Week 4: Podcast Printings

While listening to all of my assigned podcasts, I learned a lot about how many different podcasts are done in many different ways. Moonface, for example, demonstrated extremely creative forms of storytelling that proved how effective storytelling can be with just voices and no pictures, if the correct approaches are taken. The tone of the storyteller, the music and audio effects, and overall structure are incredibly well-executed, and make the listener feel as though they are actually present as the story is happening. While the main theme from The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy ​may be a rather cheerful theme in real life, in this podcast, the way it is cleverly integrated into the story makes it seem not as cheerful, especially when it is mentioned that the storyteller was having nightmares that involved it. In addition, the song, at one point, plays in slow motion and in a lower pitch, which really adds to the "spookiness" theme of the story, and makes the theme feel quite haunted, unlike the forms of it that we're used to hearing. These are all reasons why Moonface is such a tremendous podcast, and what I've learned about podcasts after listening to it.

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Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard was another tremendous podcast to hear. The difference between this one and the one I previously mentioned is that unlike the other one, this one is completely non-fictional. In addition, this episode, specifically, was in the form of a talk show, seeing as Shepard had a female guest star in this episode who happened to be his interviewer. I can safely say that this episode did not feature any special effects, which was not really that big a surprise to me, seeing as talk shows don't usually have them. Nevertheless, this episode was still tremendously done, especially since Shepard told the story of when his father was dying and mentioned all the health issues he was facing, which really made me feel empathetic towards him, seeing as it was made clear as day how hard this was for him. Shepard also mentioned the health issues such as smoking that he was facing during this time, which really stressed the emphasis on what can happen to people when they are experiencing the trauma of their parents dying. These are all the reasons why this podcast was also very educational to me, and why I would recommend it to everyone.

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Whitney Cummings, Good for You was yet another fantastic listening experience for me. I watched the first episode of this podcast, which featured Dan Levy as a guest star. This podcast had a similar structure to the previous one, seeing as it, too, was in the structure of a talk show. However,  I can safely say that I enjoyed this one way more than the former. The main reason for this is that Cummings is way more jocular than Shepard, which made my listening experience to her talk show far more enjoyable. I also love how she is a fan of satirical humour, like me, and proves that you can make fun of your own neurological condition in a way that makes people laugh with you, but at the same time, not make you be the figure of ridicule for having it. She and Dan Levy are both mentioned as having dyslexia, but they both laugh with each other's jokes and make it clear that they are both very intelligent and comedic people, despite their neurological conditions. Plus, even though Cummings roasted Levy a few times, he did not get offended, as her wording was very clever, and he just had to laugh. That is why I would recommend this to anyone learning about comedy.

Work Cited:

1. Cummings, Whitney. “Ep #1: DAN LEVY | Good For You Podcast with Whitney Cummings.” Whitney Cummings: Good for You, Royal Oak Music Theatre, 6 Nov. 2019. 
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2. Kim, James. “Moonface.” MOONFACE Productions, MOONFACE Productions, 28 Sept. 2018.

3. Shepard, Dax. Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard, Season 1, episode 7, Warner Bros., 25 Sept. 2020. 

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