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VandyVoxEpisode 39 - "Human Bioenhancement: When Superhuman Becomes Ordinary" by Maya ReddyRunner-up in the Undergraduate Category of the Excellence in Podcasting CompetitionThe industrial revolution defined the 1800s and the green revolution defined the 1900s. Some experts believe that the genetic revolution will be the defining feature of the 2000s. So what does that mean for us? In this episode, Maya Reddy explores the technical possibilities and ethical dilemmas of human bioenhancement.What was your process for structuring this episode? Did you plan out the entire episode first or did you just experiment with audio until you found s...2022-11-1910 minVandyVoxEpisode 38 - "The Misinformation Spread By Our Immigrant Parents" by Shaun Karakkattu and Sophia YanCreated for the Exploring Disinformation in Media and Society Buchanan FellowshipIf you’ve ever used WhatsApp you’ve probably been added to a group chat with dozens of distant relatives and what seemed like a great way to reconnect with the family often becomes a tool to spread misinformation. In this episode, Sophia Yan and Shaun Karakkattu address this global phenomenon and what you can do about it.What was your process for structuring this episode? Did you plan out the entire episode first or did you just experiment with...2022-11-1210 minVandyVoxEpisode 37 - "Cetacean Station: Whale Episode 1" by Karan MirpuriCreated for CSET 2100: Scientific Communication Tools and TechniquesDid you know that whale feces are an important part of the marine iron cycle? No? Neither did we until we listened to this incredibly well-researched episode about exactly that by Karan Mirpuri. This piece is a great example of how you can use audio to explain a scientific concept!What was your process for structuring this episode? Did you plan out the entire episode first or did you just experiment with audio until you found something that you liked?“I created th...2022-11-0613 minVandyVoxEpisode 36 - "Breath pt. 2" by Sebastian SpiveyCo-Winner in the Graduate Category of the Excellence in Podcasting CompetitionAt the outset of the COVID pandemic, we all became acutely aware of the vulnerability of our own ability to breathe. In this episode of the Ministry of Arts podcast, Sebastian Spivey and their team produce a vivid story of a nurse’s relationship with the relentless rhythm of the breath. This is an episode you don’t want to miss.What was your process for structuring this episode? “All of our episodes followed a format of host...2022-10-2924 minVandyVoxEpisode 35 - "Climate Change in Miami" by Emily IrigoyenRunner Up in the Undergraduate Category of the 2022 Excellence in Podcasting CompetitionMiami, Florida is at the epicenter of many discussions about rising sea levels caused by climate change, but we rarely get to hear from the individuals displaced by it. In this short episode, Emily Irigoyen paints a vivid picture of a city inundated by floods and the state’s continued denial of the grim reality faced by thousands of citizens.“Using very short pull quotes is very much a thing that could work well in print but in podcasting, whic...2022-10-2210 minVandyVoxEpisode 34 - "Diermeier and the Giant Unicorn" by College VoicesWinner in the Undergraduate Category of the 2022 Excellence in Podcasting CompetitionOver the last few years, the fossil fuel divestment movement has taken the country by storm, and at Vanderbilt activists made their big debut by interrupting Chancellor Diermeier’s speech at Founders Walk in 2021. In this episode Abhinav (and a special guest) listen to College Voices’ reporting about this movement and discuss how students can create similar audio stories.“The music knows something. I think it’s always interesting to ask, what does the music know that the listener doesn’t know yet...2022-10-1533 minVandyVoxEpisode 33 - "Lost in Transcription" by Steven Rodriguez et. alCo-winner in the Graduate Category of the 2022 Excellence in Podcasting CompetitionIn an increasingly digital world, where Zoom meetings are now commonplace, the importance of transcripts–as a written record of audio and for accessibility–cannot be understated. In this episode, Steven Rodriguez, along with his cohosts discusses how transcripts have shaped the humanities and what can often be lost in the process.