The Students' Podcast

This moving podcast – a finalist in NPR's College Podcast Challenge – is a love letter of sorts, from big sister to little sister. Trinity Chase Hunt, a junior at the University of Delaware, shares phone calls and reads out loud letters she's written to her sister, Jewel, who recently moved away to join the U.S. Army. In Dear Little Sister , Trinity reflects on her relationship with Jewel and how her sister's departure has, in ways, has brought them closer. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

Grand Prize winner of the 2023 NPR College Podcast Challenge In The Monsters We Create , Michael Vargas Arango, a student at Miami Dade College, describes what it's like to live with schizoaffective disorder. Using his own voice, interviews, and layers of sound design, Michael peels away the myths and stereotypes around his rare mental health condition. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

"Imagine how much more efficient your life could be if you knew exactly the fastest way to stir your coffee?" Robert Lakatosh, a sophomore at Tennessee Tech University, admits in his podcast that his discovery may not change lives. Yet, in his dynamic, humorous entry – a finalist in NPR's College Podcast Challenge – he goes all out, and takes his curiosity to the school's physics lab. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

In this week's episode of The Students' Podcast we talk with some of our high school finalists from last year who mastered the art of the respectful interview. Three students from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts created a non-narrated podcast about the human stories behind the gun violence epidemic in their hometown of Washington, DC. Interviewing family and friends, the students let the interviewees speak for themselves with little editing. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

Ever wonder if that local legend has some truth to it? At the Student Podcast Challenge we love to hear a good mystery, so pull out your magnifying glasses and start investigating! We talk with last year's finalist Daniel Wang about his 4 month investigation into a hometown history. He gives advice all about how he made his entry "How A Small Town Discovered The Universe." See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

Soundproofing and studios and microphones, oh my! When you listen to a professional podcast you can hear the difference. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to that kind of recording set up, but the thing is ... you don't need it. This week on The Students' Podcast we talked to Aaron and Alex Morgan about how they made their podcast sound so good. Their entry "Why Instagram Is Like A Cocaine-Laced Brownie" was one of our finalists last year and had some of the best production in the competition! See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

For this week's episode of The Students' Podcast we check in with maybe the most qualified person to discuss winning the Student Podcast Challenge ... last year's college champion, Anya Steinberg! Anya's podcast He's Just 23 Chromosomes blew the judges away with masterful storytelling, layered sound and humor. She was a natural choice to be our first ever guest co-host on the podcast! We talk tips and tricks, hacks for recording from home and techniques to telling a personal story. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

Are you ever SO excited to tell your friends a story that you kind of jumble the whole thing up? Like the substance is there, but if the delivery is off it just doesn't LAND as well. The same thing goes for podcasting. Even if we can hear in your voice that you're excited about something, if there's no structure or narrative to the piece it can be hard to hook an audience. This week on The Students' Podcast, we're revisiting an episode from last season where we talk to some of our high school finalists who managed to tell their story really well. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

You wouldn't play an instrument without practicing scales and you wouldn't play a basketball game without stretching – so why would you record a podcast without warming up your voice? NPR vocal coach Jessica Hansen has stretches, breathing exercises and vocal drills you can do to make sure that you sound natural when you press record. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

It's almost time for year FOUR of the Student Podcast Challenge. To celebrate we talked to some teachers who have been with us since the beginning. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

This week on The Students' Podcast, Elissa Nadworny, Lauren Migaki and Sequoia Carrillo run through some early entries they love. From interviewing kids about COVID, to high energy sports commentary, to marriage?? There's a lot to talk about! See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

In so many ways, music is emotion. Studies of the brain tell us that our minds react in different ways to the sound of music. So it's only natural that you'll want to take all that musical magic and sprinkle it over your podcast. Well, not so fast. Music — and composing it — can get really complicated, especially if you're going to enter NPR's Student Podcast Challenge. So, here's our guide to helping you put great music into your podcast, so that when you sit down at the keyboard to create that magic, you'll know the very specific rules that limit what you can and can't do. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

*Car door shuts, ignition revs, wheels turn on the pavement* Sound effects that transport you to a specific place are bread and butter for podcasts. But when does adding sound effects move a story along, and when do they merely confuse the listener? To explore this, we touched base with one of last year's Student Podcast Challenge finalists, Alex Soto. Her podcast, What Is The Most Beautiful Sound?, utilized over 10 sound effects. In the wrong hands, this could have been a hot mess, but in Alex's podcast, it totally worked. This week on The Students' Podcast, hear how Alex struck a balance between sound and interviews. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

Banjo or drum? Keyboard or cowbell? Once you've figured out where you want to add music to your podcast, you've got to decide WHAT kind of music fits with your story. Since the Student Podcast Challenge only allows music that is written and performed by students, it's time to learn some basic composing skills! This week on The Students' Podcast we talked to composer Ramtin Arablouei about how to make music without any fancy equipment. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

Soundproofing and studios and microphones, oh my! When you listen to a professional podcast you can hear the difference. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to that kind of recording set up, but the thing is ... you don't need it. This week on The Students' Podcast we talked to Aaron and Alex Morgan about how they made their podcast sound so good. Their entry "Why Instagram Is Like A Cocaine-Laced Brownie" was one of our finalists last year and had some of the best production in the competition! See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

You don't need a fancy studio to make a podcast. All you need are a few tricks — and a LOT of pillows — and no one will ever guess that you recorded in your bedroom. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

Ever wonder if that local legend has some truth to it? At the Student Podcast Challenge we love to hear a good mystery, so pull out your magnifying glasses and start investigating! We talk with last year's finalist Daniel Wang about his 4 month investigation into a hometown history. He gives advice all about how he made his entry " How A Small Town Discovered The Universe ." See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

Once you've finished the interview — there's still a lot of hard work ahead. Some questions work, some don't. Did the interview run too long? You'll have to cut it down. Remember, entries for the student podcast challenge must be eight minutes or less. So here are some great ideas for how to wade through ALL that audio. Today you'll learn how from Planet Money's Sarah Gonzalez how trim away all the extra stuff, and just leave the good parts in an episode from earlier this year. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

Some people love emotional conversations, some people avoid them. But for journalists and podcasters, they're part of the job. Sometimes you have to interview people about their saddest moments. It's hard, but if you can tell the story well, it means a lot: to them, and to your audience. Every year some of our best entries in the Student Podcast Challenge are moving, emotional narratives. For this week's episode of The Students' Podcast, Elissa Nadworny talked with Samuel Meneses—one of last year's finalists— who told the story of a tragic kayaking accident in his podcast Life and Death in the Amazon. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

What makes a good interview? For starters, asking good questions! But there's so much more to it than asking who, what, where, when and why. On this episode, the art of the interview. We'll cover how to prepare for an interview and give tips for asking good questions and telling good stories. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy