Isabella Marcus-Porter was our Bear in Mind host for this season. She just graduated from Communication with a minor in Journalism, meaning it’s time for a new host. Katie Nord, who is also nicknamed Soup, will be taking over next semester. In this episode, Marcus Porter reflects on her time doing the podcast and what she wishes she could've done differently. Katie and Isabella shared their excitement for the future of this podcast. Katie's plans for podcasting are to produce one about music. (Running time 16:57)
Transcript:
My name is Katie Nord. I am a major in Communications and I have a minor in Journalism and in Digital Marketing.
Isabella Marcus-Porter
So, we have a new host for the podcast, Katie and I sat down to have a little reflection on my time doing the podcast and what she is hoping to bring to it next semester. Also, if you're going into your senior year after Katie, please host Bear In Mind, I can't tell you how hard it was to find another host. It's so worth it.
Can you tell me about your time at UNC?
So, I will be a senior in the fall when I'm taking over the show. My freshman year was really weird because it was when COVID was very prominent. And I was in my dorm, we couldn't really leave the dorms, we had fully online classes. After that I've spent a lot of my time trying to go to events and sponsored clubs around the school because I want to get to know people more. But I've spent a lot of my time working and hanging out with friends and really trying to get I'm trying to do good at school. I get nervous when my grades are low. So, I'm like stressed out about that. But that's just like college.
So why do you want to host Bear In Mind?
Well, I've always wanted to do a podcast. It's always been like a passion project of mine that I just haven't had the time to do. So, I thought if I could learn while I'm doing Bear In Mind podcast, then I can do it myself. On my own time once I graduate. I've always wanted to go into media and all of that jazz, but I just have not had the time.
I've definitely felt that. And what do you hope to gain from hosting it?
Experience, I would love to just really know what I'm doing. And be confident in that. So that when I am out in the workforce, I can say, hey, I know exactly what I'm doing. And I think that's a good quality to look for in people. Confidence.
And it's like a super interchangeable thing. Because knowing how to do stuff like this could help with a lot of other things. Like can do radio, even video editing, because some of it goes hand in hand.
I did radio for about a year almost, I just finished in the winter.
Can you tell me about that?
Yeah, so I worked as a co-host/intern at pirate radio. It's like a local radio station that plays oldies. And I would go in every single morning to co-host with the host George. He's like the owner of the station. I didn't really like the music because it's like stuff that I didn't listen to. But I did a lot of experience with hosting myself answering the calls, talking to people, and getting sponsorship slots. That takes a lot of effort.
So, you already have sort of the experience to go along with taking over the podcast and stuff like that.
I hope so. Yeah, maybe
I think you'll do good.
I'm not gonna talk myself up too highly, because I might start and then immediately forget everything.
Nah, I don’t think that's possible.
So, what are you scared of when it comes to hosting it?
You know, I'm a little scared I'm gonna embarrass myself live. Like if I'm going to record a podcast. And then I'll just say something really stupid. And I'm like, I don't think I can edit that out, can I? Or I'm a little worried that I might not get done on time, you know. Time management, something that I kind of struggle with. So, I would like to actually be productive when I'm recording these podcasts.
Yeah, I think as long as you like, stay on top of it. It should be good. I know. I'm rushing very hard to get all of them done right now. But that is also partly because we started late. And partly because I'm also very bad with time management.
Do you have a quota you need to get out?
Sixteen. So one each week for the semester. Yeah. So, I knew that it was going to be a lot of work. Once I started taking it on. I was just like, dang. This is a lot of work. Yeah, I feel like it was worth it. But it's hard.
And you're working on top of this to your job outside of school and your commute. So, it's just cute, girly things ha-ha fun and fresh.
Yeah. But honestly the only thing is that, like if I went back, I would have done it a little bit differently. But I wouldn't have not done it.
Yeah, and you're learning and you're growing.
Exactly
You know what you're doing.
Yeah. And plus, I sort of went into this with the same mindset as you have like wanting to come in and do my own podcast. And that's what I'm gonna start doing after school. I just need to get like a good microphone that isn't, you know, the crappy on I have on my desk, but I sort of wanted to start out doing my own thing. So, it really helped me learn how to stay on top of like, doing my work, and hopefully once I leave school, I'll have a lot more free time to be able to do that and to be able to put into it but, I think ultimately you and I kind of had that similar wanting to go into this to do our own thing. So, like talking about job experience, like, it'll definitely help with that. But it'll also I think it motivates me and makes me less scared to want to start to do my own thing.
Exactly. You're learning and you get to know how to do things over time. And when you go out, like, like, what do you call it like a bird? When you leave the nest, when you leave the nest, or the recording studio at UNC, you know what you're doing when you're on your own.
