The End is Here

I'm pretty happy with how this podcast turned out. It is nice to see that all of mine and my partner's hard work eventually resulted in something that we can actually be proud of. It is great to finally have a finished product after such a long and arduous process. I think our podcast gets our point across nicely and I have learned more about bees than I ever thought I would! I think that our podcast turned out better than I thought it would when I first started working on this assignment. 

If we had more time to work on it, I think we would probably add more sound effects in the middle and fine tune some of the rough patches, but all in all, I think all of the information is there that we wanted to include and it makes a great argument. I know it is a little long in the middle, so I think if we had more time, we would somehow make that part more interesting for our listeners.

A piece of advice that I have for students just starting the course would be to pick a topic that you are genuinely interested in learning about. It is a long, difficult and, at times, stressful process, so make sure that your topic is something that you want to actually want to put a lot of time and effort into researching thoroughly. It will make this assignment much more enjoyable in the long run!

In conclusion, this podcast assignment has been a nice break from writing essays, and for that, I am very very thankful.

Save Lives - Save Hives by Kira Harkonen and Marina Green

Podcast for Everyday Einstein:

Last winter U.S. beekeepers lost one third of their honeybee colonies while the normal winter colony loss is 15%. This is not just any statistic that you can simply wave away like you do with a bee that gets too close.

One of every three bites of food eaten worldwide depends on pollinators such as bees. It’s not just the fruit and vegetables like almonds, apples, citrus, cocoa, grapes, olives, peaches, carrots, cucumbers, melons, onions, and pumpkins, but also crops such as cotton, peanuts, and soy beans.

Having such a large influence on natural resources, the honeybees’ welfare affects the entire ecosystem. European Union Health Commissioner Tonio Borg says, “They contribute over $29 billion annually to European agriculture."  Without bees, the US would lose $15 billion in the food and farm industry. If we lose a greater portion of bees the food we enjoy will become rare and prices will go up according to the laws of supply and demand.

So step back you’ll see they are connected to every facet of our lives and losing the bees would be a major setback for the advancement of our society. For example, bees are one of the primary pollinators of cotton crops, and cotton is used in the production of many different fabrics used in clothing, coffee filters, and tents, as well as in bookbinding.

Now we ask you: What would our world look like without bees?

The cause for the disappearance of the honeybees is attributed to something called Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD. Scientists have learned, over time, that there is no one cause to this Disorder. The primary antagonist in the bees’ story is something called the Varroa Destroctor, a vampire like mite that is responsible for killing off a large portion of the bee population. But things like pesticides, fungicides, malnutrition, displacement, and other factors also threaten the honeybees. The only country not affected by CCD is Australia and it is here that scientists are trying to figure out how to prevent their destruction by tracking the bees’ movements.

Humans aren’t the only factor contributing to CCD but we can play a big role in helping to re-establish honeybee colonies.

Albert Einstein has been incorrectly attributed with saying that, “If honeybees become extinct, human society will follow within four years.” But there’s one thing most scientists agree on, which is that the most important thing that people can do is learn about bees…

So how much do you know?

Recoding a Podcast: Using Audacity

For my podcast, my partner and I are probably going to end up using Audacity to record and edit our audio. It is an extremely simple and easy program to use for basic purposes such as recording and editing a podcast. I have used it many times before, because the French class I took required students to record themselves speaking French and submit it. I've also had a lot of experience using the internal microphone system in my laptop to record other projects so I know how to use it fairly well. I recorded my voice several times, since I haven't used Audacity since last year, and I think it sounds good for the purposes of this podcast. The volume is a little on the quiet side, because I'm using an internal microphone, but there are settings within the program to adjust the output volume, as well as the input volume.

Because I'm already experienced in using Audacity, I have decided to give advice on how to use the software based on my previous experiences. First, there are several simple keyboard shortcuts that will make using the software much easier. The first is the spacebar, which can be pressed alternatively to clicking the play button. Shift+space allows for loop play. The backspace key is helpful for cutting parts of the audio clip. Simply highlight the part of the audio that you wish to cut and hit backspace. Or ctrl+X has the same function. ctrl+K is delete. The R key is record, and the Home and End keys allow you to skip to the beginning and the end of the recording, respectively.

Another tip for editing your podcast is to use the zoom functions. It makes editing a lot faster and more precise when you can see which sounds to cut out or leave in. ctrl+1 is zoom in, ctrl+2 allows the zoom to go back to normal, and ctrl+3 is zoom out. Another function that might be useful when adding other sounds to the podcast is ctrl+shift+N, which is used to add a new audio track, such as a sound clip or music. Those are the basic functions that will likely come in handy when creating a podcast, since a podcast is a very simple audio recording. If you require any additional help getting started, the Quick Help - Audacity Manual is a good place to start!

