Student Podcast Challenge

Teachers and students, got something to say? Put on your headphones and get ready to hit record! The folks behind NPR's Student Podcast Challenge made this handy guide on how to make a podcast in the classroom. With new episodes every Sunday, we'll cover everything you need to make an amazing podcast!

Podcasting is hard work. First you've gotta pick a topic, find a recording space and then, somehow, edit down the hours of audio! Last year's winners of the NPR Student Podcast Challenge had to learn all those things on the fly while making their podcast, "Ssh! Periods." Now, the ladies of Bronx Prep Middle School have some advice for students and teachers who are making a podcast for this year's challenge.

The saying goes that rules are meant to be broken — well, not these rules. Actually, following the official rules of the Student Podcast Challenge is the only way to win. But rules can be complicated. So in this week's episode, we put together a guide with some important things you need to know about the contest. We'll also answer some of your questions and make sure you're on the right path.

You don't need a fancy studio to make a podcast. All you need are a few tricks — and a LOT of pillows — and no one will ever guess that you recorded in your classroom.

You wouldn't play an instrument without practicing scales and you wouldn't play a basketball game without stretching – so why would you record a podcast without warming up your voice? NPR vocal coach Jessica Hansen has stretches, breathing exercises and vocal drills you can do to make sure that you sound natural when you press record.

Music can be a powerful tool in storytelling. It can set an emotional backdrop or give a sense of rhythm and tone to a story. Music can be that final piece of the puzzle, the piece that ties everything together. But too often, music isn't used at the right time or place in the story – or the music is all wrong for the moment. Composer and podcast host Ramtin Arablouei shows us when to use music in your podcast.

Banjo or drum? Keyboard or cowbell? Once you've figured out where you want to add music to your podcast, you've got to decide WHAT kind of music fits with your story. Since the Student Podcast Challenge only allows music that is written and performed by students, we invited composer Ramtin Arablouei back to show us how to make music without any fancy equipment.

Teachers across the country are ditching the traditional idea of assigning research papers or book reports, and asking their students to make podcasts instead. It turns out, students are having fun and learning new skills at the same time.

What makes a good interview? For starters, asking good questions! But there's so much more to it than asking who, what, where, when and why. On this episode, the art of the interview. We'll cover how to prepare for an interview and give tips for asking good questions and telling good stories.

If you've spent hours recording interviews your podcast but now you feel like you're drowning in sound, don't worry — you are not alone! We've got some science-based techniques for picking the very best bits of audio for your podcast. **Deadline Alert** The deadline for NPR's Student Podcast Challenge has been extended. Check our website, npr.org/studentpodcastchallenge for more information.

We know, the world feels pretty crazy right now. Think of this podcast as a little break from all of that. This week, we're featuring a bunch of student podcasts that delighted us, made us laugh, inspired us and made us all feel more connected as humans.

What makes you want to keep listening to a podcast? Most often, a really good story. But even once you have a good story you have to make sure you tell it well. In podcasting, we're lucky enough to have a script to guide us. Last year's finalists from St. Helena, Calif. told us a really good story in their podcast "Popo the Clown," so we wanted to hear how they did it.

There are a lot of things out of our control right now, but one thing you can control? Your vocal chords. On the pod this week, we're revisiting our episode on how to find your voice!

If you want your podcast to be filled with amazing voices and emotional stories, you've got to nail your interviews! In this episode, the students of the CV19 Podcast explain how they leveled up to become expert interviewers.

What makes a good interview? For starters, asking good questions! But there's so much more to it than asking who, what, where, when and why. On this episode, the art of the interview. We'll cover how to prepare for an interview and give tips for asking good questions and telling good stories.

Some people love emotional conversations, some people avoid them. But for journalists and podcasters, they're part of the job. Sometimes you have to interview people about their saddest moments. It's hard, but if you can tell the story well, it means a lot: to them, and to your audience.Every year some of our best entries in the Student Podcast Challenge are moving, emotional narratives. For this week's episode of The Students' Podcast, Elissa Nadworny talked with Samuel Meneses—one of last year's finalists— who told the story of a tragic kayaking accident in his podcast Life and Death in the Amazon.

Once you've finished the interview — there's still a lot of hard work ahead. Some questions work, some don't. Did the interview run too long? You'll have to cut it down. Remember, entries for the student podcast challenge must be eight minutes or less. So here are some great ideas for how to wade through ALL that audio. Today you'll learn how from Planet Money's Sarah Gonzalez how trim away all the extra stuff, and just leave the good parts in an episode from earlier this year.

