Podcasting for Engagement

Podcasting can be a powerful tool to engage with difficult-to-reach audiences, expand professional networks and become established as an authority in your field. In this training, you'll learn about the tools you need to create compelling podcasts about research, to engage with different audiences, and increase your overall impact.

As well as discussing the creation of an engaging narrative, this session will also teach you the all the practicalities of audio production you need to get started on your own. Warwick Institute of Engagement has recently purchased 3 sets of podcasting equipment that you can borrow from us at any point to create your own podcasts. These include high quality microphones/ stands, and a portable recording device to capture separate audio streams.

During the session you'll get the opportunity to record and edit your own mini podcast using our equipment and software freely available to download (also available to those using Warwick managed laptops). This will provide you hands on experience with getting the best setup for recording and editing on your own, with the benefit of an expert on hand to answer questions as they come up.

You'll also learn about how to host and market your podcast to find an audience and begin to grow engagement with your work. By the end you'll have all the skills, tools and information you need to get started… and keep going!

About the trainer:

Dr Anna Ploszajski is an award-winning materials scientist, writer, presenter, podcaster, performer, trainer and storyteller based in London. She has produced and presented her podcast, Handmade, for five years, in which she interviews crafters, makers, movers and shakers about the world of materials and making. These conversations were the inspiration for her first book, Handmade: A Scientist’s Search for Meaning Through Making, published by Bloomsbury.

Anna is an industry specialist in helping scientists and researchers translate their technical content for the audio medium; she has sat on the panel for the British Podcast Awards’ Pulse Award and trains academics and students in planning and producing podcasts for science communication and public engagement. In her spare time, Anna plays the trumpet in a funk and soul covers band and is an ultra-endurance open water swimmer. Oh, and it’s pronounced “Por-shy-ski”.

In advance

We'd recommend you download Audacity - the editing software you'll be using - onto your laptop. You can do this via www.audacityteam.orgLink opens in a new window, or if you're using a Warwick managed machine by visiting the Software Centre (accessed via the start menu) and searching for Audacity.

The mini podcast we'll be asking you to record and edit in this session will (with your permission) be used as part of a series being produced by WIE that aims to encourage people to be curious, ask questions and find out more, based on teaching or research activities that take place at the university. Think about it as a ‘beginners guide to’ … consider the field you work in, this could either be a field that you're doing your own research in, or a field that you teach in. We're happy to consider broad or narrow perspectives. What is the field about and what are the three big things from your area that are going on at the moment? What are three pieces of knowledge that impact you/ your work, or the work of others studying in this field? Why are we investing time/ money/ effort exploring these? Where do you see the field developing in the future (this can be either your personal opinion, or a perspective based on what others are saying about the field).

We'll be aiming to release these mini episodes in the run up to the Resonate Festival of Art and Culture, planned for the summer term 2024, aiming to reach an adult audience and encourage them to come and visit the festival and come to other events. You do not need to be planning to run anything for the festival to take part in this series, and you can be from any discipline. Before the session have a think about the theme of the podcast, and what you might want to talk about. You'll have time during the session to come up with a narrative to engage the audience so this is just to give you time in advance to collect ideas and some rough notes.