Last week, along with publishing the standard issue of The Acorn, the student-run newspaper released something new. Something that would give readers and now listeners alike a sneak peak into the articles coming out. Something completely new and collaborative: a podcast.
Inside the Acorn is a new podcast project that has come to life thanks to the hard work of Dr. Andrew Salvati’s MCOM 202 class. Each week, writers and editorial board members come together to discuss what they have been working on for the latest issue and what articles they are looking forward to reading as well.
When interviewed about said podcast, Dr. Salvati explained that, “I’ve been looking for an opportunity to do this with The Acorn…it is kind of my own interest in, number one journalistic nonfiction, and number two, trying to create more podcasts that have to do with student life and the student experience.” After getting the basis of how to get the podcast off the ground, Dr. Salvati and his co-faculty member, Dr. Blatter approached the editor-in-chief, Eva Esqueda (‘26), and together they started brainstorming ideas for the podcast.
Students in Dr. Salvati’s class played crucial roles in the making of the first episode and will continue to do so in future episodes. Halie Benway (‘28), the social media manager for the first episode, shared that, “I’ve never done podcasting before, so it was actually really nice to observe and to see how people answer questions, how you ask questions [and] the setting up of all the equipment.”
Benway’s classmate, Arya Patel (‘26), who was the episode’s assistant audio engineer, shared her insights into the podcast as well. “I would say a piece of advice for anyone going into podcasting is basically expect the unexpected, because when you’re starting something, you might not know what’s not going to work and what’s going to work,” said Patel.
Another MCOM 202 student, Alex Bernstein (‘27), the assistant editor for the episode, explained that, “I thought it was really interesting to be part of and it felt very professional in the setup [and] in the fact that we had all of these materials ahead of time.”
This podcast has not only provided insight into The Acorn’s inner workings, but it has also provided these students with the ability to work and learn together to truly hone in on the different aspects that go into creating a podcast. It gives them hands-on experience on how to edit audio or how to take promotional pictures for a project. Even those as student writers who were the ones being interviewed for the podcast were able to see what it is like to be the interviewee as people who usually are interviewing others for articles. Everyone who was a part of the process was able to take something valuable away from the first recording of this new collaborative project.
The next episode of Inside the Acorn is out now with our current edition and can be accessed on any podcast platform.
Katie Germinder is a junior majoring in environmental studies and sustainability, minoring in anthropology.
