WRD Podcasts Analysis

The Comfort of a child{s breath: 

Some communities explored in “The comfort of a child’s breath” podcast are children/patients and doctor/pediatric communities. Their relationship.

In this podcast, I found it interesting how the physician went onto being a lung specialist( pulmonologist) for children after. He mentioned how now he pays more attention to children’s breathing sounds and listens for abnormalities that might signal other illnesses. This due to himself having some health issues that were discovered by finding abnormal sounds in his own breathing. His experience led him to be even more passionate about his job with children. 

This story effectively moves from observation to insight by the doctor explaining how he pays more attention to a sound that to him seemed uninteresting before, and how this changed his perspective on the work he does. 

Some rhetorical  evidence made listening to this podcast more engaging, for example sounds of the breathing which is key in this story, the heart and lungs sound also showed how everything connects back to breathing. 

    The rhetorical purpose is to convince the listeners/audience and show them the perspective on this particular sound that to many is uninteresting. To make the speaker’s point of view engaging and effectively communicating attention to a sound that to him seemed uninteresting before, and how this changed his perspective on the work he does. 

The Pulse of a Brain Surgeon’s Patient: 

The communities in this podcast are patient and the health staff community.

Something that seemed interesting to me was the surgeon stating how many sounds there were at the hospital but out of all those the one he liked the most was the pulse oximeter’s sound. 

He also explained he would sometimes stop anything else, like turn off other machines, and stop people from talking just to quietly listen to the pulse oximeter. This was interesting because I never knew of a person doing that. 

This experience moves effectively from observation to insight by the surgeon explaining why he likes this sound so much. He said that this is the simple sound of life that reminds “us” , (the medical staff) that they are there for the person in front of them (patients), and not for all of the technology around them. 

Some of  the rhetorical evidence included in the podcast were sounds of all the technology including the pulse oximeter and the others. 

The rhetorical purpose behind sharing these perceptions is that the speaker wants to show his view and share how a small sound can signify a lot more than we think in everyday life. The podcast makes the listener understand why he approaches it this way.