What is the mission of your internship organization/department?
I’ve just started the second half of my internship, working with Mills, Abby, and Bridget on the Appalachian Trail Histories project. More specifically, I’m helping support the launch of the new podcast series, The Green Tunnel (a working title based on, quite literally, the tunnel created by green trees that make up the AT).
The podcast aims to extend the CHNM’s mission of democratizing history and bring the historian’s craft of information gathering and story telling to the general public. The plan is to share the story of the AT (for historians), entertain through interesting tales of the trail (for hikers), and/or spark curiosity to learn more about the trail (for non-hikers). The episodes right now span two seasons and are broad enough to captivate a diverse audience while still allowing us to teach the history and evolution of the AT (so we get to be historians but in a fun, sneaky way).
What is your role in the organization/department and how does it support the mission?
So far I’ve just been attending our weekly team meetings, which are essentially brainstorming sessions on how to create this podcast so that it engages audiences enough to sustain their attention and keep them listening to the very end. Because this is a brand-new podcast, we’ve spent some time fleshing out the title, the goal, the 10-word what’s-this-podcast-about sentence, and the audience (with personas),
Mills and Abby just gave the green light today to pick, research, and plan an episode. Together we’ve started to plan episode one, Founding the Trail, and talked about the key elements that actually go into planning an episode:
- A focus sentence, which is a behind-the-scenes reminder of your episode’s characters, conflict, and motivation.
- Episode length, which is a little like Goldilocks. Not too short where your audience goes, “That’s it? I’m so confused.” And not too long where your audience says, “Why are you still talking? Get out of that rabbit hole.”
- Essential elements, which are the vehicles you use to make your podcast – i.e., interviews, sound bytes, narration, primary sources read professionally, and so forth.
- The opening, which is often the hook to your podcast, like recurring segments or interview snippets that frame the episode.
- What the episode is not about, which keeps you on task and helps your episode not veer off topic.
I truly had no idea how many considerations you need to make so that your efforts aren’t in vain and so that your podcast doesn’t totally flop. It’s a creative yet somewhat methodical process – I’m intrigued!
What are you most excited to be doing?
I’m excited that I get to do my two favorite things this semester: research history and tell stories.
My husband and I have hiked for years, including bits of the AT, and I’ve always wondered about the ruins along the trail, so I’m going to research the “Chimneys, Foundations, and Ruins” episode. I like the idea that these remnants (these architectural skeletons) tell the story of life before the trail when the wilderness was more than just a tourist destination. I love the tone that Mills and Abby are going for, which is along the lines of A Walk in the Woods – funny, accessible, engaging.
