Piece Comment

Review of The Education of Teens: An Interview With Shelby Knox


This is one of a series of pieces produced by Youth Spin, a youth radio program in Austin, Texas aimed at high school students. It is a straight interview by producer Zoe Cordes Selbin with sex education activist Shelby Knox, but we don't know that until the very end of the piece, when the host and guest are introduced; there is no setup, and it plunges straight into the interview. The information presented is good, but the presentation suffers; many of the questions sound as if they are being read from a script, and don't necessarily flow as a conversation. The piece would be improved if there were an introduction, and if the interviewer listened to the responses before asking the next question. But it's a good effort from this group of young people on a good topic.