Method #11 Podcasting

I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the different podcasts. One of my favorite radio shows is This American Life, which is adult storytelling at its best. I have intended to either subscribe via RSS or download some to my Ipod, and this assignment has created the impetus to do that.

I chose a series of four different true stories about books. The week's theme was "The Book that Changed Your Life." A young playwright, Alexia Young, grew up reading her grandfather's books about techniques for writing plays. She only read the books in which he wrote comments. Alexia's grandfather thought that Moss Hart's autobiography, Act One, provided important clues on how to change your life and served as a blueprint for life.

Alexia was able to meet Moss Hart's widow, Kitty Carlisle, and tell her how much she admired Hart although Hart died before Alexia was born. This book served as a comfort and support through Alexia's adolesence and college life.

The other podcast was about a construction worker who started collecting plates related to the Lewis and Clark expedition. Once his collection was complete, he began collecting books about the expedition although he was not a reader. Fourteen years later he had the largest collection in the U.S. mortgaging his home and living on a meager income. After completing his collection, the man began reading his books and eventually became a Lewis and Clark scholar. He sold his collection to the Lewis and Clark College in Portland, retired from his construction job, and began to study full time. He visits his books and relishes in learning more.

I thought that I would share these stories with the creative writing teacher so that the students would have a prompt to write about meaningful books they encountered as children or adolescents. Then they could create a podcast and read their story for the creative writing archive.

Speech classes could also create podcasts, and, of course, students could always provide book reviews about the library's books. There are numerous possibilities, and I am looking forward to eperimenting with this medium.