Voice to the Voiceless: Part 5
Continuing Scene On Radio: An Interview With Its Host.
Last week, I was looking into the podcast series, Scene On Radio — a biweekly radio show produced by Duke University and hosted by John Biewen — to understand and analyze the stories the organization produces. I was able to contact and engage in a phone interview with Biewen to get an inside perspective on the show and to further understand its intended impact on its communities and audiences.
The Founder and Host of Scene On Radio.
John Biewen currently works as the Audio Program Director and Instructor at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. His job includes teaching but is made up mostly of radio production work, examples of which have shown up on both NPR and ARW. Since Fall 2015, his efforts have been centered on Scene On Radio, a podcast he had been considering for over two years before it launched.
How the Podcast Began.
Biewen said there were a number of reasons leading up to the decision to start this podcast. One of these was the rise of podcasting as a legitimate medium. “With shows like 99% Invisible,” Biewen says, “there was this growing sense that this was a grown up thing to do. You can have a respectable audience, create a certain amount of buzz, and have an impact with a podcast.” And so he felt it was the right timing to start “this podcast thing.”
But the decision to create a podcast series was only part of the work. Now he had to find the right format and content. Inspired by shows such as 99% Invisible, This American Life, and HowSound, he considered starting a podcast on how to make a documentary. But Biewen says, “I thought, ‘that’s not what I really wanted to do.’ That’s not my passion. My passion is to do stuff that is socially relevant and tells stories about real people.” And so began this part-documentary, part-investigative journalism podcast that asks the question: Who are we as a society?
The Impact of the Podcast.
When the podcast was first starting, Biewen was uncertain how far it would really go. “It was more a general sense that, okay, we’ll do the sports series and then we’ll do some other stuff,” he says, laughing.
Now a year-and-a-half into the project, he’s seeing it blossom as their listenership has been on a significant rise. Especially with the start of his most recent series, Seeing White, he believes the podcast is really striking a cord with people.
“People are saying, ‘This is really essential listening. Everyone needs to listen to this.’ And ‘This is really altered the way I think about things.’”
With the Seeing White series opportunely timed with the rise of Trump, Biewen believes the podcast has become more relevant. But what makes this one different than other podcasts on the same topic? “There have been 10,000 think-pieces about why people voted for Trump,” says Biewen. But along with the rise of Trump, the society was asking deeper questions, such as: “What’s going on here with all this white identity thing?” And that’s the audience Biewen has captured.
Community Interaction.
According to Biewen, the Center for Documentary Studies has “one foot on campus, and one foot off,” meaning they try to stay aware of the audience around them and the communities they are interacting with. As such, some of their projects are geared more toward working with the off-campus community than others. One of these projects is Storymakers: Durham.
Biewen and Duke University worked closely with the Association of Independents in Radio to create a radio/audio program that reached deep into their neighboring community. Their goal was to “invite people in one strikingly diverse city to reflect on the forces that unite and divide us — race, class, inequality of opportunity — to look one another in the eye and converse, and to tell stories from their varying perspectives.” Biewen suggests this was a very direct way for him to make a measurable impact and connection with his community, especially as it was done as a response to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. “This is something the Center for Documentary Studies and I care about,” says Biewen.
Scene On Radio originated with these community issues and questions in mind and then moved them to the national stage. And so Biewen travels around the country, researching, interviewing, and trying to find an answer and response to what he believes culture has been saying: “Good god, people, what is up with you all?”
Tips from John Biewen.
Biewen also gave some tips to starting a new podcast. “You can’t force this if you don’t want to do it, but I think it helps to have a pretty clear focus and identity for your podcast.” He admitted that he didn’t believe Scene On Radio really followed that advice, but he also said that he preferred the more “big picture” theme of his podcast. It just depends.
He also gave a list of some of his favorite podcasts, which included:
- On Media
- Code Switch
- This American Life
- RadioLab
- Love + Radio
- The Heart
- Here be Monsters
Key Insights and Takeaways.
Through my time with Biewen, I have created another short list of takeaways to keep in mind as I form my own podcast.
- Do what you’re passionate about.
- Make sure the podcast has a strong focus.
