Dina's Podcast Reviews

For my educational podcast, I listened to a NPR Fresh Air interview of Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. It's written from the perspective of a high functioning autistic boy bent on figuring out who killed his neighbor's dog. My students generally love this book. Host Terri Gross hooks listeners by asking the British author to read the book's opening paragraph when the boy describes encountering the dead dog. The podcast highlights Gross' wonderful interviewing techniques. First, she never misses a good follow-up question. For example, when Haddon says that he was careful not to use the words "autism" or "Asberger's Syndrome", she asks "Why not?" Haddon explains that every one of his narrator's oddities was taken from someone he knows who does NOT have this diagnosis, who is considered "normal". Gross' questions always impress me, and this show was no exception. Her question about what scares the boy, elicited interesting specifics. She also asked what part of the boy Haddon most identifies with, which surprisingly turns out to be his love of math. Finally, Gross astutely notes a paradox, namely the author's efforts to empathize with a boy incapable of empathy. Haddon then mentions another paradox: while vowing never to lie, the narrator never quite gets the truth right and is therefore highly unreliable. Also, because his narrator is entirely unaware of his audience, he never adequately explains things. Since my own students are often unaware of what information their readers need, an excerpt from this book might be instructive.

A "foodie", I also listened to "The Splendid Table" produced by American Public Media. The host interacts with various guests including restaurant critics, cookbook writers and sommeliers. What I found frustrating about the first episode I listened to was that it promised to be about Kitchen designs but instead flitted from twinkies, to sardines, to wine. The second episode led me to believe it would explore noodles of Japan, which interests me, and then Indian breads, which doesn't. However, it reversed the order and there was no way to fast forward. Both episodes I began with food writers Jane and Michael Stern teasing us with tantalizing descriptions of the chocolate espresso twinkie, two layer lemon bars and eggnog waffles at Bette's Diner in Berkeley and the milkshakes mixed with banana cream pie slices somewhere in Minnesota. There are annoyingly long song transitions between short segments, some of which are relevant (such as the boogie about baked goods), and others which lack any clear connection to the show's content. The other mixed bag is that the host and guests rattle off recipes, many of which don't appear on the show's website.

Finally, I tried to track down Chris Rock's "Never Scared" video to use in conjunction with The Great Gatsby, but all I could access were HBO clips of one Chris Rock show.