In my previous blog entry, we discussed the tale of Bowe Bergdahl, the American Soldier that, in an apparent death wish, left his post and wandered into Taliban controlled Afghanistan. While we do know now that his goal was to create a DUSTWUN (if you do not know what a DUSTWUN is, I highly encourage you to go back to my last entry as it will help you fully understand and enjoy this sequel post) to bring attention to the bad leadership within his unit and that he was recovered around five years later through a deal struck between the United States and the Taliban. However, we have yet to learn about his exact capture, the Taliban’s strategy in hiding him from United States Searches, and the colossal effort the United States army put into place to find and reclaim Bergdahl. The exact details of this story are, again, masterfully played out through the interwoven narrative features of interviews, music, and varying perspectives of The Golden Chicken, the second episode of the season 2 Serial Podcast.
Our narrator, Sarah Koenig, left us listeners on a well-delivered cliffhanger at the end of episode one, playing the first few lines of her phone call with a Taliban member. After a short advertisement from Rocket Mortgage and an introduction made up of various audio clips, Koenig picks up her phone-in interview with Mujahid Rahman, not the real name of a Taliban fighter who was part of the group who found, captured, and kept Bergdahl hidden from American forces. The goal was to eventually get Bergdahl to Pakistan where he would become a “Golden Chicken,” or very valuable to the Taliban as United States forces had no power within Pakistan. Rahman also describes the hospitality they treated Bergdahl even performing a traditional Afghan dance known as an Attan as he was labeled, by the higher-ups as a guest. The perspective is then switched to that of Bergdahl’s where he briefly describes a desperate escape attempt, he made on the first day of his capture. Conclusively, interviews with various American soldiers and commanders wrap up the back half of this episode aiding Koenig is describing the immense effort given by the Army to search for Bergdahl, the dangers and miseries and hatred toward Bergdahl that came with it, “It got to the point where sleep, I mean, sort of became a distant reality. Just 24 hours a day, seven days a week. No sleep, no nothing. You just ran out of juice. All the guys are just miserable, and it’s just like hell on earth.” In an interview with Command Sergeant Major Kenneth Wolfe, he states that serious conversations were whether or not to shoot Bergdahl once he was found because of the misery he caused them.
Being produced by the same company and having the same narrator, lead to many similarities in narrative features between episode 1 and 2, as to be expected. Two of these common themes included the use of interviews from various perspectives and introduction clips and closing credits.
The various interviews as a narrative feature built a compelling storyline as it presented a back and forth battle and view on the accounts of what happened. Around 7 different people were interviewed for this podcast giving accounts from the Taliban, Bergdahl, and the American side. This gives a listener an exact idea of the strategies of all parties involved and allows and the insight stung together provides for a compelling listen.
This being the second episode, the introduction clip and closing credits can now be confirmed as common themes of the podcast. The narrative feature of closing credits gives quick recognition to those involved in the making of the podcast which is the sole reason for any of the other narrative features mentioned making it an important one for the listeners. The feature of the introduction clip allows for a very brief idea of what is going on, playing audio files from various news, speeches, and even one from Bergdahl himself. It reminds us of the impact that Bergdahl’s story had not only on our time in Afghanistan but also the huge impact it had on our culture through media continuing on today. It compels us because it reminds us of just how important and how many lives have been affected by the one decision made by Bergdahl on June 30th, 2009.
In conclusion, while this second episode gave us deeper insight into Bowe Bergdahl, it also allowed us to see common themes of narrative features within this series including interviews from various perspectives and introduction clips and closing credits. These features keep the listener engaged and compelled to hear more of the infamous story of Bergdahl.
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This story from Serial sounds really interesting, I’m guessing the story changes each season or every few episodes? Anyway, based on your write-up I noticed a lot of similarities between Serial and A Murder on Orchard Street, the podcast I’ve been listening to for this blog. The general format seems like they’re roughly the same, where the narrator guides the audience through a story while also utilizing audio clips from phone calls and interviews between the narrator and major characters, although I think my podcast differs in that the narrator for Orchard Street also had first hand experience with the story that she covers, since she originally covered the story as part of an investigative news report that she did back in 2003. I’m assuming that isn’t the case for Sarah Koenig, since she is just investigating these cases now, but I might be wrong.
Another similarity I noticed, specifically with the episodes we each listened to for this post, is the use of clashing perspectives. In Episode 3 of A Murder on Orchard Street, the episode primarily focuses on Forest Bloede, who was accused of murdering Burke O’Brien. The two episodes prior, focused primarily on O’Brien’s family and the investigators, so it was nice to get Bloede’s side of the story. In that same episode, an interesting they did was use two audio clips of Bloede and Detective Kenny Silvia, who each recalled Bloede’s interrogation back in 2003. As they each recalled details, the audio was edited so that it would keep switching back and forth between the two sides, which frames their perspectives against each other. In Serial, it sounds like this episode operates on the same idea of clashing perspectives, with the Taliban member claiming that Bergdahl was being treated as a guest of honor and celebrated with a dance, versus the US Army who were suffering and miserable in their attempt to find Bergdahl.
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