Soundplay

COVID Stories, Part 1: A Doctor, An Activist, and a Poet

Season 1: Episode 1

This episode features the audio work of SSU undergraduate students Jaleesa Molena, Dylan Snyder, and Conor MacGinnis. Jaleesa composed a beautiful piece of spoken word poetry. Conor interviewed his mom, who is a doctor caring for people with Covid. Dylan reflects on how the pandemic has highlighted social class inequities. 

Love at a Preschool

This episode is an audio tribute to Taylor Wholley, one of the best teachers on campus! Taylor teaches at the beloved SSU preschool, which will be sadly closing its doors this month. Thank you for all you do, Ms. Taylor, and we can't wait to hear about your next amazing adventures!

What Do You Believe?

Magic, Choices, Community, Control. These are some of the topics students talk about in their projects that fall in the genre of the former NPR show, "This I Believe." The student composers are: Cassidy Keegan, Justin Nguyen, Marissa Blonigen, Tina Phan, and Emma Walsh, all students in Tanya Rodrigue's ENL 317 Digital Writing class.

What's Your Relationship with Humans?

This episode features three hilarious spin offs of "Everything Is Alive," a podcast featuring interviews with inanimate objects. This episode tells the story of an under-appreciated football stadium, a police car that's seen too much, and a lonely shovel. The student composers are: Alec Connell, Robbie Christensen, and Michael Jordan.

What She Went Through

This episode features two "Salem According to Sound" episodes by Caitlin Donahue, Collin Blacksmith and Nicole Kotsovillis, and an audio documentary by Jeff Gately entitled "Somehow, Even More Alone." Trigger warning: Jeff's documentary is about suicide. 

Christmas is Ruined

This show features Jill Brown's documentary, "Christmas is Ruined." Jill's touching story describes the challenges and tragedies she has faced in her life such as addiction and losing her husband on Christmas even, and how she persisted despite them. The show features a bonus interview with Jill about her experience composing the documentary. (You'll need tissues ready for this one.) This show also features episodes of the faux podcast "Salem According to Sound" by Matt Eldar and Savannah Kolosey.

A Veggie Orchestra, Water Bubbles, and Culture Jammers Walk into A Bar

This show features Matthew Eldar's audio documentary on the social phenomenon of culture jamming. The show also features two 90 second episodes by Jill Brown and Mikayla Porcaro of a faux podcast made up for an assignment called "Salem According to Sound," which is a direct rip-off from, "The World According to Sound.”

Fashion, Love, and Music

This show features holiday songs from the Salem State preschool and three audio documentaries from students in an audio storytelling class. The documentaries include: "Bump in the Road" by Savannah Kolosey; "Big Mac Raps" by Patrick Garland; and "Sounds of Fashion" by Chris Monson.

Doin' Their Thing

This show features the audio work of 6 Salem State University alum: Kate Artz, Megan Grandmont, Julia Bennett, Mike Rand, and M.P. Carver. They produced these projects in a 2015 Digital Writing graduate course taught by Tanya Rodrigue. Their work responded to a loosely structured assignment that asked students to choose a visual and use it in some way to create an project in any genre.