6 hours worth of reflections in 6 minutes...

So I went home this weekend. Which was fun, and pretty uneventful in itself.

But, to me, what was eventful was what I did with myself over the 5 and a half hour drive from Upstate New York to Mid-Massachusetts. I listened to NPR podcasts. Newsmagazines, most e-mailed stories, the interviews from the day, a quiz show even, and one thing I noticed...it really kept my brain active. Once I arrived in Massachusetts I felt so much more learned and much more up on current events than I had in a long time.

Something was different, I felt than the news reports or news magazine shows on television. These reporters and interviewers could create a completely different world. I felt so much more a part of the worlds for each individual story than I really can say I have for any television story I've seen.

With a television news report, there's the video, which I think we can tell, because it's not our own eyes, that we have absolutely no control over it. We can only see what the camera shows us. But I think with a radio news story or a podcast one, the audience gets a chance to imagine the scene a little more fully. It becomes more vivid in our imaginations than a story in print because of the sounds and descriptions come to life in the voices of those that lived something tragic, extraordinary or fantastic.

That's what hits hardest to me. I can imagine the scene that envelopes my person as a whole, while a television image is flat and 2 dimensional.

So do your ears a favor.

Download an NPR Podcast

my favorites:

-NPR: Day to Day
-NPR: Fresh Air
-NPR: Most E-mailed Stories