People reveal things when they 'feel that you really care'

Telling a person's story is not unlike being a biologist, says Jay Allison. "You go out in the world and encounter actual life and you collect it...and you bring it back and you study it and then you figure out how to present it," he says. Allison, an independent journalist who produces the Moth Radio Hour and founded Transom.org, shares his Brief but Spectacular on finding stories.