he brought to the project that I never would have come up with on my own, and vice versa.

In terms of what’s special about audiyo-yo – we bring a unique mix of production and creative expertise to the table. At FableVision, there’s an amazing braintrust of people who put kids at the center of their work. They’re innovators in terms of using different media to reach kids where they are and to help them grow. In the audio industry, what sets us apart is the breadth of experience we have with making stories for a kids’ audience across all different types of media. We combine that with a deep understanding of the nuts and bolts of what it takes to bring a podcast from concept to final broadcast-quality audio.

What advice would you give to people hoping to work in kids’ audio?
Immerse yourself in the medium and figure out what speaks to you. Do you love highly sound-designed stories or simpler audiobooks? Interesting new formats or classic ones? Short form appointment-type content or longer, serialized shows? Listen to as much as you can and follow your taste to seek out mentors and companies who are doing work you love. This is a welcoming field and it’s relatively easy to access experienced folks who are excited to bring in new talent, but people also want to know that you’ve done your homework and are interested in what they do specifically. The last thing I’d say is be curious about your audience – talk to kids about what’s interesting and exciting to them and allow that to inspire you. 

Brooklyn

What’s an Anne fun fact that most people don’t know?
I think most people don’t know that I won a trophy in the Coney Island Mermaid Parade in the early 2000s. 

So… you love Brooklyn?
Man, do I love Brooklyn! I’ve lived in Brooklyn since the late 1990s. There’s just no place like it – the art and culture, the food, the brownstones, but mostly the opportunity to meet people from all over the world with totally different experiences, who all come together in this crazy, busy, loud, and magical place. I’m fortunate to also have family in more rural places as I do need to escape the bustle of the big city sometimes. I basically gravitate towards either the biggest, most raucous environment in the world or a farmhouse down some country road where there are no humans whatsoever.

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More About Anne

GLS Panel

Favorite podcast?
I have to take this opportunity to plug my sister Meg’s amazing parenting podcast, What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood. It's chock full of hilarious advice and every once in a while I get name-checked, so that’s exciting. For kids, there are so many shows that I love, but Grim, Grimmer, Grimmest, which I worked on at Pinna with Adam Gidwitz and Ilana Millner, is a sentimental favorite of mine and just a master class in storytelling.

Favorite game?
Gone Home is a video game I deeply love – it’s so nuanced and thoughtful about how it reveals its secrets. I’ve also been playing a cooperative card game called Hanabi recently with my family, which is really fun and super challenging!

Favorite book?
I was an English major in college so it’s a long list! I go back to The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, The Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson, and Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill over and over again. I recently read Kiese Laymon’s Long Division and was insanely delighted by it – it plays with form in interesting ways, but the character voices are so strong and endearing that it still feels immediate and emotional.

Favorite place to travel?
I’m interested in good food and art, and some history to dig into, which was checked off by the special and vibrant Oaxaca, Mexico that I visited with family. Mostly, there are many more places that I want to go to – ask me again in a few years!

August FableFriday: Nick Carbonara, Production Assistant

Production Assistant Nick Carbonara knows nothing brings people together quite like stories and games. His journey has brought him across the spectrum of the video game design process, studying game design and creative writing at NYU, dabbling in programming, and now finding a home at FableVision in the organizational side of producing. Nick’s passionate about relatable themes within unrelatable characters and the tradition of storytelling, something that connects us to our caveman days – when humans would stare at a campfire, imagining stories in their mind, dreaming of what could be. Read below to learn about his North Star (LEGO’s Junkbot Undercover), his favorite narrative works, and past campaign characters!  

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Columbia High School (Maplewood, NJ) Marching Band Days!

What’s your “journey to FableVision” story?
Games have always been a part of my life. Since elementary school, I have played so many games, and loved the ones on the LEGO website, especially Junkbot Undercover. In high school, I played games with a lot of friends, and from there I knew that I wanted to do narrative work in storytelling: that’s always interested me, especially coupled with science fiction and fantasy. 

I focused on narratives in my work at the NYU Game Center, but I ended up being a producer also because you run your own projects there. I realized I liked producing and the organizational side of everything – planning and ensuring we meet deadlines to give us that psychological security. After graduation, I focused on narrative, but also worked as a producer on indie games. 

And that led me to FableVision – this exploration of the production side of media. FableVision is really cool! Everyone has great energy as they create things that help people and educate folks. It seemed like the best place to start that production journey as the environment is very encouraging.

Nick and his mom at his graduation day!

What made you decide to study game design in college?
There are so many small reasons. Building a game is really interesting because you create a system that people themselves have to step into. It creates these scenarios where you’re thinking about the plot but also putting in gameplay, by asking questions like, “how do the mechanics fit with the story? Is there branching? How does that change things?” 

I also like that some games are very social and can bring people together to contribute to a story. And I think there’s the technical component that I enjoy. I do a little programming sometimes – I can look at a script and say, “I can sort-of kind-of maybe kind-of know what is happening here” and I enjoy using those skills. You don’t get to tap into that as much in other mediums.

Presenting at GDC in 2019

What do you think is key to a strong production process?
There are a lot of ways to answer this because production is so multifaceted. The ones that stand out to me are ones you’d expect: milestones, goals, and flexibility. But it's important to think that these goals are not merely practical – they’re also psychological and morale-based. 

