For this blog post, I listened to the next few episodes of the podcast Cults of Our Lives. Although it was only a few episodes later, there were already lots of drastic differences I noticed, both good and bad. Despite these differences, the format stayed relatively the same and helped hosts Halle and Stasie strategically dive deeper into the craziness behind cults.
One change was that Halle and Stasie no longer evenly split the narration as they had in the past. Halle re-counted almost all of the overview segment while Stasie interjected only slightly with side comments and facts. This is how most of the podcast continued, with Halle doing most, if not all, of the work. Although it made the podcast a little less interesting, as it was now just one person speaking instead of a two-person discussion, it also made it seem more casual. You could tell the two narrators had not discussed what the other was going to say beforehand and had each done their own research. This became evident when at one point, Halle mentioned an obscure fact about one of the cults and Stasie seems incredibly shocked and obviously had not heard this before. So, although this new dynamic took away from the engagement aspect of the podcast, it ultimately added to the casual tone of it all as they no longer seemed to be as concerned in making sure their narration was perfect.
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, Halle and Stasie over time became comfortable enough to share their own political viewpoints with the audience. I was already shocked about their willingness to voice their personal beliefs online and was even more surprised when I realized that this was going to be an ongoing theme for them. In these next few episodes they said things such as, “…just like when people vote for a third party because they think it doesn’t matter, but it does, vote, and vote for Hillary Clinton!” and other sly remarks about Trump’s heavy support from North Korea. Like I mentioned before, once Halle and Stasie had come to the realization of how small their following was, they felt that there was no reason for them to be scared of the backlash that comes from saying the wrong thing. I personally think this was a little too risky as they might have lost some viewers who did not agree with these statements. While I appreciate their openness, it seemed inappropriate and out of place overall.
Halle and Stasie have also created a Facebook group as well as a Cults of our Lives email for people to send them the names of cults they want to see discussed in the future as well as any criticism and other comments they may have. They mentioned this at the end of each of their podcast during the outro, but they also commented on something else during the end of one of their episodes. Halle and Stasie told their listeners that if they hadn’t tuned in to all of their previous podcasts, to go back and listen to all of them except for their very first episode. They said that at the time of filming they were, “just young kids who didn’t know what they were doing” and that “it was terrible”. During my first blog post, I had mentioned that I didn’t particularly enjoy it because, although they had a good layout and organization, it was too scripted and very boring to listen to. I enjoyed how even though they had only recorded a few more episodes, they had already realized that they had improved tremendously and didn’t want their audience to have to endure a podcast that they were not particularly proud of.
Throughout making these blog posts, I have started to enjoy listening to Halle and Stasie attempt to explain the confusing but addictively fascinating lives of cult members. Although the podcast itself has not changed much from their original idea, they have grown so much as narrators and editors. These episodes captivate their audience and you can’t help but to pay sole attention to their voices. It is easy to say that I will be continuing to listen to this podcast and cannot wait to see what they have planned for upcoming episodes.
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Hey Hayley, this is a great post! I enjoyed reading about the podcast Cults of Our Lives and your experience listening to it. It has been so fun to read these posts because now I have a huge list of podcasts that I hope to listen to in the future. It seems to be pretty similar to the podcast I have been listening to. In both podcasts, two female hosts share exciting stories about a specific topic in a relatively casual and comedic manner. Both of us seem to enjoy how conversational these podcasts are. This reminds me to avoid sounded scripted when recording my podcast. Now that we’ve listened to a substantial amount of episodes, I had a similar experience to you when analyzing the format of the episodes. I also became very comfortable with the consistent format of the podcast I listened to and was caught off guard to notice a structural change. However, I like that you described these changes as “both good and bad” and felt the same way.
I like how you went into detail about how the hosts narrated the information, noting that the hosts did not equally split up their speaking parts in this specific episode. I agree with you in that this method has the potential for two opposing effects: a less engaging listening experience or a chance to further analyze the story without interruption. I believe that these hosts unevenly split up their accounts of the tale to create episode diversity. However, when thinking about creating our podcasts, it is important to note how various narration styles make us feel. You seemed to be a bit bored by the set up of this episode, with one host doing most of the speaking and the other chiming in periodically. This makes me realize how important it is for us to split up work among our group evenly. It is not only beneficial for ensuring equal workloads, but it is a solid technique to keep readers interested.
Lastly, I agree that it is a risky choice for podcast hosts to be extremely open about their opinions, especially regarding controversial topics. When people share their viewpoint on things such as politics and extreme current events, some listeners will inevitably agree and others will not. Even though they may have lost some viewers by doing so, I think that this is ok. Everyone will never share the same opinion. Podcasts are a source of entertainment, and people have the free will to choose to listen to whatever they want. Those who do not agree with what these hosts may still enjoy hearing their thoughts, or can choose another podcast to listen to. Those who do agree will only become more engaged in what they have to say.
Overall, excellent work on analyzing this podcast! It is unfortunate that these blog posts are over, but I will definitely be adding Cults of our Lives to my “to listen to” list!
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