August 20, 2025 • 28 mins
Dr. Leigh McCue, Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Philip Wilkerson, Employer Engagement Consultant, join Dr. Rachel Yoho to discuss how podcasting can be a transformative communication strategy – for your course, research, department, or even as a hobby to make professional connections.
Resources: Please check out the Mason Mechanical Engineer, hosted by Dr. Leigh McCue and Philip Wilkerson, where Dr. Rachel Yoho was a guest on their podcast in this crossover episode collaboration!
Mason Mechanical Engineer Podcast Links: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5N29nLkCvKt9euupjWex39?si=6a9313a7c7424311
Positive Philter Podcast Links: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6yr4WIxoB6qgdgU0n5cxBt?si=ae8daf52a5af4a09
GMU Podcast Links: GMU Podcast Directory Form: https://forms.office.com/r/sLn6Xhs9NBm Podcast Club at George Mason RSO Join Link (students only): https://mason360.gmu.edu/PodcastClubGeorgeMason/club_signup
Other: HigherEd PodCon Website: https://www.higheredpodcon.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rachel (00:08):
Hello and welcome to the Keystone Concepts and Teaching
podcast.
I'm your host Rachel Yoho, andI'm very excited as we continue
to bring you episodes aboutevidence-based teaching
practices to have two gueststoday from different areas, and
we're going to be digging intopodcasts.
So a podcast episode aboutpodcasts, if you will.
(00:29):
And so with that I guess we'lljust jump right in.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
If you wouldn't mind starting usoff with just maybe a brief
introduction about yourself?
Leigh (00:39):
Sure.
So, hello.
Thank you so much for having uson your podcast.
My name is Leigh McCue.
I'm Chair of the Department ofMechanical Engineering at George
Mason.
Have a podcast called the MasonMechanical Engineer.
In my research emphasis thesedays personally is really on
maritime robotics.
But that podcast I mentioned,Philip Wilkerson, who is also
here with us, co-hosts it withme.
Philip (01:00):
Yeah.
My name is Philip Wilkerson.
I work at George Mason CareerServices as an Employer
Engagement Consultant.
Also a proud Mason alum.
And so with that being said, I'min multiple spaces.
I also co-host the podcast,Mason Mechanical, but also I've
been podcasting on my ownindependently for fun with a
podcast called Positive Philterwhich has allowed me to connect
(01:21):
with so many people aroundvarious spaces around George
Mason University.
So just using podcasts in mypersonal life and also
connecting with great peoplelike Dr.
McCue in my role as an EmployerEngagement Consultant to elevate
careers.
Rachel (01:37):
Yeah.
That's great.
Thank you so much.
And thank you both for joiningus.
And so I think that, you know,Philip, your introduction there
really leads us in quite well towhat we want to talk about in
this episode because we reallywanna talk about engagement and
specifically podcasting as amedium for communication.
So whether that might be inhigher education broadly, or
(02:00):
even perhaps, maybe in aspecific course.
So can you tell us a little bit,as you've been developing these
both personally orprofessionally, and especially
related to your work in highereducation.
So can you tell us a little bitabout your perspectives or
strategies about podcasting andalso about engaging students?
Philip (02:21):
Yeah, so I forgot to mention I got like multiple
hats.
I probably could have done likea five minute intro.
I'm also a PhD student myselfand getting a PhD in
Communication.
And so I think it's perfectalignment in regards to how we
explore different modalities oflearning.
Not everyone that learns is avisual learner.
I've learned over time that I ama audio learner, and that, for
(02:45):
me, listening to books on tapeor podcast have been great ways
that I've not only shared what Iwant to, you know, share, but
also for me personally, how Iwanna learn.
And so I think that in regardsto the student experience, as a
student myself, I subscribe to alot of podcasts on topics that
I'm interested in to learn as aworking professional.
(03:05):
I use podcasts to learn aboutwhat's going on in higher ed.
As a adult, sometimes I listento the podcasts of young people
and students to see how they'reliving and navigating their
lives.
And so I think for me, justhaving those different touch
points, allows me to learn.
But I think also additionally,for the student experience, I
(03:25):
think this also gives'em anopportunity if they're their own
podcast creators, to not onlyshare their voice, but also to
practice the things that we'reteaching in our classrooms.
If they're a student that is incommunication, what better way
to practice communication thanby hosting your own podcast?
So I always encourage studentsif I meet them, to listen to
(03:47):
podcasts that are of interest toyou, but also create topical
areas of things that you wannashare with the world in a
learning aspect.
So I think it's just a 360 modelthat podcasts can benefit the
student experience, in regardsto engagement.
Leigh (04:04):
And I would riff off that and just say, you know, in my
mind, the department podcastthat we have really was designed
both to expose students toopportunities and resources, but
also showcase student drivenopportunities and successes.
So the example I give all thetime, I actually first podcasted
with Philip Wilkerson when hewas a guest on the podcast.
He and Ann Garner, hiscolleague, came on our podcast
(04:25):
in order to talk about careerservices.
We're trying to put out anepisode for students so that
they could, you know, listen attheir own convenience and
understand what career servicescan do to support mechanical
engineering students.
And it remains our most listenedto episode.
So, you know, we said there'ssomething here.
There's really a nugget here interms of being able to pull this
career services thread.
So often now, Phil doesn'tco-host every episode, but
(04:48):
whenever he co-hosts, it's verymuch to showcase employers and
career pathways for mechanicalengineers and really being able
to pull that thread.
I'd say that the flip on that iswe also try to really showcase
the students.
So we had an episode once wherewe interviewed a couple student
leaders on campus so they couldtalk about their RSOs, their
registered studentorganizations, and use it as a
(05:09):
way to try to recruit studentsto the RSOs and showcase the
opportunities that students areproviding to other students.
And every year we do an episodeat our annual Capstone Day.
Mechanical engineering seniorsdo this big two semester design
build project as theirculminating experience of their
undergrad curriculum.
So every year we do an episodewhere I interview a bunch of
(05:30):
those students just to reallylike hype what they have done,
celebrate their accomplishments.
We talk about where they'regoing to in the workforce or
grad school or what have you.
And it's, you know, again, justa really nice way to celebrate
the students.
So again, that 360 approach thatPhilip just mentioned, we can be
providing services to thestudents and then also using it
to showcase and celebrate thestudents.
Rachel (05:51):
Yeah, these are great points.
Thank you both for sharing.
I think, you know, obviouslythere we see a few really
important things about howpeople prefer to learn, how you
want to take in information, andalso how we communicate and even
just find who our audience is.
And so as we think about this, Ikind of wanna take our
conversation, expand it out alittle bit into higher education
(06:13):
broadly.
