I am in a love hate relationship with this intervention! Firstly, it’s taken ages to come to fruition due to many factors. The process of initially reaching out to people and then actually recording an interview with someone took much longer than expected not only because people are busy and I’m asking them do essentially work for free but also since it was the summer and everything basically went silent for almost 2 months. I had a huge health issue with one of my children over the summer that put a stop to everything else in life in general for weeks also. A lot of prep went into them in order to try out the “art as facilitation” aspect in a new audio medium and once recorded I then had to teach myself how to edit and put together the podcast itself. Tech, as I have often pointed out isn’t my wheelhouse and I’m not that interested in making it so! However I was pleased with how quickly I learned on the job and making a podcast is something I’ve always mused about doing so I am happy I did it.
I chose this medium because it’s was repeatedly cited by parents in the workshops (and more generally) as something they would like to listen to, would find accessible and could reach wider audience of stakeholders. It eliminates any awkwardness some might feel in face to face interactions, allows you to hear from experts you might not know about and can be consumed at your leisure, all without you having to put in the energy of participating. This is all reflected in the feedback I am getting now also. I thought it was a good way to involve different stakeholders in one action also, being that sex ed platforms/educators are trying to reach parents and some parents often face various barriers to accessing this stuff themselves, the podcast serves to bring them together. This is particularly true for Avril Clarke and The Porn Conversation as this is a newer platform that wants to eventually create more parent/families specific content in the future.
What’s difficult is that it becomes a bit harder to evaluate, when you’re not in the room with your listening stakeholder (vs being in a workshop for example) is how effective it actually is and if there is any lasting change or those ‘lightbulb moments’ that are so great to watch IRL. I am now relying on feedback being purposefully sent to me which a) can mean you never get any or it takes ages to receive, b) can sometimes be a bit vague and c) means people maybe overthink their responses and so it’s not always as raw and honest as you would like. Don’t get me wrong, getting consistently positive feedback is really very nice but not always critically helpful or productive!
As I mentioned in an earlier post I already have my own thoughts on the successes and failures of this intervention and interestingly the feedback trickling in somewhat agrees with me. I think the format of using art as prompts, whilst the interviewees really enjoyed it, doesn’t I think work in this medium. This is partly down to a lack fore thought on my part to describe the artwork more in depth ( I was worried about time for example) and also because I don’t know that we needed it. These are experts in their field and are happy to talk about difficult or taboo subjects so they don’t need the facilitation that art can provide. I think this format works brilliantly in person but less so online. Although I listen to many podcasts about art myself I think given the huge subject matter maybe it just adds too much noise and isn’t really necessary in this context. Some of the initial feedback reflects these thoughts also. I am also very hesitant to be seen as giving ‘parenting advice’ which I think whilst I have managed to do on a personal level I’m not sure if the podcast avoids that as a whole (the Avril and Sarah episodes, not Olga’s) The aim is to provide support, resources, ideas and highlight the experts which I think it does also do. This is so subjective though and really depends on the approach or attitude of the listener which is somewhat beyond my control.
I did really enjoy the process though and whilst I would for sure work in this medium again I would do a whole lot differently. Now I sit tight and wait for the feedback to come in. I also sent it to some non-parent Zennials also just to get as many perspectives and as much feedback as possible and because increasingly they are the ones most vocal on the subjects of both porn and sex ed.