I am planning on making a podcast for my fully-realized draft. My podcast will use personal narrative and scientific evidence to explore the connection between music, memory, and emotion. I was inspired to take on this topic in a podcast format after realizing that, out of the many music podcasts on iTunes, very few gave a voice to fans for sharing how music has affected their lives. I thought that incorporating a scientific perspective into this theme would complement the emotion that dominates personal narratives, and add depth to my piece. I want to be able to explain and demonstrate, for instance, why a song can make someone nostalgic, why we keep revisiting sad songs, and why we often turn to music to express affection.
In terms of my authority as the host, I am aiming to establish myself as a peer to my audience. I am not an expert in any of the areas that I plan to discuss, but rather a storyteller who is aiming to make sense of why music affects us in the way that it does. I anticipate that my audience is equally curious in learning why and how people come to love music, and thus will aim to serve this interest through meaningful research and carefully-selected stories. I also think that my stance as a peer will be the best way to match the podcast’s personal and relatable subject matter.
I am very excited to make a podcast, but also very nervous! I have never done anything like this, and am worried that, at the end of the day, if I can’t figure out how to properly edit and produce, I won’t have a final product. Still, I believe in this project because I think that a podcast is a great format for giving a voice to a topic from which listeners can learn and empathize: the format will hopefully allow me to form a more intimate connection to my audience, as I am using my own, hopefully approachable, speaking voice in order to share a narrative on a rather personal/emotion-based topic. My other experiments, a mini graphic novel and a collection of music essays, seemed to not fit my goal of holistically exploring the emotion behind music as effectively as a podcast. It definitely would have been more of a challenge to include a scientific component into a graphic novel, as well as to authentically share an interview in the voice of its subject in either of these two remaining mediums. I am also just overall a huge fan of many podcasts, and have always been curious about what it would be like to make one of my own, so that is certainly an added benefit.
Again, I think that a podcast gives me the ability to craft a narrative on my own terms, literally in my own voice. This will enhance the personal tone that I am trying to establish, and hopefully inspire listeners to embrace what I am saying as a peer rather than a daunting or overly-technical expert. I have found this to be the case in my own experiences listening to podcasts, as I am much more eager to enjoy and absorb an episode that includes discussion and friendly debate rather than a dry lecture. With this in mind, I think that I face two main challenges: avoiding to talk at my audience, and creating a cohesive story. I do not want to simply read off facts and then sign off, and I also do not want to leave the audience more confused than when they started by offering a final product that does not focus in on a consistent theme. If all things went according to plan, I would likely try to get this podcast published on iTunes, if I did decide to actually distribute it.