Stories ring my chimes

I’ve listened to quite a few podcasts over the years and took a look at the ones suggested for this week’s class. I guess it’s the podcasts that tell a story that capture my attention more than the conversational style of some podcasts.

I’ve really enjoyed the work of Transom.org, NPR’s workshop site for audio documentaries. It’s full of great examples from student storytellers using the documentary format to tell personal stories and to illuminate contemporary issues in a complete audio “sentence.” There are great examples on the Transom “shows” site that illustrate the documentary approach that NPR and Transom support. Listening to these programs provides an alternative view of how podcasts are made and how field interviews, ambience, and music can be woven into an audio tapestry. The Transom site also has great sections on storytelling techniques, tools, and ideas. It’s a treasure trove of helpful and inspirational examples.

I also listen to the BBC’s The Documentary podcast series to get a sense of how that network tells stories that we might not hear via North American media. Clearly it’s on the high end of the production scale, but it presents some great ideas and inspiration about how to structure a podcast that is based on a single topic and that integrates multiple voices and information sources.

For fun, I continue to listen to the work of Terry Greene, through Gettin’ Air, the open pedagogy podcast on VoiceEd Radio. Terry has a steady stream of great guests from across the education spectrum, and his podcast has an interesting edge that is very representative of the real-world Terry.