The Importance of Audio Stories

“Dynamic microphone recording studio“/ CC0 1.0

I decided to listen to a couple of the finalists from NPRs “Best College Podcast in America” Series to see what they did in their podcasts that can be used to teach other how to make a compelling audio story. I chose The Monsters We Create and Turning The Page because they’re both personal to me in different ways.

The first one covers a serious mental illness, Schizoaffective Disorder which is horribly misunderstood by the general public. I have Borderline Personality Disorder which is also very misunderstood by the general public. I was very intrigued with what the “point” of the project was.

For Turning The Page, I have always been a huge believer in academic and intellectual freedoms so I do not support book banning whatsoever. I care very deeply about this topic and will always be interested in seeing what others opinions are about the topic even if I do not agree.

The Monsters We Create is about Michael Vargas’s experience with schizoaffective disorder. In the podcast he detail his early life and how his culture influenced his parents perception of Vargas’s disorder. His mom used to think he could communicate with ghost. Eventually, he gets his diagnosis and is struggling through life because of other peoples perception of the disorder. He decides to do “on the street” interviews which are really casual and short with fellow students and ask them what they think about schizophrenic people and the responses were mixed, most didn’t had a stereotypical idea of the disorder but didn’t really mind if there was someone on campus with it. He also asked experts to debunk a lot of the common misconceptions around schizoaffective disorder to not only spread awareness to the issue but to humanize the people with the disorder.

What is so interesting about Vargas’s show though is how the story affected the way he decided to play with the audio in the podcast. In the description, he specifically asks listeners to listen with headphones because throughout there is a quieter voice that is supposed to mimic what auditory hallucinations are like. Through audio effects the voice is usually only played in one ear and with less ambient noise under it. It makes it feel as if the voice is in your head.

The other podcast I listened to was Turning The Page by Beatrice Phillips. Philips covers the topic of book banning in a more traditionally journalistic way. I think this podcast mimics the sound and structure of a typical NPR show actually. She structures the show with clear chapters. The music is used as transitions and kind of fades to the back. Interestingly, the cold open for the episode is actually audio from a Arkansas Public Library meeting about book banning. For this project they interviewed president of Moms For Liberty, Tiffany Justice, president of the American Library Association, Kathy Lester, and a targeted author whose book has been challenged and banned, Alex Gino. Doing this kind of coverage is mimicking the ways in which journalist get every side of the story and makes the host seem less bias about the topic they are covering.

For my own project:

I am going to be doing 2 interviews with 1 professor and 1 student who have some memory of connection in a bar. I want to get at core memories and times of connection through this project to show how bars are still an important place for connection.

The professor I am going to talk to is going to tell me about how during 9/11, what seemed like the entire campus was in the campus bar because it was the only place with a TV. They all watched the reporting of what had happened together and I think this is a really important story to tell not just because bars are places connection but also because this story proves how bars have even been important on this campus.

I am still figuring out who else I want to talk to.

In order for the project to be interesting and compelling I need a plan of what I am going to do in between the interviewed segments and figuring how to condense very long conversations into something much shorter. It is hard to know what exactly is going to be important until there is audio to work with. I also want to try and use bar ambiance as a underscore but I will have to find a way for it to not be loud and distracting. I want this project to also Feel like being in this place and create a more intimate connection with listeners.