Xeno Podcast, hosted by Jackson Grubbe and Carly Stone, English major seniors, invite students and professors to join them and share their knowledge and interests. Stone, from Arizona, shared how her partnership with Grubbe, from Oregon, is like the “Yin and Yang,” and they work together to reach their goals, which are to make the podcast fun and educational.
The hosts said they welcome both professors and students who can come with research and things they are passionate about. Grubbe explained the purpose of the Podcast. “The point is to expand people’s critical thinking ability, teach them something, and to be interesting.”
Dean and College of Arts and Humanities, Dr. Phillip McArthur, shared how the podcast created a positive conversation exchange between faculty and students and why it’s important. “I believe most of the learning takes place outside of the classroom.
“The students engage with each other and the students engage with faculty with the new knowledge and the possibilities. To me, what they have done is just expanding the classroom and taking the learning experience beyond.”
When asked of their personalities, Stone explained, “Jackson is more analytical and fact-based, and he is really good at finding the research. I try to make it fun.”
According to them, each podcasting experience is eye-opening and impressive, and they have improved themselves from time to time. Instead of being too scripted, they said they are now more adaptive to the situation and conversation, because “their answers would always deviate from the original questions we asked,” according to Grubbe.
Dr. McArthur shared, “They had some questions they wanted to ask, but they innovated the questions when they heard my responses. They weren’t held hostage to their own questions, but let it organically emerge. It was very pleasant.”
Grubbe also recalled how the podcast came to life, he laughed, “We were cleaning out our closet during down time in the Reading and Writing Center, and we found a binder of old newspaper articles from different magazines. One of them mentioned a Writing Center podcast and it made us think how we could make something about the Writing Center interesting.
“So we took it upon ourselves and tried to do something. Our focus is to highlight professors and students, and the things they are interested in, both their stories and their identities.”
Grubbe said, “Initially, there were just two of us talking. The Podcasts were just not that interesting and were too educational.”
Stone continued, “They were based on our Reading and Writing Center background. For example, we did one on people who are struggling with grammar and one on bibliotherapy. We talked about that and we asked ourselves, ‘What would make somebody want to listen to us?’ And that’s when we started to expand to professors.
“We have been really impressed and lucky to have the people be on the podcast with us, and they have been really interested and willing to do so.”
Marcus Martins, a religion professor, commented on his podcast experience on the topic of Mormon Modernity. “I enjoyed recording the podcast with Jackson and Carly. They were well-prepared to interview me and created a nice atmosphere for a delightful conversation.”
The partners said inviting people including those who are in the mainland, and scheduling can be challenging sometimes, but the challenges are outweighed by the positive feedback they have gotten.
“The biggest compliment I have ever gotten was ‘Your voice is so relaxing to listen to,’ said Stone. “It’s good, but at the same time I was surprised because I have never thought of my voice like that, and people told me Jackson knows how to ask really good questions. Those are the biggest compliments.”
Grubbe shared from his phone two comments that meant a lot to him, “One of them was from my cousin I haven’t talked to for 10 years. He said it with excitement and surprise, ‘I listened to your podcast yesterday. I really enjoyed it, and you guys were really good.’
“Another one was from this girl I used to work with, and I haven’t talked with her for three years. She said, ‘Hey, I listened to your podcast today at work. It was really good, and it definitely helped me out. Hope you are doing well.’”
The seniors shared how they have been so lucky to have a recording studio available for their use on campus, as well as other resources. Besides setting a procedure and making a list of what to do before they graduate, they are also working with new people to keep the podcast going.
They said they have organized their schedule on expanding and promoting, and are hoping for more people who are interested to come onto the podcast to contact them. Stone said, “The podcast is updated weekly on iTunes, but there is not a set date.
“We are trying to expose and promote the podcast as much as we can using either our Instagram or the one of the Reading and Writing Center, as well as using YouTube and Facebook. We also thought of working with the Communication Department, so students who are taking those classes can be involved in filming and recording.”
For more information on Xeno Podcast, visit:
https://www.facebook.com/Podcast/
https://www.instagram.com/xenopodcast/
Or email: podcastxeno@gmail.com
Writer: Vic Zhong