Podcast 360 Episode 1

Host: Arielle Nissenblatt, Guest: Toya Coleman

Podcast 360 - Episode 1 - S2 Transcript

Arielle: [00:00:00] Welcome to Podcast 360 powered by the Podcast Academy. In three questions answered in 60 seconds each, you'll experience a 360 degree view of podcasting from the people who make up the industry. I'm Arielle Nissenblatt, founder of EarBuds Podcast Collective and Community Marketing Manager at Descript.

The first season of Podcast 360 featured podcast company founders, including myself, as we interviewed each other about what it takes to build a successful company in this industry. [00:00:30] We're putting podcast hosts in the hot seat, who will become the new chain of podcast perspective. I'm your host of the day, though you'll hear my voice throughout the season.

For our first episode, I'm kicking it off by interviewing Toya Coleman, who I am excited now to welcome to the show.

Hello, Toya, 

Toya: hi, hi Ariel. I'm so excited to be here. I am a toy, like you already said, I am a podcaster. My podcast is called, That Wasn't in My Textbook. It's our bi weekly [00:01:00] podcast that helps us uncover things we always wish we learned from that boring funky textbook. I enjoy doing it. It's fun. a real focus on non white history, um, and making the history fun and talking about how, like, things in the past connect currently because history is not just what's happening a long time ago, but we're making history every day.

Arielle: Something we knew we'd have to bring back this season is the way we start every show with a round of two truths and a lie. You'll provide us with three facts about yourself, and I will guess which one is the lie. At the end of our conversation today, you will [00:01:30] tell us the correct answer. Are you ready to go with your two truths and a lie?

Toya: Yes, I've been preparing. I don't know if we can win Two Truths and One Lie, but I want to win. I believe you can. Okay.

My first one is, I studied abroad in South Africa for seven years and had a relationship with my instructor. I was born in a hospital that no longer exists, and I skipped school in second grade. 

Arielle: Like, the whole year? 

Toya: One day. 

Arielle: Just one day. Okay, let's go through [00:02:00] those one by one. You studied abroad in South Africa for seven years?

Toya: Seven months. 

Arielle: Okay, I'm like very off on your timing for this one for some reason. Okay, I am gonna say that You studied abroad in South Africa for seven months. The second one was what? 

Toya: I was born in a hospital that no longer exists. 

Arielle: Okay. I also was born in a hospital that no longer exists. So I think that that is true.

And your third, why can't I remember anything is that you skipped school in second grade, uh, for a day. 

Toya: One day. Yeah. 

Arielle: Okay. So you like on purpose [00:02:30] decided to skip school as an eight year old. 

Toya: Yes. 

Arielle: I'm going to say the lie is that you did not study abroad for seven months. You studied abroad for three months.

That's so I'm going to go on a technicality. 

Toya: Okay. And I can't say anything. 

Arielle: No, don't tell me now. 

Toya: Okay, cool. 

Arielle: Now that we have that taken care of, we're going to learn even more about you, Toya, as I ask you three questions related to podcasting, and you'll have 60 seconds to answer each. After that, we'll pick one of the subjects that we covered, and we will revisit it in greater detail.

And you can elaborate on any thoughts you [00:03:00] want to share. Are you ready for my three questions in 60 seconds each?

Toya: I think I'm ready. 

Arielle: My first question is this, you have a podcast, it's called, That Was Not In My Textbook, and I'm a big history person, so I'm always curious about how other people got into their interest in history.

So I'd like to hear from you, why history? What is your background in it?

Toya: I studied in college. On history, like I went to Wesleyan University, I did African American studies. But before that, I think I was already interested in the history. Like I grew up in Harlem when Harlem was very much black. Still, it's [00:03:30] being gentrified now, like most cities.

But, um, I went to like elementary and middle school that were led by black principals and had like, Black teachers, and I thought everyone was having that experience, but they weren't. And I think it's really rare even now to have like a lot of black teachers in schools. So doing that and like having been in these schools by black principals who wanted to teach students about themselves all year round.

