Student podcast network highlights interest in format across campus

Logan Butts and Shelby Bratcher  |  01/24/2022

Over the past several years, podcasts have become an increasingly popular medium for telling stories, delivering news, or simply having interesting conversations. The rise in popularity throughout the industry has coincided with a number of podcast ventures here at Lipscomb. 

In the School of Communication, radio has been fully integrated into the department for years. The Bison Radio, an arm of Lumination Network, the school’s student-run news outlet, streams live broadcasts of athletic events, plays music, and hosts shows covering a variety of topics. And in classes, students created audio stories akin to the ones you would hear on your local NPR station. 

But last year, Associate Professor Sarah Gibson and adjunct professor and radio assistant Paul Gibson, looked to expand the department’s audio efforts by spearheading an effort to create a student-run podcast network. 

“It's actually been something we've been wanting to do for a while,” Paul Gibson said. “And many students have shown an interest in doing it, but it's just been a matter of getting the idea developed enough to where it was something that we could put out.” 

The network originally started as part of a class, Digital Audio Storytelling, where students created fiction and non-fiction shows alike. The Gibsons, who are married, co-taught the class which oversaw the creation of Mysteries of Music City, a seven-episode true-crime podcast where each iteration explores an under-covered crime from Nashville’s history. The entire season is currently available to stream. 

“It's very moody and kind of grim in a lot of ways, but it's also intriguing and interesting,” Gibson said. “And they dug up some very out-of-the-box stories, most of which I had never heard before. I thought that was really cool.” 

That class also produced a second show set to air, titled Stories from Wonderland, where each episode features a well-known fairy tale…but with a twist. 

 “They had to script all these out as a class, do the research, write it all, and it turned out really well,” Gibson said. 

These shows will air on The Bison, but they will also live on the network’s streaming accounts. For program director and Lumination sports editor Danny Kotula, finding a permanent home for these audio works was an important goal. 

“That was always something that I was looking to as I stepped into this role as something I wanted to prioritize,” Kotula said. “Because I've talked to a lot of people who have great ideas for shows, and they've never really been able to have an outlet for it. As we started to get more people involved, we wanted the shows in a place that felt more permanent. 

“It's really attractive for people who are recording these shows already. They want to show their parents, they want to show family and friends. And now it's a way for us to have another avenue for content at the same time.” 

The next step is to have students working on pieces, whether one-off episodes, entire seasons, or long-running shows, untethered to a class, for the podcast network to function like Lumination. 

“We want students to be able to utilize it,” Gibson said. “We have some guidelines that go with it, obviously, but we’re really open to all different kinds of shows.” 

Freshman Lily Corley has already begun recording episodes of a show called Beyond Entertainment, which explores modern pop culture through a faith-based lens. The series has already aired on The Bison and will soon be available on Spotify.  

“It's always cool the way she can bring a story out of what's already a story,” Kotula said. “Because you look at a movie, you look at a song, it's already telling a story, but then when you can bring a parallel story out of it, it's great content. I think a lot of people will find it interesting and entertaining.” 

Gibson is continuing to teach the class this spring, alongside the School of Communication's Professional-in-Residence Demetria Kalodimos, a longtime news anchor for WSMV. The semester’s pieces will have a focus on evergreen news features and interviews. 

The department also has a pair of upgraded audio bays that they want students to utilize. 

“We’ve now gotten to where we are using all Roadcaster Pro recording rigs, which offers a big step up in production for the students,” Gibson said. “We're really looking forward to teaching them how to use the tools to make their podcasts even better.”

But if Gibson and Kotula were to send one message across campus, it would be that anyone, not just communication students or Lumination staff members, can work with the radio station. 

“I think a lot of students have this expectation that you have to be part of the department to work for the student radio station, produce a show, or produce a podcast,” Gibson said. “You don't, you can be from anywhere or any major across the university.” 

Podcast fans have a wealth of options created by the Lipscomb community 

If those shows sound intriguing, there is more where that came from. Lipscomb faculty and staff are posting a wealth of podcasts each semester. Check out some of the most prominent below.

Tokens
Lee Camp, Professor of Theology and Ethics

The Tokens podcast is one of Lipscomb’s most well-known creative ventures, consistently wowing audiences with moving interviews, thought-provoking questions and theological reflections. According to Libsyn, the podcast’s hosting, distribution and monetization platform, Tokens is in the top 15% of its most tuned-in to podcasts nationwide.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Professor, Lee Camp, transitioned Tokens, his live radio-style variety show, to an online format. The podcast quickly picked up momentum and amassed quite the following. By the end of 2020, Camp had reached a deal with Nashville Public Radio for weekly broadcasts of the podcast on Sunday afternoons.

“We talk about all manner of topics -- questions about personal practices such as intimacy, vulnerability, gratitude and self-compassion, or questions about socio-political topics as diverse as guns, racism, faith and science, feminism and American evangelicalism. But the aim for it all is the same: what are the resources that the best of theological reflection can bring to bear upon issues that relate to human flourishing, that relate to the nature of living a good life?” said Camp. 

