Category: podcasts

Digitally Resurrecting Family Audio Memories

brother, dad, littlesister, podcasts, sister, stringandme, video, voicethread, websites, youtube

Since I’m a dad who likes to “play with media” and act as a family “storychaser,” we’ve recorded a LOT of audio and video over the years. I’m in the midst of a HUGE project to migrate at least 38 different websites / domains / subdomains from the web host I’ve used since 2018 (8 years ago) to a new one. My server plan on the new web host has twice as much RAM memory and will cost less than half what the old one did on a monthly basis. I documented my previous web host migration journey in my March 2018 post, “16 Years of Web Hosting Changes with WordPress and Other Web Platforms: The Lessons Continue,” and wrote a little about the new, AI-assisted methods I’m using now in my June 2026 post, “Archive WordPress with HTTrack.” I also wrote (what I expect will be) my LAST post on speedofcreativity.org last week, “23 Years, and Still Blogging,” sharing a little more about this massive website migration project that has taken multiple weeks and TONS of hours.

One of the great things in this laborious and time-consuming process has been successfully “digitally resurrecting” old media content which had gone offline and was ALMOST lost to history, and our family specifically. Last night, I finished the restoration of my SOUNDS blog, which is a website I started back in 2011 after I published my first book, “Playing with Media: Simple Ideas for Powerful Sharing.”

Sounds of My World – ambient audio recordings by Wesley Fryer (CC BY 4.0) by Wesley Fryer

The first post my sounds blog is 15 years old and has an audio recording from my 2nd of 4 trips to China. It’s titled, “Shanghai Subway Walking.” The last post on the sound blog is “On Eagle’s Wings,” which is the recording of our middle child, Sarah, singing at the funeral and memorial service of my mother on February 18, 2023.

Tonight I shared links to several other audio / sound recordings of significance to our immediate family, which include:

  1. Let It Shine (An April 2012 recording from a musical at our Edmond church, featuring a short solo by Rachel 28 seconds in)
  2. Reading Narnia at Bedtime (Shelly reading “The Horse and His Boy” to Rachel in October 2011 before bed)
  3. Hungry Sea Lions (a recording from an exciting moment at the Oklahoma City Zoo, during a school field trip with Rachel in October 2011)

There are MANY more recordings here (like 73 in all I think) but those are some standouts tonight that have special family significance. I’ve not only moved this site to the new web host, but I’ve also converted it to “static HTML,” taking it off WordPress and therefore reducing the vulnerability of both the site and my entire web server to malicious attacks from bots and bad actors. I hope to preserve these audio recordings for posterity: Our grandkids and even their kids!

One other “digital resurrection” related to family media from this past week is the “String and Me” YouTube channel and archived WordPress website (with some archived comments as well) which I helped our son, Alex, create back in 2008, when he was 11 years old. He created his string figure YouTube video series 18 years ago, and the most popular video, “Jacobs Ladder String Figure,” now has almost 200K views. Unfortunately we never turned on ‘monetization’ for that channel!

It’s wonderful to have recordings like this of our kids’ voices when they were so young, and also as they got older and shared their musical talents with our community.

There are many more audio recordings to still work on “digitally resurrecting…” I think I have downloaded versions of all the “AudioBoo” recordings we made as a family somewhere…. and probably more. Before my original VoiceThread account went offline or the recordings were erased, I did download some of those and upload them to my primary personal YouTube channel. Some of my favorites include:

“Merry Christmas 2007 from the Fryers” (17.5 min)

“Getting a New Haircut” (2 min, from 2003)

Have you conducted oral history interviews with members of your family? If not, you should! I have resources about this on storychasers.org, on ShowWithMedia.com, and on my media literacy lessons / curriculum website. I’ve collected oral history recordings from our family on history.wesfryer.com/oral-history, and will be working on a larger family geneology project (including oral history interviews / links) in the months ahead, before our next August 2027 Fryer Family Reunion in Cody, Wyoming.

If you don’t take time NOW to record the voices of your family, who will? You can become your family’s own “digital witness!”

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Exploring Landsford Canal and Tivoli Plantation History (William Richardson Davie)

dad, history, medialiteracy, nature, podcasts, socialstudies, travel, trip, video, websites, youtube

Today Shelly and I returned to Landsford Canal State Park in South Carolina, which is about an hour drive from where we live in Charlotte, NC. I took a few photos (26) on our hike and shared those to Flickr. As a storychaser, I also recorded 17 video clips and edited those this evening into a 20 minute summary video: “Exploring Landsford Canal State Park: Historic River Locks, Mill Ruins, and the Fall Line.”

