From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Bob Carlson, and this is Unfictional.

Unfictional is KCRW's program of stories and original documentaries. It's a part of KCRW's independent

producer project and on this episode another program created for unfictional by

legendary radio storyteller Joe Frank.

Lately he's been producing brand new work after over 30 years of blowing minds and

influencing a couple of generations of radio producers.

Like Nick Vanderbilt Kolk, who has experience

pushing radio boundaries of his own,

with the podcast Love and Radio,

and his work on the NPR Story Show Snap Judgment.

You feel a little ridiculous because I'm speaking to you from my bathtub in Berkeley, California.

Like a lot of us, Nick remembers the first time he heard a Joe Frank program.

It was a story about a man who works at a circus and falls in love with the lion tamer.

And it turns out that she's cheating on him with one of the lions.

I think what was shocking to me was later finding out that Joe Frank used to be

host for Weekend Edition. the idea that someone who was as

imaginative and weird and wonderful as Joe Frank was the host of a nature NPR show.

I mean, it really hit home for me

how different NPR was.

They were willing to take a lot more risks and experiment with stuff.

Let's get some more of that, you know what I mean?

Let's get back to that sense of risk-taking.

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