The Students' Podcast
NPR
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Teachers and students, got something to say? Put on your headphones and get ready to hit record! The folks behind NPR's Student Podcast Challenge made this handy guide on how to make a podcast in the classroom. We'll talk about how to gather good sound, ask great questions and conduct smart interviews. Plus, we'll hear from the contest's judges, last year's winners and feature some pretty inspiring stories of students and teachers. It's everything you need to make an amazing podcast!
Available episodes
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Dec 19, 2021
Tough Topics Training
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.
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Dec 12, 2021
Investigation Nation
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."
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Dec 5, 2021
The Solution To Great Sound May Be In Your Back Pocket
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!
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Nov 21, 2021
How To Win The Student Podcast Challenge
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.
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Nov 14, 2021
How To Tell A Great Story
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.
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Nov 7, 2021
Warm-Up Time!
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.
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Oct 24, 2021
Superstar Teachers Of The SPC
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.
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Feb 15, 2021
Early College Entries We Love
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!
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Feb 7, 2021
Time To Talk Music
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.
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Jan 31, 2021
What IS the most beautiful sound?
*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.
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Jan 24, 2021
Time To Face The Music!
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.
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Jan 17, 2021
Sound Like A Pro Without All The Gear
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!
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Jan 10, 2021
Do You Want To Build A Pillowfort?
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.
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Jan 3, 2021
Let's Investigate!
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."
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Dec 27, 2020
Too Much Tape?
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.
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Dec 20, 2020
Need Some Emotional Support?
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.
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Dec 13, 2020
Interviewing 101
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.
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Dec 6, 2020
Boring Questions Means Boring Answers: Interview Tips From Students
If you want your podcast to be filled with amazing voices and emotional stories, you've got to nail your interviews! In this episode, the students of the CV19 Podcast explain how they leveled up to become expert interviewers.
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Nov 22, 2020
Storytelling Lessons From "Popo the Clown"
What makes you want to keep listening to a podcast? Most often, a really good story. But even once you have a good story you have to make sure you tell it well. In podcasting, we're lucky enough to have a script to guide us. Last year's finalists from St. Helena, Calif. told us a really good story in their podcast "Popo the Clown," so we wanted to hear how they did it.
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Jun 28, 2020
The Winners Of NPR's Student Podcast Challenge
Despite a global pandemic and nation-wide school closures, we received more than 2,300 podcast submissions for the 2020 NPR Student Podcast Challenge. This episode, meet the students behind the winning podcasts. Plus, what to look forward to next year.
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Mar 22, 2020
Early Entries We Loved: Our Favorite Student Podcasts So Far
We know, the world feels pretty crazy right now. Think of this podcast as a little break from all of that. This week, we're featuring a bunch of student podcasts that delighted us, made us laugh, inspired us and made us all feel more connected as humans.
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Mar 15, 2020
How To Turn Hours of Audio Recordings Into A Short Podcast
If you've spent hours recording interviews your podcast but now you feel like you're drowning in sound, don't worry — you are not alone! We've got some science-based techniques for picking the very best bits of audio for your podcast.
**Deadline Alert** The deadline for NPR's Student Podcast Challenge has been extended. Check our website, npr.org/studentpodcastchallenge for more information.
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Mar 8, 2020
The Art Of The Interview
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.
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Mar 1, 2020
When It Comes To School Assignments, There's A New Sheriff In Town: Podcasts
Teachers across the country are ditching the traditional idea of assigning research papers or book reports, and asking their students to make podcasts instead. It turns out, students are having fun and learning new skills at the same time.
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Feb 23, 2020
How To Make Music For Your Podcast
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, we invited composer Ramtin Arablouei back to show us how to make music without any fancy equipment.
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Feb 16, 2020
Everything You Need To Know About Using Music In Your Podcast
Music can be a powerful tool in storytelling. It can set an emotional backdrop or give a sense of rhythm and tone to a story. Music can be that final piece of the puzzle, the piece that ties everything together. But too often, music isn't used at the right time or place in the story – or the music is all wrong for the moment. Composer and podcast host Ramtin Arablouei shows us when to use music in your podcast.
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Feb 9, 2020
Finding Your Voice
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.
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Feb 2, 2020
The Surprising Secret To Great Sound
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 classroom.
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Jan 26, 2020
Follow The Rules And You Just Might Win The Student Podcast Challenge
The saying goes that rules are meant to be broken — well, not these rules. Actually, following the official rules of the Student Podcast Challenge is the only way to win. But rules can be complicated. So in this week's episode, we put together a guide with some important things you need to know about the contest. We'll also answer some of your questions and make sure you're on the right path.
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Jan 19, 2020
How To Make A Podcast According To Last Year's Winners
Podcasting is hard work. First you've gotta pick a topic, find a recording space and then, somehow, edit down the hours of audio! Last year's winners of the NPR Student Podcast Challenge had to learn all those things on the fly while making their podcast, "Ssh! Periods." Now, the ladies of Bronx Prep Middle School have some advice for students and teachers who are making a podcast for this year's challenge.
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Jan 10, 2020
Introducing the Student Podcast Challenge
Teachers and students, got something to say? Put on your headphones and get ready to hit record! The folks behind NPR's Student Podcast Challenge made this handy guide on how to make a podcast in the classroom. With new episodes every Sunday, we'll cover everything you need to make an amazing podcast!
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