Latest news with #TheAtlantic
an hour ago
- Entertainment
Julia Whelan has narrated 600 audiobooks and counting. So why isn't she paid like it?
Chances are, you've heard Julia Whelan's voice. She's the award-winning narrator behind more than 600 audiobooks by a long list of bestselling authors including Taylor Jenkins Reid, Emily Henry, Michael Crichton, V.E. Schwab and Kristin Hannah. She's also narrated long-form articles for The New Yorker, The Atlantic and Vanity Fair. You may have read her own writing, too. Whelan's first novel, 2018's 'My Oxford Year,' has been adapted to a Netflix film, out Friday, starring Sofia Carson. The story actually began as a screenplay by Allison Burnett and had been gestating in development for years. Whelan was brought in to help with the script because she had studied abroad at Oxford her junior year of college. Producers then asked if she thought it would make a good book. 'I was like, 'Nothing has ever wanted to be a book more. Please let me do this,'' she recalls. It ended up an international bestseller. Her second novel, 2022's 'Thank You For Listening,' was critically praised. ('Thank You For Listening' is about a former actor-turned-audiobook narrator who falls in love with another audiobook narrator.) You may have even seen Whelan on TV — she began her career as a child actor, with roles in 'Fifteen and Pregnant' and on the series 'Once and Again.' Despite her various pursuits, though, she has no plans to leave narration behind. 'I feel like I was born to do it,' she said. 'It's everything that I love and that I'm good at and everything I want to be doing.' That's a good thing, because the audiobook industry is growing. Statista projects this year it will reach $9.84 billion because of smartphones, the increased popularity of audio content and people's desire to multitask. Despite the appetite for audiobooks, for narrators, 'the financial aspect makes zero sense,' says Whelan. She's founded her own publishing company, Audiobrary, to help narrators get paid more fairly. Whelan, who has narrated as many as 70 books in one year, spoke to The Associated Press about the audiobook industry, Audiobrary and her own writing. Answers are edited for clarity and brevity. WHELAN: The only reason I was doing 70 books a year was because that's how many books you have to do when you're first starting out to keep your head above water because the rates are low. It would be OK if there were a kickback for success, but narrators don't get royalties. As we've seen the industry grow and as we've seen the cache of certain narrators expand, and we know listeners will seek out audiobooks that their favorite narrators record. It doesn't make sense to me that we should be cut out of the long-term financial benefit of success. Audiobrary does a profit-share model with writers, who I also feel don't get enough percentage of the pie, and a royalty share for narrators. We are also a direct-to-consumer retail channel, so when you buy directly from us, you're not giving 50-75% of that sale to a retailer. You're giving it directly to the people who made the product. WHELAN: I create character lists. I create pronunciation lists, and I do the necessary research for that. The prep time can vary book to book significantly, depending on how complicated the book is. WHELAN: It ruins everything. I'm probably the only person left who wears a mask on a plane at this point, but everything falls apart if I get sick. You're messed up for three or four months. Everything just gets delayed, especially when I was doing 70 books a year, there's no room for error there. WHELAN: At this point, there's still enough work to go around and they are doing the books that have the budget frankly to use them. But I think that audiobook fans — not your casual audiobook user, but fans — have favorite narrators and they're going to look for books by those narrators. So, in stunt-casting situations, sometimes someone is incredible at it, and they are perfect for the book. But sometimes it feels like a very craven, just marketing ploy. I don't feel infringed upon by them, but I do worry about a future situation where most of the work is going to AI. I don't lie awake at night worried, but everyone's threatened right now. It's very, very hard to even begin to predict what the future could look like. WHELAN: I think the kids would say that it's ableist to say that if you didn't read a book with your eyeballs, then you didn't read it, considering many people have many limitations that would prevent them from physically reading a book. So then are you telling them they've never read a book before? Actual data and studies show that listening to a book actually triggers the same response in the brain as reading it, and that the interpretation and understanding of that book is on par with having read it. WHELAN: There's been about four ideas that are constantly in rotation, but I think I've narrowed it down. I think I'm ready to at least start exploring one of them at the beginning of next year. WHELAN: I very much think we could. I have said no up to this point because, this time around, I want to be very creatively involved. There's just too many things about audiobooks that someone could get wrong not knowing anything about the industry. I want be involved so I'm willing to hold onto it until the right situation comes along.
