We listened to a brief section of a sleep podcast on RadioLab, which in an overarching idea spoke about why we sleep and in particular we listened to a part that discussed how all mammals sleep yet due to survival some animals such as dolphins and ducks switch of half there brain to sleep whilst the other is active and then swap in round. A particular experiment they referenced was were 4 ducks were placed in a row and were observed when asleep they found the two middle ones had both there eyes closed and the two on the outside had 1 and then after a while the ones on the outside turned 180 degrees and closed the other eye. This is basically so the ducks don’t get eaten my predators and likewise with the dolphins so they don’t drown because they have to be partially able to swim and breathe.
When we look at the podcast we have to think about what elements are included within it. In itself the narrators are dominant by a clearer voice and are propelling the narrative by asking questions. This allows the listener to connect to the narrator and gain an understanding of the main people. The style of if is conversational its a discussion very back and forth between the narrator and the interviewees, yet its quite scripted and they have woven in their ideas on the topic about sleep. The elements that were included were music, narrations, SFX, sync sound, interviews. The thing I really liked is how they made the podcast quite visual by creating an atmosphere of where they are interviewing someone using sound effects of the environment. This allowed listeners to become more engaged and place us in the discussion.
This has been used to allow us to think about what we should include when creating a podcast. To create a level of interest we would need to establish narrators and they would open with a question or starting topic to kick start the discussion. Throughout the discussion set the scene of a particular interviewee by using sound effects, introduce who they are and where they come from again just to set the situation for listeners. A combination of audio breaking from narrator question, interviewee answers, sound effects in relation to it, some background music as well. All will work together to create a story within the form of a podcast.