“Overall with academic-type of communication, I feel like the key is always to anecdotalize; to talk about moments, to talk about cases, to tell stories that you ca...2022-10-1017 minVandyVoxEpisode 32 - "Fermi Paradox" by Lukas BerglundCreated for CSET 2100: Science Communication Tools and TechniquesHave you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered if there is another life in the universe? Lukas Berglund has and in his episode on the Fermi Paradox, he takes the audience on an engaging audio journey that tactfully discusses the existence of extraterrestrial life. He weaves a UN speech, audio from the Voyager probes, and electronic music to set the mood and immerse the audience in a succinct story.Here’s what Jad Abumrad has to say about th...2022-10-0210 minVandyVoxBonus - A Special Message from Derek BruffA special message from VandyVox's founder, Derek Bruff about the future of VandyVox!2022-10-0202 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 31-“PRISM: NSA’s Information Net” by Rishabh GharekhanIn this shocking audio, Rishabh Gharekhan debunks the myths and reinforces the facts surrounding Edward Snowden’s data leak, then draws the fine line the United States government walks between privacy and protection with the National Security Agency’s Planning tool for Resource Integration, Synchronization, and Management, otherwise known as PRISM. In his undergraduate runner-up audio, follow Rishabh’s chronological tale from the view of a modern bipartisan lens and uncover the secrets stored in your data. Turn off your other devices and focus in on Rishabh Gharekhan’s “PRISM: NSA’s Information Net.”2021-12-2314 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 30-“Cancer Epidemiology” by Pranoti PradhanOur featured audio this episode is titled Cancer Epidemiology, created by graduate student Pranoti Pradhan. This audio is a subset of a larger production called Going Viral, Basics of Epidemiology, produced by Saimrunali Dadigala. Discover how the field of cancer epidemiology sprung to life with three notable observations as Pranoti takes us back to ancient Egypt, walks us through history, and directs our gaze towards the future. Side effects of listening to this audio may include blasts from the past, increased knowledge, and desires to learn more. Here’s a dose of Cancer Epidemiology by Pranoti Pradhan.2021-12-1614 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 29-“Gene Drives” by Olivia PembridgeClones, mutations, genetic modifications, and diseases eliminations… while those may sound magically fantastical, the secrets of all those topics and more are revealed in Olivia Pembridge’s undergraduate runner-up audio “Gene Drives.” Olivia will captivate you as she paints interconnected visuals that ease the listener into complex scientific topics and uses supplementary audio to drive home her main points. She debunks ethical concerns by interviewing experts in the field, namely Kathy Freedman, a Vanderbilt University geneticist, Thomas Clemens, a Vanderbilt University crisper researcher, and Leah Buckman, a Texas A&M entomology PhD Candidate who answers the question, “How bad is the bad...2021-12-0919 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 28-“My Humanities Moment” by Marta Eugenia Zavaleta LemusSometimes small voices make the biggest impact. In VandyVox Season 4, Episode 4, doctoral student Marta Eugenia Zavaleta Lemus demonstrates the anthropologic importance of children’s voices in the face to loss, fear, and hardship related to human mobilities. Discover how two influential books shaped her childhood experience growing up in El Salvador, launching her into an academic career as a cultural anthropologist. Envision yourself sitting down crisscross applesauce, story time has arrived. This is “My Humanities Moment: Children’s experiences and voices in social research and literature” by Marta Eugenia Zavaleta Lemus. 2021-12-0214 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 27-“Anchor Down, Burn Out” by Abhinav KrishnanThis featured audio was produced by Abhinav Krishnan, an undergraduate runner-up for the “Excellence in Podcasting” award and it’s a part of a larger podcast titled “College Voices” in collaboration with the Vanderbilt Hustler. Tune your ears to Abhinav’s use of background music and pay attention to how his on-campus interviews reveal the disconnect between intention and impact. Before I burn you out, please anchor down for “Anchor Down, Burn Out,” by Abhinav Krishnan.2021-11-1911 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 26-“How Real is Silicon-based Life?” by Natalie Wallace & Nicole KendrickWhen the line between science and fiction becomes blurred, Natalie Wallace and Nicole Kendrick, graduate students in biological science and biochemistry, respectively, are here to sort through the haze. Their research-based segment, “How Real is Silicon-based Life?” tackles tv show “The X-files,” to filter out the falsehoods and test the truths behind a silicon-based parasitic fungus and volcano traversing robots. The featured audio is a component of their broader podcast, “How Real is that Science?,” where, in an effort to improve science