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Sound Effect: Episode 95, Broken Heart

Pain Of A Broken Heart by Dennis Skley via Flickr

This week on Sound Effect, we’re sharing stories of heartbreak, and the different ways people respond to it.

Peru’s First Winter Olympian

Roberto Carcelen was the first Peruvian to ever compete in the Winter Olympics. But just ten days before his second Winter Olympics, the cross-country skier fell while practicing, suffering major injuries. He decided to ski anyway, and inspired a country in the process. 

A Music Video Becomes A Tribute

Marcus Haney is a video producer and photographer. He's captured some big names on film including Elton John and Coldplay. In 2014, Marcus was asked to produce a music video for a British band called Bears Den. His idea was this: film his younger brother, Turner Haney, and his friends, all students at Seattle Pacific University. Marcus wanted to capture youth on the brink of adulthood. But on June 5, 2014, the day the filming was set to begin, something horrible happened on SPU’s campus. Aaron Ybarra walked onto campus with a shotgun and opened fire. Two people were injured. One was killed. He was 19-year-old Paul Lee, a freshman. Paul was Turner’s friend. Turner Haney and his friend Katie Reagan, who was also going to be in the video, sat down with Sound Effect producer Kevin Kniestedt.

Heartbreaking Walks Become Poetry

Michelle Penaloza is a poet in Seattle. A few years back, she was in a rough place. She had just moved to Seattle from Eugene to escape an abusive relationship. She didn’t have a job, and she found herself looking for a way to heal. She came up with the idea to take walks with different people who had also experienced heartbreak. She and the other person would leave from the old Hugo House on Capitol Hill to the spot where the heartbreak happened to this other person. Along those walks, some of which were all-day, multi-mile treks, Michelle listened to the other person’s story and turned their experience into a poem.

The Heart Rock

88-5’s Nick Morrison is in the process of mending his broken heart. In this story, he tells us how it got that way, how a moment at a coffee shop muted the pain just a bit, and about a keepsake that Nick keeps in the left pocket of his pants.

Heartbreak From Discrimination

The year was 1953. Harold Moss and his wife Willibelle had bought a plot of land in Tacoma with the hope of building a house. But he couldn't find a bank that would give him a mortgage to pay for the construction or contractor who would build the home. Moss reflects on the heart breaking racism he encountered trying to find a home and how it fueled his civil rights work.

The Song Really Is About You

Broken hearts are what inspires a lot of the music we listen to, whether it’s pop, soul, country or the blues! But what if that song of love gone wrong is about you, and you’re relationship with that musician? And what happens when you and that artist get back together, but those songs are still out there?  This is the experience of Seattle musician Jenn Champion and her partner, Sound Effect contributor Arwen Nicks. They share with us what it feels like to have your heartbreak aired in such a public way and how surviving this emotional condition can change everything.

Sound Effect is your weekly tour of ideas, inspired by the place we live. The show is hosted by knkx's Jennifer Wing.