“For listeners who may be too ill to relate to others face to face, or can’t find the language for their own feelings, these aural connections can be essential, even life-altering.” — Whitney Matheson
I came across Slate’s “Speaking the Unspeakable” article recently, and in line with the article, thought it’d be important for us to reflect on the medium we share twice a week. Not just the intimate experience it provides…for the listener commuting home, lying in bed late in the night, or at work seeking background noise…but the ability of these sounds to help us relate and to cope with mental health issues and differences.
This is in some slight way captures the potential of the Podcast, and hopefully the following Podcast(s) of the Week can in some ways further this thinking and therapy. Enjoy!
NPR SNAP JUDGMENT (ep. 611): To the Brink
On the edge before falling over, this latest podcast from NPR’s Snap Judgment series presents three stories. And although dark, and at times bizarre or bleak, each narrative winds towards poignancy and helps one redefine their perspectives. The first two true accounts explore perspectives on self, resistance, love, and the senses surrounding each. The third, fictional, traces a man who’s shrunk his wife to the size of a mouse, and her track towards requital.
ON BEING: Mind and Morality: A Dialogue
On Being‘s episode “Mind and Morality” explores the intersection between sensed experiences, spirituality, and morality (including forgiveness and empathy) in modern science, and individual and collective experience. Host Krista Tippett interviews physicist Arthur Zajonc and professor of psychology at the University of Miami, Michael McCullough.
Via On Being,
Photo by Manuel Galrinho