In the This American Life piece entitled Fear of Sleep, most of Ira Glass’s story telling techniques are used.  What worked for me was the use of what Glass calls the 2 building blocks. The first is to have an anecdote – a series of actions or events.  In the story, we are given the location of the story (Brooklyn, NY), a description of the furniture that is out on the curb for trash, then invited up into one of the apartments where the reporter described the roaches as, “everywhere; sauntering down the walls and in the drawers.”  The actual movement from curb to inside helped add to the series of actions.  

Another element that worked well and made for a better story, I think, was the use of music that was added to the interview post production.  When the second lady was interviewed, this time bedbugs being the culprit, a very creepy soundtrack that evoked movement, restlessness was laid over parts of the interview when the woman was describing the bugs and how they feed.

The reporter in this piece used her natural voice, I think, and asked questions or made requests during the interview like, “show me some bugs; did it hurt; what can you do about them?”  The reporter asking these types of questions during the interview used Glass’s second building block of a good story – a moment of reflection, where any question that is raised is answered.  Some questions were answered right away by the woman being interviewed and some were answered by the reporter post production.