Spooky Stories

For Fall Term, I decided to take the Podcasting workshop. I joined because I never really listened to them before, so I was interested in learning more about them, and eventually, making my own. Over the course of a couple months, we lead up to making our own Episodes, of whatever topic we wanted. I chose to read spooky stories from the book Ghosts of the White City because I was inspired by true crime podcasts that my friends listen to. I read a chapter that was about two brothers, in the 1800s, who owned a funeral parlor and who were conducting secret experiments in their basement. They would keep bodies, typically who had not been claimed by family, and the main goal of the experiments was to find a new way to preserve them, by turning them to stone. Below, you will be able to listen to my trailer for the Episode 1: The After Death Experiments.

GCE Lab School · Ghosts of the Windy City Podcast Trailer

Influential voices

This is the last AP of our Fall term Humanities class, Journalism. In this unit, we focused on the significance of people's voices, specifically those who have been influential in the past century. We also learned key terms that make up the characteristics of someone's voice, such as, pitch, rhythm, timbre, tempo, and volume. Then, we watched a series of videos by Ira Glass, a known radio personality, where he described common mistakes of beginner podcasters or radio show hosts, ways to tell a story and engage the audience, and he also critiqued one of his first shows. We also sampled writing our own transcripts from a popular podcast of choice, in preparation for this AP. For the project, our goal was to choose a voice that we personally felt inspired by, in the last century, and create a podcast talking about their impact on two other people. I decided to feature Freddie Mercury's voice in my podcast because his and Queen's (the band he was in) music has been a big part of my household growing up. For my interviews, my teacher gave me the cool idea to interview someone who was alive during his time (my other teacher) and someone who was a part of my generation (my brother). I think the audience of my podcast could be anywhere from people alive during his time to my generations' age because of how his relevance and impact are still prevalent. Below, you will see an image of Freddie's iconic performance at Live Aid in 1985 (which I talk about), and my podcast describing his importance. Enjoy!

Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury. Firstpost. 1985

Transcript

MM- Today we'll be talking about Freddie Mercury. I'd say he's probably one of the most influential voices of the 20th century. He was born in 1946 and then died in 1991, unfortunately, due to AIDS. But he he was one of the most incredible singers of his time and changed so much with his band, Queen, just with the music industry as a whole, creating individualism, I think, and changing the way the standard and not fitting in a box. They did their own thing and people loved it. And they're still very influential today.

MM- I think they're still very relevant, especially to my generation. So I interviewed two people about their thoughts. One person was alive during the time that Freddie was and then the other is my younger brother, so kind of trying to get perspectives on the two divides in generation. So today I'm going to ask you some questions about Freddie Mercury.

ACL- Wonderful.

MM- So you lived when he was an artist. Well, when he was still alive. And do you remember the first time you heard about him or, like, listened to his music?

ACL- I don't remember the first time off the top of my head, but I'm imagining was probably on MTV. I grew up and MTV was a big social phenomenon, cultural phenomenon. So definitely, I would imagine I heard his songs or Queen songs on MTV. I probably saw some of their music videos.

MM- Because they were very different from a lot of artists that had been singing before. Do you remember feeling some sort of impact or, like, how did it impact you? How different they were from other people?

ACL- Yeah, that's a tough one, because full disclosure, I wasn't alive for a lot of their career. I was born in 85, so I was still very young, maybe in some of their biggest days. But I think even with some of their music videos, there's, like cross dressing and things and some of their songs maybe give you hints that they're kind of going beyond. So obviously, they're extremely talented. But even their performance at that big festival, I can't remember the name, but you probably know what I'm talking about.

ACL- The famous one that was in that movie as well. I could tell that they were kind of a little bit different. And Freddie Mercury, as a front man, is a little bit different. There's definitely a big sort of cultural phenomenon of like Freddie Mercury and what he represented and what he went up against and everything he did, like in the face of all this scrutiny and things. So I think over the years has become more apparent, at least for me of my early age, I was just like, this is great music, that's all that matters.

ACL- But I think as I got older, as I was performing music and cover bands and playing it with friends at different shows and venues and things, it became pretty clear that no, this is bigger than just the music. This is about what it represents, what they're fighting for, kind of that sense of their role models for a lot of people. And I think a lot of people look to Freddie and the rest of the band for, like, inspiration, especially when they're going through rough times, which I think is pretty awesome.

MM- Yeah.

MM- Thank you so much.

ACL- You're very welcome.

MM- Hello.

OM- Hello.

MM- So I'm here to interview you about Freddie Mercury, because I know you are a big fan of Queen, and you went through a little what's that song? Another one bites the dust phase where you would play that all the time. Yeah. My first question is, since you were not alive during the time of Queen and Freddie Mercury's influence, how do you feel like it is influencing you now being part of almost two generations later?

