EMILY KWONG, HOST:
A brand new assortment of tales from Maine Public Radio explores what it is prefer to dwell and work in a state that many people consider as trip land. However Maine is a lot greater than that. Important Salt is a six-episode podcast collection about Maine, made in Maine and reported by college students from the Salt Institute for Documentary Research in Portland, the place I used to be an audio pupil approach again within the day. And the producer of Important Salt, Brenna Farrell, from Maine Public, is right here to speak in regards to the present. Hey, Brenna, welcome.
BRENNA FARRELL, BYLINE: Whats up. So glad to be right here.
KWONG: I really like Salt, and I really like this present as a result of it is a assortment of tales which might be very hyperlocal to Maine. These are tales that aren’t meant to be nationwide in scope and saying, , that is what Maine says about America. However actually, that is what Maine says about Maine. They’re very intimate. They’re very deep. Why was that necessary to you?
FARRELL: Yeah, effectively, it is humorous as a result of I spent a whole lot of my life working for nationwide exhibits, and what we have been at all times making an attempt to do was discover a native story that actually bought to the larger factors. So it is virtually like I am coming at it backwards, however I feel the perfect tales actually are probably the most native tales as a result of they’re being reported by individuals who know the place, they know the individuals. They’ve a type of accountability as a result of they keep there. So when you may have an area reporter speaking to native individuals, you simply get this additional richness. And that, in flip, I feel, truly does find yourself talking nationally, even internationally, as a result of while you actually hear an actual particular person dwelling their actual life, you may’t assist however take some form of which means out of that and perhaps mirror again on your self.
KWONG: So what’s an instance of that?
FARRELL: Properly, one story that I completely love a lot – it is this very matter-of-fact report by a reporter named Carly Peruccio. Carly decides to attempt to get on a bus in Portland, Maine, on the south of the state and go as far north as attainable, which finally can be Fort Kent if she might get all the best way there.
KWONG: So she simply has to take public transit throughout Maine?
FARRELL: Fully, all – as far north as she will go. And she or he does that, I feel, like, as a result of she needs to focus on, like, after we’re enthusiastic about public transportation, it is not simply, like, New York or Boston or these large cities. It is like, it is related to everybody.
KWONG: Yeah.
FARRELL: And a whole lot of people in rural Maine want it however haven’t got entry to it. So she places herself on a bus to determine what that truly seems to be like.
KWONG: Let’s pay attention a bit to this episode of Important Salt.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
CARLY PERUCCIO: It is 6:30 within the morning, and I simply bought on a bus in Portland. I am making an attempt to journey the size of Maine utilizing public transportation. I inform the bus driver what I am as much as, and he appears skeptical.
UNIDENTIFIED BUS DRIVER: You are not going discover public transportation going anyplace up that approach. There isn’t a public transportation, except you are going to hitchhike. I feel these days are lengthy gone. Did you actually assume this out earlier than you…
PERUCCIO: Earlier than I left?
KWONG: I am hooked.
FARRELL: Yeah, proper?
KWONG: I am already hooked. I would like…
FARRELL: (Laughter).
KWONG: As somebody who has household from Maine and – sure – went to this faculty, I am astonished she did this. So what occurred?
FARRELL: (Laughter) I do not need to completely reveal it, however as you may think about, it was onerous. She was on the bus for, all advised, two days in, met a ton of individuals and talked with them and bought, like, a whole lot of actually nice tape about who’s on the bus, why, the place they’re making an attempt to go, the place they find yourself.
So one of many issues I really like about Carly’s piece is, like, sure, it is about hopping on a bus to speak to individuals on the bus, but it surely’s about such – it is about all these actually large concepts about, , you are on the bus as a result of you do not have a automobile. Why do not you will have a automobile? Properly, perhaps you do not make sufficient at your job to have the ability to afford the automobile funds, however you continue to have to get to work. So that you’re on a bus.
So it is this story that touches on well being care. It touches on the financial system. I touches on local weather. It touches on immigration as soon as she will get up nearer to the Canadian border. It is all these stunning, like, giant components that come into this very native piece a couple of bus journey.
KWONG: What you stated about Maine being a microcosm makes complete sense. Like, all these points which might be occurring on the nationwide degree, as a lot as these are hyperlocal tales, are enjoying out in Maine. What can we study from Maine, then – different states, different communities?