Certainly we have a teaching andlearning context.
So we might be thinking aboutpodcasts as an opportunity
especially if we take auniversal design for learning
approach.
You know, if we're thinkingcritically in our classes and
how we're teaching about eitherhow students are taking in
information or how students aredemonstrating their learning.
One of those ways, maybe they'relistening to an episode of a
(06:34):
podcast for some of theirlearning, like you were
mentioning, Philip, you know,having that be a content area to
learn something even courserelated, or maybe they have an
option as an assignment toproduce an episode of a podcast
which producing, as I'm sureKelly would also agree here, our
podcast producer, it's a lot ofwork.
But with that, we might bethinking about how students
(06:56):
would use that as a differenttype of communication strategy
to demonstrate their learning.
As long as we put some bounds onperhaps the duration of that
episode.
But let's expand this out alittle bit more into, what does
this look like for highereducation?
I know we were talking justbriefly about the Mason
Mechanical Engineer being sortof that highlighting and
communication for maybeprospective students, current
(07:19):
students, but what else doesthis look like to each of you
for higher education?
Philip (07:25):
I think to be transparent, I think the
podcast, has an influence onevery stakeholder within the
higher ed experience.
So thinking about, there's abenefit at every aspect.
You know, if you're a student,there's a learning from other
people, producing, experientiallearning.
That's there, right.
From a faculty and staff memberthis is a great way to
supplement your curriculum.
(07:47):
You know, being able to providea different modality for your
learning and what you want toteach.
For an alum, this is a way thatalum always say they want to
give back to the university.
And you think about it, time,talent, and treasure.
They ain't got the money, youknow, to give out the treasure,
but they can give back theirintellectual capital and share
their story and share, you know,it's almost like virtual
(08:08):
mentorship.
Like they're getting to gettheir voice out there.
And then other stakeholders, Icould just keep going.
I think there's an aspect whereif you think about this tool of
podcasting, it can serve afunction to every various
stakeholder across theuniversity in higher ed in
different aspects.
And thinking about it from likea marketing strategy, right?
(08:30):
We always think about likemarketing strategy, who's your
audience?
So I think everyone can identifytheir different various
audiences for their podcast.
What is their agenda?
Everyone can say, okay, mypodcast has a very direct agenda
of sharing how great GeorgeMason is so that we can get
enrollment.
That could be one.
Or, you know, departmental ones,you know, like CHSS is gonna
(08:51):
launch a podcast.
We want to show that thisCollege of Humanities and Social
Sciences has really good careeroutcomes and to display that
agenda of career outcomes.
We interview alum and the alumshare what they're doing.
Thus, it's going to be towardthat agenda.
And so I think we're seeing thatacross all sectors, across the
(09:13):
university of people usingpodcasting as a modality to
share their agenda.
And to reach the audience thatthey want.
And so I think before peoplesaid it, you said it earlier,
it's a lot of work that it'salmost like think about your
audience and your agenda beforeyou start producing.
And then it could, you know, hitall those different pockets in
(09:33):
higher ed and serve a function,accordingly.
Leigh (09:36):
I agree wholeheartedly.
And Philip had actuallysubmitted us for the Higher Ed
Pod Con that just happenedearlier in July in Chicago.
And it was really, really aninspiring conference to go to.
So it was a whole bunch ofpeople in academia who came
together to all talk about whatthey're doing in their academic
podcasts.
And there were people who wereusing theirs for alumni
(09:56):
engagement or public engagement,or student support, or having
student podcasts to nurture thestudent communication skills, or
research showcases.
Kind of all these things thatPhilip just mentioned that you
can do with a podcast.
And I think one of the otherunique opportunities, which I'm
biased'cause it was the sessionwe were in, but the session we
were in was showcasing crosscampus collaboration.
(10:16):
So just like this podcast, youknow, the Stearns Center, Career
Services, MechanicalEngineering, all coming together
on an episode.
I think the ability to reallyshowcase these sorts of
partnerships and they can looklike a lot of different things.
Giving a shout out to who weshared the stage with at that
Higher Ed Pod Con, we were withChristopher Perfect and Marcus
McWhirter at Austin CommunityCollege, who were looking at
(10:37):
communications and drama andtheater and how those pieces
come together and how you cansupport students in that way.
I feel like I'm a little bit allover the place, but I really
think that there's a lot to besaid for the breaking down these
academic silos and what you cando with the podcast to unite
people again, to deliver thebest experience and the best
opportunities to our students.
(10:59):
And I would like to believe thatPhilip and I are a nice example
of that.
I always joke with podcastguests when they come on our
podcast that they wanna be on anepisode that Phil is co-hosting
'cause he's way more charismaticthan me.
And so having that dynamic wherelike, I can kind of nerd out on
the technical side, but Philipis really great about saying,
you know, well, what does thismean?
What, like, how does this impactthe world?
(11:20):
It's a nice complimentaryperspective set.
Philip (11:23):
Yeah I just wanna tag onto that, like George Mason
University specifically is solarge, there's so much going on
and there's no way possible.
But I actually, as an employee,listen to the Access to
Excellence podcast by PresidentWashington.
And I listened to that and I'mlike, wow, there's so many
different professors here.
I don't even, I would never meetthese people and I learn all
(11:45):
these different things.
And so it's a great way for meto understand the nuances of
this very large system that is apublic R1 institution.
I think we also, there's agentleman that has a podcast and
I don't wanna mispronounce hisname, that has one about the
registrar, right?
And I'm like, I don't have, Idon't know nothing about no
registrar, but now I canunderstand the hidden curriculum
that's going on there.
(12:05):
And it just makes me feel moreinformed about what is going on
within our community here.
And so that gives me power inhigher ed and collaborative
power.
You don't know how many timesI've introduced myself to a
campus partner based on apodcast, say, Hey, I listened to
your podcast.
Now can I introduce myself?
(12:26):
I'm Phil Wilkerson.
It's a great conversationstarter and a great way to
understand new people and breakdown silos as we see.
You know, you could work atGeorge Mason and never meet
someone that worked there 20years.
Both of y'all worked there for20 years.
But for me, I felt like I'veconnected with so many people in
pockets of the university Iwould never talk to because of
(12:47):
this collaborative modality ofits podcasting.
So for me as an extrovert, it isthe greatest tool for connection
and collaboration.
Leigh (12:56):
And producer Kelly is making sure that we give the
right attribution.
So yeah, the registrar's oneDoug McKenna with his For the
Record podcast.
Rachel (13:05):
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, I think these are greatpoints.