communication and watch movies, the dynamic duo dives deep to debunk more popular science-fiction. Fasten your thinking cap and prepa...2021-11-1222 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 25-"Noise Pollution, COVID-19, and Your Health" by Emma FaganEmma Fagan is bringing the conversation back to science in her research-based,prize-winning audio “Noise Pollution, COVID-19, and Your Health.” Taking home 1st place in the “Excellence in Podcasting” undergraduate audio category, her sounds are anything but noise. Listen for how Emma dexterously links industrialized noise pollution, a silver lining to COVID-19, and how noise pollution affects your mood, sleep, and health. This is Emma Fagan’s “Noise Pollution, COVID-19, and Your Health.”2021-11-0409 minVandyVoxVandyVox Season 4 TeaserSeason 4 of VandyVox is coming to connect you with the winners of Vanderbilt’s inaugural Excellence in Podcasting competition, sponsored by the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities in collaboration with the Center for Teaching and the Office of Immersion Resources.Prize winners include undergraduate, graduate, and professional students who use audio storytelling to communicate ideas, share perspectives, make arguments, and persuade otherswith exemplary care. 2021-10-2801 min
VandyVoxVandyVox Episode 24-"Black Tea" by JoHannah Valentin & Shay MilnerIn this episode VandyVox is featuring audio from a podcast titled “Black Tea”, that is produced by two Vanderbilt undergraduate students, JoHannah Valentin and Shay Milner, in collaboration with Vanderbilt Student Communications. In their episode, “Women, Religion, and Enslavement”, the women interview Vanderbilt Professor Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh from the Department of Religious Studies.While this podcast was not produced in response to a direct classroom assignment, JoHannah and Shay frequently introduce and expand on knowledge they cultivated from Professor Wells-Oghoghomeh’s course teachings. Shay and JoHannah produced this podcast because they wanted to address the discrepancy they saw between the campus dem...2020-07-2650 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 23-"Novel Hand" by Alexa BussmanToday, we’re featuring audio from a podcast called Novel Hand that was produced by Vanderbilt Alumna Alexa Bussman. Alexa studied Political Science, Economics, and Spanish while at Vanderbilt and interned at non-profits like International Justice Mission. Alexa is the founder and editor of Novel Hand, a project that aims to explore the best solutions to global humanitarian issues, and the podcast is an extension of this project.She created Novel Hand to address a disconnect she noticed between her generation’s passion for social issues and innovative solutions that exist to solve these problems. We are featuring episode 2 of t...2020-07-1928 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 22-"Your VU: Beyond the Classroom" by Zoe RankinThis episode features an independently produced piece of audio by Vanderbilt undergraduate Zoe Rankin. Zoe produces a podcast called Your VU: Beyond the Classroom, where she highlights the passions and experiences of Vanderbilt students outside the classroom and brings light to social justice issues through education and storytelling. In Your VU Episode 6: Vanderbilt Prison Project, Zoe interviews Jenny Pigge, a Vanderbilt undergraduate who is the President of the Vanderbilt Prison Project. Because this is independently produced audio, Zoe told us she had to come up with her own goals, outline, and rubric. As you listen to this episode, take...2020-07-1118 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 21-“The Peril of the Sonoran Desert” by Rebecca DubinIn “The Peril of the Sonoran Desert” undergraduate Rebecca Dubin talks us through the changes happening in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. This audio was produced for the Anthropology first-year writing seminar on Culture and Climate Change, taught by Professor Sophie Bjork-James. Rebecca incorporates the interview-style podcasting we’ve seen featured in previous episodes this season. In this format, she artificially conducts interviews with experts on this topic using real-life interviews she found online. The responses of her interviewees are the actual answers of each respective expert; however, these responses are voice acted by some of Rebecca’s friends. Professo...2020-07-0515 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 20-“Musical Cryptography” by Audrey ScudderIn this episode of VandyVox, we feature a stellar piece of audio, produced by Audrey Scudder for the History of Cryptography in the department of mathematics, taught by Professor Derek Bruff. Professor Bruff is the creator