PODCAST WORK
Missouri Business Alert, an online publication that reports on business news around the state, produces a weekly podcast, called Speaking Startup, about entrepreneurs and startup networks across Missouri. In my final semester at MU, I co-hosted and produced the podcast, often reporting Q&As as well. You can listen to some of my work below. Click here to see all of my podcast episodes, many of which I also reported and produced Q&As and packages for (once to the site, click "Season 5" to see my episodes). Below are some of my highlights.
The Business Community of Eldon, Missouri
My most recent podcast segment for Speaking Startup took place over the span of a year. I interviewed the publisher of a local newspaper of a small town just before the pandemic began. Almost a year later, I re-interviewed the publisher, who had since been elected the town's mayor, and discussed the importance of a small business community in a town that had faced repeated hardships. Mid-Missouri was hit by a tornado in May 2019, and then the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The intro to my segment begins at 4:55, and goes through around 13:20.
Hyperloop Coverage
Throughout my entire first semester working at Missouri Business Alert, I followed state efforts to bring hyperloop technology to Missouri. My work, along with interviews done by other students, was compiled into a special edition of our weekly podcast focused exclusively on hyperloop technology. The hosts invited me on the podcast to share the background and the most important information about the hyperloop. Although I contributed to the whole podcast, including editing and producing, the interview with me begins at around 2:20 and ends around 9:00.
You can also read my full story below on the final report from the government panel created to discuss the opportunities of hyperloop technology. The article was based on the report, of which I followed from early drafts, along with separate interviews and events I attended around the technology.
State Funding of Entrepreneurs
Over the past five years, the Missouri government has decreased funding for the Missouri Technology Corporation, a state organization that provides grants and resources for Missouri's entrepreneurs and innovation centers. I spoke with the directors of several of those innovation centers to discuss how the funding cuts threatened the centers and the entrepreneurship communities they support. While I hosted and produced the entire episode, the intro to this segment begins at 3:40 and goes through around 10:55.
Full Shows
This show was the last show I recorded in our professional studio, as campus was just beginning to close down. After this, we had to relearn how to use the limited technology we had, and how to maintain a rapport on the podcast while over a thousand miles apart. In this podcast, we had no idea the scope of what the coronavirus pandemic would become.
This show is a good example of the main topics we'd focus on. Our two primary stories are a Q&A with a software development company from Kansas City that joined an international effort to privately track the spread of COVID-19, and then a look at how the pandemic was affecting investment into early-stage companies.
Audio Packages
For my first audio package, before I began hosting and producing the podcast, I looked at the hundreds of people who began applying for licenses to sell medical marijuana after it became legal in Missouri. I spoke with two women who were risking thousands of dollars in application fees to open a dispensary. My story begins at 4:18 and ends around 11:08.
Near the end of my run as podcast host and producer, I looked into the decade-long trend of decreased government funding to the Missouri Technology Corporation, which supports entrepreneurs in the state. While I also hosted this podcast, my package begins around 3:40 and goes to 10:55.
Q&As
For our first podcast we created remotely, I interviewed a founder of Zapier, a company that had never had a physical office. I spoke with the founder, a Mizzou alum, about tips he had for companies moving to remote work. We continued to cover the future of the workplace through the pandemic. While I also hosted this podcast, my Q&A begins around 4:30 and goes to 13:10.
In the final podcast I hosted and produced, we focused on how the pandemic and accompanying recession would force many toward entrepreneurship. I interviewed an organization that helps formerly incarcerated people start their own business, as I am interested in representing marginalized groups. My Q&A begins around 3:40 and goes to 12:06.