05/29/18
English Podcasting
Podcast Rhetorical Outline
1.) Say what you think your podcast is about in one sentence
a.) My podcast is about the story of a man who chose to reinvent himself and found, in a rather
harsh way, that sometimes we are at the mercy of the biological functions of our brain which, in his
case, does not allow him to truly escape his past and its influence on his personality.
2.) Say what you hope your podcast will leave your readers thinking about (and/or feeling) after they
are finished reading your podcast (again in one sentence).
a.) I hope that listeners to my podcast are left truly evaluating how much control they have over
who they are as people, and consider embracing every part of their past and present, good and bad,
which contribute to the makings of their own individuality, yet I will settle for them to be simply
entertained.
3. Divide your podcast script into “idea chunks” and number each chunk in the margin. Focus
on conceptual content: What does this chunk say or what point does it make? Focus on function: How does
this section function rhetorically in terms of the whole piece? Focus on audience: What do you want the
audience to be thinking and/or feeling at this point?
a.) Chunk 1 – Intro
i.) Set the scene by describing the main characters involved.
ii.) Achieve this context with a few indicative stories
iii.) Set the mood, by carefully selecting the right background music (as of now it’s Shuggie
Otis- “Sweet Thang” and Funkadelic- “Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow”
iv.) alude to what the podcast will be about, yet don’t give to much away. This is to mainly
serve as a proper hook for the listener’s attention.
v.) Introduce yourself and the podcast with a cool intro music thing that plays little snips of
what is to come later in the episode, in the background.
***END OF CHUNK***
Focus on Conceptual Content:. I will tell a few quick stories such as Rocky breaking a branch with his fists, teaching
me what a redneck flamethrower is, and Deb’s nicknames for everybody. There will be a lot of descriptive
language of the characters of Deb and Rocky. I will also briefly mention myself and my roommate as being involved
at some point with these characters and allude to the story I am about to tell.
Focus on Function: The main function of this chunk is to mainly incite the listeners attention and also give context
on the characters that the story is about. I am also using groovy music to set a relaxing vibe. I throw in a few jokes
for a dual purpose. Mainly these jokes are helpful in the description, but they also help give a nonchalance feeling
to the listener and is intended to get them to loosen up and allow themselves to be entertained and wanting to
hear more. The intro also alludes to what the podcast will be about, and tells them who and what they are
listening to.
Focus on Audience: The audience can really be anybody that is interested in hearing a good story, but will probably
best suited for listeners that enjoy storytelling more than the average person. The audience I am aiming for is also
the listeners with a sense of humor and those who will not be offended easily with offensive language.
b.) Idea Chunk 2- establish My Roomate and I’s Role in the story w/ roommate interview
i.) Choose a few minutes of recorded phone conversation with my roommate at the
time, “Chong”
ii.) Briefly describe how I met Deb and Rocky and establish this as the beginning of the
story.
iii.) Tell the listener’s that Deb had told me that Rocky had a bad work incident at the
logging company shortly after we left, and use as cliff hanger to next phase of the story.
***END OF IDEA CHUNK #2***
Focus on Conceptual Content: “Chong” has many amazing Rocky stories that I have to choose from to throw in
here. The main part of the content will be establishing the beginning of the story which I have decided is where I
first met Rocky and Deb. I will bring this into my recent conversation with Deb and her telling me that Rocky was in
a logging accident and cliffhang by not giving any closure to how bad the accident was until the next part.
Focus on Function: This is where I further establish context of character and place, more so than I could have in the
intro. I want the listener to truly have a sense of who and where these events are happening to before I really start
getting into the movement of the story. The end of this chunk will also serve as a cliffhanger to keep the listener on
the edge of their seat.
Focus on Audience: The audience will once again have to be people who are not offended easily with stark,
offensive language, and enjoy a good story, character descriptions. This is where many of the main questions of
who and where these people are get answered but will raise more questions of what happened to them and how
bad of shape was Rocky in after the accident.
c.) Idea Chunk 3- Rocky’s accident and recovery
i.) Begins with a scene description of the hospital room Rocky wakes up in, a week after
his accident, from a coma
ii.) Here is the entrance into the story of Rocky’s musical hallucinations of classical
music, which begins as soon as he wakes up. (Moonlight Sonata)
iii.) Throw in a recorded interview with Dr. Oliver Sacks who talks about what musical
hallucinations are.
iv.) Go into Rocky making the transfer back home and struggling to contain his
frustration and anger about the music in his head. Reminder that this is the last kind of music he would
ever choose to listen to….. ever.
v.) This point of the story reveals how the music matches his moods and intensity. The
more intense his emotion, the more loud the music in his head. The angrier he is, the more intense
music, and at this point his first reaction is to do what he has always done and get angry and try and
fight it. This only makes the music louder, more extreme, and degrades his will overtime to fight it. It is
the first thing in his life that he cannot fight and beat or run away from, and slowly comes to the
realization that he must confront his past to try and find answers to why this music is in head in the first
place.
Focus on conceptual content: This is the bulk of the story. The content will be describing his struggles with
dealing with his new mental disorder. There will be a lot of classical music playing in the background to
demonstrate exactly what Rocky is hearing in his head as each scene unfolds. This music will be carefully
chosen to match the volume, and intensity of what is going on in his own mind.
Focus on function: This is the real climax of the story. The function of this piece will be to crescendo just like a
Mozart symphony, where the whole orchestra is playing at full intensity. The goal is to provide a window into
Rocky’s head at the time. The quick clip of Oliver Sacks will also provide context to exactly what musical
hallucinations really are.
