World War II will always be one of the most defining moments in human history. Pitting world powers against each other for the second time in 40 years, world war II defined the future of humanity. Over the past few weeks, we have worked tirelessly studying question:
What is the Legacy of the Second World War in Canada?
The question has guided me on the journey to interviewing a veteran and finally creating my first podcast of my own. Through the unit, I have not only discovered World War II but I can begin to comprehend and question the importance of each detail that the second world war entailed.
The Project
The podcast we were creating for this project was my first experimentation with that type of medium. Although everyone in my class was creating our own podcast this project was not without collaboration.
We worked as a class to create consistent background music and jingle and a title image for everyone’s podcasts; We worked in small groups to interview a single veteran and split up the interview in 3 parts, and we worked with the memory project. The veteran’s provided the stories we were to tell in our podcasts and the memory project provided the means to find the veterans and were the authentic audience.
The memory project and working with the veterans were key components of the project and are an example of my continuing commitment to local and global collaboration. We are going to share our podcasts with the veterans we interviewed. Everyone’s podcast answers the driving question and thus all fit together; combined with the continuity that I discussed above allows us to create a podcast series with every episode finding and sharing a different story the legacy of the second world war. Our class created a collection of stories all tied back to the legacy of the second world war in Canada. To listen to the stories we found a playlist can be found.
The Legacy of WWII in Canada
World war 2 was a defining moment for humanity changing the course of history forever. World war 2 abolished fascism and sparked the communist-capitalist rivalry that ultimately spawned the cold war. The second world war saw some of the most brutal fights; most devastating genocides, and some of the most heroic leaders to ever walk the planet.
If WW1 was the war to end all wars (more info on the first world war can be found in my WW1 post); World war 2 was the war that finally defined the true horrors of war. World war II finally proved to the leaders of the world that war was not an option to resolve a conflict or dispute. Even through the Cold War, both sides raced to be the most powerful in every respective industry, war was always an end game that had to be avoided at all costs for both sides.
“The [world’s] 44 largest economies have not battled each other since world war 2”
Below is the video quoted, I would recommend watching it.
“The Fallen” outlines the substantial human cost of WW2 and at the end of the video, they touch on the point that I find particularly interesting. The lasting legacy of the second world war that loomed over the head of every world leader especially in the darkest of situations has lead to the long peace since the second world war that “The Fallen” speaks of.
I could never be inside of the heads of the decision makers in these decisive moments in history. However, the evidence of a lack of major conflict between world powers since WW2 speaks for itself. Time and time again through history war is replaced by diplomatic solutions. This type of cooperation between even the most loathed enemies can be a sign of a one-day united world. It is essential that when we look to the future of our changing world, we remain in touch with the lessons of our past.
Keeping this lasting peace may be more difficult than ever in today’s world with volatile leaders and an increasingly complex battlefield. I spoke of how important it was for the younger generations to remember WW2 in my podcast. We all may not be in the situation to change the fate of the world but nonetheless, it is critical that everyone remains committed to keeping WW2 in the back of our minds in order to not lose sight of the destructive power of war.
Podcasting
We used GarageBand to create our podcasts. GarageBand allowed us to record tuned audio and add in the music that would be so critical to our podcasts.
As I have stated it was the first time I worked with the software and I learned a number of different lessons and have so many directions that I would like to take my podcast next time.
The biggest lesson I have learned is to experiment more with different background music and experiment with different styles. Looking back to the start of the project, I noticed I stayed within the same idea that I held on my first day brainstorming throughout the entire draft creation process. This made me stick inside a certain box that I feel didn’t allow me to create a podcast that was the best possible
The second takeaway of my first podcast project is that must be able to plan to benefit from every question I ask my interviewee. In the case of my podcast, I never had control over the questions that were to be asked but I will ensure that every question I ask has value to my podcast.
I will continue to work on my podcast skills when working to clean my audio and working on my speaking voice. I am interested to see what I can accomplish in the next few projects in terms of my podcast skills in general. I hope to emphasize applying a number of different lessons I feel I have learned editing my podcast.
