Radio
Interviewing coffee farming communities in Colombia.
REAPER audio editing software used to produce the radio pieces.
Radio broadcasting is a unique form of information dissemination because it has a broad consumer base. Young children, visually-impaired and illiterate people can still enjoy radio podcasts because they are purely auditory. The process is also effective: recording is a powerful and exciting way to engage communities.
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During my freshman year in college, I took a class called Terrascope Radio (SP.360) in which I learned how to produce a radio program along with 8 other students. I fell in love with the power that radio gives you to tell stories in a unique voice. Growing up, I would always listen to stories my parents read me, but never thought much about how to frame my own experiences in a way that would make people want to listen. I explored that possibility in the class by listening to hours of podcasts and reading about their production.
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We produced a podcast about farmers' lives in New Mexico after traveling there on a Spring Break field trip. The piece provides an engaging and informative look at farmers in a desert landscape, and at how their individual farming styles reflect their personal values. It explores modern industrial farming, centuries-old collective water-distribution organizations, ancient Navajo corn customs and semi-urban organic farming. Check out the podcast here: Rebeldes: A Journey through New Mexican Agriculture.
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Interviewing farmers in New Mexico who have been practicing the same earth-conscious farming traditions for generations.
I also produced an individual narrative piece during the class that explores what it's like to grow up as an ethnically-ambiguous looking person in the United States. It is a commentary on what it means to be American in a country where minorities will soon be the majority. Because of my skin tone and features, I get asked, "Where are you from?" all the time. My answer, ordinary and surprising at the same time, says something about what it is to be an American. The piece is linked here: Where are you from?
PC James Li
Right now I'm working to finish up a piece about the lives of coffee farmers in Colombia. Through an international development class called D-lab: Development (EC.700), I traveled to Colombia with 10 other students to learn about farmers' lives and implement engineering solutions. During the trip I recorded audio so I could share their stories. The piece addresses an omnipresent issue in agriculture today: keeping youth interested in farming when they face the choice between challenging labor combined with an unsteady source of income and moving to the cities where economic security can potentially be more assured.