Bonus: 'Shiny Happy People,' See You At The Pole, and When Someone Else Tells Your Story

How did When We Were on Fire become an audio drama, and what was it really like for Addie Zierman to have her story adapted? Audio drama creator Lizzie Goldsmith is joined by Addie and voice actor Aria Sivick (who voices Addie in the production) to talk about what this project means to them and how it all started. They also talk about toxic relationships, religious trauma, the legacy of the book, and other themes and key moments from the first episode.

Lizzie talked about her soundscape “What It Sounds Like To ______ Your Faith.” We mentioned Pete Enns, who is one of the hosts of the podcast The Bible For Normal People. This is the Spanish worship song that’s featured in episode 1. Addie recently wrote about Teen Mania and the Amazon docuseries Shiny Happy People, as well as more about what it was like to have her story turned into an audio drama. We also discussed See You At The Pole.

This full-cast audio drama is based on the book When We Were on Fire: A Memoir of Consuming Faith, Tangled Love, and Starting Over by Addie Zierman, and was dramatized, directed, produced, and sound designed by Lizzie Goldsmith. You can reach Lizzie at [e-mail]

Original music was composed by Frank Sheffield. Podcast cover art by Skylar White. Full credits for this podcast are here.

You can find out more about this production and the cast and crew at whenwewereonfirepodcast.com, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

Follow Addie’s work at addiezierman.com and addiezierman.substack.com.

Special thanks to Addie Zierman, Aria Sivick, Miranda Gardner, and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.