[music: “Horn of Plenty” by James Newton Howard]
YUMI TALLUD: In the spirit of this quarter special broadcast theme, we at WNUR News,
of course, had to put out a story about maybe the most popular young adult series of all
time, The Hunger Games.
BAZIL FRUEH: That’s where Yumi and I stepped in, assembling a round table of
diehard fans to discuss all things about the books. Though we originally set out to
attempt a map where we thought all of Panem’s districts were, the conversation quickly
divulged into tangents on our personal connections with the series.
TALLUD: Even though all our experiences with the books were different, one thing stayed the
same between all of us: a shared love for the story that we grew up with.
FRUEH: So, let’s listen in – first hearing our panelists introduce themselves.
LUIS CASTAÑEDA: I’m Luis Castañeda, and I’m a third year in Medill.
ALEXIA SEXTOU: I’m Alexia Sextou, and I’m a first year in Medill.
TALLUD: Before diving into district talk, we had our panelists describe their first introduction
to the world of Panem. Here’s Castañeda.
CASTAÑEDA: I remember the first experience I ever had with the Hunger Games was, I guess, maybe it was 2012, and my– I was in my sister’s room, I remember. I must have been
like 9. She had it playing on her TV, like we were watching it together, and I was like,
what’s going on? And I didn’t really understand it at the beginning. And then I think it
wasn’t until Catching Fire, the second one came out, that I was like, oh this is like, it’s
good. And since then, I feel like I’ve seen Catching Fire over 11 times.
FRUEH: Sextou then offered her story.
SEXTOU: They were playing the Hunger Games and then, like, my grandpa told me to go to bed, and I said, No, I really want to watch this. And he’s like, no, because the TV was like in his room. So I– I got my iPad and I googled this like, really sketchy illegal site. I was like, Hunger Games movie thing. And I watched all four movies the same night. I
pulled an all-nighter, probably the first all-nighter I’ve pulled in my life.
TALLUD: Moving to the districts, we theorized over the location of the capital, Panem’s place
of glitz, glamour and corruption.
TALLUD: Yeah. Why is she in Salt Lake City? That’s so crazy.
FRUEH: That’s a great question because I remember I feel like they talked about the capital
being somewhere in like the Rockies, like Colorado, like Utah area. Sextou had a different theory.
SEXTOU: I feel like it would be Manhattan.
TALLUD: I would agree.
FRUEH: You would think, you would think.
SEXTOU: With the champagne glasses and the crazy eyelashes. Yes, and it’s what it is.
TALLUD: It’s interesting too, because the, like the, East Coast is District 13, so it’s like the
exact opposite of what you’d expect.
SEXTOU: But it’s giving Gatsby. Like, it’s futuristic.
FRUEH: Right, right.
TALLUD: Castañeda then considered the capital’s geographic surroundings.
CASTAÑEDA: It would make sense, like, I guess territorially for the capital to be like in a very like, isolated like location. It kind of reminds me of Colombia. So Colombia, the capital is on this large plateau. So in Bogota, it’s– and it’s surrounded by like, kind of, mountains.
TALLUD: We talked about where we’e from, and where in Panem that would potentially be.
Bazil’s from Toledo, Ohio, meaning he would probably be from District 3.
FRUEH: Based on the map, it seems like my district would be District 3, the power district –
or sorry, the tech district – which makes sense given like the history of like the Rust Belt
and many of like the Great Lakes cities and like Ohio and Michigan being like hubs of infrastructure and innovation, but I laugh because I’m just like those are all kind of dead now, so I’m like in this universe would these like factories be bought back? Like is the Rust Belt no longer rusty anymore is the question.
FRUEH: Yumi is from Chicago, meaning they would likely be from District 6, which focuses
on transportation.
TALLUD: Which is funny because Chicago right now notoriously does not have great
transportation.
SEXTOU: What, you don’t like the L train? What?
TALLUD: Can’t say I do.
FRUEH: Sextou is from Greece and Castañeda is from Florida, a state that doesn’t exist in
Panem as a result of global warming. In their cases, they discuss what districts they
thought they would be from.
SEXTOU: Okay, you know what, I want to say I would be from 4, which is Finnick’s district. It’s the fishing one. I– I think it’s like– is it– it’s kind of like right up– is it California? I think a little above California. I think that’s where I would be like. I mean, water makes sense to me because I’m from a coastal country. So, yeah.
TALLUD: Castañeda, on the other hand, was drawn to District 10.
CASTAÑEDA: In like, practicality sense, probably is like my calling, because I literally grew up in the horse capital of the world.
FRUEH: Though our focus on the districts may have shifted, our conversation then moved to
center on the impact of the series, both on us and the wider culture. Here’s Castañeda.
CASTAÑEDA: This franchise has united so many people, and I don’t know what it is that appeals to so many people. It has such an impact. You know, that’s so different than like Harry Potter, so different than Divergent, so different than, I don’t know, I feel like it's the cool, you know, Young Adult novel.
TALLUD: Here’s Sextou take.
SEXTOU: So when you, you know, when you say about why it appeals so much, I think it has to do with the fact that it’s taking such an extraneous concept and it’s making it seem so timely and so real to the point where even today, if you go on social media where people are talking about politics today, they’ll be like, Suzanne Collins warned us about this. She said it.
FRUEH: Sextou also gave out particular praise to Suzanne Collins, the author of the books,
and her writing.
SEXTOU: It’s really political and it’s a really strong piece of writing, very imaginative piece of writing too. Whenever I have writer’s block, I think about how, like, the way Suzanne Collins came up with this is she was flicking through her TV one day and she was watching, you know, news coverage on some conflict or some war, and then she pressed next and there was like this reality, like, game show or whatever happening. YT: Collins is set to publish the fifth book of the series, a prequel called Sunrise on the Reaping, on March 18th. Castaneda shared his feelings.
CASTAÑEDA: So I’m excited to see what happens in this next book, and what message she’s trying to give us then, because considering how much political turmoil is going on right now, I wonder if she’s gonna try to tell us something about ourselves in this book.
FRUEH: Looking toward the future, Sextou offered a final thought on the upcoming book.
SEXTOU: I trust her completely to write another novel that is going to be relevant in one way or another, if not now – which I think it will be – but even if not now, definitely later in the next couple of years, we’ll certainly see it, because that’s exactly what her writing does.
TALLUD: Through it all, the world of Panem and the story of The Hunger Games has stuck with us and is something that we’e all excited to keep in our lives.
FRUEH: Thanks for listening and as always, happy Hunger Games. For WNUR News, I’m Bazil Frueh.
TALLUD: And I’m Yumi Tallud.
[music: “The Hanging Tree” by James Newton Howard feat. Jennifer Lawrence]
