{"id":941,"date":"2018-04-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/lessons-learned-through-the-podcast-making-process\/"},"modified":"2020-04-08T22:43:35","modified_gmt":"2020-04-08T22:43:35","slug":"lessons-learned-through-the-podcast-making-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/colleges.claremont.edu\/thehive\/lessons-learned-through-the-podcast-making-process\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons Learned Through the Podcast-Making Process"},"content":{"rendered":"

By DD Maoz and Eli Cohen<\/strong><\/p>\n

Between February 22nd and March 8, The Hive and<\/span> DisCo<\/span><\/a> put on a series of Podcasting Workshops, where participants got to make a collaborative podcast \u2013 from interviewing to storyboarding to editing \u2013 over the course of three workshops. Eli Cohen (PO \u201819) and DD Maoz (PO \u201818) wrote about their experience planning and running the workshops. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Before the Storm<\/h5>\n

We had many motivations for creating these workshops. First among them is that we love podcasts. But beyond that, we wanted to convey <\/span>why <\/span><\/i>the process of making them yourself can be so valuable.<\/span><\/p>\n

We wanted to show how the different aspects of making podcasts can urge us all to be better listeners, intentional conversationalists, and mindful storytellers. We wanted to re-value the creative process itself. We wanted to create a low-stakes environment for people to actually <\/span>make <\/span><\/i>a podcast<\/span> without grandiose expectations or the fear of failure. We wanted people to learn by doing. We hoped to provide participants with the technical confidence that will allow them to see this medium as their own. We wanted to make room for stories \u2013 for people to tell them, to realize the importance of seeking them out, and to grasp the power of handling them with care.<\/span><\/p>\n

The basic premise was this: We would create three workshops that would walk participants through three stages of the podcast-making process: interviewing, storyboarding, and editing. Through these different stages, we would focus on different interpersonal skills: empathetic and active listening, communicating, and storytelling.<\/span><\/p>\n

Workshop #1 \u2013 The Interview<\/h5>\n

In the first workshop, we emphasized empathetic listening and recording confidence. We opened with two audio excerpts from Chimamanda Adichie\u2019s TED Talk, \u201c<\/span>The Danger of a Single Story<\/span><\/a>\u201d and an interview with David Issay in the TED Radio Hour\u2019s \u201c<\/span>The Act of Listening.<\/span><\/a>\u201d They taught us about the responsibility entailed in choosing which stories are told, the presence listening commands, and the power of being heard.<\/span><\/p>\n

We outlined five active listening principles, which we compiled from the Human-Centered Design course tips for empathetic interviewing, and Celeste Headlee\u2019s<\/span> 10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation<\/span><\/a>. They were:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Be present<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Do away with assumptions<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Enable meaningful conversations<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Go slow<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Care for the process<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Then we reviewed the technical details of the recorders, considering basic tips for making a good recording.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The topic we chose for the interviews was \u201cTransition,\u201d and we urged people to recall specific stories and emotions from different periods of transition in their own lives. Then, for the rest of the session, in groups of three, we interviewed each other and made space for each other\u2019s stories.<\/span><\/p>\n

    We came out with eighteen recorded ten-minute interviews, and the affirmation that giving people the time and excuse to talk and ask questions was one of the most powerful things we could have done.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t