I mean, we can think about notonly what podcasting can do in
each space, but like we weretalking about sort of those
strategies that go into this.
And so as we kind of dig intothis, I think the Mason
Mechanical Engineer podcast itgives us a great example to
really think about how do weconsider a podcast or if a
(13:28):
department, for instance, wantsto consider a podcast, you know,
what does this maybe do for ourstudents?
What does this do for any of ourother goals?
Or how do we balance the largeinvestment of time and effort
with some of the outcomes?
So can you talk a little bitabout the mechanical engineering
department and some of theconsiderations there for you and
(13:49):
for the department?
Leigh (13:51):
Yeah, absolutely.
So I would be remiss if I didn'tstart with thanking the Office
of Naval Research, who reallywere the ones who first gave us
the opportunity to do this.
So it was a little bit ofhistorical context.
The prior department chair wasOscar Barton.
He had an ONR grant with a fairamount of emphasis on STEM
outreach.
He left Mason to go be Dean ofEngineering at Morgan State, and
(14:12):
his grant from ONR remained atMason after he left.
So we inherited this grant, andthat STEM outreach component
right around when COVID-19 wasshutting face-to-face STEM
outreach down.
So when it became apparent thatit was gonna take a while for us
to get back to being able to doface-to-face outreach, reached
(14:32):
out to the ONR program officerand asked if he would be
comfortable with us launching apodcast as a way to try to meet
some of these STEM outreachgoals that the grant had.
And the program manager wasterrific.
He was totally on board.
He gave some good feedback andsuggestions for how to make the
idea better.
And so it was just really,really supportive and that's as
a department, how we got ourstart with it.
(14:53):
And in my opinion, it's provento be a valuable enough tool
that even though we are now backgoing to face-to-face STEM
outreach events and hosting STEMoutreach events, again, there's
kinda no reason not to keep thepodcast going.
We're at 35 episodes.
We've covered a huge range oftopics related to mechanical
engineering, whether it's again,the career services side,
(15:14):
workforce development.
We've talked leadership withleaders in industry and academia
and government.
We've talked about a wide rangeof technical disciplines, from
occupational safety to rust, toadvanced manufacturing, to
quantum science and engineering.
I feel like every episode I'mlearning something new, so I
hope that our listeners arelearning something new.
(15:35):
It just really is such a niceway to engage with our
constituents.
And the lift isn't that big.
I mean, we don't have theproduction value of some of the
really nice podcasts, but italso makes the lift relatively
reasonable.
So, and in terms of talking to aguest, it's a pretty reasonable
ask to them, you know, say, canyou spare half hour of your
time?
And we want you to talk aboutyou.
(15:57):
And people are normally prettywilling to hop on a Zoom call
and talk about, you know, thingsthat they're excited about for a
half hour.
But coming back, I think to theroot of your question of like,
how do you gauge this return oninvestment, I do look at metrics
like what are the age ranges ofour listenership and where are
they?
'Cause I feel like really theover overarching goal of this is
(16:17):
trying to bring in moremechanical engineers and
hopefully more mechanicalengineers to Mason.
So when I see listenership inthat like 18 to 20, 18 to 22
demographic, I think that's oneof the Spotify bars in their
assessment, that tells me thatthose are, you know, high
school, college age students whoare listening.
And so I get excited about that.
And it also will give you thegeographic breakdown in
(16:40):
recognizing that many Masonstudents, the majority of Mason
undergraduates are coming fromthe DMV area.
I get excited against when I seelisteners who are coming from
Virginia, DC, Maryland, WestVirginia,'cause I figured those
are people who are potentialMason students.
Rachel (16:55):
Yeah.
Absolutely, you'll be lessexcited about my age range
showing up in your listeners,but I'm there too.
Leigh (17:02):
I was also gonna say, maybe, you know the parents of
future students'cause, you know,the 14-year-old isn't
necessarily listening to ourpodcast, but their mom might be
and might hear it and say, oh,wow.
That sounds like a really coolcareer.
You should be thinking aboutthis as you're moving through
high school and thinking aboutmaybe taking AP Calc in your
(17:23):
senior year and thinking aboutcollege applications and so on.
Rachel (17:27):
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
So as we think about that,Philip, was there anything you
wanted to add for that one?
Based on your personal podcastas well.
When you think about, you know,like what are your goals or your
return, I mean, we might havelisteners who are thinking about
this for either personalinterests or even their
teaching.
Like for if they wanna amplifytheir research or their own
(17:48):
teaching strategies.
So what does that look like foryou?
Philip (17:52):
I mean, you know, first of all, I want to apologize if
you get that 40 plus.
That's me too, listening to theMason Mechanical Engineer.
I'll count as a student so youcan say I'm a student.
But I think one of the things Ithought about in regards to
podcast creation is that a lotof people think of this modality
as, you know, the top onepercenters of podcasters.
(18:12):
You know, this is a monetizedthing.
You get money and they look atdownload numbers and they get
very discouraged.
And I would say to people onlythe 1% of people are this very
top notch.
So if you're thinking aboutgoing into podcasting as a
revenue generating thing, I'msorry to disappoint you.
That's not in the cards foreverybody.
(18:32):
But I've always said this tocertain people that podcasting
is probably one of the bestsocial capital tools, like a
business card that they can be.
There's been many times wheredoors have opened to people that
would not probably gimme theirtime of day based on this
modality of podcasting, Hey, I'dlike to interview you people of
(18:54):
status, people of higher levelsof education and doors.
So I tell people to think ofthat when you're creating this
podcast is thinking about it isworth your value add if it
aligns with that building socialcapital and relationship
building.
On my own personal podcast, Ihad a Dean miniseries where I
got an opportunity to interviewvarious deans at George Mason.
(19:18):
Would they have given me theirtime of day?
I hope so.
I don't know.
But you know, I reached out.
You know, Dean Artis, DeanRosell, all these different
deans.
I was like, hi, I'm Philip.
I work at Mason, but I love tointerview about your academic
career.
And they took their time to doit real quick and I was like,
wow.
Like I learned from these deansand now they see me around
campus and they say, hi, Philip.
And just builds familiarity.
(19:39):
So telling those people as theybegin to not be discouraged your
first year or as you createthis, it's not going to.
Be the next greatest thing sincesliced bread.
It's a grind of consistency tocontinuously put out good
content to connect with people.
Rachel (19:55):
Yeah, that's a great point.
I think that really brings us toour keystone concept for today,
is really looking at ourcommunication strategies.
You know, here, like we weretalking about earlier, thinking
about our audience.
You know, that could becommunication, whether it's
podcasting or writing an articleor creating a video or whatever
the other strategy might be.
