Written by Vinay Ranganathan, Photo courtesy of Benjamin Frisch
Benjamin Frisch sets up for his interview and his dog, a recent addition, lingers somewhere in the background. Frisch is a SCAD alumnus who earned his B.F.A in sequential art in 2009 and his master’s in 2011. Frisch currently lives in Brooklyn, NY and works at Slate Magazine, which publishes news, politics, culture and podcasts. He’s also a podcast host for Decoder Ring.
Frisch has many memories from SCAD, some of which involve his time at District and SCADRadio. Frisch started his media journey with SCAD Radio. “I got involved in District through SCAD Radio, doing radio news stuff and then at some point [I] started writing stuff. At first I just started writing small features,” Frisch said. “I did a few pieces that were crossover radio and print pieces and it was, I think, a very good experience.”
Some of Frisch’s pieces at District include a column called Worth it, where he made recommendations, as well as a piece on a Savannah Bike Co-Op which won multiple awards. These pieces helped inflame his passion for storytelling and media.
“There was a real push towards multimedia storytelling in journalism and the idea of doing a radio piece and then also a print piece was actually relatively new, like people hadn’t done that,” Frisch said.
Frisch explained that his original post-grad goal was to write a book. “After SCAD I drew a graphic novel that was published. I’m very proud of it.” Frisch said. His dream came true, but he shifted his career towards news and media. “Part of it was the realization that I think to some extent, my taste and Perspective is not necessarily, naturally suited to the audience that reads comics.”
“One of the things that was really appealing about radio and podcasts to me is they’re my perspective and in podcasts it actually fits in much more closely to the mainstream of that world.” Frisch said. Frisch described radio as an avenue for storytelling as well, just like comics, “My work in radio often feels like a continuation of my work in comics. ”
“I use my cartooning and storytelling training every day when I’m working on a story or editing,” Frisch said. “It’s a continuation. It doesn’t feel like I just totally switched and did something different”.
When asked about tips for current SCAD students Frisch said, “Have a perspective. I think maybe the most important thing is to have a point of view and to think through [it] and question your point of view.”
“You should have a perspective and a point of view and a set of interests that animate you. I just think that that is what makes somebody a good artist or a good journalist or a good thinker. You have to have an animating set of ideas or else, you’re just going to be making bland work no matter what the medium is,” Frisch said.