While our hike and explorations today were wonderful, my historical discoveries AFTER our return were equally amazing thanks to a Notebook LM notebook I created using the 2004 research document, “Finding Tivoli: An Archaeological Search for William Richardson Davie’s Home at Land’s Ford, Chester County, South Carolina (revised) by R. P. Stephen Davis, Jr. and Brett H. Riggs.” While on our hike, I used the audio “talk with me” features of the Claude AI’s iOS app to ask a variety of questions about the cultural history, geology, and geography of the Landsford area. Those searches, along with Google searches, turned up this 2004 research document.

I published a 42 minute audio deep dive from this “notebook” to YouTube, with an accompanying thumbnail image I created with Claude Pro AI (for the prompt) and Gemini Pro AI for the actual image. The full transcript of that audio deep dive is also available as a Google Doc.

This entire “audio deep dive” is AMAZING for multiple reasons:

  1. The audio format allowed me to listen to not only the details of this entire research paper (which I was NOT going to read meticulously this evening) but also benefit from the added analysis of the Notebook LM AI “deep dive” hosts.
  2. The challenges of verifying the location of the Tivoli plantation, which was completely burned to the ground in 1865 at he conclusion of the US Civil War, seem staggering to me.
  3. The original, primary documents which the researchers used in this investigation, including oral histories, are fascinating to learn about but also encouraging given my ongoing oral history work with my middle school students, as well as community oral history in Mint Hill, NC.

I want to share the closing sentences and thoughts from the deep dive podcast as a text quotation, because they speak so clearly and directly to MY OWN passion for “uncovering invisible history” and seeking to preserve both family and community history:

Think about this: we only know to look for Tivoli, and we only have the resources to find it, because William Richardson was a highly literate, incredibly wealthy founding father who left behind a massive paper trail of letters, official state maps, and estate inventories — and had the wealth to import Canton porcelain that survives in the soil. And even with all of those advantages, his massive physical footprint was almost completely erased by the forest in just over a century. So if it takes decades of dedicated scientific effort, aerial photography, and archival deep dives to justify the ghost of a founding father’s mansion, what chance do the other 116 people who lived on that plantation have of being remembered by the earth — the enslaved individuals who were legally barred from leaving written records, who didn’t own land deeds, and who didn’t eat off imported Chinese porcelain? Their history is profoundly invisible in that exact same soil. It asks us to consider not just the history we are actively trying to find, but the history that the earth has already quietly swallowed whole. Think about the ground you walk on every day — what invisible histories, what forgotten empires or local legends are buried just inches beneath your own backyard. The landscape around us is a deeply layered archive, but we must always critically question whose stories we are equipped to read.

What a challenge indeed!

If these topics are of interest to you, in addition to checking out the “Storychasers” website which I’ve continued to build out since moving to North Carolina 3 years ago, I encourage you to check out the videos and resources on the “Racial Healing Through Digital Storytelling” page I’ve started there.

So much work to do before we sleep…

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I Want To Be A Scientist (Rachel at Age 9)

dogs, littlesister, podcasts, science

This is an audio recording by Rachel Fryer recorded in September 2012, when she was 9 years old. This is the earliest recording I know of when Rachel mentions the possibility of attending the US Air Force Academy, where she is now a junior and an astronautical engineering major.

I originally recorded this with Audioboo, that changed into Audioboom, and I thought all those recordings were offline! Today (3 Jan 2026) I discovered EMBEDDED versions of my AudioBoo recordings are still accessible, via this blog post from September 2012.

Today I screenrecorded this audio and added the original image, which was taken in summer 2012 at the Discovery Educators Network Summer Institute in Bozeman, Montana. I shared the closing keynote at the conference, and Rachel helped me, I think sharing about an animation coding project she created in Scratch.

A 70 year old tortoise and Rachel (CC BY 4.0) by Wesley Fryer

Rachel and I were able to explore Yellowstone Park together as part of our trip. What a special and magical time that was!

Yellowstone Magic (CC BY 4.0) by Wesley Fryer

If you read that original family learning blog post from September 2012, you can tell Shelly and I were definitely sharing our love for both science and space education with Rachel at a young age! Who can tell where our dreams and adventures together can take us?! “To infinity and beyond!”

