KSMU's Michele Skalicky talks with Steve Drummond, senior editor on the NPR Society and Culture Desk and Janet Woojeong Lee, producer on the Society and Culture team, about the NPR Senior Podcast Challenge.
Skalicky: NPR hosts podcast challenges for high school and college students. Why did you decide to offer a contest for those 65 and older?
Drummond: That's a great question. Over the years, we've heard from tens of thousands of students around the country, but some of the best ones have been when they interviewed their elders, a grandparent or a senior member of their community about their wartime experiences or their immigration journey to the United States or just their life and career experiences. And so, we know for a fact that people over 65 are the fastest growing population group in the United States. There are 60 million of them. And it's our theory that they have a lot of stories to tell, a lot of life experience, a lot of particular and unique issues we're dealing with. And so, we thought we'd open it up and see what we see, what they have to say.
Skalicky: And as someone who is a little bit older herself, I'm really excited about this. I know the younger podcast winners always have podcast challenge winners that always have interesting stories to tell, so I'm really excited to hear what those with years of lived experience have to say. What kind of stories are you looking for? Are there any particular topics or is it pretty much open?
Lee: I think we're really open to any kinds of stories that the entrants are excited about with our student contest. We always kept it open theme, and one thing we tell everyone is one, anyone can make a podcast. And two, we just want to hear about anything you're passionate about. We do have a couple of prompts that you can find on our website in case you could use some pointers. We are open to stories about new chapters, whether it be retirement, figuring out new health conditions and stories on new adventures, whether that be romance, new life experiences, going back to school, travel, kids, grandkids, moving, everything. We're also open to the possibility of great journalism, which we also get a ton of from our student contests. So, if you want to report on something that's happening in your community, maybe you have an investigation project that you've been working on for years that you've been wanting to share, yeah, we are all ears. And, you know, this is the first year we're doing this ever, so we also don't know what we're going to get. So, the possibilities really feel endless for the first one here.
Skalicky: Now, are you guys going to be choosing the winners?
Drummond: Yes. Well, we'll pick some judges. Basically, Janet and I and our team are going to listen to every single podcast we get with the Student Podcast challenge. That's a couple thousand a year, and it takes quite a while to listen to every single one. We've sort of screened them out and picked the best ones — a dozen or so. And then with the Senior Podcast challenge, we'll choose a panel of judges and we'll get them together. They'll listen to our finalists and they'll pick a winner. And the cool thing I should say is that we're trying something new this year. We're going to bring our winning entry with our winning podcaster to Washington, D.C. We'll bring them into NPR, into the studio on a Sunday, and they'll get to watch and listen as their winning podcast airs live on Weekend Edition Sunday.
Skalicky: Wow, that's so exciting, especially, you know, if this is someone who's been listening to NPR for years, what an exciting opportunity. Any other advice for those who want to enter? How do they get started?
Lee: That's a great question. I think one thing we want to tell all our entrants who might be intimidated by the tech aspects, the big mics, recording equipment, editing softwares, please, please, please don't worry. We tell everyone that all you need is a phone to record yourself using your phone mic and a laptop to edit on. And if you have no editing experience, please don't worry. We've had previous great entries from students and even winners who've never made a podcast before. And if you could use a little help, we have a really elaborate resources page called NPR Sound Advice, which you can find by searching NPR sound advice. And yeah, from the top to the bottom of the page, we'll walk you through everything from what should I make my podcast about? Is this a good story — to the very end of using music and fine tuning your podcast. So, we got you. And even after you go through all this, if you have questions, you can reach us. We'll be at SeniorPodcastChallenge@npr.org. Please feel free to send us an email if you have a question.
Skalicky: I love that this is an opportunity for those who've admired NPR's style for years to kind of be able to try this on their own but telling their own stories. I can't wait to hear what people come up with. So, there will be one winner. Will there be an opportunity to listen to any of the podcasts that aren't chosen?
Drummond: There sure will. Many of our finalists — each year we take about a dozen of the finalists and some of the honorable mentions, and we put them on the air. Some of them, they may not have won by our judges, but it doesn't mean they're not really good stories or really powerful stories, and we anticipate doing the same thing with some of our best senior podcasts. The other thing we'll do is we'll share them with our member stations. If we get some good ones from Missouri, we'll happily send them along, and you might want to talk to them — talk to these folks — or air the podcasts on your local station.
Skalicky: That'd be great, so I'm putting this out right now, any of you who are listening to this interview in the KSMU listening area, please enter this contest. I want to hear your stories, and I want to hear from you. How long do these podcasts need to be?
Lee: Great question. No more than 8 minutes. That's our time limit.
Skalicky: Ok. So, it's going to challenge people to take a meaningful story from their life and really condense it down to the most important parts it sounds like. Do you have any advice for how to do that? I mean, how do you take something that's so monumental, perhaps, and boil it down to an 8-minute podcast?
Drummond: Sure, we've thought and talked a lot about that, and a lot of stuff on our Sound Advice page talks about shaping your story and coming up with an idea and saying, 'ok. What's the focus here? What are the main points that we want to say? I think a lot of people find it really helpful to create an outline. It's a little bit about going back to high school and remembering English class with some of those same muscle memories apply there of kind of identifying what the story is about and coming up with maybe a few of the key points you want to make and writing up in a script. And the other thing that really help is, everybody we always say needs an editor, is to read it to someone — a friend, a family member, a son, a spouse and help them shape it and listen to it and edit it as it goes along. It's really kind of an iterative process, and we do it here at NPR all the time as we have someone else listen to our piece and say 'I don't like what you did there' or 'maybe you can focus there' or 'this part's a little confusing,' so, tons of information on our website about how to do that.
Skalicky: Yeah, it sounds like you've got a great resource page. When is the deadline for entering, and how does someone submit a podcast?
Lee: The deadline for entering is November 30. It's open now, so you will have roughly over three months to work on it and get started. And when you are ready you can find the submission form on our website, which is npr.org/seniorpodcastchallenge.
Skalicky: And I can see this as being something that maybe someone wants to share with their family. Thanksgiving's in November. The deadline's November 30, so I can see this as being something they might want to break out around the Thanksgiving dinner table.
Drummond: Yeah, sure, pull your phone out, hit the play button and let the family members enjoy it with their pumpkin pie or whatever.