Good luck to everyone!

Structure and Citations

This is roughly the structure of my podcast on the disappearance of the honeybees. It is very similar to the All Things Considered structure, however, the spike at the end of the trough of research indicates a call to action, in which my partner and I will offer suggestions as to what listeners can do to help save the bees. The opening straight lines indicates an introduction, which includes a clip from an episode of Doctor Who called "The Stolen Earth," in which Donna and the Doctor discuss the case of the disappearing bees. It is mirrored at the end by another straight line for the conclusion and another clip from Doctor Who. The middle trough represents all of the information about the disappearance of the honeybees and what that means for the future of our world. It's a fairly straight forward structure for a very complex topic, which I think will help make it easier for a wider range of listeners to understand.

I think most of the podcast episodes on Everyday Einstein follow a similar format, or one that closely resembles the structure of All Things Considered, with a trough of information bordered by an introduction and a conclusion, often in a narrative format.

Finally, I counted 10 citations in the audio version of the podcast and 24 citations written in the podcast transcript, including links to videos and music.

Search Strategies: Google Scholar vs Library Databases

Hello everyone!

When it comes to online research, I must say that I definitely prefer library databases, as opposed to Google Scholar. Library databases can be selected based on the subject of your research. My project is about the disappearance of honeybees, so I usually pick "Environmental Studies" or "Natural Science." I find that it is helpful to narrow down the field of study before I begin researching. For example, this option was helpful when researching the causes for the disappearance of the honeybees, I selected "Environmental Studies," but when I was researching the different uses for honeybees in the field of medicine (apitherapy), I selected "Health" as my topic of study. Furthermore, I know that the York Library will allow me to have access to all of the articles that come up using the library databases, but when using Google Scholar, I didn't have access to full articles from certain databases and it was more frustrating trying to find out which ones I could read. Although, Google Scholar does have a built-in library to which you can save articles, which is very useful, but the same thing can be achieved with RefWorks, which is more specific and helpful anyway.

Despite these differences, they can be used in combination. It might be helpful to look up your topic first on Google Scholar to ensure that you are searching using the correct terms. If the search results turn up articles that aren't helpful to your topic, you can refine your search terms from there, ensuring specificity, before heading to the library databases. However, when choosing between the two resources for online research purposes, I almost always choose to head straight to the York library databases because most of the time I'm not quite sure what I want to look up first, and having to choose a specific database topic often helps to narrow my focus.

Refinement and Bees.

I think that this pitch exercise was very helpful in refining our topic because there are a lot of different directions our podcast could have taken if we did not narrow it down to a particular research question. Before the pitch, I knew the general direction I wanted to go in, with the disappearance of honeybees and Colony Collapse Disorder, but the pitch helped give this direction more focus on the causes of CCD. There are also thousands of different species of bees, so this pitch helped us learn that we wanted to talk about honeybees in particular. Furthermore, my partner and I were able to see that there is no singular cause of CCD, and so we could avoid narrowing our topic too far. I think it would be useful in other writing assignments as a pre-writing exercise to write out the specific question you are trying to answer and doing some preliminary research, because a lot of times, papers are written last minute and having this done ahead of time will give you some idea as to the amount of work you have to do before you actually start writing. It also might help encourage you to start writing earlier than you might have wanted to because you will become more invested in your topic.

Our refined show idea is to explore the many factors contributing to Colony Collapse Disorder and the disappearance of honeybee populations, as well as the possibly disastrous effects CCD might have on humanity and our current way of life. We plan on discussing the case of CCD in terms of cause and effect in order to reveal the enormity of this seemingly small situation.

Pitching a Podcast

Next week's pitch presentation is a little daunting at this point, but I'm confident that mine and my partner's podcast idea is relevant, not only to the podcast show, but also to the lives of the people listening. I am nervous about the pitch, but I have gathered some advice online that I think is helpful.

