Intern Weekly Response: Podcast Previews
Every week we’re asking our summer interns to share some thoughts and responses to various experiences and readings. This week we asked them to give us a sneak peek of the upcoming podcasts they are creating! To read more posts from JMM interns, past and present, click here.
We’ve Got Belongings on Our Mind!
By exhibitions intern Tirza Ochrach-Konradi
The exhibitions intern team is making out podcast together! We’ve all been doing work that is directly related or tangential to the Belonging(s) exhibit that is in the works right now. The exhibit won’t open to the public until 2019, but all of the preparation research is in full force. We have been thinking about belonging all summer, so the concept has had a lot of time to marinate in our heads. We hope you will look forward to hearing our podcast conversation where we discuss our personal feelings about Jewish belonging!
There are all kinds of artifacts that are belongings related in the JMM archives. Here are two pieces from the collection that fit right in with the theme:
Reflecting on My and Other’s Judaism in the 21st Century
By exhibitions intern Ryan Mercado
We all come from different origins and we all have different lives. Yet three of us interns have one thing in common: We are all Jewish. Jillie and Tirza are both Jewish by birth, with Jillie being Israeli and Tirza having a Jewish father, and I am a Jew through conversion. However, each of our perceptions about Judaism are different from the others. Put the fact that we are also millennials and you get a really interesting look at how us three Jews view ourselves. We took this information and decided to make a podcast out of it in which Jillie, Tirza, and I will discuss what being Jewish means to us and how our millennial upbringing and culture has affected it.
You can probably imagine that the three of us have quite the stories to tell. Coming into this project, I thought that we would all come to at least some similar conclusions in terms of what Judaism means to us. We can all agree that the holidays are fun and tat being Jewish means being part of a much larger community. However, being Jewish means different things for different people. Jillie grew up in an Israeli household so she’s been surrounded by Jewish undertones her whole life. Tirza is from a much more secular household but still celebrates the High Holidays. And then there is me, the convert. For me, my Judaism involves around activities I do by myself and friends. I’m the only Jew in my family so I mainly count on non-family members to help me express my Judaism. That’s basically the gist. We discuss topics ranging from how we feel Jewish to how Judaism may impact our dating lives! Tune in to hear more about how three Jewish millennials see Judaism differently!
Coming soon to a podcast near you…Erin and Sara tell all!
By education interns Sara Philippe and Erin Penn
As Ira Glass begins each episode of his spectacular podcast This American Life…so, what happened? Like Ira Glass, in week nine of our internship, we are now asking ourselves the same question, looking back on this summer with an eye for discovery and recovery. Much like the JMM’s next exhibit of the Iraqi Jewish Archives, we have stories to tell and memories to hold on to as tightly as we can. Our podcast or ‘cast, as the kids these days call them, dives into our lives as interns at the JMM. As education and programs interns, we’ve seen it all. From school groups to flyer design, we have had fun carrying out our tasks and growing a true passion for our department and positions.
After much deliberation, our podcast now has a clear direction and tone. We, creative and energetic folks, struggled picking one idea and bidding adieu to some of the most compelling of them. We sometimes got caught up in our hope to be the next viral hit. But with time no longer on our side, we have put on working gloves and rolled up our sleeves.
When considering podcast options, we decided it would be insightful and rewarding for our many listeners to get the inside scoop into what it really means to work in our department with its many varied responsibilities. By giving an overview of our work and experiences, we would be able to share a diverse breadth of information, speaking about some of the most interesting discoveries and highlighting the most compelling aspects of our internship. We are excited to share with our fans (our moms) what really happens. Maybe Ira will listen too!
Can’t Touch This: The JMM Collections Intern’s Guide to Navigating the Basement
By collections intern Joelle Paull
Tasked with creating a podcast, we (the Collections interns) wanted to share what we have been doing this summer. The three short episodes focus on three different aspects of our job and are centered on three different objects in the JMM collection. The most difficult part of the process was figuring out how to form a narrative around objects with listeners not being able to see everything we are talking about. We will of course be posting images of everything we talk about, but we tried to be descriptive and find other ways of engaging listeners.
We are now editing the three episodes and can’t wait to share them. We finished recording this week in our makeshift recording studio, a cart in one of the storage rooms with mics and our office chairs. We had a blast and might have to include a blooper reel. Be sure to check it out next week!
Collections Podcast: A Musical Challenge
By collections intern Amy Swartz
Joelle and I are working on creating a podcast about our experience working in Collections, We started out with an idea: focus on three objects and craft a story regarding our experiences around it. We ended up finding it easier to focus on experiences and then pick the objects. We chose to discuss our experience setting up the Just Married: Wedding Stories from Jewish Maryland, our time inventorying pictures, and our current job consisting of preparing the Beyond Chicken Soup traveling exhibit for its departure. We then picked relevant objects: a wedding dress, a framed poster, and medicine bottles.
We wanted to make sure that our podcast is entertaining and informative so we shared some inside jokes regarding our experiences. For example, sometimes we listen to podcasts while doing work on our computers. I just started listening to Serial so a joke is made how it is a tad creepy to listen to Serial – a story about a murder in Baltimore in the 90s, when alone in the basement. Joelle and I wrote a script and recorded our podcast this week. Now we are on the editing phase. One of the more fun parts about this stage is that we have to pick an intro and outro song that is public domain. We found some cool options so I am excited to pick that out.