Ever wonder if that local legend has some truth to it? At the Student Podcast Challenge we love to hear a good mystery, so pull out your magnifying glasses and start investigating! We talk with last year's finalist Daniel Wang about his 4 month investigation into a hometown history. He gives advice all about how he made his entry "How A Small Town Discovered The Universe."

You don't need a fancy studio to make a podcast. All you need are a few tricks — and a LOT of pillows — and no one will ever guess that you recorded in your bedroom.

Soundproofing and studios and microphones, oh my! When you listen to a professional podcast you can hear the difference. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to that kind of recording set up, but the thing is ... you don't need it. This week on The Students' Podcast we talked to Aaron and Alex Morgan about how they made their podcast sound so good. Their entry "Why Instagram Is Like A Cocaine-Laced Brownie" was one of our finalists last year and had some of the best production in the competition!

Banjo or drum? Keyboard or cowbell? Once you've figured out where you want to add music to your podcast, you've got to decide WHAT kind of music fits with your story. Since the Student Podcast Challenge only allows music that is written and performed by students, it's time to learn some basic composing skills!This week on The Students' Podcast we talked to composer Ramtin Arablouei about how to make music without any fancy equipment.

*Car door shuts, ignition revs, wheels turn on the pavement* Sound effects that transport you to a specific place are bread and butter for podcasts. But when does adding sound effects move a story along, and when do they merely confuse the listener? To explore this, we touched base with one of last year's Student Podcast Challenge finalists, Alex Soto. Her podcast, What Is The Most Beautiful Sound?, utilized over 10 sound effects. In the wrong hands, this could have been a hot mess, but in Alex's podcast, it totally worked. This week on The Students' Podcast, hear how Alex struck a balance between sound and interviews.

In so many ways, music is emotion. Studies of the brain tell us that our minds react in different ways to the sound of music. So it's only natural that you'll want to take all that musical magic and sprinkle it over your podcast.Well, not so fast. Music — and composing it — can get really complicated, especially if you're going to enter NPR's Student Podcast Challenge.So, here's our guide to helping you put great music into your podcast, so that when you sit down at the keyboard to create that magic, you'll know the very specific rules that limit what you can and can't do.

This week on The Students' Podcast, Elissa Nadworny, Lauren Migaki and Sequoia Carrillo run through some early entries they love. From interviewing kids about COVID, to high energy sports commentary, to marriage?? There's a lot to talk about!

It's almost time for year FOUR of the Student Podcast Challenge. To celebrate we talked to some teachers who have been with us since the beginning.

You wouldn't play an instrument without practicing scales and you wouldn't play a basketball game without stretching – so why would you record a podcast without warming up your voice? NPR vocal coach Jessica Hansen has stretches, breathing exercises and vocal drills you can do to make sure that you sound natural when you press record.

Are you ever SO excited to tell your friends a story that you kind of jumble the whole thing up? Like the substance is there, but if the delivery is off it just doesn't LAND as well.The same thing goes for podcasting. Even if we can hear in your voice that you're excited about something, if there's no structure or narrative to the piece it can be hard to hook an audience. This week on The Students' Podcast, we're revisiting an episode from last season where we talk to some of our high school finalists who managed to tell their story really well.

For this week's episode of The Students' Podcast we check in with maybe the most qualified person to discuss winning the Student Podcast Challenge ... last year's college champion, Anya Steinberg! Anya's podcast He's Just 23 Chromosomes blew the judges away with masterful storytelling, layered sound and humor. She was a natural choice to be our first ever guest co-host on the podcast! We talk tips and tricks, hacks for recording from home and techniques to telling a personal story.

Soundproofing and studios and microphones, oh my! When you listen to a professional podcast you can hear the difference. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to that kind of recording set up, but the thing is ... you don't need it. This week on The Students' Podcast we talked to Aaron and Alex Morgan about how they made their podcast sound so good. Their entry "Why Instagram Is Like A Cocaine-Laced Brownie" was one of our finalists last year and had some of the best production in the competition!

Ever wonder if that local legend has some truth to it? At the Student Podcast Challenge we love to hear a good mystery, so pull out your magnifying glasses and start investigating!We talk with last year's finalist Daniel Wang about his 4 month investigation into a hometown history. He gives advice all about how he made his entry "How A Small Town Discovered The Universe."

In this week's episode of The Students' Podcast we talk with some of our high school finalists from last year who mastered the art of the respectful interview.Three students from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts created a non-narrated podcast about the human stories behind the gun violence epidemic in their hometown of Washington, DC. Interviewing family and friends, the students let the interviewees speak for themselves with little editing.