Yeah. And it's also just talking to the media team. They are they always telling me like, "this episode is so much better than the last one." They're like, from the very first episode, the very first episode was like, 40 minutes long. 30 to 40 minutes long, and they're like, Yeah, we're gonna try to keep it at 20 minutes. Okay, cool. But it was like, it was just a lot. Yeah, it was a lot more than what I actually needed. And it wasn't really focused on what I wanted it to be focused on. So, I think focusing it really helped make the process easier.
I feel like, if anybody told me like, your episode was better than the last one, I think I would cry a little bit.
I was like, Oh, I'm a little bit offended. But also like, thank you, I appreciate it. I know, when I sent Shawn the first one, he's like, oh, this is really good. Like you're setting the bar really high for yourself. And I'm like, thank you. But now looking back on it. I'm like, wow, that was kind of bad. Like, I really could have done it better.
I feel like looking back at the first project do you ever do for some things embarrassing?
Can you tell me about the process of like working with Shawn to become the new host?
See, this is this is kind of funny. There wasn't really a process. I was sometime like a week or two ago, probably less than that walking to plant some trees. Because it was our Arbor days. I went to school. It was Arbor Day and UNC was having some trees being planted. And they invited students to help with Student Leaf.
And so, I was walking down the hall and I was like, oh, Shawn's here because I walked past this studio. I was like, Hey, Sean, what's up? And he goes, Katie, Katie, stop. What are you doing right now? And I'm like, whoa, hey, nice to say hello to you, too. And he goes, what are you doing next semester? And I told him my class schedule. And he goes, so Katie, you're still doing radio, right? You're doing audio stuff? I said, Yeah, I am. I just finished the radio internship and just finishing up finals. Now. He goes, so this may be sudden, but do you want to be the host for Bear In Mind next year in the fall? And I was like, Okay, this is really sudden. But I would love to do that. Because I'm always on board to try new things. So, it was very, very sudden. But he did kind of chase me down in the hall. So, I'm glad that happened.
I’m glad that happened too because I remember I walked in that day, I got to Shawn like, hey, so has anybody said that they wanted to be the new host yet? Or am I just gonna have to do an episode by myself for the last one? And he's like, nobody has said anything. They don't check their emails. And I'm like yeah. But then he texted me was grabbing something from a car. He’s like, where are you? And I’m like I’m grabbing something from my car, he's like, I found a new host.
Where are you right now? Drop what you’re doing.
Drop what you're doing. Come in. Meet this person right now.
I feel like I startled you a little bit.
Yeah. Well, you didn't startle me. I was just like, so surprised that it happened so suddenly.
It was so awkward. I was like "hey, Shawn, what's up?" He's like, "Just stay here. I'm finding Isabella. I don't know where she is. But she'll be here in a second."
What are you hoping to do in the future? And how would hosting Bear In Mind help with that?
Well, I want to go into radio or news, or podcasting in general, some kind of media. I did video production on commission for a while. I don't know how much I enjoyed that. But I was okay at it. But I would prefer to do my own podcasts, which is why I wanted to get into this, because podcasts are pretty popular if you're good. It's a very saturated market. But if you're good at it, you'll stand out.
Yes, because this is going to be a practicum for you as well. How would you say that UNC has sort of facilitated that with like your previous experience and stuff like that?
Well, getting into UNC’s podcast would be really different than what I'm used to because it's supervised and you have to be under certain, like an umbrella of topics. So, you can't exactly say what you want, like you can, but it has to be within reason. So, I feel like finding that middle ground between having an entertaining podcast that's fun and interesting to listen to. While also having it be centered around UNC the events in the clubs and stuff. That would be the best outcome is making sure it's like fun for everyone to listen to but also informative.
One thing for me was like I had such a wide range of topics and one thing that I kind of wish I did was go out of the humanities area a bit more because I think I talked to two theater people. I talked to some staff who were doing stuff with different programs in the college. But I didn't talk to a lot of people outside of the humanities program. So, I think that's one thing that I wish I did a little bit more because it was so easily accessible for me to get people from the humanities program rather than like, other places. But I'd say that I still have a pretty wide range of topics, like I literally had an episode about a professor who talks about policing. And then one about somebody who's doing like Dungeons and Dragons. There's there's a very wide range of episodes. I just wish that it was more wide.
And it's hard to reach out to like, say, people in the Mathematics department because like, you're never you're never around the math department. You don't know people in there.
I’m like, I just want you to come on my podcast.
I just want to talk to you.
Exactly, I think you're interesting.
I just want to have a fun conversation.
