Keep the Universal in Mind for Local Stories
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From PRX and Transom, this is Sound School, and I'm Rob Rosenthal.

Even though I'm sitting still in front of this microphone, I feel like I'm moving. I've got road buzz from traveling so much. It seems like that's all I did in October. First to Slovenia, then to Berlin, then over to Bonn, and back to Berlin, and finally up to Copenhagen. So much work and moving around. I felt like a character in one of Jack Kerouac's American haikus. Well, here I am, 2 p.m. What day is it? What was so enthralling about this trip...

Whether it was a short editing session for a few hours at ACB Stories, which is a podcast company in Berlin, or a day-long workshop at Radio Deutsche Welle in Bonn, or the morning I spent with staff in the podcasting department at Radio Denmark talking about scenes and storytelling. What was so enthralling, so enthralling, everywhere I went, reporters and producers were remarkably hungry to discuss Kraft.

Like I was scheduled to play stories and talk shop for an hour and a half in the cellar bar of a cafe in Berlin. This is for The Echo, which is a local radio group. But we went way past an hour and a half. We were there for three hours, even though the place was insanely hot and we practically ran out of oxygen. I mean, that's dedication. And it really makes my radio heart go pitter patter.

While I heard a lot of great audio stories on my trip, there is one in particular I'd like to feature today. And you'll definitely want to hear this one. But before I share the story, there's a little bit of context I want to lay out. So hang tight.

The piece comes from the week-long workshop I recently taught for Radio Slovenia. It's very clever, a kind of where-is-she-now piece that weaves the true story of a famous alpine ski racer from Slovenia who kind of disappeared from the public spotlight with the old Slovenian children's story of Kekic. He's a shepherd boy who's said to live in the Alps battling an evil hunter and an old herbalist who steals children from

Now, just as a quick side note, I went hiking with a friend in the Slovenian Alps who, for fun, cupped his mouth and shouted, Kekic! as loud as possible to hear the echo and let Kekic know he's remembered. Apparently, a lot of Slovenians do this. Kekic is that famous and ingrained in the culture. Okay, back to the workshop.

It was attended by seven reporters from Radio Slovenia and three others from Serbia and Croatia. Everyone made a story in a week, and the idea was to experiment and push the limits of what they've done in the past. And we did so in the most stunning location, Planica. It's a valley in the Slovenian Alps near the town of Kranskogora. There are mountains and forests as far as the eye can see.

I know. I know. Tough life, Rob. Matej Propotnik is the second in charge at Radio Slovenia, and he told me he picked Planica and Kronskogora because he's keenly aware that Radio Slovenia needs to improve its coverage of rural areas.

Radio Slovenia is deeply committed to localism in broadcasting, he says, and that's the idea that a station is doing its job when it serves local audiences with reporting that connects residents and fosters a sense of place. But all too often, that coverage centers on urban areas in the country.

Well, this workshop was a good way for Matej to get his reporters out of their regular routine and to make a connection with an underreported region. Yes, I do believe it's very, very important to tell local stories. I try to find them at my day-to-day work. This is Ida Kus, a reporter in the workshop who works at VAL 202. That's one of Radio Slovenia's channels.

Aida told me she struggles balancing three elements she believes are important in local reporting for a national service like Radio Slovenia. A, make story very local so it touches the people who are involved. B, make the story interesting with the way she delivers information using tape and narrative. And C, make it just enough universal to appeal to people that don't know the whole context.

Now look, it's quite possible if you're not from Slovenia, you may not fully understand the whole context of the story she made at the workshop. Some of the details and cultural references might only make sense to a Slovenian. But frankly, I'm fine with that. That's localism, making stories to serve just the people living in the range of the station's signal.

So while some of the details of the myth of Kekic may fly by you, or the fact that the famous champion skier in the story and what befell her won't ring a bell, Ida says the universal themes she emphasized should ring true. Even though we are different people all around the world, we fundamentally struggle with the same things. Like the struggles the skier faced. She was under all this pressure of...

professional sport and parents and, you know, herself wanting to be the best and perfect all the time. And this is universal, I think. And also the end of the story, which is you don't need to be all that. You are already enough. That's also universal. Here's Ida's story, Fairytale Land.

Here inside you will see the cage. Oh, so you have to go into the cage? Yeah, I have to go inside the cage.

It's actually kind of scary because I'm scared of small places. This is Meta, going through a plastic bag searching for her costume. And you will have to hide yourself because the children are coming. Like it's an open-air theater, okay? Okay. We are in the woods, up in the mountains, about 15 minutes drive from the town of Kranskagora.

The open-air theater is called Kekceva de Zela, the fairy tale land of Kekac. Children and adults come here to relive the story of the shepherd boy called Kekac. He's always saving everybody from Bedantz, the bad guy. The story starts at Bedantz's hut, where he has a young girl locked up in a big cage. Her name is Mojca. This is the character that Meta plays.