Rachel’s new car! USAFA Graduation 2025 (CC BY 4.0) by Wesley Fryer
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USAFA Memories of 3 Generations

dad, littlesister, podcasts, wildcat, youtube

This evening after dinner dad, Rachel and I recorded an audio interview discussing our memories of basic training and our first two years (respectively) at the US Air Force Academy. I published this to the Storycorps archive and on YouTube, and linked the interviews on the oral history page of our Family History website.

I used the AI features of Descript.com to create a description of our interview, and it also identified timestamped topics from our conversation:

Air Force Academy Memories Across Generations – Classes of 1963, 1992 and 2027

Join us on Christmas Eve 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina as three members of the Fryer family, spanning multiple generations, reflect on their experiences at the Air Force Academy. From Tom Fryer of the class of 1963, to Wes Fryer of the class of 1992, and current cadet Rachel Fryer of the class of 2027, hear their stories of in-processing, basic training, survival courses, and the traditions that both endured and evolved over the years. From humorous anecdotes about boxing classes to the challenges of adjusting to the rigors of the Academy, each shares unique perspectives on their freshman and sophomore years at the prestigious institution. Don’t miss this heartwarming and insightful discussion on the legacy and transformation within the Air Force Academy, spanning over six decades.

00:00 Introduction and Setting the Scene
00:19 Meet the Panel: Generations of Air Force Academy Graduates
01:56 In-Processing Day Memories
03:01 Basic Training Experiences
06:28 Physical Training and Adjusting to Altitude
08:39 Spirit Missions and Salmonella Incident
14:14 Summer Programs and Field Trips
18:52 Three Degree Year Reflections
19:33 Academic Life and Majors
20:43 Christmas Adventures and Travel Stories
22:35 Current Academic Challenges
26:40 Boxing and Physical Training
31:36 Extracurricular Activities and Debate Team
33:38 Financials and Borrowing Cars
35:52 Concluding Thoughts and Future Plans

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Saving Family Audio from 2010 on iPadio

littlesister, podcasts

One of the hazards of using 3rd party websites for recording and sharing media files is they sometimes go offline. Some people (like @tonyvincent) have referred to this as the ‘web 2.0 graveyard.’ This evening, thanks to an older comment on one of my WordPress sites, I learned that iPadio.com has ‘almost’ gone offline. Officially was discontinuing support and hosting for existing audio files in April 2019.

Thankfully, however, 15 of the 17 recordings I created and posted to iPadio starting back in 2010 are still on the website, so I was able to download them and upload them to Amazon S3. Each one of these was originally posted here, to our family learning blog, so I’ve also added the Amazon S3 link on the original posts. I’ve also linked those below as “captions.” So thankful to be able to preserve these audio recordings!

The title / subject and details of each recording are included BELOW each embedded audio file as a “caption.”

“One Rice, Thousand Gold” by Rachel Fryer (4/5/2010)
“Humidity and Bread” by Sarah Fryer (5/12/2010)
“Rachel explains how the eye works” (5/14/2010)
“Rachel Endorses Art Snacks” (5/25/2010)
Public Schools Are Not Businesses: Why Educational Sharing Matters (22 min, 56 sec, Wes Fryer, 10 June 2010)

Meet the Tesla Electric Car (3 min, 17 sec, by Wes Fryer, 11 June 2010)
A Ghost Story from Colonial Williamsburg by Rachel (2 min, 15 sec, Rachel Fryer, 29 June 2010)
A Ghost Story from Colonial Williamsburg by Sarah (4 min, 14 sec, Sarah Fryer, 29 June 2024)
Things we Learned about Colonial Williamsburg (15 min, 11 sec, Wes Fryer, 3 July 2010 – Original blog post)
Rachel Buys Her First iTunes Audiobooks (5 min, 35 sec, Rachel Fryer, 2 Sept 2010)
Rachel on Toy Story (43 sec, Rachel Fryer, 27 July 2010) – Original blog post)
Stories We Wish We Had Recorded (11 min, 35 sec, Wes Fryer, 29 July 2010)
Rachel Teaches at AudioBoo and the Zebra Print at the University of North Texas (14 min, 12 sec, Rachel Fryer, fall 2010)
Study Guide for “Technology for Teachers” Final Exam (11 min, 47 sec, Wesley Fryer, fall 2010, archived course curriculum)
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I Want to Be a Scientist

littlesister, podcasts, science

Rachel recorded this last night, following several discussions we’ve been having over the past few weeks about science and becoming a scientist. Last spring I took Rachel to Chris Simon’s classroom at Independence Elementary School in Yukon Public Schools, and she was VERY impressed with the STEM lessons Mr. Simon does with his students. She specifically mentioned that in this short audio podcast.