Winnipeg Free Press
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Julia Whelan has narrated 600 audiobooks and counting. So why isn't she paid like it?
Chances are, you've heard Julia Whelan's voice. She's the award-winning narrator behind more than 600 audiobooks by a long list of bestselling authors including Taylor Jenkins Reid,Emily Henry, Michael Crichton, V.E. Schwab and Kristin Hannah. She's also narrated long-form articles for The New Yorker, The Atlantic and Vanity Fair. You may have read her own writing, too. Whelan's first novel, 2018's 'My Oxford Year,' has been adapted to a Netflix film, out Friday, starring Sofia Carson. The story actually began as a screenplay by Allison Burnett and had been gestating in development for years. Whelan was brought in to help with the script because she had studied abroad at Oxford her junior year of college. Producers then asked if she thought it would make a good book. 'I was like, 'Nothing has ever wanted to be a book more. Please let me do this,'' she recalls. It ended up an international bestseller. Her second novel, 2022's 'Thank You For Listening,' was critically praised. ('Thank You For Listening' is about a former actor-turned-audiobook narrator who falls in love with another audiobook narrator.) You may have even seen Whelan on TV — she began her career as a child actor, with roles in 'Fifteen and Pregnant' and on the series 'Once and Again.' Despite her various pursuits, though, she has no plans to leave narration behind. 'I feel like I was born to do it,' she said. 'It's everything that I love and that I'm good at and everything I want to be doing.' That's a good thing, because the audiobook industry is growing. Statista projects this year it will reach $9.84 billion because of smartphones, the increased popularity of audio content and people's desire to multitask. Despite the appetite for audiobooks, for narrators, 'the financial aspect makes zero sense,' says Whelan. She's founded her own publishing company, Audiobrary, to help narrators get paid more fairly. Whelan, who has narrated as many as 70 books in one year, spoke to The Associated Press about the audiobook industry, Audiobrary and her own writing. Answers are edited for clarity and brevity. AP: Why did you start your own audiobook publishing company? WHELAN: The only reason I was doing 70 books a year was because that's how many books you have to do when you're first starting out to keep your head above water because the rates are low. It would be OK if there were a kickback for success, but narrators don't get royalties. As we've seen the industry grow and as we've seen the cache of certain narrators expand, and we know listeners will seek out audiobooks that their favorite narrators record. It doesn't make sense to me that we should be cut out of the long-term financial benefit of success. Audiobrary does a profit-share model with writers, who I also feel don't get enough percentage of the pie, and a royalty share for narrators. We are also a direct-to-consumer retail channel, so when you buy directly from us, you're not giving 50-75% of that sale to a retailer. You're giving it directly to the people who made the product. AP: How do you prepare before narrating? WHELAN: I create character lists. I create pronunciation lists, and I do the necessary research for that. The prep time can vary book to book significantly, depending on how complicated the book is. AP: If you feel a cold coming on, do you panic? Do you have to protect your voice? WHELAN: It ruins everything. I'm probably the only person left who wears a mask on a plane at this point, but everything falls apart if I get sick. You're messed up for three or four months. Everything just gets delayed, especially when I was doing 70 books a year, there's no room for error there. AP: There are big-name celebrities who narrate audiobooks. Do you worry about them taking jobs? WHELAN: At this point, there's still enough work to go around and they are doing the books that have the budget frankly to use them. But I think that audiobook fans — not your casual audiobook user, but fans — have favorite narrators and they're going to look for books by those narrators. So, in stunt-casting situations, sometimes someone is incredible at it, and they are perfect for the book. But sometimes it feels like a very craven, just marketing ploy. I don't feel infringed upon by them, but I do worry about a future situation where most of the work is going to AI. I don't lie awake at night worried, but everyone's threatened right now. It's very, very hard to even begin to predict what the future could look like. AP: What do you say to people who are almost sheepish about admit ting to listening to an audiobook instead of reading it? WHELAN: I think the kids would say that it's ableist to say that if you didn't read a book with your eyeballs, then you didn't read it, considering many people have many limitations that would prevent them from physically reading a book. So then are you telling them they've never read a book before? Actual data and studies show that listening to a book actually triggers the same response in the brain as reading it, and that the interpretation and understanding of that book is on par with having read it. AP: When do you see yourself writing another novel? WHELAN: There's been about four ideas that are constantly in rotation, but I think I've narrowed it down. I think I'm ready to at least start exploring one of them at the beginning of next year. AP: Do you think 'Thank You for Listening' could ever be adapted for the screen? WHELAN: I very much think we could. I have said no up to this point because, this time around, I want to be very creatively involved. There's just too many things about audiobooks that someone could get wrong not knowing anything about the industry. I want be involved so I'm willing to hold onto it until the right situation comes along.
