This episode of Radiolab was talking about the efforts to make the square dance the national folk dance of America. They begin by talking about the history of square dancing and how square dancing developed. They transition to talking about the history of America and the characteristic diversity of the American people. They really set the stage for the story they are telling by establishing a strong narrative in regards to the head space that the majority of American people at the time of the 20th century. The narrative being this huge sense of overwhelming American pride but more specifically white pride as the rise of the civil rights movement hit America and as the increasing amount of immigration to America brought this sense of “otherness”. I would definitely consider Radiolab a liberal podcast because of their location, the topics they choose to cover and the narrative that they choose to tell. In this podcast specifically I think that their political views are more obvious than in other episodes. For example when they interview the square dancers the way that they set up their stories almost creates an irony there. They talk about the civil rights movement and how the white people of America choose to neglect minorities in policy and making the square dance the national folk dance would be another example of this. Then they cut to square dancers talking about the sense of pride that they feel in square dancing almost equating it to white pride. The square dancers/ the people involved in attempting to make square dancing the national folk dance are also saying that square dancing is inclusive because “there were black people there too”. As the listener it’s almost like when someone says something really racist and follows it up with, “I can’t be racist I have a black friend.” Another interesting thing about this podcast is the tone of the entire episode. The entire episode feels light-hearted and the tone that they use is very happy and it feels informative. I don’t know if it is because I am a minority but the way that they talked about how if square dancing were to be named the national folk dance that would be a huge disservice to all of the cultures that make up American culture really riled me up. I felt angry as I listened to this episode even though I don’t really particularly care about square dancing and if it was named the national folk dance I don’t believe that it would have an actual effect on my personal life but for the 40 minutes of this podcast I felt strongly about square dancing not being named the national folk dance. Which is credit to Radiolab’s amazing story telling and how they pull you into the story rather than just have you idly listening. I feel like this podcast was specifically relevant to today’s political atmosphere too which is probably why they chose to do this story. A portion of the podcast was dedicated to talking about the whitewashing of American culture and that is currently happening with Hollywood and their white washing of minority characters and casting white actors .It feels like because of the majority of the American population being white for so long as they lose their majority they’re grasping for straws to hold onto their power which we see with the Republican politicians. They tolerate Trump because he can rile up the crazy white supremacists and thus old white people in the senate can hold on to their seats even if it means halting progress as a country.
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Hey Jimmy! I think it’s really interesting that you mention how the podcast made you angry, yet it was still a way that drew the listener in. You would think that podcasts would hook their listener by something like suspense or mystery, like in the podcast that I listened to, but they used a lighthearted tone while talking about something sensitive like culture and race. Even though it riled you up, it still kept you interested for the whole 40 minutes of the episode. For my blog post, the episode wasn’t really all that interesting, but because of the fact that there were not much new developments in the case and instead, we get introduced to more people related to the case, it kept me thinking about how they were related to the case and if they would be an asset or an inconvenience. So that was how they kept me interested to keep listening.
I suppose with it being relevant to today’s political atmosphere, other listeners besides yourself would be interested in it too. Your comparison of the square dancing being inclusive to when someone says something really racist felt pretty spot on. It’s crazy how many times someone actually uses that kind of excuse for their actions. It was really nice of you to explain everything that they talked about in detail because it really helped me understand the story better. For a podcast to express their political views so obviously, they probably took a bit of a risk because some listeners could get really offended by what they say. But for other listeners, it can draw them in, so I think that’s a pretty double-edged sword kind of option to take. However, like with your situation, it kept you listening the whole time, so it worked out pretty well on you.