Hearing Stories: Narrative Audio in Isolation

According to recent studies, there are currently more than 1,750,000 active podcasts available via myriad streaming platforms. Once occupying a small niche of the media, podcasting is now thoroughly mainstream; its meteoric rise has only accelerated thanks to the solitary production and consumption of media under the social isolation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Co-moderated by Mitchell Akiyama and Neil Verma, Hearing Stories: Narrative Audio in Isolation invites two leading practitioners, Jana Winderen and Kaitlin Prest, to speak to what it means to create sonic art in this moment. We will discuss how sonic practices can be used to create community, to tell stories, and to address pressing political issues.