This episode was about a man that absolutely loves apple products and technology in general. However, just having a love for them is not enough. He wants to know where they come from and who works on them. The story keeps you intrigued with little bits of humor here and there. Whether it be from him explaining the degree of “nerd” he is or some of his small but powerful words about “not f*%$ing knowing anything about the Chinese culture “, that he is surrounded by on his journey to find the answers he desires.

I’m not sure if surprised is the correct word, but it really made me stop and think when he mentioned how many hours these factory workers have to work, how young some of them are and just how much we as Americans take for granted. Everybody knows that businesses do work overseas because the work will cost less. However, not everyone really thinks about that or even puts a face to the workers that give so much, so we can have our little electronics.

The podcast itself was pretty interesting, not only because of the subject but also because of the way it was presented. The story telling was fantastic and having little bits of music to draw you in or make you feel a certain way while it was being told, really helped bring it to life. None of the sounds seemed like they took anything away from the story. Not even the edits they had to make any time he said something “inappropriate”. In most cases, those edits helped draw some humor or even kind of jump out at you and help make you really think about what was being said.

If I was to make a podcast then I could definitely take some pointers from this podcast. The amount of details in the story that were used really helped bring it to life and kept the podcast itself very interesting. As a designer I always try to make something visual to draw the eye a certain way or make someone feel a certain way but I can’t do that with a podcast. So, I’ll have to use my talents with music and sound to do that very same thing with a podcast. I want to help the listener feel like I feel they should when I say certain things or just drive their emotions in general.

I had never listened to “This American Life” before, but if any of the podcasts are like the one we listened to in class then I’ll be checking them out. If you’re reading this and have never listened to it, then I think you should definitely give it a shot.