Author Topic: Using EA Podcasts as a Therapeutic Tool  (Read 5713 times)

Varda

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on: October 14, 2014, 03:09:13 PM
Hey everyone!

I'm doing a special project related to audiologic rehabilitation (translation: helping people with hearing loss recover their hearing) right now for a class I'm taking. The plan is to use EA podcasts as a therapeutic tool for people who use hearing aids. People who've had hearing damage for a long time often need to retrain their ears to hear properly when they first get a hearing aid. This is called "auditory training", and usually clinicians will send their patients to the library for an audiobook and have patients practice listening for a certain number of hours each week so they can learn to understand different voices again with the changes in their hearing.

My plan is to develop a small library of EA stories that have already been sorted by certain audiologic properties so that clinicians can send their patients home with those instead. The advantage to the clinicians is they'll be able to pick stories based on level of difficulty depending on what the patient needs. So some patients will need the simplest, clearest narrations, while others might want to practice listening to narrators that speak more quickly, or who have various accents.

Here's where I could really use YOUR help! I need to pick roughly 20 stories to start with (I might add more over the course of the next year if it ends up going well). I'd *love* it if you'd recommend me stories you love that fit within two parameters:

1) The story *HAS* to be inoffensive from a general audience standpoint--something you could give your most elderly, old-fashioned, easily offended grandpa. Most people with this kind of hearing loss are elderly, and the clinicians need to be able to hand out the recordings in a professional context without pre-screening.

This might make it harder for Pseudopod to play, but if you can think of anything on the tame end of the horror pool, toss it out there. :)

2) The audio quality of the narration needs to be top-notch, so nothing echo-y or hissing or otherwise less quality. This is because these people already have hearing loss, and the challenge is supposed to be understanding the voices, not hearing through noise. Also, for this project I'll want only a single narrator, and no sound effects/music within the story--which is pretty standard for EA, but I know there are some well-beloved exceptions. :)

"The Paper Menagerie" would be a good example of the kind of story I want--general appeal, grandma would like it, great story, great recording.

What else do you think might go on my list? :)

Medical Microfiction: Stories About Science
http://rckjones.wordpress.com


Fenrix

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Reply #1 on: October 14, 2014, 03:43:36 PM

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”


Varda

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Reply #2 on: October 14, 2014, 09:24:03 PM
Hmm, good one, Fenrix! I also like that it's a Fowlie narration. Fowlie is pretty much mandatory for this project. :)

Has Graeme read anything in G/PG territory? I'd love to include his voice somewhere in this set. Also, MK Hobson?

Here's what else I'm thinking about including so far, glancing through my library (this list is dude-narrator-heavy, but that's actually on purpose):

From PodCastle:

PC Miniature 13 - Fable of the Ostrich (read by Steve Eley)
PC 106 - Little Gods (read by Dave Thompson)
PC 165 - The Paper Menagerie (read by Rajan Khanna)
PC 243 - Tiger in the BSE (read by TCA Lakshmi Narasimhan)
PC 259 - The Great Zeppelin Heist of Oz (read by Nick Podel)
PC 280 - The Devil and Tom Walker (read by Wilson Fowlie)
PC 285 - Dragonslayer (read by Elie Hirschman)
PC 287 - Tiktok and the Nome King (read by Bob Eccles)
PC 322 - Saving Bacon (read by Alasdair Stuart)

From Escape Pod:

EP 407 - Mono No Aware (read by John Chu)
EP 427 - Samantha's Diary (read by Emma Newman)
EP 430 - Heart of Joy (read by Andrea Richardson)
EP 453 - Grotto of the Dancing Deer (read by Norm Sherman)
EP 455 - Keep Your Shape (read by Nathan Lee)

I can't think of anything particularly tame from PP yet, but I've not delved that far into the back catalogue. Definitely open to recommendations though.

Medical Microfiction: Stories About Science
http://rckjones.wordpress.com


Fenrix

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Reply #3 on: October 15, 2014, 12:58:22 AM

Has Graeme read anything in G/PG territory? I'd love to include his voice somewhere in this set. Also, MK Hobson?


Tower of the Elephant maybe to roll in Graeme

As far as PseudoPod goes, classic stuff is probably best. e.g.:
Episode 100 with The Music of Erich Zann
Episode 200 with Oil of Dog and The Horror of the Heights
Episode 250 The Voice in the Night 
Episode 375 The Signalman

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”


Varda

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Reply #4 on: December 05, 2014, 03:54:01 AM
I thought I'd stop in with a little update, because this project turned out quite successful. :) One cool thing we learned in the course of the project was that no one in our field is using podcasts this way, at least as far as we found. So there's a lot of room for this to become a really useful therapeutic strategy down the road. It has the nice advantage of being tailored to the patient's needs and interests, since therapists could really use any kind of podcast (fiction, nonfiction, etc), and our rating system provides a way to take an objective measurement of something as varied/subjective as a narration. My team is going to present the idea at a professional conference in our field next year, and the clinicians are going to try out the tool with some clients at the teaching clinic early summer 2015. So I'm excited. :)

The best part was getting to play audio samples from PodCastle episodes over the lecture hall loudspeakers today for our presentation. Verdict: Wilson Fowlie sounds great at any volume. :)

Medical Microfiction: Stories About Science
http://rckjones.wordpress.com


bounceswoosh

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Reply #5 on: December 13, 2014, 05:48:43 PM
Just saw this. What a great idea! I'm glad it's getting traction!