On the flight down I was hunting through my hard drive for useful sound clips, and ended up listening again to a conversation via Skype I had with Gardner Campbell some months ago while preparing for the New Media Consortium’s virtual conference on personal broadcasting. Due to time limitations, I was only able to use a few minutes of the interview in the final presentation, but Gardner’s contribution deserves better than languishing in my personal archive.

Over the course of twenty minutes (9.8 MB MP3) I ask him about the intimacy of radio, the uncanny elements of sound, his concept of the “explaining voice” and how his career as a broadcaster informs his work as an educator and scholar. In addition to ample heaps of unique insight and the usual effortless and illuminating erudition, what comes through for me most powerfully here is Gardner’s generous spirit, how much care he puts into addressing my half-baked queries.

I am so grateful that my job provides opportunities to have conversations like this one. I’m thrilled that Gardner will be here at the NMC regional conference — he’s speaking on “metaphoric immersion in Croquet and Second Life.” And hard as it is to believe, it will be the first time I’ve seen him give a full presentation in person.

Tags: nmc2006reg, radio, sound, podcasting