A Psychedelic Western with David Weinberg

On this episode of the Audience podcast, Stuart and David talk about his limited series, Dreamtown, the Story of Adelanto. David shares his expertise on podcasting and storytelling in general. It can be difficult to tell someone else’s story compassionately and compellingly. Dreamtown aims to do that for–not only–the main character, but also the town of Adelanto. He also touches on the importance of being able to explain your podcast in one sentence, what to do when your story evolves during the production process, and the reason why he chose to use a narrator (who wasn’t him).

David Weinberg grew up in Colorado and moved around for a while until he found himself in New Orleans. There he got his start in radio, writing and creating stories for WWOZ. He was a staff reporter at Marketplace and KCRW where he hosted the podcast Welcome to LA podcast. Welcome to LA was named one of the best podcasts of 2018 and 2020. His latest project is Dreamtown: The Story of Adelanto. His print work has been published in The New York Times.

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Today you’ll learn about:

• David’s journey from freelance to radio to podcasting
• The story behind Dreamtown
• Finding the focus of your story and staying true to your vision
• Establishing trust with guests and interviewees
• Reasons behind the use of a narrator
• The sound design for Dreamtown
• David’s next big project
• How David gets his story ideas

Resources/Links:

David C Weinberg: https://www.davidcweinberg.com/about-1

Dreamtown: https://crooked.com/podcast-series/dreamtown-the-story-of-adelanto/

Castos Academy: https://academy.castos.com/

Castos, private podcast: https://academy.castos.com/privatepodcast/

Castos, website: https://castos.com/