The PodLab at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has been selected as one of six sites in the country to be used to produce segments for “One Small Step,” a podcast series that seeks to bring people together in “a polarized American society,” according to a UTC news release.
The program is being done by StoryCorps, the National Public Radio-affiliated nonprofit that records, preserves and shares stories from everyday Americans throughout the country, the release said. It is similar to the radio series StoryCorps did in spring 2019, when it parked its Airstream trailer/recording studio in Miller Park in downtown Chattanooga for three weeks and recorded more than 100 interviews that became the radio series and podcast “Tennessee Valley StoryCorps,” produced and edited by Professor Will Davis, who runs the UTC Podlab.
The UTC PodLab is a podcasting studio designed to give students hands-on training. According to a news release, the podcasts recorded as part of “One Small Step” will be produced at UTC locally and will be available for download. They will also air on WUTC 88.1 FM, Chattanooga’s NPR affiliate sometime next year.
For the episodes, two strangers with opposing political views will record a 50-minute conversation designed to reveal who they are as people. Politics will not be discussed. Trained facilitators will be on hand to guide the discussion. The idea is not to convince the two people to agree but to “recognize each other’s humanity,” the UTC release said.
StoryCorps staff will spend the next eight months training staff at UTC and the five other partners from around the country to facilitate and record the “One Small Step” conversations on site.