Word Nerds on stories and story telling - podcast review

The Word Nerds, David and Howard Shepherd, went to a story telling festival in Jonesborough Tennessee and reported from the scene in their latest podcast, #108 about stories and story telling.

They discussed their own relationship with story-telling, which turns out to be a family issue. So they were brought up with stories they call the Jack Tales and the Grandfather Tales, which have roots in both England as well as the Appalachians. And they have a history of attending the story telling festival in Tennessee. In the podcast, they tell what they have listened to, less about the specific stories and more about the story tellers. A lot of names to follow-up on, if you believe the recommendations of the Word Nerd brothers.

Is podcast a form of story telling as well? Tentatively Dave and Howard ponder the question and if they lean to agree, I might suggest to say no. There are podcasts that are used to tell stories, or that seem to fit in with the old oral traditions of mankind, I feel that the majority of podcasts are still an attempt at radio, which is more of audio newspaper and magazine style. It takes a much more careful definition of story telling, oral tradition, media and another ten years of podcast evolution to bring more light into the question. In the mean time, podcasters will be addressing their audiences, that picked them in traditional as well as innovative ways.

Previous reviews of TWN on this blog:
Debate,
Ambiguity and linguistic tics,
Syntax,
Prosody,
Rhetoric.