Tangent

Have you been listening to the podcast S-Town? Either way, I found a juicy tidbit in an interview with creator Brian Reed when asked about the the difference between US storytelling and UK storytelling--but at the core, it applies to the editing all artists must do:

"Why is the US better than the UK at making these kind of podcasts? I came over and hung out at the BBC for a few days to talk about this. The most practical thing I found, that could be changed, is that it’s not built into the system of the BBC to kill stories. In terms of the budgeting, workflow and culture, if you work on a story, at the BBC, you have to create a story out of it. But at This American Life, it’s built into our budget and culture to kill half the things we start. The freedom of that is so important. It’s so much harder to drag something mediocre over the finishing line than to make something great. Killing is the secret source of getting things to be good."

Happy Monday!