There is something intriguing about the unexplained that we as people just simply crave to understand. Like why exactly Bowe Bergdahl who was stationed in Afghanistan inexplicably got up one day without preemptive warning or even signs and wandered off into Taliban controlled territory completely unarmed. For most men, this would have been a death sentence, yet just short of five years later a deal was struck between the US and Taliban for the rescue of Bergdahl. Five years is longer than any American has ever survived being held by the Taliban. The mystery behind his nonsensical decision to put his existence into the hands of the Taliban and the national controversy that arouse after his liberation is exactly the focus of DUSTWUN, episode 1 of season 2 of the Serial Podcast.
DUSTWUN brings together the unheard-of journey of Bergdahl through an interwoven masterpiece of interviews, timely music, phone calls, and news audio which is all cohesively strung together into an effective storytelling podcast by the soothing voice of our narrator Sarah Koenig. Even though Koenig is the only narrator speaking directly towards us when relaying Bergdahl’s story we hear the voices of many other individuals that were recorded in conversation with one another also. These include clips from an extensive interview between Mark Boal, a filmmaker, and Bergdahl himself. A lot of the storyline of DUSTWUN comes from these intervals followed with brief explanations from Koenig giving us a brief recap or intel on what a certain term might mean or even how they came to get hold of the interview tapes from Boal. A short example of this narrative feature was when our soldier Bergdahl explained to Boal his goal of creating a DUSTWUN to bring military and public attention to the bad leadership of his unit. Koenig cuts into this recording to explain to us that a “DUSTWUN stands for duty status whereabouts unknown,” basically “man overboard” for the army. Koenig’s timely explanations effectively help us listeners understand unusual terms, words, or oddly explained sections of the interview and therefore stay intrigued in the podcast.
On top of the narrative pattern of switching between interview audio clip and narrator explanation this Serial Podcast also effectively exercises timely music as another feature in keeping the story compelling. Serial loves to input music within breaks of the narration almost as audibly starts to new chapters in the story. Serial has also carefully chosen music with a tempo that is in line with the speed of the story at a specific break. The pause in narration gives the reader a moment to think about what has just been said while the mood projected by the music sets the stage for what exactly Serial expects us to be feeling.
Another feature was phone calls that were used strategically throughout the storyline but also used to hook us as the very conclusion of the podcast. To close, Koenig plays the beginning of a phone call she had with the Taliban and then cuts it off making us wait till the next episode to hear the rest. This keeps readers compelled to continue listening to the story as it advances in Episode 2.
The story of soldier Bowe Bergdahl walking away from safety into hostile Taliban territory is a mystery that is slowly being explained to us through Serial’s podcast DUSTWUN. It’s a long story that may not be as intriguing to listeners without the thoughtful use of interviews, timely music, and phone calls throughout. All together these various narrative features build a compelling story that keeps listeners engaged and wanting to learn more.
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Hi Charles,
The only episode of Serial that I have listened to was the one assigned in class, so I was very excited to see that you chose a different episode. When I opened your response I was hooked by your beginning statement because I always get drawn into shows or episodes that are about the unknown. Then, I was even more hooked by the short summary of the episode because I couldn’t even imagine what was going through Bergdahl’s head when he made the choice to walk unarmed through Taliban territory. My podcast covered a very different topic, but the draw of the unknown was also present in my episode of Court Junkie since the true story of the murder seemed to be unknown.
Listening to Serial for the first time I really enjoyed the different interviews, phone calls and documents that were brought into the episode and I was pleased to see that your episode included the same variety of narrative choices. I also liked that they stuck with one narrator because I think this makes the story easier to follow. Similar to your podcast, the main focus of my episode was on interviews with the main person involved in the story and came from one narrator. I like this aspect of both podcasts because it gains my trust as a listener that the information is true and it helps to connect the listener to the people that are involved. I wish my podcast did as good of a job as yours did of stopping and explaining terms or situations that might be confusing to people who are listening to something they don’t know a lot about. My podcast was very focused on telling the story and I think that it would have been a good idea for them to stop and explain some of the details.
Serial and Court Junkie both used a trusted narrator and strong evidence to tell their stories, which made them very effective. After reading your response I want to make sure to explain the details of my podcast to help listeners who may not know anything about what I’m talking about. My favorite aspect of both is that they use a variety of narrative choices, which I hope to also use in my podcast to maintain the attention of whoever is listening.
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Hey Charles, I love you analysis and think you did a wonderful job breaking down the components that made this episode special. You gave a great introduction to help give context to the amazingly confuddling story. Your thoughts on music affecting the narrative really resonate with me, as that was one of the main aspects that I noticed in my podcast. You mentioned how the pacing of the music affects the mood that the listeners should have felt, and that was one aspect that I did not quite think about beforehand. After relistening to my podcast, you bring a very legitimate point, and this made me question my analysis of my podcast. I feel like the concept of a cliffhanger is super useful, especially for podcasts, as it can be super difficult to loop listeners in, specifically since there is no visual stimulation. Television and movies have the amazing ability to send us into another world with wild visual and aural stimulation, and I feel like a fantastic podcast has to emulate that. The host has to paint a vivid picture; one that can capture the essence of the story, without subtracting from the importance of the information. This is why I think amazing podcasts are so hard to make, but as we see with so many examples from all our classmates, lots of podcasters really do create something special. I also noticed a sort of cyclical nature of podcasts, with interviews and audio clips being played, and then the host giving more context, in a fascinating and exciting way.
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