No matter what shape or form, everyone has a captivating story to tell.
Canadian author JJ Lee is helping bring those stories to life in collaboration with the West Vancouver Memorial Library through a four-part podcasting workshop for local seniors.
“They have the most stories to tell,” Lee said. “Publishing a memoir is really difficult … but podcasting is a do-it-yourself culture. It doesn’t have the same barriers or types of hoops to go the traditional publishing route, and it speaks to a tech savvy, younger generation.”
The workshops span over four weeks beginning Saturday, Feb. 15, starting with an introduction to the library’s recording studio. From there participants will learn how to edit audio and music to enhance the story they want to tell through the podcast. At the end, the person will end up with the skills needed to produce their own podcast and have a recording of their story.
Lee is the author of the 2011 book The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit – a mix of personal memoir and social history – which was a finalist for four non-fiction awards including the Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction. He also worked for CBC Radio for a decade, and produced the true crime podcast Stand Up Eight.
The idea of having the class first sparked in a podcasting meetup group at the New Westminister Public Library that ran from January 2023 to August 2024, where Lee was a volunteer facilitator. The more Lee kept talking about podcasting with the group, the more he began to understand a deeper element – the need to make space for older adults to learn the basics of podcasting and the technology around it.
“It was more important to get people recording their stories right away, having the tape on hand and making them comfortable with editing it,” he said about the West Van library project. “So we said, ‘Well, why don’t we just work together as a working group and produce a podcast about wanting to make a podcast.’”
Lee first got involved with the West Van library when he attended an author event for his book Measure of a Man in 2009, and has been involved in different projects with the library ever since.
The “podcast” term was first introduced in 2004 to describe regularly published audio pieces that could be downloaded online and listened to on computers and other mobile devices, most famously the iPod, which gave rise to the name ("iPod" plus "broadcast" equals "podcast"). But podcasts didn’t really start hitting mainstream media until the 2010s, Lee said.
According to a survey conducted by Canadian research company The Podcast Exchange, half of monthly podcast listeners are in the 18-34 age demographic.
Lee said combining older adults and technology typically used by a younger generation is achieving what he calls a “gold double fold.”
“Not only are you sharing your story, but you’re doing it in a way that is easy, that is normal consumption for the younger generation,” he said.
When the sessions are completed in March, Lee said there is a possibility they will be shared with the class and library staff at a “listening party.”
Lee said he hopes people who partake in the workshops can teach others the skills they learned and continue sharing stories.
People interested in the free podcast sessions should be available to attend all four, he said. Those interested can register on the West Vancouver Memorial Library website.
Abby Luciano is the Indigenous and civic affairs reporter for the North Shore News. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
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