But obviously thinkingcritically about our audience
(20:17):
and what is our message toconnect with that audience.
Or like Philip, I think you weretalking about, you know, our
agenda there and how we usethese overall to build
connections, so I think that'sreally looking at our keystone
concept for today.
So with that, I'd like to openit up in case, are there other
things you'd like to share?
Other insights, tips,strategies, especially
(20:39):
considering the audience forthis podcast is mostly
educators, perhaps full-timeteaching faculty or or adjunct
teaching faculty.
Philip (20:49):
What I've learned through communication strategies
is that it's, you know, thiscontent is good, but then it's
really the post-productionstrategies to connect that
really yields it.
And what I mean by that is that,you know, you make sure that
these podcasts are included inlistservs or you have a
directory of top episodes thatyou want to encourage people to
(21:11):
listen to or series, oradditionally I think one of the
things, the strongest thing thatI've learned over time, and this
is, this is, uh, something thatmy late father-in-law told me
that I've always, always takento heart.
He was like, you're the host.
Ain't nobody here that listen toyou.
They wanna hear the guest.
Rachel (21:31):
True.
I, I feel that.
Philip (21:35):
My, my father-in-law told me that that is the part
where it's like your guests arethe best marketers or
ambassadors of this content.
And they share it with theirnetwork and they share it with
their people, and that connects,you know, new people to listen.
And so for me is one strategyI've done is every time I have a
listener, you know, someonelisten, I make sure it's easy.
(21:57):
Like, Hey, your podcast is live.
Here's all the links, here's thegraphic for you to share on your
network.
Please encourage people tolisten.
This is your episode, and I putthe onus on the guest to really
elevate that, and I've noticedthat the episodes that have the
higher downloads are the onesthat are, like, the guests are
more rah rah about it andgetting it out there and putting
(22:19):
in their various networks andchannels and has it on their
website and whatever.
So I really try to dive into mypost production promotional
strategies for podcasts.
So I would say that if it was astudent, you know, make sure
that you're elevating yourguest.
If it's a faculty member withthe students, making sure that
you elevate, you know, not onlyjust do a podcast, but you do
(22:39):
like a little writeup about thatstudent and their journey and
their story to make them feelelevated as a guest on that
podcast.
And then I think the last parttoo is that, like, I've seen it
be as a tool for classrooms, isthat make a list.
I wanna give a shout out to gilaKaufman in my office.
She teaches a college to careercourse specifically for
(23:03):
psychology majors.
And I didn't ask her to do this,but she took all the episodes
that had like something to dowith like psychology from my
podcast, and she made a list oflike, this episode, this is the
guest, this is their career, andmade it like a database.
And shares that with her course.
And so not every episode she'ssharing, but she's sharing the
(23:25):
ones that are relevant to herstudents and their career
journeys.
So shout out to her for that.
But I think it's really themoneymaker is in the
postproduction marketingstrategies for a podcast to
elevate it and get it to theappropriate audience that you
want to get to.
'cause some people, you know,build it and they come, some
people are not going to know.
You're gonna have to get it indifferent channels that will
(23:47):
reach them, you know, and theirmodalities.
Leigh (23:52):
I just wanna add for educators who might be listening
who are maybe excited aboutworking podcasts into their
pedagogy but don't know how, orare just like a little bit
nervous about that sort of firsthurdle to get over it.
One thing I learned at theHigher Ed Pod Con is I'm struck
by how many universities do havea community around podcasting.
And I think, you know, Philipdeserves credit for really being
(24:15):
a source of a lot of thatcommunity at Mason.
Um,
Rachel (24:18):
Yeah, definitely.
Leigh (24:20):
Anyone else listening to this who might be curious as to
how they get started, the MasonInnovation Exchange does have a
podcasting booth.
And Philip, do you wanna talkabout the podcasting club and
community that you've built upsome?
Philip (24:33):
Yeah, I mean, even when I just got to Mason, I like to
just, I'm extrovert, like meetpeople.
I would say, Hey, I got apodcast and shamelessly plug
myself.
But then I would learn that somany departments or students or
others had podcasts.
So I would like, every time Iheard a podcast and it had any
affiliation with Mason or alumor something, I say, Hey, I
wanna make a little podcastdirectory.
(24:53):
And I, you know, made a littleMicrosoft form and try to
collect,'cause we have so many,I mean, I say over under, but
I'm pretty sure if we have anextension of someone that's
connected to the Mason communityof some sort, we got like over a
hundred podcasts.
And I say that they don't haveto be long one, short ones, you
know, ones that are alreadydone.
They're not existing anymore,but we have a lot of creators
using this modality.
(25:14):
And, but then I realized there'sa lot of students that want to
use podcast, not necessarily,you know, in their curriculum,
but they just want a communityaround it.
So just recently we created aregistered student organization
entitled Podcast Club at GeorgeMason.
The faculty advisors, BuzzMcaldrin, he's an actual
(25:34):
communication specialist Ibelieve in the Schar School.
But then the group is a bunch ofstudents that aren't even like
comm majors.
They're all kinds of differentmajors that just want to do this
and curate content and grow.
And so I just think that, to Dr.
McCue's point, you know,building communities, this is
not a solo effort.
I don't think any podcasterwould say this is a solo effort.
(25:57):
And so building communities,building spaces, building hubs
of learning and doing, you know,tinkering and sharing ideas of
how techniques work is the bestway to grow as a podcaster.
And I, yeah, we are at a verygood space in higher ed because
we have all the tools available.
You know, we have studios oncampus.
(26:18):
I think we pride ourselves onaccess to excellence.
So like for those that arestarting, they don't have all
the bells and whistles, they canutilize, star labs, they can
utilize the MIX to actuallycreate their content, but have
the equipment to feel like theycan, you know, get better.
So I think we're in a goodspace, higher ed, and you know,
(26:38):
the libraries, all these things,the university space is just a
great place to tinker and learnlike, duh,'cause it's a higher
ed right?
To learn.
And so we already have thesesystems in place.
It's just a matter of theutilization of it and building
communities and buildingawareness that these tools
exist, these communities exist,and that there's people to
connect with here.
Rachel (27:01):
Yeah.
Well that's great.
Well, thank you both so much foryour time.
And again, shout out to yourpodcast as well.
We'll put all of the links inthe show notes also as well as
to some of the resources thatwe've just been mentioning.
So be sure to check out the shownotes as well.
So again, thank you both so muchfor your time.
I appreciate it.
I appreciate your joining us.
Leigh (27:22):
Thank you for the invitation.
Philip (27:24):
Thank you so much and, you know, keep podcasting your
podcast here at Stearns.
