Tuning in to ethics

Did you know that women are the only organisms with the ability to create water? The student production team behind the UD Human Rights Center’s podcast Sounds About Right had their eyes opened wide when conservationist and activist Guy Jones, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, explained this during an interview. 

Interviewing people like Jones and learning from them is one of the most rewarding parts of working on Sounds About Right, said junior Amanda Film, a member of the production team.

“Listening to people talk about their passions is a really beautiful thing to be a part of.”

“Listening to people talk about their passions is a really beautiful thing to be a part of,” Film said.

The podcast began as a project through the Human Rights Center as a way to explore topical issues that affect students on campus in relation to human rights and social justice. Each season is centered around a human rights issue, and the team brings in a host of students, faculty and people from the Dayton community to speak about these problems. 

“We really try to make it Dayton-facing, both the campus of Dayton and the city of Dayton, so we try to interview students and faculty around the campus,” said junior Allison O’Gorman, another member of the production team. “We also really try to get people that are non-UD affiliated and get their voices in there as well.”

The student-run podcast’s first season premiered in the spring of 2022, and all episodes focused on sexual violence on college campuses. Season two discussed rights of indigenous people and environmental justice. Season 3, currently in production, will focus on how identity relates to belonging.

Megan Garrison, the partnership, outreach and engagement coordinator of the Human Rights Center, advises the production team and helps provide the necessary equipment and guidance.

“When the students have figured out what the topic is, have their questions, and [have] scheduled whoever they are interviewing, they come in here and we record in-house. Afterward, we then edit the audio, predominantly through using Adobe Audition, and then we release it across all platforms,” she said.

Garrison noted even the podcast’s logo and theme song were created by UD students.

Producing Sounds About Right involves collaboration among students and with their professors when they interview them. Many of the students have taken classes with the professors they end up interviewing.

“It’s interesting to see, especially faculty outside of the classroom that you see them in, outside their usual expertise, just hearing their thoughts on other topics,” said senior Mercy John, another team member.

Season 3, which will premiere in the spring, will feature a roundtable discussion of UD faculty members. This is the first season that will involve mostly roundtable discussions instead of interviews, and one of the episodes will include a live discussion featuring all Black UD students talking about how identity relates to belonging.

Working on Sounds About Right is a rewarding process, the team said, because they are actively learning while producing a podcast that is meant to help others learn.

“I feel that the resources we provide and we are putting out are beneficial, and it represents so much of the student body,” Film said. 

Sounds About Right is hosted on Buzzsprout and is also available through Spotify and Apple.