1. Forbes - This advice is very helpful, in my opinion, for pitching an idea. It does not give advice about content so much as it does body language and presentation skills. Forbes is definitely a reliable source, as a business publication, and they have plenty of different articles about pitching business ideas and sales pitches to investors and companies. I picked this article in particular, because I think it is the most applicable and practical for the podcast pitch assignment. It is important to engage your audience with your presentation skills and not just rely on content alone. Especially when one is dealing with very important topics such as the disappearance of honeybees, it can be difficult to convince people that they need to care.
2. The Public Speaker - This advice is definitely reliable and important to look at because it was published by the same website as the one that publishes the podcast show we are pitching our idea for, Everyday Einstein. It is important to consider what they consider good pitching advice if you intend to be creating content for them. I think the most helpful bit of advice from this article is to finish with a "call to action." I had not previously considered doing that until I read this article.
3. NaNoWriMo - This article is not geared towards a pitch presentation, however, that does not mean it isn't helpful advice. The last point on the list is particularly important to look at: "Show us what’s unique, exciting, valuable, awesome, unexpected, about your project." It's important to make your audience care about your topic and understand why you want to present on your podcast. This is a reliable source of information because NaNoWriMo goes through hundreds (maybe thousands) of pitches for Pitchapalooza and they know what works and what does not work.

Based on this advice, I need to know what pieces of information about my topic will come as a surprise to my audience, how to reveal this information in an engaging way so that it's importance is not underestimated, and I need to mention what role people play in the importance of my topic. Maybe with those elements, people will listen.

Choosing a Topic

I have chosen to emulate the podcast Everyday Einstein. I chose to listen to this podcast because, as I stated before, I like to research scientific inquiries and I like the way in which Lee Falin approaches everyday scientific topics in order to appeal to a wider audience than just those interested in science. His style is very relaxed and conversational, and he doesn't bombard you with information, which I think is a very crucial aspect of making podcasts for a range of different listeners. I would like to try and make a similar podcast.

In particular, his podcast episode Why Dead Honeybees Means the Beginning of the Apocalypse was very influential in narrowing down my topic. Lately I've been reading a lot about the disappearance of honeybees and Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), and so I decided that I really wanted to focus my podcast on this topic. Lee Falin only brushes the absolute surface of the issue and the consequences that CCD could have on our planet, only going as far as to say that food and candy bars will be more expensive if the bees die off, despite the title of the episode. I would like to take this issue further and research exactly what would happen if the bees disappeared, as well as the causes of CCD, most of which is only speculation at this point. Furthermore, I recently read an article in the Huffington Post about bees being fitted with tiny backpack sensors in Australia in order to track their movements and find out ways to prevent CCD. I would like to research the benefits of this program to the preservation of bees worldwide.

I did not really need to use SPARK because I already knew what I wanted to research, but I did look at it, and it reaffirmed my topic selection by saying that I should choose a topic that I am sincerely interested in. I would add to this advice by saying that you should create a podcast that you would actually listen to. Do not just pick something to research just because there is information available on that topic or because it sounds easy. Research something that you genuinely want to find more information about, and more specifically, something that you want to tell your friends about.

Now Presenting: Kira Harkonen and her Subpar Research Skills.

Hi, my name is Kira and I am in my second year at York as a Professional Writing major. I am also considering minoring in Linguistics, but I haven't quite figured it out yet (the anthem of university students everywhere). I am an avid reader and movie watcher, and I also love to travel. Next year I am planning on doing an exchange through York at Oxford Brookes University in England, because they have an excellent publishing program and one day I would really like to work at a publishing company as a copy editor. Maybe one day I will even write a story of my own.

In this class, I suppose I would like to learn how to do research more efficiently. I would like to learn how to differentiate between what is important and what is not, and quickly. I spend a lot of my research time collecting information that I don't use in the long run. I have had some experience with research in the past, and I have used RefWorks and other such referencing software and some research databases, but I would not say that I am an expert. Not even close. I used these research databases for a science paper that I wrote last year about whether or not cellphones could be attributed to the formation of cancer cells, and for another paper about homeopathic treatments and whether or not they really work. I also did a lot of research on the effects that dance and movement therapy has on mental illness. I enjoy researching scientific inquiries and collecting data from different studies, but I also like learning about historical events and people. One of my favourite research projects that I worked on was about the life and works of Sylvia Plath.

I don't have a whole lot of experience with radio or podcasting, although I just started making my own video game Let's Plays, which, in part, involves recording my own voice. I do listen to a few podcasts. In fact, I just finished listening to a Rooster Teeth Podcast, which is what reminded me that I had to write this blog post. All in all, I am quite excited to record my own podcast, but also very intimidated because I am not very good at talking. At all. But I have chosen a few topics that I am considering using for the podcast, which I have realised is probably unavoidable, and they are Lexicon Valley, because I really love language and etymology, or Everyday Einstein/The Science Times (I cannot see a difference between the two) because I like researching scientific studies, particularly if they are controversial. I suppose we will see where things go from there...