Lesson plan
Listen to the radio show The Middle and take notes while listening. The radio programs were made before the 2022 midterm elections in the US, and they were asked to share what issues were the most important to them in terms of the election. Choose to listen to one of the shows listed below and try to answer these questions;
- What are the issues that matter the most to listeners?
- What does it mean to have a civil conversation in a debate?
- What are the most critical issues in the area people are calling from?
- If you were to form your opinion on issues that matter the most to you, what would that be?
- Try to model this show by making your own radio show and inviting students in your class to call in with their concerns.
- Look at the suggestions below for software you can use to produce the show
What is THE MIDDLE?
The Middle is a new LIVE national call-in talk show aimed at elevating the voices of Americans who live in between the coasts – who are so important in our politics but are often ignored by the media.
Public radio veteran and central Illinois native Jeremy Hobson will host four live one-hour specials on Wednesdays at 9pm ET between October 19th and November 9th, 2022.
Each one will originate from a different place between the coasts:
WILL in Jeremy’s hometown of Urbana, Illinois on October 19th
WGCU in Fort Myers, Florida October 26th
KCUR in Kansas City November 2nd
KJZZ in Phoenix November 9th.
The Middle radio show The Middle (listentothemiddle.com)
There are several free and easy-to-use software options that you can use to produce a radio show. Here are a few options:
- Audacity: This is a popular and widely used audio editing software that is available for free. It allows you to record, edit, and mix audio tracks, and includes features such as noise reduction, equalization, and fade in/out.
- OBS Studio: This is a free and open-source software for video recording and live streaming. It can be used to capture audio and video from a variety of sources, including microphones, webcams, and screen captures.
- Adobe Audition: This is a professional audio editing software that is available for free as part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite of tools. It offers a wide range of features for recording, editing, and mixing audio, as well as support for multiple audio formats.
- GarageBand: This is a digital audio workstation (DAW) software that is available for free on Apple devices. It includes a range of virtual instruments, audio effects, and recording tools that can be used to produce and edit audio tracks.
- LMMS: This is a free, open-source digital audio workstation that is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It includes features such as synthesizers, samplers, and a range of audio effects, as well as support for MIDI and audio recording.