Podcasting Institute

About our Podcasting Institutes

Between 2019 and 2024 the Digital Humanities Center partnered with the National Humanities Center to run a weeklong, intensive podcasting institute for graduate students, faculty, library workers, academic staff, and independent scholars. After our successful in-person pilot with thirteen doctoral students from the Southwest in July 2019, we ran nine virtual institutes, training more than 600 people from nearly every type of institution, including elite private schools, public flagships, small liberal arts colleges, regional comprehensive universities, HBCUs, and community colleges. We ran an additional spinoff institute for faculty at the University of California in Winter 2021.

Although the institute ostensibly focused on the art of podcasting, our goals extended well beyond. The schedule and curriculum were built on methodologies inspired by adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds (2017), combined with digital humanities sensibilities to form an emergent humanities strategy to transform not just scholarship, but the ways in which people operate in, around, and beyond the academy. Participants were grouped in interdisciplinary and inter-institutional cohorts in which they had to build trust quickly to produce a 20-25 minute podcast episode by the end-of-week listening party. The fast pace pushed participants to embrace experimentation and risk-taking over perfection as they learned how to collaborate with intention and care. 

Ultimately, our podcasting institutes provided transformative opportunities for participants to reconceptualize their scholarly praxis through public-facing digital storytelling.

While we no longer run these institutes, we continue to make our training materials available under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license, while also providing individualized instruction and consultation for aspiring podcasters and teachers.

Want to get started podcasting, but not sure where to begin? We're here to help! 

Explore the summer 2024 institute program and learning materials

Meet the Team

Our podcasting institute was originally conceptualized by DH@SDSU Co-Founder Joanna Brooks. Original planning team members included Pamella R. Lach (DHC) and Andy Mink (NHC). Meredith Graham (NHC) joined the team from 2023 to 2024. Mike Williams and Raven Ferguson (NHC) supported our final institute in Summer 2024. Pam Lach served as the institute facilitator and lead instructor for all institutes; Patrick Flanigan was the founding tech team member.

Guest Speakers

Over the years, we invited leading scholarly podcasters to share their knowledge with our participants. Barry Lam (Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Riverside) is the creator, host, and producer of Hi-Phi Nation, a Slate podcast that blends philosophy and storytelling. Barry was a guest speaker from 2020-2024. Hannah McGregor (Associate Professor of Publishing, Simon Fraser University) is the co-author of Podcast or Perish: Peer Review and Knowledge Creation fo the 21st Century (2025) and co-director of the Amplify Podcast Network, to support scholarly podcasting. Hannah joined us by Zoom at our pilot in-person institute in 2019, and continued to serve as a guest speaker through 2024. 

We also regularly organized alum cohort panels, where current participants could learn more about the ways that former participants used what they learned at our institutes.

Tech Team Members

We thank all of the staff and students who supported our institute over the years:

Alejandro Cueto (Summer 2024)
Brienne Hayes (January 2021)
Marisol Fila (Winter 2022-Summer 2024)
Patrick Flanigan (2019-2024)
Amanda Malon (Summer 2024)
Stephanie Narrow (UC Institute Winter 2021, Winter 2022)
Violet Strawderman (Summer 2024)
Alejandro David Tamez (Winter 2023-Summer 2024)
Cassie Tanks (2020-2024)

Our tech team was an essential ingredient for our participants’ success. In addition to providing real-time tech support, tech team members were embedded in learning cohorts to provide additional support and encouragement.