It's amazing and I've listenedto a lot of episodes and I feel
like once again, this is a greatopportunity to learn and be more
connected to this community.
So thank you.
Rachel (27:38):
Yeah.
Thank you so much and pleasecheck out our episodes.
We're posting every two weeks inthe fall and spring semesters,
so we have other great contentcoming up.
Lots of topics across differentdisciplines and areas and
bringing together people fromdifferent departments and
resources and offices as well.
So thank you so much and we lookforward to catching you in a
(28:00):
future episode.
Hello and welcome to the Keystone Concepts and Teaching
podcast.
I'm your host Rachel Yoho, andI'm very excited as we continue
to bring you episodes aboutevidence-based teaching
practices to have two gueststoday from different areas, and
we're going to be digging intopodcasts.
So a podcast episode aboutpodcasts, if you will.
(00:29):
And so with that I guess we'lljust jump right in.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
If you wouldn't mind starting usoff with just maybe a brief
introduction about yourself?
Leigh (00:39):
Sure.
So, hello.
Thank you so much for having uson your podcast.
My name is Leigh McCue.
I'm Chair of the Department ofMechanical Engineering at George
Mason.
Have a podcast called the MasonMechanical Engineer.
In my research emphasis thesedays personally is really on
maritime robotics.
But that podcast I mentioned,Philip Wilkerson, who is also
here with us, co-hosts it withme.
Philip (01:00):
Yeah.
My name is Philip Wilkerson.
I work at George Mason CareerServices as an Employer
Engagement Consultant.
Also a proud Mason alum.
And so with that being said, I'min multiple spaces.
I also co-host the podcast,Mason Mechanical, but also I've
been podcasting on my ownindependently for fun with a
podcast called Positive Philterwhich has allowed me to connect
(01:21):
with so many people aroundvarious spaces around George
Mason University.
So just using podcasts in mypersonal life and also
connecting with great peoplelike Dr.
McCue in my role as an EmployerEngagement Consultant to elevate
careers.
Rachel (01:37):
Yeah.
That's great.
Thank you so much.
And thank you both for joiningus.
And so I think that, you know,Philip, your introduction there
really leads us in quite well towhat we want to talk about in
this episode because we reallywanna talk about engagement and
specifically podcasting as amedium for communication.
So whether that might be inhigher education broadly, or
(02:00):
even perhaps, maybe in aspecific course.
So can you tell us a little bit,as you've been developing these
both personally orprofessionally, and especially
related to your work in highereducation.
So can you tell us a little bitabout your perspectives or
strategies about podcasting andalso about engaging students?
Philip (02:21):
Yeah, so I forgot to mention I got like multiple
hats.
I probably could have done likea five minute intro.
I'm also a PhD student myselfand getting a PhD in
Communication.
And so I think it's perfectalignment in regards to how we
explore different modalities oflearning.
Not everyone that learns is avisual learner.
I've learned over time that I ama audio learner, and that, for
(02:45):
me, listening to books on tapeor podcast have been great ways
that I've not only shared what Iwant to, you know, share, but
also for me personally, how Iwanna learn.
And so I think that in regardsto the student experience, as a
student myself, I subscribe to alot of podcasts on topics that
I'm interested in to learn as aworking professional.
(03:05):
I use podcasts to learn aboutwhat's going on in higher ed.
As a adult, sometimes I listento the podcasts of young people
and students to see how they'reliving and navigating their
lives.
And so I think for me, justhaving those different touch
points, allows me to learn.
But I think also additionally,for the student experience, I
(03:25):
think this also gives'em anopportunity if they're their own
podcast creators, to not onlyshare their voice, but also to
practice the things that we'reteaching in our classrooms.
If they're a student that is incommunication, what better way
to practice communication thanby hosting your own podcast?
So I always encourage studentsif I meet them, to listen to
(03:47):
podcasts that are of interest toyou, but also create topical
areas of things that you wannashare with the world in a
learning aspect.
So I think it's just a 360 modelthat podcasts can benefit the
student experience, in regardsto engagement.
Leigh (04:04):
And I would riff off that and just say, you know, in my
mind, the department podcastthat we have really was designed
both to expose students toopportunities and resources, but
also showcase student drivenopportunities and successes.
So the example I give all thetime, I actually first podcasted
with Philip Wilkerson when hewas a guest on the podcast.
He and Ann Garner, hiscolleague, came on our podcast
(04:25):
in order to talk about careerservices.
We're trying to put out anepisode for students so that
they could, you know, listen attheir own convenience and
understand what career servicescan do to support mechanical
engineering students.
And it remains our most listenedto episode.
So, you know, we said there'ssomething here.
There's really a nugget here interms of being able to pull this
career services thread.
So often now, Phil doesn'tco-host every episode, but
(04:48):
whenever he co-hosts, it's verymuch to showcase employers and
career pathways for mechanicalengineers and really being able
to pull that thread.
I'd say that the flip on that iswe also try to really showcase
the students.
So we had an episode once wherewe interviewed a couple student
leaders on campus so they couldtalk about their RSOs, their
registered studentorganizations, and use it as a
(05:09):
way to try to recruit studentsto the RSOs and showcase the
opportunities that students areproviding to other students.
And every year we do an episodeat our annual Capstone Day.
Mechanical engineering seniorsdo this big two semester design
build project as theirculminating experience of their
undergrad curriculum.
So every year we do an episodewhere I interview a bunch of
(05:30):
those students just to reallylike hype what they have done,
celebrate their accomplishments.
We talk about where they'regoing to in the workforce or
grad school or what have you.
And it's, you know, again, justa really nice way to celebrate
the students.
So again, that 360 approach thatPhilip just mentioned, we can be
providing services to thestudents and then also using it
to showcase and celebrate thestudents.
Rachel (05:51):
Yeah, these are great points.
Thank you both for sharing.
I think, you know, obviouslythere we see a few really
important things about howpeople prefer to learn, how you
want to take in information, andalso how we communicate and even
just find who our audience is.
And so as we think about this, Ikind of wanna take our
conversation, expand it out alittle bit into higher education
(06:13):
broadly.
Certainly we have a teaching andlearning context.
So we might be thinking aboutpodcasts as an opportunity
especially if we take auniversal design for learning
approach.
You know, if we're thinkingcritically in our classes and
how we're teaching about eitherhow students are taking in
information or how students aredemonstrating their learning.
One of those ways, maybe they'relistening to an episode of a
(06:34):
podcast for some of theirlearning, like you were
mentioning, Philip, you know,having that be a content area to
learn something even courserelated, or maybe they have an
option as an assignment toproduce an episode of a podcast
which producing, as I'm sureKelly would also agree here, our
podcast producer, it's a lot ofwork.
