Podcast Review: Student Work

 Student 1: Making Macaroons

My podcast is called “Episode 35 French pastries of the north” and the podcast topic is all about French pastries in the northern part of France and where you can find certain pastries. The name of the podcasters is Annie and Alyse.

They talk about the ingredients that Fiadon (a type of cheesecake) has, and it contains brocciu it is a type of goat cheese you can also add other cheeses, but goat cheese is more traditional. Cheese is very popular in France as well there is a variety of people who like cheese more than pastries.

 Something surprising they mention is that it is difficult to find cinnamon pastries but there is a lot towards the northeast of France which was very strange to me I thought that all of France had cinnamon pastries. Also, there are no traditional cinnamon rolls from France because it is a very “Germanic thing” in Germany.

 They talk about how in America you buy your pie crust with the disposable pie but in France, they do not have that instead you would have to buy rolled dough and add that to your pie crust. The podcasters say it is easier to buy the rolled dough because it is fresh and it’s so easy to use.

Annie and Alyse mention that back then when people did not have ovens in their houses there would be an oven in the center of the town and when you would have bread to bake you would take it there to be baked.

Annie and Alyse say that when you become a professional pastry chef you need to have the right ingredients like butter, sugar, and flour. There are specific ingredients for every pastry there not the same you cannot use the same butter for everything. That is why they charge more or less depending on the price of the ingredients they use.

This podcast helped me because it explained how pastry chefs need certain ingredients and that will help me focus on the ingredients for my macaroon. This podcast did not talk about macaroons, so it wasn’t helping my project as much. This podcast started in 2014, but this specific episode aired on September 27, 2014. The podcast was created because the creator lived in France for twenty years and wanted to share the discoveries they made through the podcast. This podcast is hosted on the following platforms, Spotify, and Apple Music.

Why did you select this podcast? The reason I chose this specific podcast was that it had information on French pastries and where macarons originated. Another reason was that I could not find a specific podcast on macaroons. I learned a few things from this podcast that could help me with my project, but as I said, they did not have much information on macarons.

Student 2: The Fermi Paradox

        The podcast I’m watching is about unsettling solutions for the Fermi Paradox through an hour-long interview between Dr. Stephen Webb, an astronomer and author, with John Michael Godier, the host of the podcast. The podcast starts off with talking about the Drake equation, a famous mathematical equation proposed by Frank Drake to calculate the number of intelligent civilizations in the universe. It introduces the uncertainty of the topic itself, and allows you to picture just how vast the universe is. After the brief introduction of the Drake equation, the two talk about the first abiogenesis of life, and the chances we are completely alone in the universe because of how rare it may be. Then, they touch on the opposite end of the spectrum: that abiogenesis events are not rare, and in fact quite plentiful in the universe. This leads them to talk about the theory of the Great Filter and how that could be connected with the abiogenesis of life and the transition from prokaryotic to eukaryotic life, and also other theories that involve hostile extraterrestrial civilizations. They talk about the extent to which we would really want to connect with aliens. Lastly, they mention certain biases that can limit our perception of the universe and other life forms that are unfamiliar to us, including modernity bias.

In my opinion, the podcast was extremely effective in conveying information. The podcast was longer, and so it could both touch on multiple topics within the Fermi Paradox while also elaborating on them, and allowing them to be understandable. This was especially useful when they dove into some topics that, without some background context, would be quite difficult to understand, like the development and genesis of life on Earth, and the possible universe. The execution was purely through one interview between the host and the interviewee. The execution itself did not necessarily cause any sort of anticipation or excitement on the topic, but not shortly after the start, you start to dive deeper into the topics, which are explained very well. Also, the interview itself was executed well. You can feel that the topic is something both the interviewer and interviewee are passionate about, and their constant interactions make the podcast very effective in conveying information.

The podcast is one of 569 episodes published in John Michael Godier’s Event Horizon series, where he discusses – through interviews with other people – a multitude of topics from space. It’s original intent was to inform others about space, and the any mysteries that it holds. The host himself, John Michael Godier, is interested in these topics as well (it is part of what makes the interviews so engaging, both people included know about what they’re saying, and they’re both passionate about it). This podcast episode was released in October 2022, and it was streamed (hosted) on Spotify.

I selected this podcast because I’d seen a documentary by the same person, and it was a documentary that helped me a lot. This podcast is no different, and it will be really helpful for me. Not necessarily for lots of new information, because by now I’ve done my own research on multiple topics, but to help elaborate on some topics in detail that I cannot find a lot of information on, or have a different perspective on. For example, they touch on the Great Filter, which has many interpretations. The podcast elaborates on a perspective I’ll be touching on in my project.

Student 3: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) 

The topic of the podcast I chose is adverse childhood experiences. The name of the podcast is Episode 20: Adverse Childhood Experiences by Beyond Trauma Podcast.

 Some things that I learned in this podcast was that there is a connection between a person’s adverse childhood experiences and negative health outcomes. As your score goes up, so does the negative health consequences later in life.

There are eight different domains. Emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, incarcerated household member, mother was treated violently, substance abuse in the household, and mental illness in the household. The person going through these experiences sometimes might not even realize it until later in life or until someone mentions it to them.

 There are significantly higher rates of injury; mental health concerns including depression, anxiety suicide, and PTSD; maternal health issues which include pregnancy difficulties, child loss to SIDS, etc.

 Adverse Childhood Experiences also have a diminishment of your life opportunities such as your education, jobs, and your income status.

Your physical and emotional selves do not know they are separate from each other. The body does not know the difference between an emotional and physical wound, so it goes into self-protection and attempts to add layers upon layers of defense around the wound to give it time to heal and/or stop it from being hurt there again. Where there is defensiveness in the body, there is inflammation. This is one of the underlying causes of things like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, weight gain, etc. because they are constantly fueled by the inflammation response in the body.

I think the podcast was well thought out and worded well. They did their best to not trigger anyone and not go too deep but still going into detail. This podcast first aired on June 20, 2021 on Spotify. I chose this podcast because the beyond trauma podcast page is all about trauma and its effects so I thought it was a good choice to use as my podcast for this project.