Across our three seasons, Gray Area employs a dynamic and highly produced nonfiction storytelling style framed by narration, secondary subjects, historic tape, evocative ambient audio and soundtrack.
A key distinction of our work: although we are professional journalists and co-producers, we work in close and transparent partnership with each stories’ characters, welcoming their input as production partners and cultural advisors.
These partnerships ensure that the the tone, content and overall message of our work together reflects their voice and story in a way that they are proud to share themselves. This may include decisions about how potentially triggering subjects or content may be framed, incorporated or omitted; and these decisions guide our research, documentation and reference gathering.
Our work is strengthened by this belief that “subjects” can and should take a lead in telling their own stories; our role is to provide the professional expertise and access to journalistic platforms that ensure audiences are primed to listen, learn from and act upon what these lifelong activists have to say.
A core aspect of our mission and message, this kind of respectful, trauma-aware collaboration informs how journalists across the media can work more honestly and respectfully with people who have long been marginalized by reporters and other gatekeepers.
Gray Area is a project of Voices of Monterey Bay, a bilingual, bicultural nonprofit news site.
This season, we’re listening to our elders.
This season, the resident audio documentarians at Gray Area Podcast are introducing readers and listeners to some of our era’s most important (but perhaps lesser-known) ELDERS. They’re people who’ve survived systemic injustice and historical trauma, yet are showing new generations what they’ve learned about how to address and prevent those kinds of harm.
JUST RELEASED: EPISODE 2, TRAVELS WITH CORBETT
Corbett O’Toole is 72 and lives in a van in the desert. But her life story embodies the strength of empowered disabled people who are agents of change, people who, like Corbett, have made history and continue to do so.
Our first — and award-winning — episode for our ELDERS season is titled Uncle John.
Uncle John and Travels With Corbett were produced as a project for the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s California Health Equity Fellowship.
We make award-winning documentaries for your ears.
ABOUT GRAY AREA
We are the auntie-and-niece team of Julie Reynolds and Mara J. (yes it’s for Julia) Reynolds, telling the stories of people who are trying to get beyond labels of right and wrong or good and evil to get to something even bigger: redemption.
As Mara says, it’ll make you cry — but in a good way. So please check out Seasons One, Two. and Three.
FIND US
Oh, and be sure to listen and follow (always for free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Stitcher and pretty much everywhere fine podcasts are found. If you like Gray Area, please rate or review us on Apple Podcasts. It helps us reach more people.