It’s your first day of kindergarten, one of the first memories you will have, and you’re beyond excited. You packed a lunchables –– pepperoni pizza, of course –– wore your favorite clothes and prayed that you would find friends. The first class is arts and crafts, right in your wheelhouse, and you could not be more excited. As you begin to cut out shapes in colored construction paper, you hear the room go silent and see a shadow fall over you. It’s your teacher, and she looks mildly amused.
“You’re doing an awful job of cutting out shapes,” she says, looking at you dead in your little kindergarten eyes.
This is a true story that someone told to Elizabeth Caldwell, senior English major, and it’s a story that she finds fascinating.
“To this day,” Caldwell told me, “everytime she picks up scissors to cut things out, she remembers what her kindergarten teacher said.”
This event stuck with a random woman (who is now in her mid-fifties) and changed her forever. Not exactly what we would deem “a tramautic event,” but it made quite an impression, and that’s why Caldwell liked it and wants to possibly tell stories just like that one on a podcast called –– name subject to change –– Unpacked.
Caldwell is one of many (eleven at my last count) Union students who hosts or co-hosts a podcast, a rather remarkable number for a campus of this size. While she is still in the early planning stages of Unpacked, Caldwell is currently a co-host on two other podcasts, Logorrhea –– the A&E podcast about movies, music, tv shows and more –– and Wing Tips –– a relationship advice column for the single person, the married couple and everybody in between. While it seems like she is a veteran of the podcasting world, in reality she only started last semester, the fall of 2018.
“I didn’t know if I would like it,” Caldwell said, talking about her first time on Logorrhea. “I couldn’t imagine just sitting there, talking about things.”
After a few episodes though, she was hooked and knew that she wanted to do more.
Elsewhere on campus, Ben Fuller, David Bowman and Nathan Van Neste felt as if there was a hole in the podcast world, one they wanted to fill.
“Brother is a really fun and pushing sort of podcast,” said Bowman. “It pushes you to make yourself better.”
Brother is a podcast for Christian men who want to grow, both as men and as people of faith. It’s Bowman’s first soiree into the podcast environment, and it has proved challenging in several ways.
“You don’t always have to say something about the topic,” he said. “But I kind of feel like I have to sometimes.”
I know what Bowman’s talking about, and I struggle with it too. Oftentimes while I’m hosting Logorrhea, I’ll realize that I haven’t said anything in a while and try to jump in with something, anything. It never goes well. One of the difficult things about podcasting is knowing when exactly you can and should jump in to a conversation. The best podcasts have this down pat, and Bowman says these top podcasts all follow a fairly specific formula: “If you’re able to do it with people you like, it’s something that you care about and you have chemistry with the other hosts, [it will be successful].”
Joel Holland is yet another Unionite podcast entrepreneur, starting Wing Tips with his roommate Seth Horton only this year.
“In the podcast, we’re not reaching conclusions, we’re having conversations,” he said.
The banter in an episode of Wing Tips is fast, funny and sensible, all a byproduct of the friendship that the three hosts have.
“It’s not abstract advice,” Holland said. “It’s grounded experience sharing… Getting you to think about where you stand, whether you’re single or not.”
Podcasting is unique as an art form. It’s certainly one of the newer forms of expression out there –– entertainment-wise –– and that allows for a lot of creative space. This gives every single one of the hosts hope for what they can do in the future, both in podcasts they currently have and in ones that are still in the beginning stages: one about a homicide detective cat with a pineapple hat and another about having conversations around the dinner table. If you ever want to learn, laugh or distract yourself from the world, check out one of the podcasts below and enjoy the art that Union students have made.
Mattanah DeWitt hosts This Same Purpose, a podcast where Mattanah helps other people discover what they are made for, helping them unlock their full potential. This Same Purpose can be found on iTunes.
David Bowman, Ben Fuller and Nathan Van Neste host Brother, a podcast focused on advice for men who hope to grow as men and Christians. You can listen to it on Soundcloud.
Clark Hubbard, Korey Adams, Katie Chappell and Liz Caldwell host Logorrhea, an arts and entertainment podcast focusing on what the hosts have been watching, reading and listening to the last week. You can listen to Logorrhea on the Cardinal and Cream website, and maybe someday on iTunes, if Korey ever figures that out.
Seth Horton and Michael Chapman host Layup Lines, a sports podcast for everything sports. Listen to it here.
Liz Caldwell, Joel Holland and Seth Horton host Wing Tips, a relationship advice podcast for people who are single, married and anywhere in between. It is available on iTunes.
