"To Grandmother's House We (Sorta) Go"

https://storycorps.org/podcast/to-grandmothers-house-we-sorta-go/

I listened to a podcast from StoryCorps titled, "To Grandmother's House We (Sorta) Go." This podcast was released around the Holiday season (Thanksgiving and Christmas time) and shares the stories of three families – The Faucis’, the Tans’ and the host of the Podcast speaks with her Grandmother. The importance behind this episode is that this year we are all struggling to connect with and see loved ones (friends and family alike). They highlighted the holiday season because a lot of families celebrated alone for their safety and the safety of those they would have celebrated with due the COVID-19 pandemic. As we near a year of being in some form of “lock-down,” reminiscing on the good times is one way to keep ourselves sane and remind ourselves that one day we will have a new normal. This message was important to me because I think a lot of us are feeling alone and isolated because of the pandemic and having conversations like this just reminds us that we are not alone.

I loved that this was in the form of a podcast because it helped tie together the three stories we were hearing. I enjoyed that I got to hear the different voices of the person sharing their story and hear the emotion in their voices. While Mr. Tan was speaking to his mother you could hear them both start to choke up and begin to cry as he shared the story and his memories of his “Lola.” I think this was something very important for the audience to hear. I do not think these three stories would have worked very well together if it were a written narrative, but because the podcast host could share her thoughts and tie in the next story, it was very easy to follow along with. Another thing podcasts do is transitions with sounds and music. StoryCorps had wonderful music transitions that fit the mood and tone of this specific podcast.