Eleanor McDowall is a director of award-winning London-based radio production company Falling Tree Productions and produces radio programs and podcasts, principally for the BBC. One long-running project is Short Cuts, a short-form documentary series hosted by comedian Josie Long that takes listeners on an “adventure in sound.” McDowall—speaking from her attic room-turned-studio, where she often works into the small hours—suggests that this might be a good way to describe her approach to audio more generally, creating one-off programs and much-loved series that take you on a journey, using only sound.

Elle Hunt: What do you look for in a Falling Tree production?

Eleanor McDowall: They are just things that we want to exist in the world. We come up with all the ideas ourselves—we...