**Link to Podcast** https://thisten.co/c/7n9sx
**Listening to Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People**
Overview:
Podcast assignments in this course are your opportunity to learn more about another person, their culture, and the way that they make meaning. The podcast we are listening to is one of my absolute favorites, Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People. The premise is simple, the host releases a number on social media and anonymous callers call in. They have one hour to talk to the host about whatever they would like to—the only rule being that they can’t say their name and have to stay anonymous. I’ve been listening to this podcast for years and I am always shocked by the way the host gets people to open up—he brings reflective listening and a non-judgmental perspective to encourage deep vulnerability. The result is that people tend to really get beneath the surface and you start to understand them and empathize with them as people even when they are vastly different from yourself. I’ve started episodes and immediately thought to myself, “This person sucks, there is no way I could ever find any commonality with them, they are the polar opposite of me” and then had to pull my car over to cry in the middle of nowhere because I was so moved by the person’s story.
In these assignments, you’ll listen to the podcast episode of your choosing each week and describe what you learned about the caller’s culture, their story, and what commonalities you found with them. Try to pick episodes with callers that clearly have a different culture than your own (you can read short descriptions of each episode and sometimes the title also gives a gist of what the person will talk about).
Podcast assignments support the following Course Learning Outcomes:
Analyze intercultural interactions and identify culturally based conflicts.
Increase emotional and cultural intelligence.
Assignment Directions:
Listen to an episode of Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People. Remember, try to pick an episode with callers that have a different culture than your own. Each episode has a short synopsis of the caller and what they talk about.
After listening to your episode, create a document that includes the following:
The episode’s title
A succinct summary of the episode
A description of what you understand the caller’s culture to be (remember culture is a dynamic thing that doesn’t just encompass someone’s racial or ethnic identity)
Analysis of skills and strategies the host (Chris) utilized to help the caller be vulnerable and open up
What commonalities/empathy you found with the caller by the end of the episode
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