But with that, we might bethinking about how students
(06:56):
would use that as a differenttype of communication strategy
to demonstrate their learning.
As long as we put some bounds onperhaps the duration of that
episode.
But let's expand this out alittle bit more into, what does
this look like for highereducation?
I know we were talking justbriefly about the Mason
Mechanical Engineer being sortof that highlighting and
communication for maybeprospective students, current
(07:19):
students, but what else doesthis look like to each of you
for higher education?
Philip (07:25):
I think to be transparent, I think the
podcast, has an influence onevery stakeholder within the
higher ed experience.
So thinking about, there's abenefit at every aspect.
You know, if you're a student,there's a learning from other
people, producing, experientiallearning.
That's there, right.
From a faculty and staff memberthis is a great way to
supplement your curriculum.
(07:47):
You know, being able to providea different modality for your
learning and what you want toteach.
For an alum, this is a way thatalum always say they want to
give back to the university.
And you think about it, time,talent, and treasure.
They ain't got the money, youknow, to give out the treasure,
but they can give back theirintellectual capital and share
their story and share, you know,it's almost like virtual
(08:08):
mentorship.
Like they're getting to gettheir voice out there.
And then other stakeholders, Icould just keep going.
I think there's an aspect whereif you think about this tool of
podcasting, it can serve afunction to every various
stakeholder across theuniversity in higher ed in
different aspects.
And thinking about it from likea marketing strategy, right?
(08:30):
We always think about likemarketing strategy, who's your
audience?
So I think everyone can identifytheir different various
audiences for their podcast.
What is their agenda?
Everyone can say, okay, mypodcast has a very direct agenda
of sharing how great GeorgeMason is so that we can get
enrollment.
That could be one.
Or, you know, departmental ones,you know, like CHSS is gonna
(08:51):
launch a podcast.
We want to show that thisCollege of Humanities and Social
Sciences has really good careeroutcomes and to display that
agenda of career outcomes.
We interview alum and the alumshare what they're doing.
Thus, it's going to be towardthat agenda.
And so I think we're seeing thatacross all sectors, across the
(09:13):
university of people usingpodcasting as a modality to
share their agenda.
And to reach the audience thatthey want.
And so I think before peoplesaid it, you said it earlier,
it's a lot of work that it'salmost like think about your
audience and your agenda beforeyou start producing.
And then it could, you know, hitall those different pockets in
(09:33):
higher ed and serve a function,accordingly.
Leigh (09:36):
I agree wholeheartedly.
And Philip had actuallysubmitted us for the Higher Ed
Pod Con that just happenedearlier in July in Chicago.
And it was really, really aninspiring conference to go to.
So it was a whole bunch ofpeople in academia who came
together to all talk about whatthey're doing in their academic
podcasts.
And there were people who wereusing theirs for alumni
(09:56):
engagement or public engagement,or student support, or having
student podcasts to nurture thestudent communication skills, or
research showcases.
Kind of all these things thatPhilip just mentioned that you
can do with a podcast.
And I think one of the otherunique opportunities, which I'm
biased'cause it was the sessionwe were in, but the session we
were in was showcasing crosscampus collaboration.
(10:16):
So just like this podcast, youknow, the Stearns Center, Career
Services, MechanicalEngineering, all coming together
on an episode.
I think the ability to reallyshowcase these sorts of
partnerships and they can looklike a lot of different things.
Giving a shout out to who weshared the stage with at that
Higher Ed Pod Con, we were withChristopher Perfect and Marcus
McWhirter at Austin CommunityCollege, who were looking at
(10:37):
communications and drama andtheater and how those pieces
come together and how you cansupport students in that way.
I feel like I'm a little bit allover the place, but I really
think that there's a lot to besaid for the breaking down these
academic silos and what you cando with the podcast to unite
people again, to deliver thebest experience and the best
opportunities to our students.
(10:59):
And I would like to believe thatPhilip and I are a nice example
of that.
I always joke with podcastguests when they come on our
podcast that they wanna be on anepisode that Phil is co-hosting
'cause he's way more charismaticthan me.
And so having that dynamic wherelike, I can kind of nerd out on
the technical side, but Philipis really great about saying,
you know, well, what does thismean?
What, like, how does this impactthe world?
(11:20):
It's a nice complimentaryperspective set.
Philip (11:23):
Yeah I just wanna tag onto that, like George Mason
University specifically is solarge, there's so much going on
and there's no way possible.
But I actually, as an employee,listen to the Access to
Excellence podcast by PresidentWashington.
And I listened to that and I'mlike, wow, there's so many
different professors here.
I don't even, I would never meetthese people and I learn all
(11:45):
these different things.
And so it's a great way for meto understand the nuances of
this very large system that is apublic R1 institution.
I think we also, there's agentleman that has a podcast and
I don't wanna mispronounce hisname, that has one about the
registrar, right?
And I'm like, I don't have, Idon't know nothing about no
registrar, but now I canunderstand the hidden curriculum
that's going on there.
(12:05):
And it just makes me feel moreinformed about what is going on
within our community here.
And so that gives me power inhigher ed and collaborative
power.
You don't know how many timesI've introduced myself to a
campus partner based on apodcast, say, Hey, I listened to
your podcast.
Now can I introduce myself?
(12:26):
I'm Phil Wilkerson.
It's a great conversationstarter and a great way to
understand new people and breakdown silos as we see.
You know, you could work atGeorge Mason and never meet
someone that worked there 20years.
Both of y'all worked there for20 years.
But for me, I felt like I'veconnected with so many people in
pockets of the university Iwould never talk to because of
(12:47):
this collaborative modality ofits podcasting.
So for me as an extrovert, it isthe greatest tool for connection
and collaboration.
Leigh (12:56):
And producer Kelly is making sure that we give the
right attribution.
So yeah, the registrar's oneDoug McKenna with his For the
Record podcast.
Rachel (13:05):
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, I think these are greatpoints.
I mean, we can think about notonly what podcasting can do in
each space, but like we weretalking about sort of those
strategies that go into this.
And so as we kind of dig intothis, I think the Mason
Mechanical Engineer podcast itgives us a great example to
really think about how do weconsider a podcast or if a
(13:28):
department, for instance, wantsto consider a podcast, you know,
what does this maybe do for ourstudents?
What does this do for any of ourother goals?
Or how do we balance the largeinvestment of time and effort
with some of the outcomes?
So can you talk a little bitabout the mechanical engineering
department and some of theconsiderations there for you and
(13:49):
for the department?
