My podcast for some structure!

(c) Bradley Campbell

It was interesting to think about my podcast in terms of the different structures outlined by Bradley Campbell... To be honest, when I write, I rarely think about structure -- at least, not until much later. Since my podcast transcript is still very much in "draft" form, I hadn't really thought much about how I was structuring it, other than that I wanted a catchy opening and a strong conclusion. So, it was interesting to look at it from a different angle and realize that it actually fit in really well with the "Morning Edition" structure Campbell describes in his blog post: I open with three different stories, each highlighting the link between insight and boredom I want to talk about later in the podcast. Then, I dip backwards in time to cover the history of "boredom" -- where the word comes from, how it's been chronicled in the past, and how the experience of being bored has changed over time due to the influence of technology. And then, getting back to the present, I split off into different directions, talking about individual studies done by different researchers and experts regarding the intersections between mobile technology, boredom and creativity.

Of course, every story is different, so my podcast doesn't exactly follow the example set by Campbell for the "Morning Edition" structure. For example, I don't return to the opening stories I began with -- but looking at my podcast from the perspective of particular structures has nudged me to consider whether it would make my podcast stronger if I did return to my opening narratives.

For the 99% Invisible podcast -- I guess around 23 citations?! Then again, I'm also highly sleep deprived (hello March, ye of the many essay deadlines!) so I might have missed or imagined one or two.