Ask Answergirl (Audio Drama Series)

Synopsis

“By day, Zina Roberts is The Pathfinder’s advice columnist Answergirl, but by night — actually she turns in pretty early, because during the day she’s also Compass Point State University’s secret weapon against cheating and honor code violations. What will she expose this week? Why don’t we Ask Answergirl…”

Ask Answergirl is unique eleven-part collaborative audio drama experience created by Central Michigan University College of the Arts and Media faculty and students. Each episode contains a mini-mystery designed to invite listeners to use their ears – and their brains – to solve the case before Zina. But don’t lose sight of the forest for the trees and miss the far bigger mystery bubbling beneath the surface of the bucolic CPSU campus.

Each episode runs about 15 minutes. This series is appropriate for listeners of all ages.

Where to Listen

You can now listen to the podcast through any podcast app that allows you to subscribe directly to a feed.

Just plug in this URL to the podcatcher of your choice: http://feeds.feedburner.com/AskAnswergirl?fbclid=IwAR0uRg_KbO_p-s9hdDYaDlNQNPfwPU17DTU7W9eViaaAPazrGRb6Yx7Kxh8

Need help with the next step? Here are some examples of how it’s done:

Using Apple’s Podcasts app

  1. Open the Library tab
  2. Tap “Edit” in the upper right corner
  3. Tap “Add a Show by URL…”
  4. Paste the link from feedburner into the form that appears.
  5. Download the episodes, and you’re all set to listen!

Using the Overcast app

  1. Tap the + button in the upper right corner.
  2. Tap “Add URL” in the upper right corner.
  3. Paste the feedburner link into the Podcast URL field.
  4. Sign in with your username and password.
  5. Download the episodes, and you’re all set to listen!

If you’d rather just listen through your browser, you can listen to all 11 episodes here.

What I did

I was the writer for episodes 2-5, and episode 11.

We got a brand new whiteboard for this project, and we made serious use of it.

I acted as Producer for all 11 episodes, working with our Audio Engineer, Brittney Antonelli, and series creator, Will Anderson, to review edits of all recordings.

Our writing staff (L-R): Malaishia Carson, Ahsha Davis, Zac Leighton, Sam Anker, Reed Schmitz, Megan Guajardo (Not pictured: Nina Reynolds)

I ran a writers room made up of CMU students, who were responsible for writing episodes 6-10.

And I enjoyed every minute of the process!

Fun Facts

  • The tech company, Atlas, featured throughout the series was originally part of a writing exercise I did back in grad school at Boston University. (Note to Writers: No idea ever dies—it just moves to another project.)
  • There are references to Boston and Torchy’s Tacos throughout the series, because easter eggs are better when they’re actually tacos.
  • Touchstones I referred back to frequently while working on this series: Gilmore Girls, His Girl Friday, and The Third Man radio dramas, starring Orson Welles.