“An Adoptee Reflects On The Mother-Daughter Bond That Carried Her Through the Loss Of Her Birth Family”
This StoryCorps video is a conversation between a mother and daughter about their relationship in the context of the daughter being adopted and what that means for them. The daughter does ask her mother questions, but in a more conversational manner than an interview. She allows her mom to answer, but also includes her own opinions and experience. The informal tone of the piece makes the story more intimate and natural. Despite the mostly conversational tone, there is a brief verbal intro to explain the context before diving into the story. The introduction gives the reader an understanding of the relationship between the speakers and the topic of their conversation. Without that context, the listeners would be pretty confused because the story alone may not give all of the necessary details to fully understand the discussion. Additionally, there is a short music intro and outro that sets the tone for the story. It is a soft, gentle instrumental song that helps the reader transition in and out of the story.
“Alice Mitchell and Ibukun Owolabi”
This StoryCorps video is a conversation between a mother and son talking about her mother, his grandmother. This piece is also highly conversational rather than more of an interview style. Although, what is interesting about this video is that in the first half the mother is asking her son questions and then participating in the conversation from his response, yet in the second half of the video the son then asks his mother a question. This is unique to any of the StoryCorps videos that I have listened to. This video dives directly into the conversation, with no speaking or musical intro. While it is abrupt, the listener is able to understand the relationship between the speakers and the topic right off of the bat. The story does have a music outro that begins as the mother is finishing her story and is relatively long even after she stops speaking.