In the story, Kikets saves Mojca, but here at the fairy tale land, she's saved by children. The kids unlock her and together they go on a journey through the woods in order to find Kikets. I actually like spending mornings with the kids because I think they're awesome. It's really cool to act in front of the kids because they don't care. They are in the story and they don't care, you can be relaxed.

Adults sometimes look at Mehta dressed as Mojca and they think she looks familiar. But kids, even from elementary school, like a bit older kids, they have no idea.

Meta's full name is Meta Hrovat. She used to be a professional skier, a very good one. She has a big collection of old newspaper articles from the beginning of her career. They have glowing headlines like The Light of Slovenian Skiing Darkness and The Perfection of Mikaela Šifrin.

Meta grew up in Kranska Gora, where everyone was skiing from a very early age. She first stood on her skis before she was a year old. And my mom, she always tell me that

I was better at skiing than at walking at first. It was really fun. I think no one had the ambition to be a really good skier. But she became really good really fast. She won her first World Cup podium when she was only 18. I wanted to be the best, the best skier.

For me, at that time, one podium was just like, "Okay, it's just a start and now we go on." And my parents and all the people around me, they were like, as long as I can remember, they were telling me, "Okay, slow down, slow down, slow down." I never did. Little mistake, she got the ski slide. Oh, no! That's a big hit for Roba.

Oh, that's going to hurt. And then reality hit. The injuries piled up and her results were getting worse. That was one of those whiplash falls that come so quickly. I was becoming average. I was not young and super good anymore, but I was like middle-aged athlete. She was 23 at the time. And the people around you, sometimes you hear that, oh...

Your time has passed. Articles in the newspapers weren't nice anymore either. They often said she did not deliver or that she disappointed. People wrote to her saying she was old and should stop skiing. It became too much to bear, so she decided to quit.

But it was hard. She wasn't as good in anything else as she was in skiing. I imagine how the people are looking at me. Oh, now she's just like, she doesn't know what to do. She's like all the other athletes lost now. So she gave skiing another try. Last summer in 2023, she went to Argentina with the national team to prepare for the new season.

but it didn't feel right. The first time in my life I can say that I was like depressed. When I talked to my dad he was like, "Oh, you know what? Young guys, they went to war and they had to be there." And I was like, "Oh my God, what is wrong with me?" Then I felt like I'm the most spoiled kid on the planet

But I didn't care at that moment because I didn't see the way out. I was just like, I can walk home, it's fine. She bought an airplane ticket and flew home. She decided to quit skiing for good. This time it felt right. She says she's more at peace now than she ever was. Did your parents or grandparents start this? So my parents in 1992, they started with the...

This is the first season Meta is not skiing. She's now taken over the family business, an outdoor agency with bike rentals, rafting, paragliding, and of course, Keketsland. Managing the agency is a real challenge for Meta. She has no background in business, no degree, no real experience. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm scared. Many days that I'm doing everything wrong. And some days she worries. Worries because she's no longer number one, the best. That I'm just an average person, which, like, it doesn't matter. But she seems to be coming to terms with it. She says that's just life. Don't look at me. Let's drink some coffee. Let's drink, we're brave.

Another group of kids is arriving. Mehta tells me to hide behind the hut so I don't disrupt the fairy tale. Around the corner, Mehta climbs into the cage. In her role as Mojtza, the girl who needs rescuing. But as I watch the story unfold again, I'm thinking about something Mehta told me. And it makes me realize...

She's not really Mojca. She's more like Kikac. Kikac is pretty cool. He's so brave. He's not scared of anything. He's the hero of the story. If something is wrong, Kikac will solve the problem. From Fairytale Land, this is Aida Kus.

Thanks, Ida, for letting me feature your story on this episode of Sound School. All the stories made during the workshop may air on the English language service of Radio Slovenia. Ida's story and some of the others will be translated into Slovenian for broadcast on other Radio Slovenia stations.

Ida shared with me a handful of takeaways from the workshop, approaches to audio storytelling she plans to employ in her upcoming reporting. You might find them valuable too. I've included them at the post to this episode at transom.org. Transom.

There is big news to tell you about at Transom, a new executive director, Sophie Crane. I got to know Sophie very well some years ago when she taught with me at the Transom Story Workshop. So I know for certain that Transom is in good hands because she's dedicated to Transom's mission, which as Jay Allison recently put it, social purpose, commitment to art, and principles beyond financial success.

Sophie comes to Transom after a wealth of important and creative work at Pushkin Industries, Frontline, North Country Public Radio, and Rhode Island Public Radio. In short, she is the right person at the right time to take the helm. To get a solid sense of what's ahead for Sophie and Transom, I highly recommend you read her manifesto, The Unlocked Door. You can find it at transom.org.

This is Sound School from PRX and Transom. Genevieve Sponsler and Jay Allison give my scripts the once-over. I record at WCAI in Woods Hole. And even after all my radio travels last month, I still believe Woods Hole is the radio center of the universe. I'm Rob Rosenthal. Thank you for listening.