Podcast surprise: listen to Piedmontese students

Challenge the kids of 13 schools (middle and high school, mostly high school) on the terrain of the podcast, and the first surprise will be that if it is true that you are more expert in choosing the topics to tell and how to develop a story – possibly : also on the technical means to produce a spoken story – they are much closer to the means than you are. They run fast. They have more confidence, they know what to do and where to go. Instinctively, even if the stylistic choices seem botched and the diction is a bit uncertain.

This adventure happened to me of being invited to be part of the SOS project jury, after so many years of paper and digital journalism, after having founded a small non-profit publishing house and after a life spent, at the tender age of 53, looking for new ways to tell the story. Which remains my totem.

So I was able to listen to podcasts produced by Piedmontese school students. And I was blown away, ready to throw away all my skills to start over. Because I have a mountain of advice to give: technical, narrative, development and atmosphere. But these guys know more than me on a fundamental point. They have things to say. Chapeau, hat, as we dinosaurs say.

The project
Giuseppe Ferrero Foundation and La Stampa-Mirror of the Times Foundation they invented this initiative to combat early school leaving. As? With individual training in the afternoon hours, at school. Individual means: talk to everyone, one by one. The Ferrero Foundation started in 2015, and Specchio dei tempi was added in 2017. The interesting point is to couple the classic subjects of our school with activities that promote – for example – self-esteem. And who would have thought that school should promote self-esteem, or at least try to? Certainly not the writer (born in 1969). And yet, since yesterday’s students have today’s student children, let’s go for it. The result is, I can assure you, surprising. To begin with, a group has decided to include Patroclus in an Epic woman short list. An idea that Renzo Arbore and Gianni Boncompagni had already had, in a decidedly softer tone, in Alto gradimento. At the time it was essential to be less explicit. That’s how it works today.

Nor could one forget the suggestion of the first woman on the moon. Despite the fact that the next mission to the Moon is shrouded in mystery – difficult to know for sure if and how it will take off – the big lesson is: believe it.

Of course, I was not alone on the jury. And here are the opinions of Vilma Gabriel, teacher, playwright and – above all – voice. Quite demanding: «I’ve already had the opportunity to appreciate radio podcasts (such as La città dei vivi by La Gioia or Limoni by Camilli), but listening to the productions of the kids I discovered one of the great potential of this tool. The school podcast, properly guided, shortens the gap between written and spoken language, which in boys, and not only in them, are in constant conflict. The podcast starts from a written text, therefore basically more controlled, revised, improved, to reach an oral expression that involves the body and the voice. The recording can be redone and corrected just like a written text. In short, it is a “doing writing”, a “thinking” and a “talking” that are once again in relationship, creating above all a durable and highly socializable product. In conclusion, “docere delectando”: the podcast can be a valid and entertaining way to learn to communicate with a richer language, a more solid syntax and attention to the interlocutors. All while having fun with the smartphone, so familiar to kids». Here, however, it is about awesome music and above all, where it is located.

The next step, of course, is the war in Ukraine. Paola Farnia, honorary judge of the Court of Turin and educator: she was also on the jury, her judgment focused on the race of the youngest: «There was a participation, unexpected and very high for me, from middle school kids . However, I am struck above all by the widespread choice (3 podcasts out of 11!) of a topic politically in the limelight, and at the same time rather uncomfortable, linked to the role of women in various sectors. In addition to this, it strikes me that the majority of podcasts arise from personal interests of children, behind which there is research and selection of information, and therefore it relieves me to see that their thirst for knowledge is sometimes insatiable and does not always fully , satisfied by what is available to them through the school system”.

Then there are those who have chosen to spread the work of others rewarding English. It’s not a trivial choice: if it’s a podcast and if you want it to have a global audience – otherwise what’s the use of the web? – then you have to speak everyone’s language.

And who focused on the little details that make up everyday life. Even that of a young professional.

From a practical point of view, the activity of the laboratory foresees the formation of spontaneous groups of study as a form of mutual aid from the more motivated students towards those more in difficulty. All this usually takes place in the afternoon, outside school hours, in premises made available by the schools themselves, in order to generate a greater sense of belonging and unity within the groups in the classroom. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the project was also carried out remotely, through virtual platforms such as Meet or Zoom. Underrated, but welcoming places:

And then there is, underlying all the stories we’ve heard, the role of women in the world. «Building a podcast means having an idea, researching its cultural foundations and deepening our knowledge of what we have derived from that idea, building a story, using the right language to tell it, after having written and rewritten it, polishing its form up to exhaustion,” he explains Mariano Turigliatto, member of the jury, teacher, former local administrator with a very long history on the border between school and real life. He says: «Then say it, taking care of the listener, soundtrack it to help listening, identify an appealing title and try to spread what is produced on social networks. Therefore, a complex activity, which brings many skills, abilities and skills into play. An activity that is both motivating and fulfilling, we have observed this by observing participants as they listen to their concluded podcast. The school of tomorrow is also and above all this».

The thanks, almost obvious, go to the CRT Foundation, which financed the Sos PLus tender, which provided for both the school tutoring activities among children, offered by the afternoon workshops, and the development of innovative skills and the possibility of overturning the roles of tutors and tutorships, through a competition. To the schools – the students, the teachers – who participated in the project: IC Pertini, IC Da Vinci-Frank, IC Giuditta Sidoli, Liceo Passoni (of Turin); It’s still: IC 66 Martyrs of Grugliasco, IC Luserna San Giovanni, Cardinal High School of Pinerolo. To those who participated in the jury (except me). At the Giovanni Ferrero Foundation and at Specchio tempi (already mentioned).

We close with three more amazing podcasts. Giacomo Leopardi’s Infinity:

A short guide onApproach to Latin:

And the story, why not, of a footballer:

The invitation – from Paola Fernia, Vilma Gabri, Mariano Turigliatto, the Crt Foundation, the Michele Ferrero Foundation, the Specchio dei Tempi Foundation, and of course mine – is: listen, listen, listen. This is the voice and creativity of those who will replace us in leading this slightly tilted, very confusing but undoubtedly wonderful world.

The award ceremony of the initiative (in this article we have deliberately not placed rankings) takes place today, Monday 5 June 2023, in the headquarters of Acquario, a small independent publishing house which in turn participated in the project because it loves the story as it is. From 3 pm you can follow the award ceremony live on Instagram on the Acquario profile.

I swear it’s worth it.