#wfdd

By Bethany Chafin, Sara Chisesi and Molly Davis

How do you throw the perfect dinner party? Great friends. Great food. And great radio. Last week, WFDD’s Generation Listen crew perfected the recipe.

It was an "orange 'n' stormy" night when 40 people met at The Garage in downtown Winston-Salem for a dinner party, public radio style. The group listened to excerpts from Dinner Party Download's 2014 All-Food Special - everything from B.J. Novak on taking pictures of food to the quest for sushi perfection. 

The evening featured many highlights, including a special welcome greeting from the show’s hosts, Rico and Brendan. Plus, Whole Foods donated an amazing spread (including sushi!) and The Garage prepared the signature cocktail for the evening (the orange 'n' stormy). After the episode, guests mingled and enjoyed a food-inspired soundtrack curated by WFDD.

Listening Party #8 - 88.5 WFDD / Winston Salem, NC

Amidst the trees, inside a beautiful stone building that houses the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, we hosted our 8th listening party with the folks from 88.5 WFDD.

The topic of the evening was extrasensory perception and we listened to three TED Radio Hour segments to get the conversation started.

First, we listened to Neil Harbisson’s story. The first government-recognized human cyborg, Neil hears color in sounds and has built an entire art form around this special sensory experience. 

Second, we listened to Guy Raz interview speech scientist Rupal Patel about the creation of customized synthetic voices that are personal to the individuals who use them.

We closed the evening listening to sound expert Julian Treasure’s take on how we can all listen better through what he calls “conscious listening.” 

The most special thread of the evening was the diversity of voices represented in our circle. Age became irrelevant and it was simply about sharing anecdotes and experiences that we could all relate to as people. We talked about the ways that listening impacts romantic relationships (”the 5-minute rule”, letting your partner tell their side of the story for five minutes straight uninterrupted), work relationships (the sometimes impatient judgements we cast towards others based on how they speak), and the ways that we feel seen or unseen based on the presence of mind that someone is giving us. 

Thank you for being a part of such a rich and honest dialogue.