Podcasts have really become a background noise of my life as of late. I am trying to get a sense of the medium while preparing to teach students how to do the very thing I am learning to understand. Because art imitates life, the crime podcast has become interesting to me if for no better reason than my personal enjoyment of the show Only Murders in the Building. That show has sustained itself despite the incredibly limiting title. The medium is pretty interesting. I’ve been trying to find shorter form podcasts to share with the classes. I’ve found a few that work for the classes, and I will try them out moving forward. I also think that paranormal podcasts and short videos could also be an interesting approach to share with students.
Here is the thing: it is hard to share most things, because we are dealing with a dark time in political freedom. We are polarized in this brief and unfortunate time of discourse, and it can isolate and even alienate students. So, when I think about approaching these new media and trying to teach skills through context, it can be a good approach to help students feel at ease by contextualizing new material in a subject that is benign yet interesting.
I think that this is the way. I love the idea of doing this, as I have before with conspiracy theories. It could be a good look, given the time and material to get it right…