of VandyVox and hosted seasons 1 and 2 of the podcast. Three years ago, he replaced a paper assignment in his first-year writing seminar with an audio assignment and has been refining the art of assigning podcasts ever since. Professor Bruff asked students to take a code or cipher from history and describe its origin, use, influence, and mechanics. Audrey fully delivered with a captivating piece...2020-06-2817 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 19-"Pretty Funny" by Erica SimpsonTransport yourself back to the 1960s and rediscover what it means to be a “beautiful woman” by Hollywood’s standards and meet the woman who contested those ideals. In “Pretty Funny: How Barbra Streisand Challenged Hollywood Conventions”, undergraduate student Erica Simpson analyzes the beauty and gender roles prevalent in Hollywood in this time period through a modern lens for a class in Cinema and Media Studies taught by Professor Megan Minarich. Professor Minarich supplied a plethora of information on how she structures and grades podcasting assignments, which are explored more thoroughly in the show notes. Approaching the assignment through the lens o...2020-06-2116 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 18-“Historical Feminism” by Tanya TejaniIn this week’s episode, VandyVox veteran Tanya Tejani unpacks the complexity of personal agency within 15th century female concubines under Islam, focusing on the Kano Empire in West Africa. The audio for Historical Feminism was developed for the course History of Sub-Saharan Africa taught by Professor Tasha Rijke-Epstein. Tanya uses an interview format to discuss this niche topic with Dr. Solano, a fictional scholar who embodies the semester-long research Tanya conducted. Her unique approach to this assignment gives a taste for the wide range of opportunities that podcasting can provide.2020-06-1419 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 17-"Flag on the Play" by Max SchneiderStudent athletes are a huge part of campus life at any university, but especially here at Vanderbilt. On this episode of VandyVox, Max Schneider tackles the implications of the NCAA Fair Pay to Play Act in California by interviewing USC defensive tackle, Trevor Trout, through his sports podcast Flag on the Play. Max dives right in, allowing Trevor to immerse the audience in the day-to-day life of a college athlete and the double-standards that accompany that contract. Not afraid to address controversy head-on, Max creates a space that allows Trevor to speak freely about his experience with the NCAA that...2020-06-0731 minVandyVoxVandy Vox Episode 16-“Local Impacts” by Tanya TejaniFor some of us, climate change is something we worry about for our kids or grandkids, that global warming will make this planet a hard place to live 50 or 100 years from now. But for some people around world, climate change is having an impact on their lives right now. On this episode of VandyVox, we feature a short audio documentary by Vanderbilt undergraduate Tanya Tejani that takes the abstract threat of climate change and makes it relevant and personal. She uses Bangladesh as a case study, a country where two-thirds of the land has an elevation of 5m above...2019-09-1915 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 15-“Language Learning through Digital Games” by Meghan McGinleyEpisode 15 – “Language Learning through Digital Games” by Meghan McGinleyHow can games help someone learn a second language? Vanderbilt graduate student Meghan McGinley was interested in exploring that question this past spring. Meghan, who is pursuing a PhD in French with a certificate in Second Language Studies, was a student in a course on second language acquisition taught by my Center for Teaching colleague Stacey Margarita Johnson. Stacey regularly asks the students in her graduate courses to conduct interviews with language teachers or language learning experts. Meghan was planning to do her semester project on that questi...2019-09-1229 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 14-"IEPM African Education" by Lach, Nagasawa, Oniyangi, and PoudelJosé Cossa taught in Vanderbilt’s leadership, policy, and organization department the last few years. José regularly gives his students the option to produce a podcast in lieu of a traditional research paper, and his students often take him up on the opportunity. This past spring, José was teaching in Vanderbilt’s international education policy and management program, or IEPM, and four of the students in his graduate-level course on Africa and education put together a seven-episode podcast as their final project. The four students—Kelley Lach, Kenta Nagasawa, Sabirah Oniyangi, and Shashank Poudel— drew on course readings and class