The Moth Podcast

The Moth Podcast
Founder: George Dawes Green
Year Founded: 1997

Summary:
The Moth is an acclaimed not-for-profit organization dedicated to storytelling. At the center of each podcast is a story. The Moth’s directors work with each storyteller to find, shape and present their story. Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of stories. Moth stories are known for the great range of human experience they showcase. Each show starts with a theme, and the storytellers explore that theme, often in unexpected ways. Since each story is true and every voice authentic, the shows are somewhere between documentary and theater. The stories can be found online here: http://themoth.org/stories

Qualitative Analysis:
Overall, the Moth stories could be categorized as Moderately Complex. As far as organization, the stories are usually clear with an easy-to-follow storyline however, there is some variety within each story and some stories are more complex than others. The stories are easy to understand but sometimes do have more complex meaning.  Most vocabulary is familiar and conversational. The themes are usually clear and there are often multiple levels of meaning to each story. The life experiences are often common to the listeners. Sometimes there are allusions and references to other texts or cultural elements. The media-content varies a lot story to story. The media literacy is presented as a live telling of a story so there is no editing but there is a lot of practice and pre-production before the story is actually performed.

Content Standards:
This podcast connects well with English class as the content is short stories. However, depending on the topic of the story, it could really be tied to pretty much any subject.

CCSS Grades 8 Standard for Speaking and Listening
1. Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

Personal Response:
I believe this is a very entertaining podcast. All the stories are fairly short and they are almost always entertaining. There are definitely stories that students would find relevant and interesting. I have not listened to many of the stories yet, but I have enjoyed the ones I have heard. I think in the classroom podcasts and short stories could be used weekly or more occasionally. I personally have never used The Moth in the classroom but think the stories could be very effective teaching tools, specifically at the high school level. I think the various stories could lead to great discussions and papers.