We Speak In Sound Waves

Words by Alex Marinkovich-Josey (he/him)

I got my start in podcasting at 14, when my geeky dad revealed his impressive collection of audio recording equipment to me. He had been podcasting with my mum and passed on to me. I launched a small pop culture podcast with one of my oldest friends and we kept going for nearly two years. I continued to experiment in the audio space, creating interview shows, tabletop-roleplaying shows, and more. Yeah, I was a nerd, but I had made a space where I was able to express myself and find people who wanted to talk about the same things.

When I moved to New Zealand, I felt lost as a New Zealander who had never lived here. I expressed that culture shock through my show with Salient Podcasts, ^Stranger at Home^. My co-host Gil and I routinely converse with academics, students, immigrants, and politicians about their experiences with national, cultural, and personal identity. It’s been incredibly cathartic. My own struggles with learning to fit in have become a point of connection not difference, as I had initially feared they would.

Now, as the Podcast Manager at Salient Podcasts, I want to take my passion for self-expression and connect more students at VUW to the opportunities of podcasting. I want to see Salient Podcasts continue to engage with audiences on campus and around the country, and to get more people to try out podcasting for themselves. I’d love to force the country at large to pay attention to student issues through Salient Podcasts, especially given that it’s an election year. For podcasters, we’ve got our decked-out studio available for use and opportunities to connect with professional podcasters in the works!  

Podcasting has been around since blogging was a thing. Hell, they both use RSS feeds. Audioblogs were a major step away from radio to on-demand content. Audio journalism was democratised so that anyone with passion and a decent microphone was able to reach other fans of whatever they wanted to talk about. The internet became a machine constantly facilitating expression en-masse, and podcasting has continued to boom throughout the years. If you’ve got an interest, you can guarantee there is a podcast about it. Podcasting is a wide space, with plenty of room for everyone.

You can expect to hear from the rest of our shows soon as they return to ramp up production over the next few weeks. For now, to meet the crew, here's a playlist of some of our current podcasts: 

If you’ve got hot takes you just have to share, a funky conspiracy theory that audiences need to know, or just want to be a part of the crew that's taking student media to new heights, Salient Podcasts is the place to be. If you want to try out expressing those ideas you’ve got pent up via podcasting, flick us a pitch at podcasts@salient.org.nz. Check out our instagram for more details!