The Podcast was the most difficult assignment as I had no prior experience in recorded audio medium.  Learning to use Audacity was a challenge that took longer than expected, producing a lot of redundant editing on my part.  I chose to center my podcast around the several experts opinions concerning job automation.  As automation is a relatively complex subject, I opened with some explanation and posed a few questions that I wanted the audience to consider while listening, trying to get listeners to pay attention to the critical components of the interviewees and my own dialogue.  I tried to intersperse the interviews with some analysis of my own, breaking down the central components of the soundbyte and offering my own thoughts on the validity and importance of the expert’s words.  In the final portion I wanted to synthesize what I and the intervieewees had said, provide basic answers to the questions asked earlier, and give my final thoughts on the subject as a whole.

The actual reading of my script was the hardest portion of creating the podcast, finding the right tone and volume for my voice and trying to be consistent throughout was something that I struggled with.  It became easier when I started to become more proficient in the editing process; I was able to recognize my mistakes while recording, pause, and start over from a point before the mistake where I knew could edit the different takes together.  I think I was able to reduce the presence of any background noise, but I think my voice was flatter throughout than was ideal; in the future I would try and speak more animatedly and worry less about pronunciation, knowing that editing and repeating certain phrases until I was comfortable with them would yield a better result.  Additionally, I would’ve liked to add more sounds into the course of my dialogue to make it more lively, but I struggled to find a balance with added sound, my voice, and the content of my script.