FARRELL: I imply, a ton. I feel, for me, one of many issues that is actually coming to the floor is, typically enthusiastic about city and rural as coming from two opposing corners or, like, metropolis and nation as two various things type of would not get us the place we have to be with the dialog. Like, I feel in some ways, they’re much extra blended than we frequently acknowledge. And I feel in Maine, that exhibits up so much. I feel there’s fairly a little bit of change throughout the state between individuals who is likely to be based mostly in southern Maine and Portland however like to go up north to expertise perhaps snowboarding or an out of doors exercise. Or there are people that journey up and down the coast both for work in fishing or no matter different causes. Like, there’s only a lot – it appears much more fluid and interdependent.
KWONG: Yeah. Do you will have a narrative within the podcast that highlights a few of these tensions?
FARRELL: Yeah, completely. I feel my favourite instance is that this piece in regards to the Island Soundscape Challenge. It is this small group in down-east Maine that information – it goes out and information the sounds of locations to attempt to doc what they’re, what they sound like.
KWONG: Let’s hear it.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
STEVE NORTON: A number of instances, I feel that while you inform individuals you are going to make a soundscape, they’re considering, oh, , chirping birds and waves and, , all the beautiful stuff that they get pleasure from. However your recorder there would not care whether or not it is fairly stuff you get pleasure from or a diesel boat motor. You get all of it, after which it’s a must to take care of all of it. So…
(SOUNDBITE OF CRICKETS CHIRPING)
NORTON: …Hopefully, it is a factor to consider.
KWONG: Oh, I really like his voice.
FARRELL: I do know, proper?
KWONG: So who is that this?
FARRELL: So that’s Steve Norton. He is one of many audio people on the Island Soundscape Challenge, and also you’re listening to him in that piece speaking to the reporter of the piece, Joe Gouvin. They usually had gone out to this island, Deer Isle off the coast of Maine, to attempt to seize what’s generally known as the daybreak refrain, which is, like, very early earlier than the solar comes up, like, all of the birds begin waking up and, like, filling the air with all their calls. Steve had actually hoped that he might seize ravens doing their morning calls. That did not occur. They did get, like, a loon and a winter wren. However Joe was form of being type of sincere and like, Properly, actually, we bought a whole lot of boats going out, like, all these diesel motor boats. And also you’d assume that Steve can be like, yeah, oh, it is so onerous to get, like, , a pristine…
KWONG: Clear daybreak refrain.
FARRELL: Yeah, completely.
KWONG: Yeah.
FARRELL: Yeah, precisely. However as a substitute, he was like, no, like, I’d reasonably be recording one thing that captures the entire of this group. Like, that group is a fishing group. Like, there are people getting up earlier than daybreak to exit for an early catch. And so I need to document one thing the place individuals can level to it and say, like, hey, that is us. That is us going fishing. That’s the place I do know.
KWONG: What do you assume is the facility of recording the sounds of a spot because it actually is, not how perhaps a tourism bureau or vacationers or outsiders need it to be?
FARRELL: Yeah. I imply, I feel, one, it simply displays again to you what are actually the values of a spot, as a result of while you’re listening, you hear who can survive there. In order that is likely to be stunning birds. It is likely to be individuals fishing. Like, you hear what the sound of the place is. And what’s tremendous attention-grabbing is that these people are literally utilizing these recordings not simply as form of, like, an artwork piece or one thing to share with the group to doc a group. They’re additionally utilizing it to type of examine local weather and ecological change.
So I had spoken to Steve and considered one of his colleagues, Nate (ph), they usually had advised me that they type of – they’re making an attempt to, like, use sound as a substitute of spreadsheets, ? So it is a completely different approach of getting knowledge to individuals in order that they’ll hear how the locations that matter to them are altering over time. And so, , you hear these issues, and then you definitely type of wrestle with your self about, is that what we would like?
KWONG: Properly, the result’s fairly stunning, so thanks for sharing it with us right this moment.
FARRELL: Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks a lot.
KWONG: That’s Brenna Farrell, producer of Important Salt. You’ll be able to hear full episodes of Important Salt wherever you get your podcasts.
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