Senior general studies major Zak Kelley said he decided to pursue podcasting as a new independent study after becoming interested in it as a medium for sharing other people’s stories. After exploring the idea, Kelley approached Jim Miller, director of the mass communication program, who agreed to oversee the independent study this semester to compliment Kelley’s focus on missions and photojournalism.
“When you experience something, you have options: You can hoard that experience to yourself and tell no one about it, or you can share it with everybody,” Kelley said. “I feel like we have responsibilities as missionaries, as people who experience things bigger than ourselves, to relay that experience somehow.”
Miller said he was excited to oversee Kelley’s independent study on podcasting.
“One of the things I love about higher education is that we’re all always learning, especially in the field of media,” Miller said. “Media change so rapidly today in our digital world that we need to experiment and learn about new ways of telling stories, new ways of reaching our audiences. In this case, I’m kind of learning with (Kelley), because podcasting is not something in my background.”
The theme of Kelley’s first podcast, which made its premiere Monday on SoundCloud, is “Lemonade: Making the Most of What Life Gives You.” The podcast features senior Holly Bohnett and sophomore Jessica Markwood as well as the song “Lemonade” by the Alaskan band, The Thneeds.
The Thneeds learned of Kelley’s podcast from a mutual friend and invited him to feature the band’s song. Kelley said he was unsure about featuring The Thneeds’ song in his podcast when the band first contacted him. But after realizing the band was offering to let him use it for free and the song fit perfectly with the theme, he took the offer.
“It’s really exciting when people can seek you out over something that hasn’t even started yet,” Kelley said. “They have no proof of who I am or what I’m creating, but it was just cool that they would stick their arm out and let me use their music.”
Kelley said he hopes the opportunity for people to share stories by podcast will help them realize how much their stories matter and encourage them to share more. For Markwood, understanding the importance of sharing stories partly came through sharing her own.
“Everybody has a story and everybody has just weird things that happen in their lives,” Markwood said. “A lot of the things that I share I never thought were interesting until someone asked me about them, and then we ended up connecting through that.”
Markwood also said she felt the podcasting medium is underestimated and expressed the desire for it to become more popular at Harding.
Kelley invites anyone who would like to share his or her story via podcast to contact him zkelley@harding.edu or via Facebook message.
You can listen to the podcast here.
