14 Dec ODL Fellow Tara Roberts on her upcoming podcast and National Geographic Fellowship
MIT Open Documentary Lab Fellow Tara Roberts is a journalist, storyteller and changemaker. She is also a 2020-2021 National Geographic Storytelling Fellow and received a grant from National Geographic to follow and dive with a group of Black scuba divers, historians and archaeologists who are searching for slave shipwrecks around the world. This year, her goal is to transform that epic adventure into a long-form narrative podcast. Read the short Q&A below to learn more about her current project.
Could you describe your project?
My team and I are creating an immersive audio show about black scuba divers searching for slave shipwrecks around the world. I spent a year and a half following these divers around the world with a grant from the National Geographic Society and was deeply changed by the journey. Listeners will hear the voices of divers as they laugh on dive boats, as they touch artifacts below the surface, as they wrestle with the complexities and legacies of the global slave trade. They will hear the clamor of hawkers selling goods on the pier on Ilha de Moçambique, the sounds of calypso music pumping from storefront speakers along the streets of Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica and the horns of taxis honking in Dakar, Senegal. They will also hear my voice, my questions, my reflections, my laughter. The show is scheduled to come out next summer through National Geographic and will feature an entire season (6-10 episodes) of stories about the divers and this lost history.
What stage is your project in?
Currently, we are reporting and gathering tape for the podcast, and soon, we will start drafting the script.
What have you learned in the process?
Honestly, I am still in the process of unraveling what this journey has taught me. I know that I am learning a lot about my own connection – or lack thereof – to the past and how this missing has shaped my present. I am also learning about the hundreds of thousands of missing people from history and how much resurrecting memories of them adds to the richness of our collective human story.
What has been your favorite part of the process?
Mostly, I’ve loved traveling around the world, diving in new locations, getting to know the divers and hearing their brilliant insights about the world and the importance of this work.
Why is this story important?
In this time of spiraling fear of the “other,” we must realize that our fates are tied to each other, as well as to the planet. Centuries of colonialism, systemic racism and greed distort the way we see each other. For us to have a planet that survives, though, it is urgent that we acknowledge the messy and complicated truths upon which our society has been built and that still keep the majority of people in the margins. This project looks ahead to build a new context around the historical frameworks that have largely gone unexamined for centuries.
Why did you decide on a podcast format to share this story?
Once I got on the road and started talking to people, I began to “hear” the story in my mind. I could hear the voices of these brilliant people talking in their own accents, lilts and twangs. I thought a narrative-styled audio show that “showed” scenes from around the world and at the bottom of the ocean and that let listeners hear from the actual characters would stir the imagination in powerful ways.
What has it been to work with both National Geographic and MIT Open Documentary Lab (ODL)?
I feel so supported. ODL has been wonderful in helping me think more deeply about co-creation specifically. I wanted this storytelling to be inclusive rather than extractive, and ODL’s Co-Creation Studio has been helping me think through strategies to accomplish that goal. Plus, the larger cohort continuously challenges me to think more broadly and creatively about the use of new technologies. And the National Geographic team is just an email or a call away, ready to jump in and support whenever I need. So far, both organizations have been a dream to work with.