Hamilton Spectator
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
Julia Whelan has narrated 600 audiobooks and counting. So why isn't she paid like it?
Chances are, you've heard Julia Whelan's voice. She's the award-winning narrator behind more than 600 audiobooks by a long list of bestselling authors including Taylor Jenkins Reid,Emily Henry, Michael Crichton, V.E. Schwab and Kristin Hannah. She's also narrated long-form articles for The New Yorker, The Atlantic and Vanity Fair. You may have read her own writing, too. Whelan's first novel, 2018's 'My Oxford Year,' has been adapted to a Netflix film, out Friday, starring Sofia Carson. The story actually began as a screenplay by Allison Burnett and had been gestating in development for years. Whelan was brought in to help with the script because she had studied abroad at Oxford her junior year of college. Producers then asked if she thought it would make a good book. 'I was like, 'Nothing has ever wanted to be a book more. Please let me do this,'' she recalls. It ended up an international bestseller. Her second novel, 2022's 'Thank You For Listening,' was critically praised. ('Thank You For Listening' is about a former actor-turned-audiobook narrator who falls in love with another audiobook narrator.) You may have even seen Whelan on TV — she began her career as a child actor, with roles in 'Fifteen and Pregnant' and on the series 'Once and Again.' Despite her various pursuits, though, she has no plans to leave narration behind. 'I feel like I was born to do it,' she said. 'It's everything that I love and that I'm good at and everything I want to be doing.' That's a good thing, because the audiobook industry is growing. Statista projects this year it will reach $9.84 billion because of smartphones, the increased popularity of audio content and people's desire to multitask. Despite the appetite for audiobooks, for narrators, 'the financial aspect makes zero sense,' says Whelan. She's founded her own publishing company, Audiobrary, to help narrators get paid more fairly. Whelan, who has narrated as many as 70 books in one year, spoke to The Associated Press about the audiobook industry, Audiobrary and her own writing. Answers are edited for clarity and brevity. AP: Why did you start your own audiobook publishing company? WHELAN: The only reason I was doing 70 books a year was because that's how many books you have to do when you're first starting out to keep your head above water because the rates are low. It would be OK if there were a kickback for success, but narrators don't get royalties. As we've seen the industry grow and as we've seen the cache of certain narrators expand, and we know listeners will seek out audiobooks that their favorite narrators record. It doesn't make sense to me that we should be cut out of the long-term financial benefit of success. Audiobrary does a profit-share model with writers, who I also feel don't get enough percentage of the pie, and a royalty share for narrators. We are also a direct-to-consumer retail channel, so when you buy directly from us, you're not giving 50-75% of that sale to a retailer. You're giving it directly to the people who made the product. AP: How do you prepare before narrating? WHELAN: I create character lists. I create pronunciation lists, and I do the necessary research for that. The prep time can vary book to book significantly, depending on how complicated the book is. AP: If you feel a cold coming on, do you panic? Do you have to protect your voice? WHELAN: It ruins everything. I'm probably the only person left who wears a mask on a plane at this point, but everything falls apart if I get sick. You're messed up for three or four months. Everything just gets delayed, especially when I was doing 70 books a year, there's no room for error there. AP: There are big-name celebrities who narrate audiobooks. Do you worry about them taking jobs? WHELAN: At this point, there's still enough work to go around and they are doing the books that have the budget frankly to use them. But I think that audiobook fans — not your casual audiobook user, but fans — have favorite narrators and they're going to look for books by those narrators. So, in stunt-casting situations, sometimes someone is incredible at it, and they are perfect for the book. But sometimes it feels like a very craven, just marketing ploy. I don't feel infringed upon by them, but I do worry about a future situation where most of the work is going to AI. I don't lie awake at night worried, but everyone's threatened right now. It's very, very hard to even begin to predict what the future could look like. AP: What do you say to people who are almost sheepish about admit ting to listening to an audiobook instead of reading it? WHELAN: I think the kids would say that it's ableist to say that if you didn't read a book with your eyeballs, then you didn't read it, considering many people have many limitations that would prevent them from physically reading a book. So then are you telling them they've never read a book before? Actual data and studies show that listening to a book actually triggers the same response in the brain as reading it, and that the interpretation and understanding of that book is on par with having read it. AP: When do you see yourself writing another novel? WHELAN: There's been about four ideas that are constantly in rotation, but I think I've narrowed it down. I think I'm ready to at least start exploring one of them at the beginning of next year. AP: Do you think 'Thank You for Listening' could ever be adapted for the screen? WHELAN: I very much think we could. I have said no up to this point because, this time around, I want to be very creatively involved. There's just too many things about audiobooks that someone could get wrong not knowing anything about the industry. I want be involved so I'm willing to hold onto it until the right situation comes along.
