After taking an Intro to Podcasting class last semester, I fell in love with the medium from a creative perspective after years of dedicated listening to dozens of podcasts. It’s a medium that combines scripted content or extemporaneous conversation with recording technology, audio engineering, and editing. It has the robustness of film without the necessity of large production crews and hefty investments. After having the opportunity to make two podcast episodes in Dr. Deulen’s class, I was anxious to make more, so this internship was exactly what I was looking for. We started out with broad-strokes discussions over Webex, getting the hang of things with Dr. Sexton and my fellow intern Christelle as we began outlining what we were planning for our podcast. The upcoming episode will be an interview with Atlanta author Tayari Jones by Georgia State’s own Dr. Holman, but I won’t go into too much detail on the content–you’ll have to wait until the episode airs later this semester. As we prepared for the interview, we discussed using found audio of local places featured in Jones’s books, as well as how best to synergize between the print magazine and the podcast. Between a promo in the magazine to turn readers into listeners and a mail bag segment to drive listener engagement, we have plenty in the works and a lot on our plate. Luckily, my team and I are up to the challenge and excited for the opportunity to put our own touches on this podcast.
While my first attempt at podcasting was a scripted monologue that incorporated various found sonic elements, I had a lot more fun working on interview-based podcasts because it allowed me to get out of the studio and work more intentionally with other people’s point of view. While preparing to record the interview, I found myself remembering exactly what it was that drew me to podcasts in the first place–the ability to really hear someone’s perspective in their own words. But I also remembered something I didn’t miss from last semester: technical difficulties. As we set up to record at Georgia State’s multimedia room to start the interview, we ran into a couple hangups that required the library’s media staff to help resolve. It was a good thing we showed up early. Once we were all set up, we stuck around inside the booth to listen in to the recording. As Jones and Dr. Holman’s conversation went on, I started taking notes, despite the fact that we were already recording. Their discussion of art and writing was incredibly inspiring on both a craft and emotional level, and by the time we wrapped up I was excited to get home and put what I’d learned as a fly-on-the-wall into practice in my own writing. What I thought would just be a simple podcasting gig has already proven to be an amazing learning experience, and I’m so grateful to be a part of it.
Although I don’t want to spoil anything from the podcast, I’d be remiss to not share just one of the many pieces of wisdom I overheard in the recording booth. When talking about the role of art in a volatile and complicated global world, Jones mentioned that some writers try to “change the world” with their art. Instead, Jones compared the writing of a novel to the act of prayer–just one little piece to offer up humbly in hopes it can make a tiny difference.