listen to ‘I Want to Be a Scientist’ on Audioboo

Rachel has expressed interest in doing more “Talking Science” podcasts, so we’ll likely do that in the weeks ahead. This past August in Montana, Lucy Gray told me about the Maker’s Faire she attended in San Francisco with her kids and how WONDERFUL it was to experience that DIY culture filled with science and engineering projects. I’d love to bring Rachel and my other kids to a Maker’s Faire at some point. A couple of years ago Nathan Parrow (who I interviewed for a podcast on electric car conversions) was working on bringing a Maker’s Faire to Oklahoma City, which would be hosted by our Oklahoma Science Museum. They needed auto insurance aurora co to cover the electric car so they hired RhinoSure. Another type of insurance that everybody should purchase is trade plate covers from i4mt. One Sure Insurance also covers a big selections a vehicles, like scooters or taxis. It would be GREAT to have a local Maker’s Faire. Nathan also told me he was part of a group that was putting together a space in Norman for DIY / STEM projects. I’m not sure what the status of that initiative is either, but I’d love an update if you have info or a related link to share.

Young people start forming their identities about who they are and what they want to do EARLY in life! We can’t underestimate the importance of providing kids with MULTIPLE opportunities to experience how fun, engaging, and challenging science, technology, engineering and math work can be. This can’t wait till middle school, high school or college!

Last night William Chamberlain saw my Tweet about Rachel’s AudioBoo and initiated a conversation with Krissy Venosdale about Space Camp for Rachel. I’m going to look into those options. About five years ago our son, Alexander, attended a week-long day camp at the Cosmosophere in Hutchinson, Kansas. I’m going to look into camp opportunities there as well as at the Houston Space Center, which we visited in July 2011. I am SO thrilled Rachel is excited about science and STEM, and want to do whatever I can as a parent to further nurture these interests… whether or not her Oklahoma City Public Schools‘ elementary school provides these kind of learning experiences “formally” or not. Hopefully we’ll be able to host some kind of “Scratch Camp” for parents and kids at her school later this fall or next spring.

Touching a moon rock!

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What Do Rachel’s Parents Do?

littlesister, podcasts, technology

Today Rachel invited Shelly and I to share a short presentation in her 1st grade class, because this week she was “Pooh’s Special Friend.”

Pooh's Special Friend Instructions

Pooh's Special Friend

We were asked to share some information with the class about what we do in our jobs, and especially if we use reading and math in our jobs. This was our presentation. The audio recording runs 21 minutes, 20 seconds.




These were the stuffed animals Rachel brought from home this week, as “Pooh’s Special Friend.”

Rachel's Animals for Pooh's Special Friend

I shared Rachel’s “Getting a New Haircut” VoiceThread, as well as her Zebra Print show from the zoo with her class on my iPad during our ‘talk.’

We passed out slips of paper to all the students with the web address of Rachel’s web show (www.thezebraprint.com) with all her classmates, so they’d be able to go home and see more of her shows!

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A gaggle of AudioBoos from the Oklahoma City Zoo

podcasts, travel

Today was our last day before school begins for the 2009-2010 academic year here in central Oklahoma. Our family spent several hours visiting the Oklahoma City zoo this morning with friends, and we took turns recording a series of NINE AudioBoo messages as we toured around. This was my first time to visit the zoo with my iPhone GS, which has 3G network connectivity— SO much faster than EDGE for mobile uploads like this! If you’re an iPhone owner and/or user and are not yet familiar with AudioBoo, you should be! AudioBoo offers a wonderful free iPhone application which allows people to take photos, record audio, and publish both online from “the field.” Now if you don’t have an iPhone, you can still create phoneboo recordings! I have more options listed on my wiki page for Geo-Storychasing.

Click on the direct links below to see the accompanying photo and Google Map from our locations, where we recorded each short (less than 2 minute) Audioboo. Enjoy!