Focus on Audience: The audience should be feeling intense feelings of empathy for Rocky, at this point. The
goal is to allow them to struggle with him threw this crusade that most people will never have to deal with.
They should be wondering what the hell is going to happen to this guy and how in the world he is going to
come out of this uphill battle. This is also where I hope to establish the question in listener’s minds of “Why
classical music?”
d.) Idea Chunk 4- Rocky Confronts his past
i.) Rocky, upon the request of his doctor, seeks to answer why this is happening to him
by confronting his parents who he hasn’t talked to in 42 years.
ii.) Here we find out that Rocky’s parents live in Seattle, and are very liberal: complete
opposites of Rocky. We find out that Rocky hasn’t talked to his parents in 42 years because he was such
a troubled child, fighting with his parents, that when he told them he was dropping out of high school to
become a logger, their last resort tactic was to tell him they would disown him if he did that. Well, he
obviously went through with it and his parents were left with reaping what they sowed, and as
heartbreaking as it was for them, life was easier without him in their lives.
iii.) When he finally talks to them and tells him about his problems, they tell him the
classical music makes sense. This is because, as a baby he was always throwing temper tantrums and it
seemed the only thing that made him settle down was to play him the classical music collection they
have. Nothing else calmed him like classical music. They play him some of the records they still have and
he realizes that this is, note for note, the exact same music. For 42 years this music has layed dormant in
his head without losing a single accurate pitch or note.
iv.) Upon realizing this Rocky goes home and has a lot of time to think. Slowly but surely,
with understanding where it comes from, he starts to come to terms for the music and instead of
fighting it, he starts to embrace it. When he does this, the music starts to have the same effect it did
when he was a child and calms him down. Unfortunately, this turns him into someone that all his friends
and family do not know, and he becomes isolated from his community he built around himself. Now,
separated from his community, and still not belonging in the liberal Seattle world, he finds himself stuck
between two worlds. His decision is to hop into his red thunderbird vehicle and drive away, never to be
heard from again.
Focus on conceptual content: This is a big section that will feature (hopefully) interviews with my real parents
posing as Rocky’s parents and describing the events that happened in Rocky’s past to help explain the
musical hallucinations.
Focus on function: The function of this to mainly conclude the story, and give the answers that popped up
earlier. I also hope to really tug on the heartstrings of the listeners and have them feeling truly sorry for
someone who now has no home, no community, due to the misfunction of his own brain.
Focus on Audience: The audience gets many of their questions answered in this segment. I want the audience
to feel empathy for Rocky, yet I still like leaving them wondering what happened to Rocky. Is he dead?
Suicide? Or did he just make a new home somewhere else? At 60, though? That’s got to be hard. I am mainly
going for having the audience feel empathy.
e.) Idea Chunk 5- Conclusion
i.) Here I will use this time to reflect on what the story means. What he can get out of it.
ii.) Most people can go their whole lives maintaining a certain level of control of how they
define themselves. They can choose where live, what they were, what music they like, who they hang out
with, and all these things have an influence on your personality. But in Rocky’s case, he was not able to
maintain this control for the entirety of his life and his brain turned on him: not allowing him to escape the
undesired effects his past had on who he is as a person.
ii.) then I say goodbye or whatever and the podcast is over.
Focus on conceptual content: This will be the post story reflection where I talk about the control that we
have and the control that we don’t have, over our own brains.
Focus on function: This concludes it all together. In the conclusion, the function is to give a bigger picture to
what the story is about. The goal is to establish meaning to an otherwise, simply entertaining story.
Focus on Audience: The audience is given food for thought in the conclusion. I want the audience to be
walking away from this reevaluating what they think makes them who they are, and why they are who they
are today. I want them to feel grateful if they are one of those people who have always been able to maintain
a certain level of control over how they want to identify themselves and to realize that this is not something
to be taken for granted. I want the audience to realize that we are who we are because our brain allows us to
be, by functioning properly. Yet, any day, that can change.
After completing the above process for each chunk of your podcast, answer these three questions:
●
Now say what is your podcast (is really) about.
My podcast is about the story of a man who chose to reinvent himself and found, in a rather
harsh way, that sometimes we are at the mercy of the biological functions of our brain which, in his
case, does not allow him to truly escape his past and its influence on his personality.
● To what extent does it say what you thought it said initially?
I copied and pasted, intentionally, because even after much thought, the story is still about what I
originally wanted it to be about. I have had this story in my mind for many years now, actually, and have had
ample time to think it over, and so I have this part well hashed out. This practice helped me really hash out
some of the nitty gritty details, though, which is exactly what I needed.
● As the audience for your own podcast, what are you actually left thinking and/or feeling?
*See the audience section of the conclusion. That answers this question in its entirety, I think.
ADDITION TO WHAT WE DID IN CLASS: Write so what/ conclusion
Most people can go their whole lives maintaining a certain level of control of how they define themselves.
They can choose where live, what they where, what music they like, who they hang out with, and all these
things have an influence on your personality. But in Rocky’s case, he was not able to maintain this control for
the entirety of his life and his brain turned on him: not allowing him to escape the undesired effects his past
had on who he is as a person. Everybody has to face the decision of how they want to identify themselves
and be seen as an individual. The point of this podcast is to bring attention to the luxury that most of us have
when we approach that. The “so what” of this podcast is that those of us who have a properly functioning
brain should not take for granted what that does in the illusion of choice we have in our lives. We are capable
of what we perceive as control over our personalities simply because our brains allow us to.