discu...2019-09-0537 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 13-"BlacKademics" by Robert LeeRobert Lee is a recent graduate of Vanderbilt with a degree in human and organizational development. During his junior year, he realized he was constantly having fascinating conversations with a diverse set of friends on campus. He had a vision for sharing some of those stories with people outside the Vanderbilt bubble. The result was Blackademics, a podcast Robert launched in the spring of 2019. Robert is black, and that has certainly shaped his experience as a student here. He’s brought that lens to his podcast, which features relaxed and engaging interviews with friends as they navigate their last se...2019-08-2932 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 12-"Dispatches from the Field" by Kellie CavagnaroWhat comes to mind when you picture an anthropologist? Kellie Cavagnaro is a doctoral student in anthropology at Vanderbilt, and she’s preparing to launch a new public anthropology podcast called Dispatches from the Field. The podcast will explore intersections between Kellie’s fieldwork in an Andean highland community of Peru and a mysterious 70-year-old ethnography produced by a Harvard anthropologist who claimed to have been bewitched. In the 1940s, Harry Tschopik, Jr., studied shamanism among indigenous people 14,000 feet above sea level along the shores of Lake Titicaca in Peru. In her new podcast, Kellie will revisit Tschopik’s work a...2019-08-2226 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 11-"Puzzle Child" by Belle Raim & Becky MarderHow do you teach a child to read? Not a generic child, but a specific child with specific challenges. Belle Raim and Becky Marder are students in the reading education Master’s program at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development. As part of the program, each of them spent an academic year working with a student whose literacy behaviors were seen as a puzzle to their classroom teacher. In the fall they assessed their students to determine literacy strengths and areas for improvement, and in the spring they implemented a targeted instructional plan with the...2019-08-1424 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 10-"Out Loud" by Greg ThompsonThis episode of VandyVox shares another podcast produced by a Vanderbilt student. Out Loud: LGBT Stories of Faith features interviews with Vanderbilt students about their experiences coming out to their church communities. The podcast, now in its second season, is the creation of Greg Thompson, a recent graduate of the Master of Theological Studies program at the Vanderbilt Divinity School. Greg recently launched season 2 of Out Loud, featuring more thoughtful interviews exploring the intersection of faith, gender, and sexuality. 2019-08-0832 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 9-"Wandering Off" by Jacqueline GroganWelcome to the second season of VandyVox! Jacqueline Grogan is the host of Wandering Off, the Vanderbilt University Career Center professional development podcast. Through interviews with Vanderbilt faculty, staff, students, and alumni, Jacqueline explores the many unexpected turns people take along their paths from college to career. Jacqueline has talked to an English major turned photographer, an engineering science major who interned for a US senator, and a Career Center coach about imposter syndrome in the workplace.On this episode of VandyVox, we’re featuring Episode 15 of Wandering Off, an interview with Vanderbilt alu...2019-08-0128 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 8 – “Aristotle Meets Apple” by Anna ButricoThis episode features a piece of audio produced by Anna Butrico, who graduated from Vanderbilt in 2018 with a degree in English and communication studies. Anna started podcasting her sophomore year at Vanderbilt, launching a podcast called This Vanderbilt Life with help from Vanderbilt Student Media. That experience led her to a summer internship at WPLN, Nashville’s public radio station, where she helped produced over two dozen stories. At the start of her senior year, Anna decided to write her honors thesis on podcasting, looking at how modern podcasts are inhabiting and extending classical Greek rhetorical forms. In this ep...2019-03-2818 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 7 – “Borders and Rituals in ‘Papers, Please’” by Scholars at PlayThis episode features an excerpt from an episode of Scholars at Play, a podcast focused on the critical discussion of video games and their place in society. The podcast is produced by three Vanderbilt graduate students: Derek Price (German Studies), Terrell Taylor (English), and Kyle Romero (History). They got together in 2016 around a shared