Creator Spotlight - Nora Young
The host of CBC Radio's Spark submits gracefully to our interview technique
Today I’m extremely pleased to present this interview with Nora Young, longtime CBC Radio host of programs like DNTO (Definitely Not The Opera) and her current program Spark. She is also the author of The Virtual Self. Although we’ve never met or spoken in person, Nora and I have been Internet acquainted (kind of) for a few years via Twitter and a message or two we exchanged in her earlier years of Spark. I’m really happy that Nora could take some time for this interview.
Spark is a long running CBC radio program that “explores how technology, innovation and design affect our lives.” and can be heard twice weekly on CBC Radio One, several times per week on SiriusXM and by podcast episodes.
Here’s Nora!
When you were a teenager, what did you want to become when you grew up?
From the time I was about 16, I wanted to be a journalist, although I really can't say why I was so set on it. I'm not generally that much of a planner, and many things in my life I've just sort of stumbled into, but I don't recall wavering on wanting to be a journalist. Perhaps it was because my dad had been one early in his career, and it seemed exciting.
How did you get started with the CBC? Is it related to your education (and what post-secondary education do you have?)
Like a lot of people, I started out as a freelancer. I contributed to a CBC Radio show called Brand X. It was an amazingly fun, creative (sometimes bordering on cuckoo) show to work on, with no host. After a year, it morphed into DNTO, which at the time was a pop culture magazine, in a longer format. The founding executive producer, C. William Smith, was committed to having one of the Brand X contributors as host, and I was lucky enough to get the gig. I was very green as a broadcaster, and kind of shy as a person. I can't imagine I was very good in the early going. I still owe Bill a debt of gratitude for sticking with me.
As for education, I have an honours BA from University of Toronto and an MA from McGill. I studied political science, specializing in political theory. My thesis was about technology and society, an interest I developed in my undergrad year, and that's what I started doing my freelance pieces for Brand X on. I got on the Brand X roster of contributors initially by answering a tiny classified ad in an alternative weekly, Now magazine. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I'd never read Now that week!
How did you make the shift from Definitely Not The Opera to Spark? Did you expect to be doing Spark for so many years (15 years!)
I left DNTO after 8 years as host. It was a great gig while it lasted, but I was feeling kind of hemmed in by it, or no longer excited to do it. As a rule, I wouldn't advise people to just quit their job with no prospects, but I needed to make a change and couldn't quite figure out how to do it otherwise. I was pure freelance for about 5 years, though I did most of my work for CBC.
I started getting interested in social media and the changes it was making to mainstream media. I had a podcast (which I still do) with my friend, the writer Cathi Bond. I pitched CBC management that there was space for a show about technology, which could cover stuff that thematically sat in between news, current affairs, and lifestyle programming, and that it would experiment with social media and a more decentralized aesthetic, reflective of internet culture. Dan Misener and Elizabeth Bowie and I worked to create that 'internet-y' sound in the early years. It's hard to remember now, but 2007/2008 was still such a heady time for the potential of social media.
As I said above, I'm not much of a planner, so no, I never thought I'd be working on Spark so long. It's a testament to the topic and the team that it really doesn't feel that long.
Do you have full creative control of Spark or do you have an editorial board of some sort that approves what the show covers (excluding legal dept. approvals)?
We are a small team and work out the topics we do and how we do them together, largely through story meetings and discussions. We don't have a formal editorial board, but there is a set of ethical practices that CBC has in place for journalists. If we were covering a topic that was particularly contentious, we would have a discussion with our boss about it, but that's not generally the sort of material Spark covers.
Are there any particularly memorable or favorite interviews that you've had during your tenure with Spark? The segments with Merlin Mann still stand out for me (I believe he said that the CBC team was great to work with back in the day, by the way) but I'm sure there must have been others.
I think it's in the nature of starting something new that the early moments stand out a lot, so yes, I remember the Merlin Mann series fondly. More recently, I've really enjoyed interviews that explore the philosophical/spiritual dimension of technology, for example, this one with Anil Seth.
How did COVID-19 affect how your team delivered Spark? A simple pivot to home work or home studios or was it more challenging than that?
Spark isn't a live show, so in many ways, it was kind of a simple pivot. We were already sharing scripts over Google docs, and we started sharing audio files over Google drive. I would record my part of an interview onto a portable recorder, for example, then upload it, and whoever was producing the interview would edit my side and the guest's side. Over time, Spark's producers got very good at getting the best sound possible, from less-than-studio-quality conditions...discovering new tools, better gear, etc.
So from a technical point of view, after that first Spring 2020 learning curve, we developed a good groove. Later, I started going into the CBC to record interviews, but that was because I moved into a place with lots of construction noise. In some ways, connecting with guests over video improved the level of interpersonal connection. Our guests are not usually in the Toronto studio with me, so actually seeing people in their homes was more intimate and personal. But of course, over time, it becomes harder to have team cohesion remotely, especially as videoconferencing fatigue sets in.
How about your own use of social media? You don't seem as active on Twitter as you may have been in the past. Do you gravitate towards specific platforms these days?
I am hardly active at all on social media these days. Or rather, I'm more of a lurker. Twitter used to be my thing. As I mentioned to someone a while ago, I've been on Twitter so long, I remember when it was fun! But it just isn't anymore, so I still use it as a way to find guests and follow news, but I really don't participate.
I post occasionally on Instagram, and that has mostly, at least until recently, been a fun and lightweight way to see what friends are up to. But yeah, the last several years, social media mostly leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
If you look back to the start of your tenure with Spark, is there anything about the evolution of technology during this period of time that has particularly surprised or delighted you?
Well, it definitely hasn't 'delighted' me, but I have been surprised by the extent of the negative and downright dangerous turn of social media. I do continue to find delight in moments of weird, goofy internet culture, though.
Do you prefer writing by keyboard, do you prefer pen and paper, or do you have another favorite method?
I generally write on my laptop (with a second, larger screen for posture reasons), but I do return to pen and paper, particularly when I'm in brainstorming or creative mode. I often have sticky notes around, and I tend to keep things on paper when I don't want to lose sight of an idea entirely, but I'm not exactly sure what I want to do with it either. I like reading on my e-reader, but I prefer writing notes in the margins of a paper book, if I'm reading it for an interview.
Pretend that you wake up one morning and the Internet has been destroyed. What's the first thing you do?
Ha! Look for a new job!
Thanks to Nora Young for participating in this interview! Don’t forget to check out Spark!
Nice interview! Been a fan of hers since DNTO. Imagine getting a CBC job from answering an ad in Now mag :)
This was a fun interview, I like these windows and backstories into what it was like and how things are done.