Audio Storytelling Assignment _ Zoe Bieler

Audio Storytelling Assignment 

This American Life: Episode 542 “Wait - Do You Have the Map?

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/542/wait-do-you-have-the-map

I chose a story from the podcast “Wait - Do You Have the Map?”, which was episode 542 of the This American Life series.  The story I listened to was told by Christopher Rhodes.  The station prefaces the stories by calling them “stories about people who are feeling lost and trying to figure out how to move ahead”.  This type of story can expose people to different things people around them may be going through but also help people who are feeling lost, navigate those feelings.  The purpose is both informational and therapeutic. The podcast can be listened to on the This American Life website and app, and the Pandora, Apple Podcast, and Radio Public phone apps. 

This story in the podcast is about how two people from very different backgrounds form a relationship.  Joan, who is from a more generic suburban background, volunteers writing to prisoners, where she meets Michael, a man in prison because of murder. Through letters and then visitations they form this relationship, and end up getting married. A rare scenario occurs where Michal is released from prison which puts their relationship on an entirely new platform.  The podcast covers their meeting all the way to how they navigate each other and their changing relationship when Michael is finally released from jail.

The story is made up of narrations as well as interviews from both Joan and Michael. The narrator helps to bridge gaps and explain background information for the listener, helping guide them through the passage.  Joan and Michael’s interviews are usually about relaying some detail of an event, but also are very effective in making the podcast seem more personal and having the listener understand their relationship on a more intimate level, helping see them as real people not just hypotheticals. There is music that is used in the background but also used to break up different sections of the story.  The story told is compelling for a number of reasons.  The very bases of the story is one that is interesting on its own, because it is describing a relationship that is not portrayed very often, and therefore intrigues the listener.  I found the way they presented it compelling because they gave interesting details about things that made it feel more personal and as if I was really getting to understand the raw and true details of the relationship, and not just being told the artificial surface of it.  The story started out with a good base but the way it was told made it even more compelling for the listener.