The Mad Props Podcast ProjectIn November, California voters voted on seventeen different propositions, ranging from legalizing marijuana to ending the death penalty. To help them out, we created a series of podcasts that explained California's ballot measures by telling the stories of the people affected by them.
The podcasts launched at the OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista, on November 7th, 2016. You can listen to all of on this website. |
What students said about the Mad Props Project:
Propositions are on this years ballot! Change will happen in California because of these propositions.
Did I ever know what a "prop" was before this project? Nope.
-Victoria (read more on her digital portfolio)
You can't make podcasts about props if you don't know what they are, during this project we spent a lot of time researching every prop so we could narrow it down to which ones we wanted to make a podcast about.
-Trinity (read more on her digital portfolio)
The first burning question we came up was, "What makes a felony violent or non-violent?". It turns out that another group in our Voltron squad already chose that as their burning question so we were forced to choose a new one: "Are California jails more crowded than they were 20 years ago?". We decided not to do this burning question since we didn't know who to interview. Since both burning questions we came up with didn't turn out as planned, we were stuck for quite some time until Dr. P suggested that we interview a person that has gone to prison and let them tell their story. So that is what lead us to come up with our final burning question: "How does prison affect your life?".
-Ashley (read more on her digital portfolio)
-Ashley (read more on her digital portfolio)
Our first interviewee came out of nowhere. We were actually researching about people we wanted to interview when Dr. P told us there was a visitor from Colorado here to learn about our school. He lived and Colorado and better yet he was an assistant principal at a school there! We knew he would have a great perspective on legalized marijuana.
-Jonah (read more on his digital portfolio)
When we worked on our "Interview Map", we tried to shape it as best as we could to the person we were going to interview. So if the person worked in a dispensary here in California, we would ask them questions about their work, what they do and how they think it would affect the dispensary if California were to legalize Marijuana.
-Ambahr (read more on her digital portfolio)
When we began conducting interviews we had a pretty clear idea of what wanted our interviewees to say. We used many short and straight forward interview questions until we got the clips we needed.
-Ana (read more on her digital portfolio)
Our interview went very well! We were set up in an office all sitting around a mic on a stool. If I had to choose my favorite part of the interview, I wouldn’t. Every moment of the interview was very important to the whole story.
-Jackie (read more on her digital portfolio)
-Jackie (read more on her digital portfolio)
For the "tape log" we wrote the main points from the "tape" from our interviews so we could see what we had and what we could use. The idea is to listen to the interview and write as much stuff from it without ever stopping the tape. It helped us a lot later on when we wanted to see what we had and how we could use it.
-Rebecca (read more on her digital portfolio)
For the script outline, I knew what I wanted to start off with and I kind of knew what I wanted the middle to sound like. As I was writing it, I just wrote down things that seemed fit and flowed. When doing this I realized we needed to figure out our "message" and put that as our conclusion.
-Sarina (read more on her digital portfolio)
-Sarina (read more on her digital portfolio)
I think the script was the most difficult part of the entire project. We had to worry about so many things and we got into so many arguments. We had to make sure the script was long enough, it had to flow, it had to focus on our topic, it couldn't sound too cheesy, it had to display facts and evidence... there was just so much to worry about and it was stressful. In the end I ended up really enjoying how the script turned out and I was quite proud that my group and I were even able to pull it off!
-Naomi (read more on her digital portfolio)
-Naomi (read more on her digital portfolio)
Alright, so something that majorly contributed to making this podcast possible to finish on time, as weird as it sounds, was checklists! We went through them daily, checking in with the group on what we were going to be working on and what needed to get done.
-Ysa (read more on her digital portfolio)
Recording our podcast was full of laughter and disagreements. We recorded everything in Dr. P's and Ms. Kaitlin's office. Some sessions were easy because we only needed to record small things. Then there were days when we needed to record so much, and we couldn't because there was a lot of noise going on outside the office.
-Melissa (read more on her digital portfolio)
-Melissa (read more on her digital portfolio)
Can I just start off by saying... Making a podcast is hard! My group had to record four times. The first recording we did by reading off the script, but later critiqued it and thought it would be a better idea to record it off-script to sound more natural. So we recorded a second time with all four of us and it ended up accidentally being deleted! The third time the audio sounded fuzzy and you could hear background noise. Also, sometimes we would talk over each other. The fourth and final time was recorded with Jackie and me so it could sound a bit cleaner with fewer voices, and the audio sounded great!
-Anna Nicole (read more on her digital portfolio)
-Anna Nicole (read more on her digital portfolio)
I did most of the audio editing and also taught my other groupmates how to edit. Editing was easy for me mainly because I used to do YouTube and used Sony Vegas Pro. Audacity was like Sony Vegas and I had no problem using it. There were some times where my group would had to re-record because some parts got corrupted or didn't sound good overall.
-Alejandro (read more on his digital portfolio)
In order to create our final podcast, we went through several drafts of audio, each different than the other. Our first draft was simply our narration and a few montages. As a group we would listen to the draft together and take notes on what needed to be included, moved, or taken out. After making these adjustments we created a new draft, and the process was repeated till the point in which we no longer were making drastic changes, rather we were "polishing" our last drafts.
-Luz (read more on her digital portfolio)
Exhibition was an amazing night. The setup was like we were in the White House while we were onstage and presenting our podcast and doing a Q&A. But my highlight of that night was after we finished presenting, when our interviewees said we were an amazing group of people and they had fun talking to us and letting them talk about their experience and opinion on prop 62 & 66.
-Daisy (read more on her digital portfolio)
The night of exhibition was so awesome because I was able to see everything come together and listen to everyone's final product. It was also very nerve-wracking but, fun, to sit up there and answer questions people had about the process, and about our Prop.