OM- I feel like I'm a part of the culture, if that makes sense, because a lot of the songs I listen to are of that generation, and it's interesting to hear the music and to see how it still is relative. Like, some of the songs are like, about inequality and stuff and how that's still around and others are about peace and things like that and people can still relate to it.

MM- Yeah.

OM- It's like something people can still relate to, and it's interesting to look back and you're like, oh, this song must have been made recently because the events are somewhat the same. And you see, they're made in, like, the 60s or 70s or whatever. I don't know. I just think that's interesting. And then Freddie, I just love his music. He's a really good singer, and my friend showed me the music, and I don't know, I liked it. Yeah.

MM- I definitely think Freddie's voice is a unique voice that I feel like hasn't been replicated since his time. And he did things that a lot of other singers couldn't do and opened up. I think the music industry to being what it is today with a lot of, like, I don't know, just more free spirit and individualism. And, like, not fitting a box.

OM- I do believe they actually created their own genre of music, too, which is very interesting.

MM- Yeah.

MM- Well, thank you for coming here today.

OM- Short and sweet, right. 

MM- Ow.

Our own Chapter

This is the last AP of our Fall term STEAM class, Econ. In this unit, we dove into the fundamentals of economics, and especially the concepts of a Circular Economy. The main basis for our coursework was the book Doughnut Economics, by 21st-century economist, Kate Raworth. The book is essentially about the economic Doughnut model, which, "...balances between essential human needs and planetary boundaries". The book outlines, "7 Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist," each implemented into their own chapter. We also visited Plant Chicago, which helped us understand the Circular Economy, using Aquaponics. In preparation for this project, we were assigned groups and we each read, summarized, and presented our own chapters. So, after understanding how the book is structured and the substance in the chapter we read, our goal for this project was to create the beginnings of an 8th chapter. I chose to build off of Chapter 3 in the book, which was called "Nature human Nature". Below, you will see my summary and commentary for the beginning of my 8th chapter, "Change your Behavior". Enjoy!

Change your Behavior 

Chapter 8 model. Noun project. 2021

    Have you ever stopped to really think about your behavior throughout the day? All of the choices you made, conversations you had, and actions you performed? Or in this case, environmentally, all of the trash you passed on the street that you paid no mind to, every wrapper, cup, utensil, straw, or disposable item you used, that you carelessly discarded? There are many ways that we need to change our behaviors, in order to support our environment for the future. In Chapter 3, there was mention of an economic model that needs to change, now we need to use economics to change the environment. We need to spar away from our own self-interest and start to act in the interest of other people, or at least create a balance between the two. We also need to change the way we consume, produce, dispose of, problem-solve, and much of our current capitalistic system. Instead of an “every man for himself” ideal, we need to adopt an “everyone helps everyone” mindset. Much of what we have now, are short-term fixes, but we need to support long-term ideas. There are so many systems that are already in place that run on using, reusing, and recycling energy, resources, food, clothes, etc. it is just about taking what we already have and putting it on a bigger scale.

    In Chapter 3, we talked about our current economic model, Homo economicus. It included how the model affects us, and how it will affect us in the future, if we do not change our actions. Kate Raworth said, “There are, most likely, going to be more than 10 billion of us by 2100. If we head towards that future continuing to imagine, conduct, and justify ourselves as Homo economicus- solitary, calculating, competing, and insatiable- then we stand little chance of meeting the human rights of all within the means of our living planet”. This introduces us to how we need to change our ‘norm’ for our environment. One person that we can seek inspiration from is Gary Becker. He started the work, changing what we thought about economic decisions from investment-based incentives to self-interested behavior. Now, we can take it one step further, and start to incorporate acting in the interest of others, instead of just ourselves, which you can see in the model above. In order to do this, new incentives, appeals, and resources need to be implemented. To start with some of these appeals, there are many statistics about waste. According to SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production), there is an average of 7.3 kilograms of electronic waste per capita, but only 1.7 is recycled. Additionally, in the United States alone, there are over 108 billion pounds of food waste, 17million tons of textile and clothing waste, and 292.4 million tons of other solid waste produced each year.

Sources 

EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials#:~:text=The%20total%20generation%20of%20municipal,25%20million%20tons%20were%20composted. 

“Gary Becker's Concept of Human Capital.” The Economist, The Economist Newspaper, https://www.economist.com/schools-brief/2017/08/05/gary-beckers-concept-of-human-capital. 

“Goal 12 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs.” United Nations, United Nations, https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal12 

Raworth, Kate. “Nurture Human Nature.” Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist, Random House Business Books, London, 2018.