An Audiobook Master on the Secrets of Her Craft

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, David, Books, Arts, Storytelling, Wnyc, New, Remnick, News Commentary, Yorker, Politics

4.2 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 December 2022

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You’ve probably never heard of Robin Miles, but you may well have heard her—possibly at some length. Miles is an actor who’s cultivated a particular specialty in recording audiobooks, a booming segment of the publishing industry. She has lent her voice to more than 400 titles in all sorts of genres—from the classic “Charlotte’s Web” to Isabel Wilkerson’s “Caste,” a deep analysis of race in America. “Telling a story, fully, all of it—from all the aspects of it—and creating the kind of intimacy between you and your listener is so satisfying,” she tells the New Yorker editor Daniel Gross. “Being in a great play means you have to have the money and the other actors and a script and a director. This is just me and my book, and I love that.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:11.0	This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, I'm David Remnick.
0:13.9	You've probably never heard the name Robin Miles, but there's a good chance you've heard
0:18.5	her and maybe it's some length.
0:21.4	Stop your nonsense, Wilbur!
0:23.6	Said the oldest sheep.
0:25.8	If you have a new friend here, you are probably disturbing his rest.
0:30.7	And the quickest way to spoil a friendship is to wake somebody up in the morning before
0:36.2	he is ready.
0:38.2	How can you be sure your friend is an early riser?
0:42.6	Robin Miles is an actor who's appeared in over 400 audiobooks, 400, in all sorts of genres
0:49.2	from E.B. White's classic Charlotte's web to Isabel Wilkerson's cast, which is a deep
0:54.6	analysis of race in America.
0:57.3	Audio books are a booming segment of the publishing industry, and Miles has cultivated that as
1:03.1	a specialty.
1:04.5	She describes herself as a vocal chameleon, skilled at imitating and playing with accents
1:10.0	for different characters, even inventing new accents.
1:14.2	Daniel Gross, who's an editor at The New Yorker, has been writing about Robin Miles,
1:18.7	and they've gotten pretty deep into the craft of reading a book out loud.
1:23.4	Robin records a lot of her books in her closet, and it's a little trapezoidal closet, which
1:29.4	is smaller than like a shower stall.
1:32.5	Robin has impeccable posture.
	...

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