Blog Post #5
The podcasts I chose for this blog post were three episodes of This American Life: listened to back-to-back in the airplane back home for spring break. They were episode 636: “I Thought It Would Be Easier,” episode 638: “Rom-Com,” and episode 635: “Chip in My Brain.” All of these podcasts have elements that reflect the notes we took on the podcasting process, especially in terms of story structure and the way the respective themes are presented. While This American Life is a relatively by-the-book inquiry-based podcast (quite literally, in fact, since it is one of the podcasts featured in Out on the Wire), two of these three episodes have a somewhat unconventional format. While the typical This American Life episode has three or four acts that focus on different aspects or interpretations of an overlying theme, episode 636 only has two acts, with each one focusing on how politicians from both of the primary American political parties are getting by a year into Trump’s presidency. Episode 635 forgoes the multiple-act structure and spends the entire run of the podcast detailing the story of a boy’s indoctrination into a two-person cult. Despite the variant structures of these podcasts, they still demonstrate the core organizational elements we outlined in class. They begin their narratives by introducing characters, framing a conflict, and detailing an event or issue that leads to action. Episode 638 goes about this in a fairly conventional way for the podcast, in that it has several stories all based around the concept of romantic comedy; each act is a different take on the “rom-com” that involves simple but dynamic characters engaging in activities motivated by issues that arise in their lives. Episode 635 does this in an even simpler way, since there are fewer characters and inciting incidents given by the fact that it is only one story instead of several. That being said, the narrative is much more dynamic, since it has the entire hour to grow and develop. Regardless, it still follows the basic podcast structure.
The music in all the podcasts also follows the guidelines we laid out in class, in that they appear as “white space” to give the listener a break, while also acting as a way to orient our emotions. The music in all three of the podcasts is relatively minor, to the extent that I have trouble remembering any specific song or clip they used in any of the podcasts. This is likely intentional; the music is there to punctuate the stories, not overshadow them. While I do not remember any of the songs, I remember vividly the emotions I felt listening to the different stories. I am actually quite curious as to how much thought went in to choosing the music and sound clips, since they seem to perfectly thread the needle between effectively amplifying the mood while being forgettable enough to not weigh down the podcast or get in the way of the narrative. That being said, having a really great song in the middle of a podcast does not seem like the kind of thing that could take away from the story. I guess the work they put in to finding music is secondary to crafting the story though, so having good music is not much of a concern. One thing I often pick up on while listening to This American Life is that the songs they put at the end of the podcast always have lyrics that relate in some way to the theme, and are almost always lighthearted regardless of how serious or depressing the last act is. I see the value of ending the podcast on a good note, though.
As far as how these stories must have been pitched, I can easily envision how each one must have been presented. For 636, there must be countless stories of politicians having trouble with seemingly simple things, so getting a few stories from across the aisle and presenting them as emulating Trump’s famous “I thought it would be easier” quote seems like a no-brainer. With 638, they often do a romance-themed episode for Valentine’s day, so compiling romance stories and spinning them so that they are reminiscent of rom-com movies also seems pretty intuitive. As for 635, the story itself is so outrageous that it almost seems to have written itself. It has a clear timeline, a compelling cast of characters, and an intriguing conflict. Best of all, it lends itself to larger themes of growing up and dealing with the past. All of the questions that I had as a listener were asked at one point or another in interviews, and it ultimately led to a satisfying conclusion.