NPR news kept me sane while I worked at the IRS. After graduating in 2009 in the midst the great recession, I took the first job offered to me, which was working for the Internal Revenue Service as a Tax Examiner. The sound of typing, the squeaky noise of carts filled with 1040X forms sailing down the aisles, and the constant complaining of fellow co-workers was testing my mind.
I turned to my smartphone and the NPR application that gave my ears access to the world outside the federal building. At the IRS, I developed a routine. When I arrived at work, I turned on my NPR app and listened to Morning Edition, then I browsed through the programs seeking a story that peaked my interest. Listening to thoughtful and intelligent reporting on the radio is an experience that I had never fully appreciated. As a visual journalist, I tell a story through photographs and video, but while at the IRS I became captivated by how reporters used environmental sound and interviews to create stories my mind could see. Sound can be such a strong medium in telling a story. By listening to details, the tone of a voice, information can be implanted in a mind in a special way. When I remember the day of the BP Oil Spill or the fight over immigration and racial profiling in Arizona, my mind references memories and information created by the sounds of NPR.
And lastly, listening to Terry Gross’ soothing voice on Fresh Air calmed my mind, entrancing it into a zen like state, giving me the ability to simultaneously process documents while devoting full attention to Terry’s interview. I could almost see her interviews happening. Her brilliant questioning tactics to her interviewees was astounding, seemingly giving me the ability to sometimes hear the cringe or uncomfortableness of her interviewee.
I turned to my smartphone and the NPR application that gave my ears access to the world outside the federal building. At the IRS, I developed a routine. When I arrived at work, I turned on my NPR app and listened to Morning Edition, then I browsed through the programs seeking a story that peaked my interest. Listening to thoughtful and intelligent reporting on the radio is an experience that I had never fully appreciated. As a visual journalist, I tell a story through photographs and video, but while at the IRS I became captivated by how reporters used environmental sound and interviews to create stories my mind could see. Sound can be such a strong medium in telling a story. By listening to details, the tone of a voice, information can be implanted in a mind in a special way. When I remember the day of the BP Oil Spill or the fight over immigration and racial profiling in Arizona, my mind references memories and information created by the sounds of NPR.
And lastly, listening to Terry Gross’ soothing voice on Fresh Air calmed my mind, entrancing it into a zen like state, giving me the ability to simultaneously process documents while devoting full attention to Terry’s interview. I could almost see her interviews happening. Her brilliant questioning tactics to her interviewees was astounding, seemingly giving me the ability to sometimes hear the cringe or uncomfortableness of her interviewee.
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