How I became an Audio Storyteller in 3 Steps
When I started this class, I initially thought the term would focus on how to write about the audio side of the art industry with music and theater. Instead the class concentrated on turning each of the students into professionals capable of forming, pitching, and producing our very own radio shows in the form of podcasts.
I’d heard maybe three podcasts before this class in my entire life and had next to no audio experience, but by the end of the term, I felt confident in my abilities to produce content like a professional. This transformation was formed through three main steps: listening to other podcasts, hearing the stories of people involved in the process, and actively working on audio projects.
Step 1:
At the beginning of each class and over the course of the term, I listened to a large variety of podcasts. I realized that podcasts could literally be about anything. There were satirical, fictional news podcasts such as Welcome to Night Vale. There were historical retold stories such as Criminal and Many Things Considered (which also included archived radio content). And there were in depth stories of real people and their lives in the form of Radiolab.
One of the most interesting things I realized in listening to this collection of content was the unique styles that make up the different podcasts. Sometimes a podcast was as simple and informal as recording the conversation of three or four people sitting around a table, such as in the case of BBC’s Great Lives and Cambridge University’s Talking Politics. Other times the podcasts were extremely serious and touching as in the case of StoryCorps’ three to four minute personal stories that generally don’t even have an interviewer in the final cut.
Other times the podcasts were extensions of an already created brand such as many of the Guardian’s podcasts, especially those geared toward sports and also as expressed by their very first podcast, the Ricky Gervaise Radio Show, which was simply a downloadable version of an already successful radio show. This kind of podcast diversity allowed me to understand how large the podcasting world really was, and how much opportunity awaited in its depths.
Step 2:
This variety prompted me to discover why people started podcasts, what their goals were, and how they began, which led to the second step. The class allowed time for a number of influential guest lecturers who visited in person or via skype to discuss their own experiences. We had visits from podcast designers, from a journalist in Egypt, and from BBC and NPR executives who all talked about the power of audio and radio. They really believed in this media format, and it inspired me to want to be a part their world.
In addition to their motivation, they explained that podcasting was in fact an easy medium to enter. The mobility of technology and ease of recording has come a long way, so anyone can record a conversation on their phones, and anyone can download a podcast from anywhere in the United States, giving easy access to hundreds of millions of people. Unlike video, audio can be listened to in the background, especially during transportation when many people listen to the radio anyway.
Step 3:
Between my growing understanding of what made up a podcast, the ease of access, and the motivation of the success stories, I was ready for the next step: action. This was probably the most time consuming step as well as uncomfortable step because I was required to get out of my space and enter into someone else’s.
The first thing I had to do was figure out the equipment. Understanding the tools was fairly simple in most instances because the H4n Zoom recorder was really easy to use. The more difficult portion of using the equipment was dealing with the troublesome background noises such as wind gusts, passing cars, and air-conditioning fans which the recorder also captured. Bits of this background noise (also know as ambient sound) can be good sometimes for setting a scene, but when a big truck drives by and completely drowns out the interviewee’s statement, it can be frustrating.
The second part was to figure out what stories I wanted to tell and what questions I needed to ask to find those stories. This got easier as the term went on and as I got more experience. Stories can be found everywhere. They can be found in a museum; they can be found in a flower shop; they can be found in the memories of a grandparent. Or at least, that’s where I started, and the more stories I captured, the more I realized the power of audio.
As these three steps culminated in the class final project — we pitched an idea for our own podcast — I realized this was a medium that I could see myself being a part of for an extended time. During the last few weeks, my final project began to take shape. Especially after listening to the story my grandfather told about his time in Vietnam, I realized that it was a powerful story, and that he was old enough that his great grandchildren would probably never hear it. I also remembered that I hardly knew anything about my own great grandparents, and so I asked myself: why not create a podcast that focused on the stories and identities of those who may not live much longer?
And so was born the podcast that I plan to continue once or twice a month for the rest of the year and hopefully longer: 1000 Years Immortal. It started with a single story, but it won’t end there. I am currently working with a local Eugene Senior Living Community to help tell the stories of the residents whose voices would not be heard otherwise, and in a way, I’m saving their lives for eternity.
This is what makes top audio storytelling.
