Position(s): 2022 Managing Podcast Editor, 2021 Senior Podcast Editor, 2020 Content Producer
Section(s): Podcast
Semesters at The Daily: 6
Over the past year’s production meetings with the team of The Daily Weekly, TMD’s news podcast and my home at The Daily for the past three years, I have felt both deeply proud and quite strange. Seeing a team of people who I interviewed step up into bigger roles with our podcast and continue to do excellent work is awesome and slightly disorienting for me. The team of people I work with is skilled, and caring, and driven, and kind, and smart, and all the other good things I try to be in my work at The Daily and in my life outside of it. I am deeply optimistic for the future of the Podcast section, and yet it doesn’t make sense to me that I’m the old guy on the team. I’m still learning new things about The Daily and about podcasting every day. I still feel like the same guy who interviewed for this team 3 years ago. I should probably stop being surprised by the passage of time soon, but I don’t know if I ever will.
I remember my first production meeting with TDW vividly; I am telling you sincerely that, if I close my eyes, spin around in a circle and listen to Michael Barbaro’s voice for 10 seconds, I can still picture the Chipotle bowl that Kareem, one of our Content Producers at the time, was eating. I would bet you $100 that it had double chicken. I remember how we had our fancy microphones and pop filters set up around the table in the downstairs conference room, and I remember how professional our more experienced members were when they were speaking into the mic. Gerald Sill, one of last year’s MPEs, and I were both new members at that meeting, sitting and observing. Including Gerry, everybody in that room has left the Podcast section and gone onto other wonderful things. Well, besides me. That’s what I mean when I tell the people on my team how old I feel. I guess it’s my time to move onto my own wonderful things.
As a self-proclaimed old person, I have had the opportunity to work with and learn from a lot of Wonderful people (capital Wonderful), and I want to specifically thank some of them here.
To Sonya, the person who hired me and taught me what the Podcast section is all about, thank you. Your consistent belief in my abilities is the reason I am here and the driving force behind the work I have done with The Daily. I am honored to have called you my MPE, and I am honored now to call you a friend. Keep killing grad school up in Vermont; I know it’s hard work, but just remember what Jeremih said on his hit song Paradise: “It gets better.”
To Max, who is the reason I interviewed for The Daily and also the reason I auditioned for the Men’s Glee Club (so, essentially, the director of my life), I thank you both for your friendship and your taste in extracurricular activities. I would rather have no other co-captain of the Podcast ship. I think often about how fortunate it was for me that we ended up in the same hall freshman year.
To Kayla, the EP of The Daily Weekly and the hardest worker I know, it has been so awesome to see you excel in leading the pod over this past year. Taking the position of EP was no small thing, and you did it and did it well. You are a true leader, and the work that you have done this year to support our newer staff has been extraordinary. Working closely with you and Sofia over this past year has been a tremendous experience for me. Thank you.
To Sofia, I thank you for your consistent care for and dedication to the Podcast section. I can’t believe you stayed engaged with TDW even when you were abroad in Spain! You have consistently worked to highlight good causes and provide critical perspectives on whatever topic we’re covering, and TDW will miss your insight.
To Gerry, Sam, Emily, I thank you for your friendship and hard work to bring the Podcast section forward, and, to next year’s team of TDW, I thank you for what you have done so far and look forward to seeing what is to come!
Lastly, to The Michigan Daily, thank you, goodnight and go blue. There are so many wonderful people at The Daily who I never got to meet, and it makes me proud to be associated in some small way with the great work that gets done here. Even after my six semesters, I feel like I hardly knew you, TMD, but I wish you all the best.