In some ways the reason I started moving towards production is because there were projects I worked on in school where I had no idea how I was going to get everything done in time. The idea of having a plan gave me the calm and security I needed to reduce my psychological load to actually do the thing. And for team morale, if you say that you’re working towards a specific vision and can outline it all in a document, that gives you and your team an assurance that you’re going to make something. There may be some upsets, which is where flexibility comes in, but it’s much easier to change plans when you actually have a plan.

Presenting Don’t Split the Party at NYU Game Center Showcase in 2019

What type of projects do you like to work on?
Narrative is something I like a lot – I love storytelling. In that realm, the narrative of projects I like to work on is often a mix of the fantastical, weird, or sci-fi, but with relatable themes.

For my team’s senior NYU capstone, we created Don’t Split the Party, a visual novel-style game about a group of friends who play Dungeons and Dragons and you play as their Dungeon Master, making choices about what happens to them in the campaign. But the friends in real life are fighting about various personal issues and you use the campaign to keep them from having a big falling out. And that was really fun since it had real-world problems instead of just D&D. 

I’m also working on a project right now with others called Untitled Melody. It’s about two friends who move to opposite parts of the U.S. after college to pursue various artistic dreams. Although they're uncertain of their paths, they listen to the same music, which allows them to enter this dream-like state and see each other’s thoughts. It's very abstract and magical. It’s fun to work through real problems of 20-something-year-olds with weird magic on the side.

What would you like to work on in the future at the studio?
In general, each new project always feels a little unique because of the team makeup, the challenge, and the client. As a result, I think that whatever comes my way will be very fulfilling. I do love narrative things, of course, which is baked into most of the stuff we do here at FableVision.

What was your favorite game growing up?
Growing up, I loved LEGO games. I remember this Bionicle point-and-click adventure game where they had to explore the island and solve the mystery; Bionicle was this story-based LEGO line from the 2000s. I also remember the classic LEGO games, like Junkbot, where the main character is a robot who works in an office. 

At NYU I attended Professor Naomi Clark’s lecture, where she mentioned that she worked on the LEGO web games. After the lecture, I talked to her and said, “wait, the LEGO web games?” She explained, “not the big ones like LEGO Star Wars or anything on console,” and I said “No, I know exactly which ones you’re talking about! I played those!” 

And eventually, when I left the lecture hall it was 8 or 9 at night and I called my father and said, “Dad, you’re not going to believe this–”

She was a great advisor and teacher, outside of LEGO-celebrity-status. It was really cool to meet her and work/study alongside her.

Are you currently in an RPG campaign?
Right now, I’m taking a hiatus on RPG stuff because of how busy I am, but for some highlights of other ones I’ve enjoyed: 

A Long Strange Trip was a story that used a preexisting world Ebberon, which is a mix of fantasy and pulp noir – there are detectives, international intrigue, and sometimes science-fiction. My friend took that world and made a story for it inspired by Grateful Dead songs. I played a character who was both a therapist and assassin. It was wild! 

In another, everyone was looking for objects that had powers based on different aspects of reality, but dangerous forces wanted to gather them to assemble more power. My character was a former revolutionary-punk-band-member, but the rest of the band was captured by the state. He was a goofy guy who just stumbled his way through life and hung out with other adventurers. He made a lot of silly mistakes or went on embarrassing adventures that became part of his character. It was a lot of fun to be that slightly-more-clownish, heartfelt personality.

How do you combat writer’s block? What’s your writing experience like?
When I'm trying to wrap my head around a story, I have the hopefully-not-unhealthy habit of talking to myself. I find it’s useful when you’re writing. Sometimes, if I'm stuck, I just go for a walk and tell myself the story out loud. That can be helpful since you can hear it and process it in a straight line, rather than thinking about it all at once. You can think about how it would sound to a reader or a viewer or a player. 

And to get a little more philosophical about it, storytelling is something that humans have always done. They’d just tell stories around a campfire, and I think you can feel closer to that by telling your story out loud.  It helps you answer questions like: “how would I tell my story to others verbally? Would it sound good? What are the exciting bits? What are the boring parts?” 

And then, other than that, I do lots of narrative writing for games when I can. I did some work on short stories way, way back. I’d also like to write for animation and comics one day. 

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More About Nick:

Favorite book: I’m not sure what my favorite-favorite is, but in terms of short stories, I love “Story of Your Life and Others” by Ted Chiang. It was made into the movie Arrival. I also like a lot of graphic novels: one of my favorites is Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon, by writer Matt Fraction and artist David Aja.

Favorite show: I like a lot of animated adventure stuff, like The Legend of Korra and Young Justice. The latter deals with realities of being a teen or twenty-something, which are things that I really connect with.

Favorite pasta recipe: A reliable favorite for me is pasta with cream, tomato, and spinach. It’s really tasty, especially with parmesan cheese on it, and it’s an easy option. On special occasions, though, when I don’t have to be too healthy, I love carbonara. Genuinely. Unironically. It’s a fantastic pasta.

Favorite video game: That’s tough. I played a lot of Halo with my friends growing up, so that has a special place because of all the memories. I also really love the game Prey by Arkane Studios.

Favorite tabletop game: I definitely play Dungeons and Dragons the most, but I’m really excited about smaller RPGs. Lady Blackbird and Dread are both so much fun too. 

Favorite rock band: My favorite is The Anix, an industrial rock act from Los Angeles. I also like David Bowie a lot – my friends and I used to listen to David Bowie when we played Halo. 

Sputnik

Sparky

Apollo