Podcast Interview with Muslim Boxer Amaiya Zafar
When I started thinking about who to interview, Amaiya was one of the first people to come to my mind. Our families have been close for several years and I took a boxing class with her, so I knew a lot about her journey to boxing and the barriers she's faced along the way. Her recent success of convincing USA Boxing to let her fight in her hijab was an incredible victory and I knew that it would make a powerful ending to this podcast-story.
I only have a little bit of experience with conducting interviews, and honestly I was more nervous to be the interviewer than I have ever been before being interviewed. However, I found that sitting next to her (not across from each other), imagining that there's no recording device and that we're just having a conversation helped immensely. Of course, I had to remind myself not to jump in or respond too verbally for fear of halting the movement of her story and creating confusion for listeners to the podcast, but beyond that I found that attempting to recreate the flow a natural conversation worked well and I truly enjoyed the process.
Now that the ice has been broken between myself and the (what I had previously thought) overwhelming task of creating a podcast, I can absolutely see myself using this as a tool for teaching storytelling and oral narratives in the classroom. While editing the podcast, I had to decide which sections to keep or delete, and I even had to take excerpts from later in the interview and insert them earlier on, all with the goal of telling the story in exactly the way I wanted to. This process of engineering a story, in addition to the journalism skills that students can gain from conducting an interview in the first place, would be an immersive way for students to create something they are proud of while learning about narrative devices and narrative-creation.
Hey, Leyla.
ReplyDeleteYou found a great person to interview for this. This is a great example of grabbing a story that we couldn't easily find for ourselves. I Googled her and read stories from NPR, the Washington Post, and other places. Thanks so much for sharing her story here. You're right that she defies stereotypes and expectations. You do great work in the introduction to get us hooked right away.
Your audio levels are excellent. Your narration track and interview tracks are well balanced and clear.
Your interview questions are interesting and keep her engaged in the storytelling she is doing. You show the 80/20 rule in the work you do, because you let her shine as you help her through the interview. The fact that you're obviously engaged in her storytelling helps her stay enthusiastic in her words.
You definitely found such a great and surprising perspective. I was engaged and intrigued from start to finish. You ask questions I've never heard boxers address in the past.
Your editing is crisp and helpful. I'm definitely impressed. You have a great flow to this and you craft the story well. You have a great way of anticipating what a listener would need from the story and giving them what they want.
It's great to hear how the story ended for her. It's awesome to end with a victory and hear another way she is remarkable. Your story has drama and conflict and emotion. The scene with the belt is outstanding and your use of music at that moment is professional quality. I actually clicked back to listen to that moment again just because it was so polished. Fantastic work in that moment.
Has Amaiya heard this yet? I bet she would love it if she hasn't heard it already. This is something you should be proud to share with others.
Your conclusion is a great model of a summary with a moment of reflection at the end.
I loved listening to this. Thank you so much for the work you did to make this excellent.