For this assignment we had to pick from a long list of audio stories. I saw Patient Zero by Radiolabs and thought it had a catchy name. Without knowing what I was about to hear, I went ahead and clicked! So if you want something to do, or even an hour to kill, go ahead and take a listen and you’ll know exactly what this post is about!

So when you hear the moos of the cows, you know you’re in the right place! So they start with a story about typhoid, then a story about AIDS, then high-fives, and cowboy hats. I like the background music because it always built up to points of suspense and then dropped when there was a climax. I also like how there were multiple people talking and you could tell they were recorded at different times, but the audio flowed. When the broadcaster described the scene, I thought back to my previous post about how they let you paint your own picture. They gave some details and I was able to put together a scene in my mind. At first I felt like I was getting a history lesson, but it was still pretty interesting. Then it changed to what I felt was like a documentary. They had professors and experts come in and comment/narrate on each of the stories.They had cut-in audio with interview clips and other clips of news from the time period of the story topic. Continuing to listen to music in the background, it really seemed to fit the stories. For example, western music when they started talking about cowboy hats. The last thing I tied from this to the previous post/videos we had to watch, was turning something that was boring or dull into something interesting…I mean, seriously, did they just tell me a story about the origin of high-fives…for 20 minutes?!?! AND IT WAS ACTUALLY INTERESTING?! Wow. Very cool to think about.

For a summary, I laid down in my bed, closed my eyes and listened to stories…How many classes can you say you did that in? Not only did I get to relax, I got a brief history lesson on the beginnings of typhoid, AIDS, high-fives, and cowboy hats. IF you don’t want to listen to a whole hour, I would recommend to listen to the AIDS story and high-fives. They were both interesting and well put together. I never thought I could be that interested in the story of a high-five…but after I listened, I got up and gave my friend one!