“The Truth About Your Seat Belt” by Molly Cleary
“Sexism at Lillian Osborne” by Kaia Janmohamed
“How the Worst Procrastinator I Know Led Seattle’s March for Our Lives” by Aliyah Musaliar and Maya Konz
“A Day in the Life of an Anxious High Schooler” by Cece Benz
The podcast I chose was “The Truth About Your Seat Belt” by Molly Cleary. The title tells us that the topic of the podcast will be related to driver safety, which it is. The podcast starts with Molly asking some high school students if they wear a seat belt while in the car. She then goes on to say statistics like “80% of Americans wear a seat belt in the car while 20% don’t.” She then goes on to say how most people don’t face punishment for not wearing a seatbelt. She compares Americas seat belt laws to other countries’ seat belts laws and mentions how America doesn’t have a law against seat belts because of the miss interpretation of our freedom. This is where she catches the audience’s attention, and some may be wondering why America doesn’t have any laws against seat belts. It is very easy to tell who is speaking because you can tell that Molly’s voice is like the narrator just summing up all her information. She also mentions where she gets her information from and who will be speaking in parts where she cited sources. She has background music and transition sounds throughout the whole podcast. She also included many different voice clips of news reporters reporting on car crashes. This podcast can fall into the interview/conversation genre. She asked many students different questions, but also led a great conversation about why people should wear a seat belt. She also includes a personal story. You can tell that Molly seemed to really care about this topic. She ends the podcast on a positive note. The background music changed to a happier tone. She started to talk about an incentive that can fine drivers for not wearing a seat belt. She used a mix of pathos and ethos as she cited many other sources and showed her own experience with driver safety. I think this was very effective as it showed that she cared about this topic. Her primary audience are other high schoolers who are just starting to drive. She mentions this in the end as she says, “I want the next generation of drivers, my generation of drivers to make the right decision in their vehicles.” The message she portrayed was to just wear a seat belt while driving as it can save many lives.
