Giant Pool of Money & Research

Although an extremely complicated topic, I found myself quite interested in This American Life’s podcast The Giant Pool of Money. I think my interest was held by the way the topic was structured, like a chronological story. They included outside people who had first hand experience of the housing crisis and Wall Street turmoil, but they didn’t include them as expert witnesses or bland interviewee’s, they were characters. The story begins by literally placing you into the story with audio from the Ritz Carlton, creating 4D experience. Both Adam Davidson and Alex Blumberg explain each facet of the housing crisis and even go into detail about simple investment terms, and even better, they explain each term in a slow, almost suspenseful way. The research they have is not only extremely crucial to the story but it’s also the driving force. It’s not presented as extra information for the nerd listeners it’s presented as a story for the masses. All the quantitative data isn’t parroted like it’s being read off of a cue card, it’s simplified and contextualized as the main point. The atmosphere the hosts created, alongside the sound editing, music and sound effects, it’s a Hollywood production, it has the same driving force as a documentary. Everything line is delivered specifically for listeners, even something as simple as there being two men named Mike’s involved in one discussion, was acknowledged as confusing and explained. It differs greatly with the Fast Fashion Podcast, as that podcast felt like listening in to a conversation between two experts. I thought both were interesting, but the research in Fast Fashion was considerably more “parroted” than This American Life who was able to include research within a story and present it like they themselves understood it, therefore making it more easily relatable for their listeners.