Atlantic
13 hours ago
- General
- Atlantic
The Birth of the Attention Economy
This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic 's archives to contextualize the present. Sign up here. Early in the Civil War, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. announced in The Atlantic that the necessities of life had been reduced to two things: bread and the newspaper. Trying to keep up with what Holmes called the 'excitements of the time,' civilians lived their days newspaper to newspaper, hanging on the latest reports. Reading anything else felt beside the point. The newspaper was an inescapable force, Holmes wrote; it ruled by 'divine right of its telegraphic dispatches.' Holmes didn't think he was describing some permanent modern condition—information dependency as a way of life. The newspaper's reign would end with the war, he thought. And when it did, he and others could return to more high-minded literary pursuits—such as the book by an 'illustrious author' that he'd put down when hostilities broke out. Nearly 40 years after Holmes wrote those words, newspapers were still on the march. Writing in 1900, Arthur Reed Kimball warned in The Atlantic of an ' Invasion of Journalism,' as newspapers' volume and influence grew only more intense. Their readers' intellect, Kimball argued, had been diminished. Coarse language was corrupting speech and writing, and miscellaneous news was making miscellaneous minds. The newspaper-ification of the American mind was complete. The rise of the cheap, daily newspaper in the 19th century created the first true attention economy—an endless churn of spectacle and sensation that remade how Americans engaged with the world. Although bound by the physical limits of print, early newspaper readers' habits were our habits: People craved novelty, skimmed for the latest, let their attention dart from story to story. And with the onset of this new way of being came its first critics. In our current moment, when readers need to be persuaded to read an article before they post about it online, 19th-century harrumphs over the risks of newspaper reading seem quaint. Each new technology since the newspaper—film, radio, television, computers, the internet, search engines, social media, artificial intelligence—has sparked the same anxieties about how our minds and souls will be changed. Mostly, we've endured. But these anxieties have always hinted at the possibility that one day, we'll reach the endgame—the point at which words and the work of the mind will have become redundant. Worries over journalism's invasive qualities are as old as the modern daily newspaper. In New York, where the American variant first took shape in the 1830s, enterprising editors found a formula for success; they covered fires, murders, swindles, scandals, steamboat explosions, and other acts in the city's daily circus. As James Gordon Bennett Sr., the editor of the New York Herald and the great pioneer of the cheap daily, said, the mission was 'to startle or amuse.' Small in size and packed with tiny type, the papers themselves didn't look particularly amusing, but the newsboys selling them in the street were startling enough. Even if you didn't buy a paper, a boy in rags was going to yell its contents at you. These cheap newspapers had relatively modest urban circulations, but they suggested a new mode of living, an acceleration of time rooted in an expectation of constant novelty. Henry David Thoreau and other contrarians saw the implications and counseled the careful conservation of attention. 'We should treat our minds,' Thoreau wrote in an essay posthumously published in The Atlantic, 'that is, ourselves, as innocent and ingenuous children, whose guardians we are, and be careful what objects and what subjects we thrust on their attention.' This included newspapers. 'Read not the Times,' he urged. 'Read the Eternities.' But the problem was only getting worse. The Eternities were steadily losing ground to the Times—and to the Posts, the Standards, the Gazettes, the Worlds, and the Examiners. In the last third of the 19th century, the volume of printed publications grew exponentially. Even as more 'serious' newspapers such as the New-York Tribune entered the marketplace, the cheap daily continued to sell thousands of copies each day. Newspapers, aided by faster methods of typesetting and by cheaper printing, became twice-daily behemoths, with Sunday editions that could be biblical in length. A British observer marveled at the turn of the century that Americans, 'the busiest people in the world,' had so much time to read each day. American commentators of high and furrowed brow worried less that newspapers were being left unread and more that they were actually being devoured. The evidence was everywhere—in snappier sermons on Sundays, in direct and terse orations at colleges, in colloquial expressions in everyday usage, in the declining influence of certain journals and magazines (including The Atlantic). If I may apply what Kimball deplored as 'newspaper directness,' people seemed to be getting dumber. Those who were reared on slop and swill wanted ever more slop and swill—and the