- Maker: Michelle Duarte
- Genre: Podcast
- Level: Graduate
- Program: Composition, Rhetoric, and Digital Media
- Course: WRIT 5340: Studies in Multimodality and Digital Media
- Instructor: Dr. Eric Mason
- Semester Created: Winter 2023
Description
“Saging the Hurt Locker” was created to provide a safe space for participants to share the pivotal turning points in their mental health journey. This podcast was designed to highlight the moments where people decided to reach for help. Help could mean calling a friend, seeking therapy, calling a hotline, etc. Too often, society shines a light on mental health struggles once it is too late for individuals to seek help. The purpose of this podcast is for listeners to take the courage and bravery of these participants and use it when they most need it. Perhaps, an example of what to do in moments of despair and tribulation.
Reflection
For this entry, I included the very first solo episode of Saging the Hurt Locker. My intention is to introduce the setting, context, and purpose of the podcast with listeners. The lack of instrumental music is very intentional. I wanted it to feel like a confessional space, only the listeners and the most vulnerable moments of someone else. Moments that perhaps mirror those of the listeners. In this project, sound was the only mode that could, figuratively and literally, deliver the message listeners to receive. According to the National Library of Medicine, “the human ear and the heart share a common connection: the vagus nerve” (NLM, 2018). This literal connection between the ear and the heart was my driving force in deciding the way this project would be presented. Additionally, I felt like a podcast would highlight all of the wonderful things my classmates and I learned in Dr. Mason’s course: multimodality is powerful and accessible, use it!
