Diagnosis,  Moments, Double Lives, What I Did For Love

Although I chose the episodes that sounded most appealing to me, I did not find most of the stories particularly fascinating or unique. It seemed to me that the majority were common, but just told on a larger scale and in relation to specific topic in order for them to have significance and impact on the audience. The “Moments” had a silent film, which could have been a lot more meaningful. All the scenes were the same quality and each one had no real significance, which made it uninteresting even if it made a point. The other episodes however,  were all audio. The stories were accompanied by music and sound cues that alerted the listener to specific heights in mood or change in speaker. The stories were first introduced through the overhanging topic and then a brief open ended description is given, after which a story is told. Each story has the voices of the different people and is set up in the style of an interview. The American Life is very chronological, and has descriptions of each section, much like an essay. Radiolab is more a series of examples, and reminds me more of diary entries.  I prefer the American Life format, but the audio presentation style is much better in Radiolab. The stories progress by way of a hook, background and then details and then how it relates to the original topic. In order for the stories to have life, music and other sounds are incorporated. Also there are multiple people retelling the stories and they each bring a little of themselves into the telling, as well as accenting their voice or pouring emotion into it for the listeners to relate.