Here are some student testimonies about the impact of podcasts on them. Some are excerpts from students’ written papers, some are end-of-the-semester reflections on their favorite sources from the semester, and more.
Race in American History
Here are student testimonies in response to the Podcast Uncivil, Episode “The Sentence” for our unit on labor and colonization. The podcast works well early in the semester in capturing their attention, driving home points about white supremacy in American law as a tool to control and exploit workers. The episode also touches on how the law begins to shift over time in ways that don’t promote equality and inclusion but limit it, including the encouragement of the rape of black women. Check out the episode page here: https://teachingwithpodcastscom.wordpress.com/2019/02/11/uncivil-the-sentence/.
Intersectionality: Being a Queer Immigrant
Here are student testimonies in response to the Podcast Nancy, Episode “Kathy’s Mom” for our contemporary America unit on the intersectional experience of being both a Chinese-American first-generation immigrant and being queer. The episode was assigned in conversation with a viewing of part of the documentary Paris is Burning and this preview of The Glades Project on queer life in Hawai’i in the 1970s.
What you can see is that many students experience podcasts personally, because those episodes often include personal conversations with people in some way like them. This episode in particular featured a poignant conversation with a woman who was struggling to come out repeatedly to her Chinese mother. Her pain at being misunderstood and her search for an emotional connection with her mother captured a moment that doesn’t often get highlighted in traditional American Studies classes. Take a look.
This page is in progress and will be updated. Please stay tuned.
Teaching with Podcasts 