Leigh (13:51):
Yeah, absolutely.
So I would be remiss if I didn'tstart with thanking the Office
of Naval Research, who reallywere the ones who first gave us
the opportunity to do this.
So it was a little bit ofhistorical context.
The prior department chair wasOscar Barton.
He had an ONR grant with a fairamount of emphasis on STEM
outreach.
He left Mason to go be Dean ofEngineering at Morgan State, and
(14:12):
his grant from ONR remained atMason after he left.
So we inherited this grant, andthat STEM outreach component
right around when COVID-19 wasshutting face-to-face STEM
outreach down.
So when it became apparent thatit was gonna take a while for us
to get back to being able to doface-to-face outreach, reached
(14:32):
out to the ONR program officerand asked if he would be
comfortable with us launching apodcast as a way to try to meet
some of these STEM outreachgoals that the grant had.
And the program manager wasterrific.
He was totally on board.
He gave some good feedback andsuggestions for how to make the
idea better.
And so it was just really,really supportive and that's as
a department, how we got ourstart with it.
(14:53):
And in my opinion, it's provento be a valuable enough tool
that even though we are now backgoing to face-to-face STEM
outreach events and hosting STEMoutreach events, again, there's
kinda no reason not to keep thepodcast going.
We're at 35 episodes.
We've covered a huge range oftopics related to mechanical
engineering, whether it's again,the career services side,
(15:14):
workforce development.
We've talked leadership withleaders in industry and academia
and government.
We've talked about a wide rangeof technical disciplines, from
occupational safety to rust, toadvanced manufacturing, to
quantum science and engineering.
I feel like every episode I'mlearning something new, so I
hope that our listeners arelearning something new.
(15:35):
It just really is such a niceway to engage with our
constituents.
And the lift isn't that big.
I mean, we don't have theproduction value of some of the
really nice podcasts, but italso makes the lift relatively
reasonable.
So, and in terms of talking to aguest, it's a pretty reasonable
ask to them, you know, say, canyou spare half hour of your
time?
And we want you to talk aboutyou.
(15:57):
And people are normally prettywilling to hop on a Zoom call
and talk about, you know, thingsthat they're excited about for a
half hour.
But coming back, I think to theroot of your question of like,
how do you gauge this return oninvestment, I do look at metrics
like what are the age ranges ofour listenership and where are
they?
'Cause I feel like really theover overarching goal of this is
(16:17):
trying to bring in moremechanical engineers and
hopefully more mechanicalengineers to Mason.
So when I see listenership inthat like 18 to 20, 18 to 22
demographic, I think that's oneof the Spotify bars in their
assessment, that tells me thatthose are, you know, high
school, college age students whoare listening.
And so I get excited about that.
And it also will give you thegeographic breakdown in
(16:40):
recognizing that many Masonstudents, the majority of Mason
undergraduates are coming fromthe DMV area.
I get excited against when I seelisteners who are coming from
Virginia, DC, Maryland, WestVirginia,'cause I figured those
are people who are potentialMason students.
Rachel (16:55):
Yeah.
Absolutely, you'll be lessexcited about my age range
showing up in your listeners,but I'm there too.
Leigh (17:02):
I was also gonna say, maybe, you know the parents of
future students'cause, you know,the 14-year-old isn't
necessarily listening to ourpodcast, but their mom might be
and might hear it and say, oh,wow.
That sounds like a really coolcareer.
You should be thinking aboutthis as you're moving through
high school and thinking aboutmaybe taking AP Calc in your
(17:23):
senior year and thinking aboutcollege applications and so on.
Rachel (17:27):
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
So as we think about that,Philip, was there anything you
wanted to add for that one?
Based on your personal podcastas well.
When you think about, you know,like what are your goals or your
return, I mean, we might havelisteners who are thinking about
this for either personalinterests or even their
teaching.
Like for if they wanna amplifytheir research or their own
(17:48):
teaching strategies.
So what does that look like foryou?
Philip (17:52):
I mean, you know, first of all, I want to apologize if
you get that 40 plus.
That's me too, listening to theMason Mechanical Engineer.
I'll count as a student so youcan say I'm a student.
But I think one of the things Ithought about in regards to
podcast creation is that a lotof people think of this modality
as, you know, the top onepercenters of podcasters.
(18:12):
You know, this is a monetizedthing.
You get money and they look atdownload numbers and they get
very discouraged.
And I would say to people onlythe 1% of people are this very
top notch.
So if you're thinking aboutgoing into podcasting as a
revenue generating thing, I'msorry to disappoint you.
That's not in the cards foreverybody.
(18:32):
But I've always said this tocertain people that podcasting
is probably one of the bestsocial capital tools, like a
business card that they can be.
There's been many times wheredoors have opened to people that
would not probably gimme theirtime of day based on this
modality of podcasting, Hey, I'dlike to interview you people of
(18:54):
status, people of higher levelsof education and doors.
So I tell people to think ofthat when you're creating this
podcast is thinking about it isworth your value add if it
aligns with that building socialcapital and relationship
building.
On my own personal podcast, Ihad a Dean miniseries where I
got an opportunity to interviewvarious deans at George Mason.
(19:18):
Would they have given me theirtime of day?
I hope so.
I don't know.
But you know, I reached out.
You know, Dean Artis, DeanRosell, all these different
deans.
I was like, hi, I'm Philip.
I work at Mason, but I love tointerview about your academic
career.
And they took their time to doit real quick and I was like,
wow.
Like I learned from these deansand now they see me around
campus and they say, hi, Philip.
And just builds familiarity.
(19:39):
So telling those people as theybegin to not be discouraged your
first year or as you createthis, it's not going to.
Be the next greatest thing sincesliced bread.
It's a grind of consistency tocontinuously put out good
content to connect with people.
Rachel (19:55):
Yeah, that's a great point.
I think that really brings us toour keystone concept for today,
is really looking at ourcommunication strategies.
You know, here, like we weretalking about earlier, thinking
about our audience.
You know, that could becommunication, whether it's
podcasting or writing an articleor creating a video or whatever
the other strategy might be.
But obviously thinkingcritically about our audience
(20:17):
and what is our message toconnect with that audience.
Or like Philip, I think you weretalking about, you know, our
agenda there and how we usethese overall to build
connections, so I think that'sreally looking at our keystone
concept for today.
So with that, I'd like to openit up in case, are there other
things you'd like to share?
Other insights, tips,strategies, especially
(20:39):
considering the audience forthis podcast is mostly
educators, perhaps full-timeteaching faculty or or adjunct
teaching faculty.