interest in video game studies after Derek Price put up a few signs in the grad student carrels of a video game controller. Since the campus didn’t have a graduate seminar in game studies at the time, they decided to create their own, as a...2019-03-2129 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 6 – “Well Founded Fear” by Joshua MinchinIn this episode, we feature a short audio documentary by Vanderbilt law student Joshua Minchin called “Well Founded Fear.” Joshua produced this piece for an assignment in a refugee law course taught by Vanderbilt professor Karla McKanders. The assignment called for students to take some challenging legal issued related to refugee and immigration law and to convey it to a non-specialist audience through audio stories. Joshua’s motivation for this piece came from his personal experience working as an employment specialist for a refugee resettlement agency before he started law school. In writing about this audio piece, Minchin said it’s import...2019-03-1413 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 5 – “Writer’s Block Tango” by Sarah EidsonIn this episode, we feature a short audio story by Vanderbilt undergraduate Sarah Eidson about Maurine Watkins, the American journalist who wrote the play Chicago in 1926. Sarah produced the audio story for an assignment in the provocatively titled course “Women Who Kill,” taught in the women’s and gender studies program by English lecturer Robbie Spivey. The course provided a critical look at classical and contemporary representations of women who kill. Maurine Watkins, the subject of Sarah’s audio story, wasn’t a woman who killed, but she covered the murder trials of two women as part of her work at th...2019-02-2816 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 4-“Unpacking Health Care Disparities” by Sheuli ChowdhuryWhen Sheuli Chowdhury picked her topic for the podcast assignment in her health policy class, she didn’t take the easy way out. She decided to dive into the intersection of two very complex topics: healthcare and immigration. In this episode of Vandy Vox, we share her project, an audio exploration of recent research on undocumented immigrants and Medicaid enrollment. Her piece is titled “Unpacking Health Care Disparities.” The assignment, for an introduction to health services course taught by Vanderbilt health policy professor Gilbert Gonzales, asked students to take recent research in health policy and explain it for a lay au...2019-02-2118 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 3-“The Panizzardi Telegram” by Charlie OvertonThis episode features an audio peice called “The Panizzardi Telegram” produced by Vanderbilt undergraduate Charlie Overton. Charlie was a student in podcast host Derek Bruff’s first-year writing seminar last fall, a course on cryptography. The course is a busy one, with mathematics and codebreaking, history and current events, and, as of recent offerings, a podcast assignment. Derek asks his students to explore the history of codes and ciphers for a class podcast called One-Time Pod. Charlie’s contribution on the Panizzardi telegram deftly combines historical storytelling and technical explanations. It also communicates an enduring understanding about cryptography: If you don’...2019-02-1418 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 2 – “The Name” by Layla ShahmohammadiLast fall, Vanderbilt student Layla Shahmohammadi interned at Conexión Américas, a non-profit whose mission is to build community and opportunities for Latino families, particularly immigrant families, in Nashville. Layla’s internship was part of her capstone experience as a major in Human and Organizational Development (HOD). When Layla started working at Conexión, she noticed that staff members, who were mostly Hispanic, preferred others in the organization use the Spanish pronunciations of their names. She thought this was interesting, so she talked with her co-workers about their names and identities and produced a short audio documentary as part...2019-02-0726 minVandyVoxVandyVox Episode 1-Hagar Rising by Sarah Saxton StrassbergThis episode of VandyVox features a short audio story by Vanderbilt undergraduate Sarah Saxton Strassberg called “Hagar Rising.” Sarah Saxton was a student in a fall 2018 anthropology course taught by Sophie Bjork-James on the politics of reproductive health in the United States. The final assignment in Sophie’s course asked students to research a contemporary reproductive health issue and produce a piece of video or audio that explores that issue. Sarah Saxton chose to look at gene editing, an emerging set of biotechnologies that have the potential to allow parents to pick and choose physical features of their children. Sarah...2019-01-2816 min