Mark Maron, Kevin Smith and Sarah Koenig are just some of the voices that redefined audio journalism. A new documentary traces the evolution and triumph of podcasting, a medium that resurrected audio storytelling through the technology of RSS feeds and (initially) the iPod platform. We meet the director of the film Age of Audio ahead of the screening at WJCT Studios. The film features interviews with such podcast luminaries as Jad Abumrad (Radiolab, Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, Dolly Parton’s America), Ira Glass (This American Life), Matt Gourley (Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend), Sean Rameswaram (Today, Explained), Phoebe Judge (Criminal) and Fred Armisen (podcast omniguest). Following the film, director Shaun Michael Colón will join local podcasters and experts for a discussion and Q&A. The event is free, but an RSVP is requested.

Guests:

• Shaun Michael Colón, filmmaker, Age of Audio
• Badr Milligan, co-founder of Jax Podcasters United
• Letisha Bereola, director of podcasting at WJCT Public Media

Life sentence

If you’ve ever wondered what gives certain sentences their undeniable punch — from Sam Jackson’s iconic “I’ve had it ...” diatribe from Snakes On A Plane to memorable Yoda-isms from the Star Wars franchise — there’s a book for that. This Is a Book of Sentence Diagrams: A Journey Through the Sharpest, Strangest, and Most Stirring Lines Ever Constructed offers a curated, illustrated journey through the land of the unabashed word nerd, breaking down our introduction to Mellville’s whale, Kafka’s cockroach and Mom’s go-to demurral (“Because I said so”). We meet the author and learn how he discovered the power of symbolic language.

Guest: Man Martin, author, This is a Book of Sentence Diagrams

Into the light

It’s the background of everywhere you look, fills the entire universe and makes up the static hiss on the in-between channels of old TV sets. While you can’t see it with the naked eye, the afterglow left behind thousands of years after the Big Bang is considered the oldest light in the universe. We discuss how scientists have accurately mapped out the Cosmic Microwave Background and how it helps experts timeline the history of the universe.

Guest: Eddie Whisler, director of planetarium and outreach, Museum of Science & History