Journalism major launches podcast to give voice to her hometown<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
When the COVID-19 pandemic sent Monica Sager ’21 home early from her semester in Washington, D.C., she continued to do what she does best — report the news around her.<\/p>\n
A self-designed major<\/a> in journalism, with a second major in psychology<\/a>, Sager created a podcast<\/a> about her hometown of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, interviewing teachers, farmers, public safety officials, and business owners about how their lives have changed in the wake of the virus. “I got the idea to start my podcast, ‘Pottstown Voices,’ a few weeks ago to show that we’re all in this pandemic together,” she says. “I’m able to have a wide range of different voices.”<\/p>\n Today, Sager has posted 10 episodes on SoundCloud, with a new episode going live every few days, on average. She conducts and records each interview over the phone and promotes the show via social media, including on dedicated Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a> pages. Sager, who has spoken with a fitness studio owner, a land trust manager, several students, and a speech therapist, among others, says her goal is to highlight how the pandemic is affecting everyone in her community.<\/p>\n “A lot of the people in the beginning who I reached out to were family friends or people who I’m friendly with, but I did try to create themes around each episode, so I also reached out to specific businesses,” she says. “I also created an email address for the podcast, which a few people have used to reach out to me with their own stories.”<\/p>\n Story continues after video<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n