In a world where social media algorithms know you better than you know yourself, where every 'like' and 'share' and 'time on page' is measured to determine what content will keep you on the app for longer, three of MIS's 11th-grade students have created a podcast with a mission to give you a wake-up call. Jacob Nickerson warns that TikTok, Instagram, etc. "are lies to a certain extent and you can't rely on what content creators are saying. They need the views. They need profit. For some content creators, that's how they make a living. We aren't here for that".
Podcast co-creator Luke Meydenbauer echoes that "with the increase of social media and echo chambers, it's really hard to get that other perspective, and you become trapped in one narrative. We have the privilege and ability at this school to get different perspectives. That isn't necessarily available to everyone else".
Jacob and Luke came up with the idea for the podcast while reflecting on their Global Politics class on the bus ride home. Luke is an American who has been a third-culture kid for most of his upbringing, living in countries such as Senegal, Morocco, and France. He and Jacob are in their second year at MIS. Jacob comes from a German & American family and spent most of his life in the U.S. until recently. They enlisted the support of their friend Lenny Remus to help edit and produce the podcast. Lenny has a background in music and edits his own compositions, but was enthusiasitc about the opportunity to edit & produce the podcast. Having grown up in Germany his whole life, Lenny transfered to MIS last year from the German school system. He credits MIS for "really helping me to open my eyes to what's going on in the world. Instead of just listening to other people's opinions in this country, also being able to make my own opinion is important. It's a bigger world than it was for me before".
Together, Jacob and Luke deliver riveting analysis of current events "incorporating all kinds of different perspectives and sides of the story to make sure that our listeners can understand why everyone is doing what they are doing, to think critically about an issue, and to form their own opinion", explains Luke.
Jacob's interest in journalism started when he was a writer for two years with the student journalism & news network,
Buchhof Bulletin. During that time, he produced podcasts in MISs audio/visual recording studio. To get back into the studio for their own project, Studio Projects Lead, Sam Beebe walked them through the process and helped them book time in the studio.
And just like that, a shared idea became a reality. Luke and Jacob create 5-minute podcasts highlighting a different current event on each show. They corroborate their information and pool their research from multiple news sources, being sure to represent a variety of differing perspectives.
As their call to action, Luke reminds us of the official slogan of The Washington Post, 'Democracy Dies in Darkness'; "It is everyones responsibility in this world to seek out as much information as possible and as many perspectives as possible".
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