The deadline is January 5. The project is NPR’s College Podcast Challenge, which is back with a $5,000 grand prize for this year's winners. It's a chance for college students around the country to give all of us a window into their worlds in this medium we all love so much. WAMC's Ian Pickus spoke about it with NPR’s Janet W. Lee and Steve Drummond.
So for people who have missed the past iterations of the podcast challenge, exactly what is it?
SD: Well, let me start off and just say, yeah, we started this contest five years ago, and we started it with students in the earlier grades; grades 5-12. Over the years, we've had about 50,000 students in all 50 states and the District of Columbia get a little exposure to the world of podcasting. And it was right away in year one that we started hearing from college students, ‘Hey, what about us? Can we do something there?’ This is our third year now of having a college contest and Janet, maybe you want to talk a little bit about some of the details?
JL: So this year, we opened our college contest in the fall, and it's going to be open all the way through the fall semester, like you just mentioned, so students can submit anytime now up till January 5. So they have the whole semester, the winter breaks, and the holidays. And two things to keep in mind: one, we always tell students to make a podcast about any topic they're passionate about, so truly, this can be a personal story, a reported story and investigative story, local news story, anything you'd like. And a second rule that I really want to emphasize to all the students out there, your podcast has to be between three and eight minutes, and if not, you will be disqualified. So please make sure that whatever story you're sharing with us is between three and eight minutes.
I don't envy you having to listen to all those submissions, but what are you looking for in a successful podcast?
SD: Well, probably the same things Janet and I look for in our day jobs. We're looking for reporters or storytellers who are passionate about what they're what they're bringing to us who have enthusiasm and excitement, we look for great writing, and of course, as you well know, and we look for great sound. We're hoping that our student podcasters will take us somewhere cool and share with us their thoughts and sounds and stories from wherever they are, and we've had a lot of good luck with it.
In past contests, have you noticed any themes among the submissions? Particular issues that young people were interested in talking about and reporting on?
JL: Yeah. Every year, we tend to get a lot of amazing stories on students’ identities, a lot of them figuring out who they are and where they come from, including our first ever winner, Anya Steinberg, who did a deep dive into her family history with adoption and search for family. Last year's winner which was our second year of the college contest, her story focused on her experience going through a legal name change, so a lot of stories of students kind of figuring out who they are and where they are in this world. We also got an amazing entry last year, and I'm including this one to just kind of open it up and share that it's not always just young people, we got one from a 65-year-old college student who shared her story about what inspired her to go back to school.
So just a lot of personal stories, talking through their own experiences of what's happening in their lives and how they're learning about themselves on the mic. So those we tend to get a lot. This year for the middle and high school contests, one theme we noticed more than maybe years past was students’ stories on climate change. I think they're the contests (where) we also do notice some of the shifts in themes or what's kind of top of mind for many of the students. So that's, unfortunately one that we've noticed more this year, and I’m personally curious to see if it’ll be the same for the college contests.
There is a cliché that young people aren’t so into public radio and public media. Do you find that shifting the format to podcasting has kind of awakened something?
SD: Oh, definitely Ian. We've heard from so many teachers around the country and professors saying ‘My students didn't know what NPR was, they didn't know what a podcast was.’ Our high school winner this year said she had never heard a podcast before she made one and won our grand prize. So one of the things that we're really excited about this project, it's introduced tens of thousands of young people around the country to the challenges and fun of telling stories with sound.
So we talked about some of the dos, are there any don'ts that people should keep in mind?
JL: One thing that I would strongly advise maybe staying away from is I guess, to have a strong intro or an intro that doesn't get straight into what your story is. So very often, we get a lot of amazing podcasts that unfortunately start with a really long music tail. Like, we hear music for 15 seconds and may not get to what amazing story you have to tell immediately, or a really long introduction from students with sort of the common podcast intro of ‘Hey, welcome to our podcast, I'm this person,’ and a really long self-intro before we get to the meat of things. So I would just be mindful of what we hear at the top of your podcast.
SD: Yeah, you should talk about music too. That's the probably the biggest reason we have to disqualify podcasts, I think, right?
JL: Oh, yes, that's a big one, thank you. So due to copyright, your podcasts cannot include copyrighted music, s please look into any sort of rights-free music. We've also (seen) many times students have their friends play original music for their podcasts, which is also really fun to listen to. But yes, that's a really good one.
SD: We should say Ian, we've got tons of materials on how to use music and what music works and how to make a good podcast on our website if you just google NPR Student Podcast Challenge. You'll find all kinds of information about kind of literally the do's and don'ts for how to do this and how to tell a story with sound.
And aside from the $5,000 grand prize, I know there's some finalist awards too, but what will the winners get if they happen to make it that far?
JL: Yeah, so the winner receives the $5,000 prize like you mentioned. Also, our team will come to you wherever you are to report on your story, and you will hear your podcasts and story on NPR’s news magazines like Morning Edition or All Things Considered. We've also in past years shared their stories on multiple NPR podcasts, like Code Switch, Up First, or Shortwave as well as our socials, so really an opportunity to share whatever is on your heart and with a wider audience.
