It all started with a LinkedIn Message, that brought Kate Young from the world of PR and dabbling in the podcast space to being the writer, producer, and host of This is Purdue, Purdue University's official podcast that highlights the stories of students, alumni, and staff in the Purdue community.
In today’s episode, Kate brought us one of her favorite episodes, “#79: From Purdue to President of Pizza Hut: In-Depth with David Graves.” For this episode they actually flew Pizza Hut President and Purdue Alum David Graves back to Indiana to shoot on location in a Pizza Hut, and talked all about his favorite advertising and marketing initiatives over the years, as well as his favorite pizza toppings.
Kate sits down with The Word on Campus host and university.fm owner Robert Li to discuss how her background in daily news helped her in the podcasting world, curating and producing larger-scale field productions, navigating emotional moments in interviews, and how the university decided to go all in on its podcast.
The Word on Campus is produced by University FM.
What is it about podcasting that attracted Kate to the medium?
02:56 - Knowing that you can tell these stories and have the listener's attention for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes—an hour—was compelling to me. And that, writing component, because my episodes are so special and unique because there's a script around them. And I take great care in writing that script and further telling that story.
How do you make the guest comfortable in an interview?
14:42 - So, I have found that about halfway through an interview, people get comfortable, or at least more comfortable with you. They trust you. So we kind of save things that are going to evoke emotion towards the end.
What makes an episode unique?
09:17 - That's definitely something that makes that episode unique—those fun behind-the-scenes stories. You have David commenting on what his favorite pizza is, but you have to do this when you eat it, or you have to. So there are all these kinds of little quips and fun behind-the-scenes stories that make it really special.
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