newspapers were all too ready to administer twice-daily feedings. Writing in The Atlantic in 1891 on the subject of ' Journalism and Literature,' William James Stillman saw a broad and 'devastating influence of the daily paper' on Americans' 'mental development.' No less grave were the political implications of a populace marinating in half-truths, seeking the general confirmation of what it already believed. In such a market, journalists and their papers had an incentive to perpetuate falsehoods. Was all of this hand-wringing a little too much? Has not one generation predicted the doom of the next with each successive innovation? Socrates warned that writing would weaken thought and give only the appearance of wisdom. Eighteenth-century novels occasioned panic as critics worried that their readers would waste their days on vulgar fictions. And as for newspapers, didn't Ernest Hemingway famously take 'newspaper directness' and make it the basis for perhaps the most influential literary style of the 20th century? Each innovation, even those that risk dimming our broader mental capacity, can stimulate innovations of its own. But at the risk of sounding like those 19th-century critics, this time really does seem different. When machines can so agreeably perform all of our intellectual labors and even fulfill our emotional needs, we should wonder what will become of our minds. No one has to spend much time imagining what we might like to read or pretend to read; algorithms already know. Chatbots, meanwhile, can as readily make our emails sound like Hemingway as they can instruct us on how to perform devil worship and self-mutilation. Thoreau may have never divined the possibility of artificial intelligence, but he did fear minds smoothed out by triviality and ease. He imagined the intellect as a road being paved over—' macadamized,' in 19th-century parlance—'its foundation broken into fragments for the wheels of travel to roll over.' 'If I am to be a thoroughfare,' Thoreau wrote, 'I prefer that it be of the mountain-brooks, the Parnassian streams, and not the town-sewers.'
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First Post
14 hours ago
- Politics
- First Post
Trump suspects Netanyahu prolonging Gaza war for political gain, but unlikely to act: Report
President Trump increasingly suspects that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is extending the war in Gaza for political gain and obstructing ceasefire efforts, according to a report, citing two unnamed administration officials read more President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrive for a news conference in the East Room of the White House, on Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington. AP File US President Donald Trump increasingly suspects that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is extending the war in Gaza for political gain and obstructing ceasefire efforts, according to The Atlantic report, citing two unnamed administration officials. Despite these concerns, the officials said it is unlikely Trump will take any serious action against Netanyahu. A White House official told the publication that 'there is no significant rupture' in the relationship, adding, 'allies can sometimes disagree, even in a very real way.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Prime Minister Netanyahu's stance is complicating President Trump's efforts to stabilise the region and advance trade and business initiatives, reported The Atlantic. According to the report, citing US officials, one reason for envoy Steve Witkoff's current visit to Israel is to conduct an independent review of Israel's aid delivery to Gaza, amid Trump's rising concern over reports of a growing hunger crisis. Despite feeling slighted by Netanyahu, President Trump's frustration has not led to any major change in US policy. He continues to hold Hamas responsible for the latest collapse in ceasefire negotiations and has declined to align with France and the United Kingdom, who this week pledged to recognise a Palestinian state if Israel fails to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza and commit to a peace process. On Thursday morning, seemingly trying to set aside his differences with Netanyahu, Trump wrote on Truth Social: 'The fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!!' A few weeks ago, President Trump and PM Netanyahu exchanged gestures of symbolic significance: Trump publicly criticised the 'out-of-control' prosecutors handling Netanyahu's corruption trial, while Netanyahu nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize he has long sought. However, the goodwill from these moves quickly faded, overshadowed by deeper tensions between the two leaders. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In recent days, Trump has openly distanced himself from Netanyahu, rejecting his efforts to downplay Gaza's famine. Disturbed by images of starving children, Trump sent envoy Steve Witkoff to pressure Israel on aid access. The White House was also caught off guard by Israeli strikes in Syria and a missile that hit Gaza's only Catholic church. With inputs from agencies
