Although Duke has many print and visual sources of news for University and student life, audio sources do not have a mainstream presence on campus. "Life Inside," a podcast set to launch by the end of January, hopes to fill this void by producing episodes about everyday life at Duke.
Created on campus by Duke undergraduates, "Life Inside" aims to be a new, authentic take on Duke life. Topics for episodes, ranging from K-Ville to the contrast between freshman and senior experiences, will cover all aspects of campus living. The broadcast first will highlight a topic relevant on campus but rarely spoken about—fifth year seniors. Although "Life Inside"plans to discuss lighter and more fun subjects in its first few segments, the founders hope to move towards more serious and possibly controversial themes as they gain more experience.
“Duke does a really good job at documenting things, like in classes and student broadcasting, but most of that is in video format. In doing audio format we’re going to expose student life to a new, different way of thinking,” said sophomore Luisa Frasson-Nori, a co-founder of "Life Inside."
Individual professors and departments have developed podcasts in the past, but not about topics relevant to students and their daily lives. In using a different form of media, the founders of "Life Inside" hope to connect to students through both its format and subject matter.
"People should really give audio a chance, because it’s a really good thing to do while you’re making your bed, brushing your teeth, walking to class—for times you don’t have all your focus you can still listen to something really valuable,” Frasson-Nori said.
Lasting approximately 30 minutes, each episode of "Life Inside" will feature interviews with various members of the Duke community and occasional narration by the podcast's creators. The podcast will provide insights and points of view that may be new to listeners, broadening perspectives on campus issues and opening conversations on usually taboo topics.
“So far the interviews we’ve gotten are so great—people open so much to you, and it’s hard to cut down so much great stuff,” said Alexandra Gonzalez, a sophomore and co-founder of "Life Inside." “It discusses issues we talk about all the time, but [which] we only talk about with a certain group of people."
By including candid interviews with Duke students, "Life Inside" will be a source of discussion on campus topics generated from actual student opinions. Although the podcast’s target audience is students, Duke faculty will be able to use "Life Inside" to learn more about the students they are teaching, and high school students interested in applying to Duke will be able to access the podcasts to gain an inside view of Duke experiences.
“It’ll be really cool for outside of Duke...so they can get a little insight on what people already here are thinking about,” Frasson-Nori said.
Launching this month, "Life Inside" will have a new Facebook page and website, where episodes can be accessed. The first installment will be published by the end of January, with later podcasts made each month during the school year. The creators of the podcast hope to have a few live recording events on campus, and eventually extend their episodes to other forms of access, like apps and iTunes.
“We record it down in the Link, we edit it in the [Multimedia Project Studio] lab," Gonzalez said. "It’s very Duke-sourced—we use our campus and the resources that are available to us."
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