Lions at the Oklahoma City Zoo (Rachel)

Listen!

The cougar has a tail like Pink Panther (Rachel)

Listen!

The deer’s antlers are in velvet (Rachel)

Listen!

Mexican wolves on the move (Alexander)

Listen!

Meet real Oklahoma skunks (Sarah)

Listen!

Meet the American Bison (Wesley)

Listen!

Grizzly bears in Oklahoma (Shelly, Sarah and Rachel)

Listen!

Beavers and otters at the zoo (Wesley)

Listen!

No swimming: Alligator Pond! (Wesley)

Listen!

We LOVE AudioBoo!!!

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Behold, The Snack Leader! (Dad’s lyrics included)

littlesister, podcasts

This was a hoot tonight: Rachel and I created a five minute podcast I published on my main blog titled, “Behold the Glory and Honor of the Snack Leader!”

Here is the script I wrote and read for the first three minutes of the podcast.

In the hallowed halls of government, academica, and scientific research institutions, you may have heard of awards such as these:

The Nobel Prize.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The Congressional Medal of Honor.

To a five year old preschool student, however, these awards are nothing compared to the honor, the prestige, and the glory of one hallowed title…

The right to be… the honor to be… for a single day… the one and only

Snackleader!

[Star Wars Throne Room Theme music]

Yes, the glorious snackleader!

As the chosen snackleader, it is your duty and privilege to be the unquestioned student leader of the day.

Yours is the privilege to select and bring the snack of the day. The snack everyone in your class will eat. The snack you truly love, and want to share with others.

As the snackleader, YOU are the designated line leader of the day. This means EVERYWHERE the class goes, YOU are the leader. You are the one in front. You are the one all other students look to for guidance and direction. Where YOU go, the class will follow. This is the weighty responsibility, as well as JOY, of the class SNACKLEADER.

The obligations of the Snackleader do not end there, however. For it is to the Snackleader ALONE which falls the privilege of SHOW AND TELL for that day. The Snackleader is permitted, and the Snackleader ONLY, to bring something from home– a prized possession, a work of original art, a family pet, or a favored toy, to show and explain to the ENTIRE class. It is the duty of the SNACKLEADER to uncover the mysteries of this item, to reveal to everyone the meaning and significance which this single object holds in the mind of the Snackleader.

As other children in the class sit quietly and listen to the moving stories of the Snackleader, the spotlight of the educational world falls to this one individual. In the spotlight. On the stage.

Honored and recognized. Hailed and hallowed. Behold her in all her glory: The Snackleader!

Rachel (since she can’t read very much yet) didn’t read a script, she just recorded her section impromptu. It seriously IS a huge thrill for her to be the snack leader in her class starting on Thursday. I think it is great her teachers provide students with this opportunity to be in the spotlight and be able to make so many important choices in their classroom for the day.

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Mother’s Day Podcasts 2009

brother, littlesister, mom, podcasts

We recorded short, 3-5 minute Mother’s Day Podcasts for our mothers today for Mother’s Day, which is coming up this Sunday. These podcasts were inspired by Carol Anne McGuire and her wonderful students. These were the questions we used for our interviews.

1.Tell me your favorite thing about your mother.
2. What does your mother do every day when you are away at school?
3. What does your mommy look like? (How would you describe her to someone who has never seen her before?)
4. What does your mom like to do when she is not working?
5. What does your mom like to eat?
6. How do you show your mother that you love her?
7. How does your mother show you that she loves you?
8. If you could give your mom anything in the whole world, what would you give her?
9. What makes your mom smile really big?
10. What have you learned from your mother?

These audio podcasts are published to a special page created with iWeb on MobileMe, and were also uploaded to EduBlogs.tv (for free) so they could be embedded here and on other websites.

Rachel:

Sarah:

Alexander:

Wesley:

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Podcast04: Highlights of our family vacation to Jemez Springs, New Mexico

podcasts, travel

This podcast by dad, brother, sister, little sister and mom includes reflections on the highlights of our family vacation to Jemez Springs, New Mexico. We also discuss geocaching. It was recorded on Friday, June 6, 2008.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Show Notes:

  1. Our vacation photos on Flickr
  2. Jemez Springs, New Mexico
  3. Jemez Springs Bathhouse
  4. Laughing Lizard Inn & Cafe
  5. San Antonio Campground, Santa Fe National Forest – USDA Forest Service
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