-Sam (read more on her digital portfolio)
At exhibition night I started to feel nervous when it was time to present my groups podcast about illegal gun trafficking. Not because I didn't like it - I thought is was put together very well - but because I didn't want to hear my voice.
-Sergio (read more on his digital portfolio)
-Sergio (read more on his digital portfolio)
Before listening to our podcast, my mom was against Prop 63 because she thought that is brought on too many unnecessary gun laws. After listening, she told me that her opinions had changed because of what she learned from our podcast.
-Thomas (read more on his digital portfolio)
Everything below this point on the page is a resource for students doing this project:
This isn't a complete list of resources - you can see more about what we did by looking at "What We're Doing Today" from September 16th to Thursday, November 3rd.
To get an overview of the project, you can read the project sheet here.
To get an overview of the project, you can read the project sheet here.
Resources to help you research your proposition:
Models for your "research doc"
Your squad definitely needs a doc where you keep track of all your research notes. If you don't have one of these, you'll drive yourself nuts.
What exactly that doc looks like is up to you. The important thing is that you have sources for all your information, and everybody's notes make sense even when somebody else reads them
Here are some models of interview notes from past projects
If you want to expand your horizons and see other models:
What exactly that doc looks like is up to you. The important thing is that you have sources for all your information, and everybody's notes make sense even when somebody else reads them
Here are some models of interview notes from past projects
- This is a template I just made for this project!
If you want to expand your horizons and see other models:
- This is my model ballot measure research doc from earlier this year
- This is a model I made for a project I did two years ago when we wrote short science fiction stories
- This is a professional example. It's all about teaching and research at universities (I made it when I was working for a university in England).
- This is a template for the research docs students made for the Syrian Refugee simulation last year
Good information about ALL the 2016 props:
- Majority Rules: How Propositions Make it Onto the Ballot (this is that comic we read in week 1)
- California's 17 Ballot Measures, Explained (great resource from KPBS)
- Podcast from Voice of San Diego about all the Ballot Measures
- Ballotpedia’s list of California Ballot Measures
- “Quick Reference” for ballot measures in California’s Voter Information Guide
- Fuller information about Ballot Measures in California’s Voter Information Guide
- List of who’s been donating to which ballot measures (and how much)
Prop 57
- The packet Dr. P put together about Prop 57
- KPBS explains Prop 57
- Fact Checking an Opposition claim about Prop 57 and guns (Politifact)
- Fact Checking an Opposition Claim about Prop 57 and rape (Politifact)
- Fact Checking a Proponent Claim and about California's growing prison population (Politifact)
- This article isn't about Prop 57, but it's interesting: studies find that reducing California's Prison Population in 2011 DID NOT cause an increase in crime
- Editorial: LA Times says Vote Yes
- Editorial: San Diego Union Tribune says the people who made Prop 57 made a mistake in the wording of the law, and they should just admit it
- According to the Christian Science Monitor, more people in America are in prison for marijuana than for violent crimes
Prop 63
Prop 64
- The packet Dr. P put together about Prop 64
- KPBS Explains Prop 64
- UC Berkeley Research into the impact of marijuana legalization in the Netherlands
- Analysis of the marijuana in the Netherlands from Time Magazine
- Forbes: what the world can learn about marijuana legalization from Colorado
- What Law Enforcement can Learn from Marijuana Legalization in Colorado (American Military University)
- Article about "Oaksterdam", called the "Harvard Business School of Legal Marijuana"
- The legal marijuana business has an unusually high number of female CEOs (Forbes)
- Newsweek says that marijuana could be the first billion-dollar industry not dominated by men
- Washington Post article on the effect that legalizing marijuana is having on Mexican drug cartels
- Washington Post Article about how legalizing marijuana has changed Washington and Colorado
- According to the Christian Science Monitor, more people in America are in prison for marijuana than for violent crimes
Prop 62 & 66
- The packet Dr. P put together about Prop 62 and Prop 66
- KPBS explains Prop 62
- KPBS explains Prop 66
- Ethical Arguments for and Against the Death Penalty (BBC)
- "Philosophy Talk" takes on the Death Penalty
- A podcast from the always-brilliant Radiolab about the meaning of "Cruel and Unusual Punishment" in the constitution
- Procon.org has a collection of arguments for and against the death penalty
Resources to help you plan your interview:
- Model interview map from Dr. P's interview with Scott Lewis
- Model interview map from Dr. P's interview with Ben Daley (this is the interview my podcast was based on)
- Tips for making your interview map
- How to plan (and start) your interview (article from Transom)
- Alex Blumberg's advice on interviewing (article from Transom)
- Lots and lots of advice from Alex Blumberg about podcasting (article from Transom)
Recording & Using Audacity: Tutorials, Tips, & Resources
- One Minute of Room Tone from Dr. P's Office (for smoothing transitions between clips)
- 17 Audacity Tips for Podcasters
- Tutorial: Making a Podcast with Audacity (lots of videos)
- "The Audacity to Podcast" - a blog (with a podcast) ALL ABOUT making a podcast using Audacity
Free music and sound effects!
Resources for making the "Behind the Podcast" display
Useful Critique Documents:
The Three-podcast Challenge
- The Three Podcast Challenge Graphic Organizer
- You can fill this in on the computer and share it with Dr. P if you prefer that to writing it out on paper
- Awesome Podcasts to Choose From
- Choose your three podcasts from this list
- If there's a podcast you really want to listen to and it isn't on this list, ask Dr. P if it's OK to listen to that one.
- Choose your three podcasts from this list