By Austin Lee — Posted on: Apr 21, 2015
Many of us here at ETS are big fans of podcasts. They’re perfect for passing the time during our daily commutes, and keep us informed about what’s happening around the world. They can make you happy, silly, sad, mad, angry, excited, elated, contemplative, anxious, hopeless, or hopeful. But the best ones are always worth listening to.
One of our favourite podcast series in the office is This American Life, produced by WBEZ Chicago Public Radio. It’s hard to describe exactly what they do, but each podcast episode they produce has a certain theme and a variety of (mostly) true stories of everyday people around that theme. Over the years they’ve produced shows on almost every topic you could think of on people all over the world.
But how does any of this apply to educators? Well besides the fact that This American Life is worth listening to anyway, a lot of educators have incorporated various segments into their classes to vividly illustrate a certain topic or point for their students. You can check out all the examples here (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/education). Sort by subject or education level and click on one of the tabs to see notes from real educators on which episodes they used in their classes and how.
Check it out! I can’t stress enough how good the reporting in these podcasts are. And if you’re having troubles on where to start, why not try one of my favourites below?
Featured Episodes