Philip (20:49):
What I've learned through communication strategies
is that it's, you know, thiscontent is good, but then it's
really the post-productionstrategies to connect that
really yields it.
And what I mean by that is that,you know, you make sure that
these podcasts are included inlistservs or you have a
directory of top episodes thatyou want to encourage people to
(21:11):
listen to or series, oradditionally I think one of the
things, the strongest thing thatI've learned over time, and this
is, this is, uh, something thatmy late father-in-law told me
that I've always, always takento heart.
He was like, you're the host.
Ain't nobody here that listen toyou.
They wanna hear the guest.
Rachel (21:31):
True.
I, I feel that.
Philip (21:35):
My, my father-in-law told me that that is the part
where it's like your guests arethe best marketers or
ambassadors of this content.
And they share it with theirnetwork and they share it with
their people, and that connects,you know, new people to listen.
And so for me is one strategyI've done is every time I have a
listener, you know, someonelisten, I make sure it's easy.
(21:57):
Like, Hey, your podcast is live.
Here's all the links, here's thegraphic for you to share on your
network.
Please encourage people tolisten.
This is your episode, and I putthe onus on the guest to really
elevate that, and I've noticedthat the episodes that have the
higher downloads are the onesthat are, like, the guests are
more rah rah about it andgetting it out there and putting
(22:19):
in their various networks andchannels and has it on their
website and whatever.
So I really try to dive into mypost production promotional
strategies for podcasts.
So I would say that if it was astudent, you know, make sure
that you're elevating yourguest.
If it's a faculty member withthe students, making sure that
you elevate, you know, not onlyjust do a podcast, but you do
(22:39):
like a little writeup about thatstudent and their journey and
their story to make them feelelevated as a guest on that
podcast.
And then I think the last parttoo is that, like, I've seen it
be as a tool for classrooms, isthat make a list.
I wanna give a shout out to gilaKaufman in my office.
She teaches a college to careercourse specifically for
(23:03):
psychology majors.
And I didn't ask her to do this,but she took all the episodes
that had like something to dowith like psychology from my
podcast, and she made a list oflike, this episode, this is the
guest, this is their career, andmade it like a database.
And shares that with her course.
And so not every episode she'ssharing, but she's sharing the
(23:25):
ones that are relevant to herstudents and their career
journeys.
So shout out to her for that.
But I think it's really themoneymaker is in the
postproduction marketingstrategies for a podcast to
elevate it and get it to theappropriate audience that you
want to get to.
'cause some people, you know,build it and they come, some
people are not going to know.
You're gonna have to get it indifferent channels that will
(23:47):
reach them, you know, and theirmodalities.
Leigh (23:52):
I just wanna add for educators who might be listening
who are maybe excited aboutworking podcasts into their
pedagogy but don't know how, orare just like a little bit
nervous about that sort of firsthurdle to get over it.
One thing I learned at theHigher Ed Pod Con is I'm struck
by how many universities do havea community around podcasting.
And I think, you know, Philipdeserves credit for really being
(24:15):
a source of a lot of thatcommunity at Mason.
Um,
Rachel (24:18):
Yeah, definitely.
Leigh (24:20):
Anyone else listening to this who might be curious as to
how they get started, the MasonInnovation Exchange does have a
podcasting booth.
And Philip, do you wanna talkabout the podcasting club and
community that you've built upsome?
Philip (24:33):
Yeah, I mean, even when I just got to Mason, I like to
just, I'm extrovert, like meetpeople.
I would say, Hey, I got apodcast and shamelessly plug
myself.
But then I would learn that somany departments or students or
others had podcasts.
So I would like, every time Iheard a podcast and it had any
affiliation with Mason or alumor something, I say, Hey, I
wanna make a little podcastdirectory.
(24:53):
And I, you know, made a littleMicrosoft form and try to
collect,'cause we have so many,I mean, I say over under, but
I'm pretty sure if we have anextension of someone that's
connected to the Mason communityof some sort, we got like over a
hundred podcasts.
And I say that they don't haveto be long one, short ones, you
know, ones that are alreadydone.
They're not existing anymore,but we have a lot of creators
using this modality.
(25:14):
And, but then I realized there'sa lot of students that want to
use podcast, not necessarily,you know, in their curriculum,
but they just want a communityaround it.
So just recently we created aregistered student organization
entitled Podcast Club at GeorgeMason.
The faculty advisors, BuzzMcaldrin, he's an actual
(25:34):
communication specialist Ibelieve in the Schar School.
But then the group is a bunch ofstudents that aren't even like
comm majors.
They're all kinds of differentmajors that just want to do this
and curate content and grow.
And so I just think that, to Dr.
McCue's point, you know,building communities, this is
not a solo effort.
I don't think any podcasterwould say this is a solo effort.
(25:57):
And so building communities,building spaces, building hubs
of learning and doing, you know,tinkering and sharing ideas of
how techniques work is the bestway to grow as a podcaster.
And I, yeah, we are at a verygood space in higher ed because
we have all the tools available.
You know, we have studios oncampus.
(26:18):
I think we pride ourselves onaccess to excellence.
So like for those that arestarting, they don't have all
the bells and whistles, they canutilize, star labs, they can
utilize the MIX to actuallycreate their content, but have
the equipment to feel like theycan, you know, get better.
So I think we're in a goodspace, higher ed, and you know,
(26:38):
the libraries, all these things,the university space is just a
great place to tinker and learnlike, duh,'cause it's a higher
ed right?
To learn.
And so we already have thesesystems in place.
It's just a matter of theutilization of it and building
communities and buildingawareness that these tools
exist, these communities exist,and that there's people to
connect with here.
Rachel (27:01):
Yeah.
Well that's great.
Well, thank you both so much foryour time.
And again, shout out to yourpodcast as well.
We'll put all of the links inthe show notes also as well as
to some of the resources thatwe've just been mentioning.
So be sure to check out the shownotes as well.
So again, thank you both so muchfor your time.
I appreciate it.
I appreciate your joining us.
Leigh (27:22):
Thank you for the invitation.
Philip (27:24):
Thank you so much and, you know, keep podcasting your
podcast here at Stearns.
It's amazing and I've listenedto a lot of episodes and I feel
like once again, this is a greatopportunity to learn and be more
connected to this community.
So thank you.
Rachel (27:38):
Yeah.
Thank you so much and pleasecheck out our episodes.
We're posting every two weeks inthe fall and spring semesters,
so we have other great contentcoming up.
Lots of topics across differentdisciplines and areas and
bringing together people fromdifferent departments and
resources and offices as well.
So thank you so much and we lookforward to catching you in a
(28:00):
future episode.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.