Straight Talk on Life Issues, hosted by Brad Mattes and Victor Nieves, is a weekly half-hour radio program carried on over 110 outlets throughout the nation and growing. A podcast version under the same name is an extension of our 30-minute radio program, or as I would put it, the unedited version.
About eight months ago, I joined the Straight Talk on Life Issues team as the show’s producer. I usually work behind the scenes putting the production together from content development, to scriptwriting, to post-production. Our vision to increase the visibility of our pro-life message to the next generation is on full display in each episode.
The podcast provides listeners with significant information, commentary, and resources necessary to win the intellectual battle for the heart and soul of America’s Generation Z. The program’s heartbeat equips our audience with relevant, life changing information on the life issues to impact one heart at a time.
How do we do it? Storytelling. Storytelling is the most powerful tool we have at our disposal to drive change and get visceral reactions from whoever hears our messages. The podcast stories are relevant and ground-breaking because we want to provide you with the best pro-life content from our guests’ diverse backgrounds. It is unfiltered and thought-provoking. Anyone who hears our stories is unable to come away without being moved, especially a listener who is undecided on pro-life issues. Storytelling is persuasive and breaks down barriers.
These are the words of some of our guests as they share their stories:
“I couldn’t cope with life…I had a surgical abortion and I can remember crying on the table. I can remember the woman holding my hand and saying, it’s going to be okay. And I’m thinking in my head, it’s never going to be okay again.” – Karin Barbido
“We have to be just as relentless in every generation, every decade and on every platform of continuing to serve life, serve to work for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness from the womb to the tomb and beyond.” – Dr. Alveda King
“There are different parts of your baby’s body that are dismembered and sold, you know? And so, it’s not just a blob of cells.” – Nicole C. Mullen
Usually, we introduce an episode with a guest’s voice because stories have a way of resonating with the human experience. Since the dawn of man, stories have been used to convey information in a way that draws people in and helps them better retain what they have heard. And some of their remarks really do touch the core of the heart.
When producing an episode, I start off with the development of content ideas and work plans. In this phase, I will come up with ideas about an episode’s topics, guests, segments, or other facets of an episode’s content. Once these ideas are developed, I work out the practicalities of assembling the people, content, recording opportunities, and other tasks to create the audio. After a plan for an episode is established, we will then record the program. Then I head into post-production, assembling the transcript and editing sound and music. Once an episode has been assembled and approved for public release, we then distribute the programming. While the process is complicated, I am laser-focused on our mission and vision for the program.
Our vision is simple. We educate our listeners with information that they may not have been exposed to. We use our stories to convey information and activate change. We hope you will subscribe to our podcast, available on all platforms, and catch new episodes every Tuesday.
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