Tokens has had guest appearances from Korean-American Eugene Cho, Author Beth Barr, Country star Vince Gill, Room In The Inn founder Charles Strobel, author Cyntoia Brown Long and singer Drew Holcomb. 

You can find episodes of the podcast here or you can tune in to 90.3 WPLN on Sundays at 2 p.m. CST.

Bancroft Brothers Animation
Tom Bancroft, Artist-in-Residence in Animation

Tom Bancroft and his twin brother, Tony Bancroft, have interviewed “almost every major name in the animation industry,” from the director of The Little Mermaid (John Musker) to Pixar director Brad Bird, to animation legends like Disney’s first Black animator Floyd Norman.

The Bancroft Brothers speak from their own experience as they are both past Disney animators, they operate their own animation businesses and have an eye on what the future of animation holds.

“My twin brother and I love the animation industry we work and live thousands of miles apart, so it's a time for us to stay connected and share our passion,” said Tom Bancroft.

“We have received wonderful comments through the years of how we have impacted our listeners and inspired their animation careers,” he said. “Most importantly, we have been open about faith in a few episodes, and I have often heard that those episodes were life changing for Christians in our field. That is very affirming to me.”

The podcast is produced bi-weekly and received about 10,000 downloads in the first month of its launch in 2014.

You can find The Bancroft Brothers Animation Podcast on Apple Podcasts.

 

The Bible For Kids
Mike Nawrocki, Visiting Professor of Film & Creative Media

Since 2019, Amy Parker and Mike Nawrocki have released over 100 episodes of their podcast: The Bible for Kids.

“With retail no longer being a great place for people to discover new media for kids, we wanted to provide a platform for authors, musicians, filmmakers, etc., anyone who is providing resources that help teach the Bible or Biblical values to kids, for their work to be discovered by parents and teachers,” said Nawrocki, most famously known for his co-founding of the children’s TV series VeggieTales.

As the voice of Larry the Cucumber, Nawrocki certainly knows how to keep a kid's attention. 

Over the podcast’s life, it has featured a great range of guests including Michael W. Smith, Matthew West, Max Lucado, Ellie Holcomb and Stephen Kendrick. 

You can listen to his podcast on Apple Podcasts. 

 

Not a Trip
University Missions

Since early 2021, the Lipscomb Missions Department has been sharing their purpose and the experiences of alumni, students, partners and friends year-round in its “Not A trip” podcast.

“Our purpose for our short-term missions program is not to ‘help someplace far away and come home’,” explained Emily Bruff, assistant director of missions, “but rather to learn from our host partners around the world and in Nashville about what living daily ‘on mission’ looks like, and then translate that into our own context at home.”

Guests on the first season of 14 podcasts included mission team leaders, participants and on-location partners in Australia, Nicaragua, Moldova, the island of Nevis, New York City and more.

Listeners of “Not A Trip” love the authenticity that their stories radiate, Bruff said. “We believe what we offer is not a singular experience, rather it is part of a larger story of missional living,” she said. 

The second season of “Not a Trip” launched this past November and can be found on Apple, Spotify, Audible, and on Lipscomb’s website.

 

Mommy Needs a Moment
Sarah Gibson, Associate Professor of Communication

As an educator on the topic of podcasts, no one knows the topic better than Sarah Gibson. 

So in the tough year of 2020, she decided to launch her own. That year was an exceptionally rough and packed moment for Gibson due to the loss of her mother and mother-in-law, then the birth of her second child, not to mention the onset of the pandemic.

“The New York Times did a series on the crisis and how mothers, in particular working mothers, were not ok. I was feeling the same way,” said Gibson. “Overwhelmed and facing the daunting impossible task of keeping children safe, being there for my students, dealing with deaths in my own family, adjusting to life as the mother of two, and isolated from others, I just knew something had to change. I had to find a way through it.”

That’s when Gibson decided to launch Mommy Needs a Moment. Each podcast episode ranges 3-6 minutes and tells a story or observation followed by a motivational thought or lesson to send listeners off on a high-note. 

Gibson hopes the podcast can be a support system to all moms. Most of all, she wants them to leave feeling like they are doing a good job. 

“I don't claim to know all the answers, but I look for the lessons, the motivation, the positive outcomes and the humor in being a mom. I just try to bring a little calm to the chaos and give moms a moment to invest in their own well-being,” said Gibson. 

You can stream Mommy Needs a Moment on Spotify, Audible, or Facebook. 

 

And here are even more:

• The Ayers Institute for Learning & Innovation has produced three podcast series: Ayers Institute Lunch & Learn, My Why: Stories of Inspiration from Educators and Spotlight, bringing resources and inspiration to educators. Listen here. 
• The Institute for Sustainable Practice hosts a podcast featuring the stories of graduates of the master’s programs. Listen here.
• The Public Relations and Communications Department hosts a podcast featuring the interesting, unique and impressive people of the Lipscomb community. Listen here.
• Rob Touchstone, founder of The Well Coffeehouse and director of Lipscomb’s Business As Mission program, hosts Talmidim: Living Into The Story of Jesus, a journey into the story of Jesus via the gospel of Luke and the Holy Spirit. Listen here.