Your first assignment is simple: listen to at least 30 minutes of any podcast or audio production and create a general rubric (using the template below) based on that podcast (or podcasts, if you listened to several shorter ones).
Listed below are several suggestions for good podcasts, but I'm open to any that suit your interest. Come to class with the name of the podcast, a description, and the rubric filled out. The purpose of the assignment is to develop some language that we can use to grade each other, to determine what good audio really is.
Questions to consider before class:
-What makes good audio?
-What are the separate elements of good audio? (Can we be more specific than simply, "yeah, that's good". What actually makes it good?)
-How do we make a rubric that can be used to grade such different types of audio production? (What do they all have in common?)
Here's the rubric: Blank Audio Rubric.
Here's a good link to start with: 15 Podcasts You'll Love! It has descriptions as well as links to the shows. Below are a few others to check out! (Many are links to iTunes, however, if you put the title into google, many have home pages of their own where you can find streaming audio that isn't blocked at school.)
Other suggested Podcasts:
This American Life (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/favorites)
The Story (http://thestory.org/)
Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion (http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/)
Wait, Wait, Don't tell me
RadioLab (http://www.radiolab.org/)
StoryCorps
All Things Considered
This Week in Tech
The B.S. Report
The Nerdist
TedTalks
Fresh Air
Freakonomics Radio
Dumbass Guide to Knowledge
Reader's Theater
If you still haven't found one, just listen here below. It's a RadioLab episode about one of my favorite bluesmen, Robert Johnson, who sold his soul to the devil for the ability to rock. (I too would make that deal.)