🎤 The Maine producer turning local life into art

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🧐 The Na Na Na Na Boo Boo Technique

Half of art is rebellion. The other half is saying “na na na na boo boo” with taste.

The technique is simple: find what annoys you…then make something better. The worst ad you’ve ever heard. The podcast host who talks over their guests. The lazy take that went viral. Instead of rolling your eyes, let it light a fire.

It’s not about spite, it’s about clarity and sharpening your skills. Every “ugh” is really a “this could be so much more,” opening the door to prove your taste matches your talents.

So next time you feel that petty creative spark bubbling up, channel it. Hit record. Make something that answers back.

🎙️ Signal Flow: Brenna Farrell

Industry game changers and valiant minds share their wisdom, adversities, and paths to innovation.

Brenna Farrell is an editor and producer who’s worked for Radiolab and NPR, and is thrilled be part of the team at Maine Public.

Editor’s note: The following interview has been edited for flow and clarity.

Essential Salt may be about Maine, but it’s really about community. Every episode asks the same quiet questions: What does it mean to belong? What makes a place worth staying in? How do we live together when we see the world differently?

The state might be called “Vacationland,” but real life happens here in all its messy, beautiful contradictions. Maine is a microcosm of everything the country is wrestling with: economics, environment, immigration, identity. You can hear all of that play out in a diner, on a fishing dock, or across a town-hall table.

Working locally has also cracked something open for me creatively. I’ve always been an editor. The planner, the tape cutter, the one mapping the structure. But on this project, I had to take on sound design myself. For the first time, I built our little sonic IDs, 30-second collages of voices and emotion that open each episode. I didn’t think of myself as someone who could score or design sound, but this project forced me to try. And in doing it, I realized that of course I could. I’d been hearing it all along.

We released six episodes, twelve stories total, and dropped them all at once, binge-style. Each one is a reminder that meaningful storytelling doesn’t have to be grand; it just has to be true.

When I think about what I want listeners to take away, it’s not about Maine so much as it is about paying attention to where you live. Noticing the small acts of courage, humor, and kindness that make up a place. Sometimes the most powerful stories are the ones happening right down the street.

For me, that’s the essential part: the salt. The thing that keeps a story alive long after it’s told.

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I’ve spent most of my career chasing stories that start small and end up being about something much bigger.

I came up in public radio. Long-form documentaries, narrative nonfiction, the kind of audio that takes time to unfold. I was shaped by places like WNYC and Radiolab, where you could stretch an idea until it shimmered. Those years taught me how to listen, really listen, for the tension beneath a story. For the laugh hiding inside something tragic. For the quiet breath before someone tells you who they really are.

Today I’m at Maine Public Radio, where I work on a series called Essential Salt. It’s a collection of local stories that feel, to me, anything but small. They’re about people figuring out what it means to belong to a place, to take responsibility for it, to challenge it, to love it anyway.

One story follows a man fighting to keep his vanity license plate “PWR BTM.” To some, it’s provocative. To him, it’s identity. In a state once famous for anything-goes license plates, he became a kind of folk hero when new laws took his away. At first, it seemed like a funny little piece about freedom of expression, but the more we talked, the more it became a story about pride, persistence, and how we show the world who we are.

Another story, “The Valentine’s Bandit,” follows a secret tradition that lived for decades in Portland. Every February 14th, red paper hearts would appear overnight — on lampposts, shop windows, even cranes and forts in Casco Bay. No one knew who was behind it until the man responsible passed away.

His family finally revealed the secret: he’d been covering the city in hearts simply because it made people happy. His wife told me, “It was a gift to the city of Portland.” You could hear the weight of love and loss in her voice. It’s moments like that, when an ordinary gesture becomes a mirror for something eternal, that remind me why I do this work.

🎧 Podcast of the Week: Diggnation

Diggnation is back! After a 15-year hiatus, Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht are back covering the top stories from around the internet. This cult-favorite tech talk show is back in podcast form. The same beer-in-hand banter, the same wild mix of web culture, innovation, and nostalgia.

🥾 Further Exploration: Why curiosity gets you farther than ambition

Drew Lynch shares moving, funny, and honest moments from his journey, showing how staying open and playful turned setbacks into breakthroughs. If you’re looking to reset how you approach creativity (especially behind the mic), this is a refreshing nudge to stay inquisitive instead of just chasing outcomes.

ICYMI:

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💡 The Quiet Spark

A weekly question to ignite fresh thinking, stir self-reflection, and fuel your creative process behind the mic.

Where does your curiosity end and control begin?