Vocabulary of the Self

I popped my headphones in and turned on episode “True You” by Invisibilia. I have always been intrigued with podcasts; the making of them, the subject matter, and the stories. The episode “True You” started with somewhat skewed analogy of locusts to human nature. The question at hand being, how did the public oversee the scientific fact that the destructive world-consuming locusts happen to be the same green joyful grasshoppers? This oversight is the same oversight that we endure as human. A psychology professor from Northeastern, Lisa Feldman Barrett, addresses the oversight in the words “You aren’t who you are all the time. You have a vocabulary of the self, a range of people who you become.”

The introduction of this episode resonated with me the most. The approach to a problem directly related to human nature with a science explanation of the transformation of a grasshopper to a locust was so complex that I was immediately hooked on what was coming next.

This complex introduction set the scene for the entire podcast because it hooked us in. The hosts could’ve introduced the concept of dealing with numerous identities in countless cookie-cutter ways, but they knew that their audience wouldn’t have been hooked.

First, we hear Tanya’s story. When she sleeps, her identity is taken over by her four-year-old self. Her tattoos, piercings and intimidating demeanor is replaced with a giggling four-year-old in a sundress. We hear the girl. We hear the giggles and we can almost picture the yellow dress that she’s twirling around in Tanya’s dreams. It started with giggling in a dream, then it turned into a girl named X in a yellow sundress and then it changed how Tanya lived her entire life. I think that’s where the sound comes in. The sound comes into play when the story lines undergoes a shift. You can hear the person can.

The second story line was very different. Chad Murphy is a secret artist almost. He seems like a completely normal average guy but he is actually Lord Birthday. In his story line, the audience can sense a gratefulness for the separation of his two identities. Chad depends on the distance from Lord Birthday. He wants these two identities to stay separate for his family, for his career and for most importantly, himself. In his attempt to merge personalities, he loses one.

The writing for the ear is within the growth of the characters. The audience can channel in on these people and they become more than just voices to us. It is the moment that digital becomes personal.