http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/465/what-happened-at-dos-erres
This is one of my all-time favorite radio pieces from my all-time radio programs. It is called "What Happened at Dos Erres" from NPR's This American Life. It tells the story of an American man named Oscar who discovers that he was one of the lone survivors of a massacre in Guatemala in the 1980's. One of the things that I love about it is something that TAL excels at, which is flow. Each part of the hour-long program flows beautifully into the next. For example, it provides interviews with Oscar and anecdotes from his life, and intersperses them with bits of context about Guatemala. It doesn't allow one section to bog down the whole piece.
As a few of my classmates have articulated, I don't think there's anything as emotionally raw and heart-wrenching as the human voice. When you hear Oscar's father's voice quiver as he finally reunites with his long-lost son, it's hard not to shed a tear. In some ways, I think it's even more powerful than video would be, and certainly more so than reading about it.
You can really tell how much research and effort went into producing this piece. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes This American Life, or just wants to hear a good story.
This is one of my all-time favorite radio pieces from my all-time radio programs. It is called "What Happened at Dos Erres" from NPR's This American Life. It tells the story of an American man named Oscar who discovers that he was one of the lone survivors of a massacre in Guatemala in the 1980's. One of the things that I love about it is something that TAL excels at, which is flow. Each part of the hour-long program flows beautifully into the next. For example, it provides interviews with Oscar and anecdotes from his life, and intersperses them with bits of context about Guatemala. It doesn't allow one section to bog down the whole piece.
As a few of my classmates have articulated, I don't think there's anything as emotionally raw and heart-wrenching as the human voice. When you hear Oscar's father's voice quiver as he finally reunites with his long-lost son, it's hard not to shed a tear. In some ways, I think it's even more powerful than video would be, and certainly more so than reading about it.
You can really tell how much research and effort went into producing this piece. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes This American Life, or just wants to hear a good story.
No comments:
Post a Comment