So, I think that was the hardest part was trying to get people who were like trying to get a broad range of people.
It would be cool to hear some more people. Like get some computer science people in here.
Exactly like it go find like all the folks and it's also just that it had to be more than just what are you studying at school? Like, Nathan was one that I did. It was on the queer D&D group that's through the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center.
Yeah.
And that one was so fun, because Nathan is always super fun to talk to. I think everybody that I've talked to, I've always had like, such a good time talking to them. And interviewing them was super rewarding. But with them, I already knew them from a previous story that I was doing. So, I also tried to implement a little bit of questioning basically being like, how does your Theater major work into this? Like, how does this work? But it's hard because I want to know about what people are doing within the school, but I'm also like, so how does your major work into that? How does that work?
It's interesting to get to know the people more personally as you're interviewing them, as well, but you have a time limit. Yeah. Ask them all about themselves. Yeah.
Because then when I have like a 30, or 40-minute interview, I either have to make it to parts or I have to cut out a lot.
Do you have any ideas of who you are wanting to interview or what topics you are wanting to cover?
As I was kind of brainstorming my ideas for the podcast for next semester, I thought, since it's a UNC based podcast, I wanted to get as many clubs in here as possible, like the club, the club presidents, that's the word club presidents or events that are happening. There's like the Bear Cave online, where you can see all of the clubs and all of the events happening. And I feel like people would be more prone to listen to the podcast, if they could hear about upcoming events or clubs they can join, especially for like incoming freshmen who haven't been in a club before or don't know people are on campus, and they want to branch out, get out of their comfort zone a little bit. So, getting to know the clubs and the people around campus I feel like would be really helpful. I also really wanted to do an episode about like, tips and tricks for incoming freshmen like what to avoid what to do if you're moving in, don't bring 60 storage containers, because you really don't need that many, you know, like, where are you gonna put exactly like the rooms are a lot smaller than you think. I lived in Harrison for two years, it's little.
So, this sudden cut off is because we did kind of go on a tangent. And we had 12 minutes of us talking about stuff ranging from cars to Five Nights at Freddy's to horror movies its off topic and super fun. But now, back to the podcast.
After our little tangent. Got a little sidetracked.
I have one last question, which is, since you're doing this to want to do a podcast, what would your podcast be about?
Okay, so well, generally speaking. For those who don't know, my nickname is Soup, like a bowl of soup. I don't know where it came from. I don't know when it started years ago, but I wanted to start a podcast called Mystery Soup. Because it would be different each episode would be talking about different things. Whether that be like popular events happening pop culture events, or just like something I have been enjoying lately.
I watch my mom listens to like those murder podcasts during work. And she'll be she'll be sitting at her desk typing mortgages out into her computer and then it's like her arms were cut off or legs were cut off. I'm like Mom, what are you listening to? So, I don't know if I could. I like the murder podcast. I think I'd stay away from there.
If I could do any podcasts about anything. It would probably be talking about music that I really enjoy, and I want people to listen to. So I would talk about the bands and their past and how they came up into a band and then the music they do maybe stories about it. I thought that would be cool. That'd be super interesting. I would love to listen knew that you know.
Just like because I listened to a bunch of different podcasts like, especially when I work and true crime is also one of the big ones that I listened to while I work. But I think especially like the culture around certain types of music and stuff like that is super interesting. Like taking a deep dive into those would be super cool.
It would be so fun. And especially music because I'm learning how to speak Spanish. I've been taking Spanish for about like six years, I think. I'm rusty, because spoken in a while but I like to listen to music in different languages. And I have no idea what they're saying. But it's it's, I'm having a fun time. It’s catchy.
Also, the same. I've taken like 11 years of Spanish, but yeah, so rusty just because I don't talk to people in Spanish. But I love listening to Spanish music. I love listening to K-pop I don’t know a single thing in Korean. I like the songs that are in these different languages. I don't know how to speak them.
I'll listen to K-pop and they'll throw in an English word every once in a while. Like, "I know that one. They just said party, I understood it. I'm fluent."
Exactly. I'm fluent. I could literally go there right now and be able to be just fine.
Yeah, I like to think my Spanish is good enough that if I were dropped off in Spain or Mexico, I could tolerate it and I wouldn't totally get lost.
Although it is bittersweet that is ending. I'm happy that I took the risk to do the podcast. I'm also happy that it started with me but will not end with me. I know that Katie or Soup will make a great host. And I'm excited to see where she takes a podcast. This has helped me grow and learn and I got to meet so many people that I had never thought of and hear them talk about their experience at UNC it does feel like it ended before I even truly got started. So, for the last time, I'm your host Isabella Marcus-Porter giving you a taste of UNC.
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