That was my early introduction to that. I was singing Lift Every Voice and Sing in the morning. I was doing meditation. I was learning about myself 365. And [00:04:00] so I kind of just wanted to replicate that through my podcast. And with 2020, the pandemic, and I think the awakening around race and police brutality, it really inspired me to do a podcast.

Arielle: Just under the wire. Is that right? 

Toya: Yes. Three seconds left. 

Arielle: Hell yeah. Good job. 

Toya: Do I roll over seconds? No. Okay. 

Arielle: My next question for you is It's so hard to have a podcast that requires research. And yes, you studied history in college, but you're not a PhD in [00:04:30] history, are you? 

Toya: No. 

Arielle: Okay. Just confirming. Um, Dr.

Toya, and I wonder, do you ever experience imposter syndrome? And if so, how do you deal with it?

Toya: I don't know if I experienced imposter syndrome, but one of my deepest fears is like saying something wrong or like including it. like inaccurate history and, or information maybe. And, um, yeah, that's a deep fear.

And I think that's why I spend so much time like endlessly researching. And I think that's why it's also hard for me to be a weekly [00:05:00] podcast. Like I'm bi weekly. I want to be weekly. Um, My hope is that I can hire a researcher or someone who's like really well versed in it to help me. But yeah, I don't know, like imposter syndrome, but it's like a deep fear of like someone going on Instagram or TikTok and being like, look at this girl.

She said this and it is wrong. Um, so yeah, I do have that and I'm trying to find new ways. Like I'm relaunching and I'm trying to find new ways. to um, kind of make it a little bit more current. And so some stuff I'm going to start doing like history of the [00:05:30] month at the end of each month where we could talk about like maybe the Drake and Kendrick beef or like whatever happened that month.

So I'm going to try to have some pop culture moments that don't take research because we're doing history now. 

Arielle: That's awesome. I love that idea. It also makes it more topical so people can glom onto it. They have to listen to it now. They have to get to the bottom of what's going on. 

Toya: Yes, exactly. 

Arielle: Awesome.

My third and my last question for you, Toya, is I would love for you to tell us about the Stony Brook Podcast Fellowship. That's how I think you and I first got introduced. It is a really cool program [00:06:00] that I think it's 10 months long. You'll get into it, but I'd love to hear how you first heard about this program, you know, just for folks who might be interested in joining it themselves and how it's changed how you exist in the podcast space.

Toya: I heard about the Stonybook, I think it's the Stonybook Audio Fellowship Program. I heard about it through a, like a Google group. I'm in like a Google group for podcasters and someone posted about it. I went to like a digital open house and I was like, okay, I want to do this. This sounds cool. As a podcaster who was interested in going into it professionally, I [00:06:30] felt like it was really helpful to me in terms of just learning about the industry, production, even like networking, like how I met you and like other people in the podcast space.

And even the people in my class, like they're so amazing. There's people who haven't started a podcast, people who have started a podcast. So I think that's what I love about it. I think it depends. Like if you're already kind of well versed in podcasting, you have to think about your goal. The instructors are amazing.

They're a great resource to me. And I feel like it's really helped me even think about how I want to like tell my story and like narration. And I feel like [00:07:00] I've really stepped, I'm going to step up my game now that I've really kind of had the time to dissect it and do all the things backwards. Like I started my podcast just because I wanted to.

And now being in the program, I'm like, okay, who's my audience? All those things that you feel like you never have the time to think about. I was forced to, and it's like structured in a 14 month program, to like really flesh out your idea. 

Arielle: Okay, that was awesome. We know each other, but it's been great to get to hear your insights in this formal setting.

We now have the opportunity to pick one of the topics that we covered, and we can go a little deeper on it. Is there anything that you're [00:07:30] interested in going back to? I feel like there's a lot to uncover in the Stony Brook program, and that might actually be helpful for a lot of our listeners. Would you care to go in that direction?

Toya: Yeah, I'd love to talk about the Sony Book Program. 

Arielle: Okay, awesome. Well, tell me about your cohort. Tell me about sort of the structure of the however many weeks it was that you were in this program. Podcast 360. We'll be back in just a moment. And we're back with Podcast 360. 

Toya: Yeah, online it says 30 weeks, which I think is about, I think you're right, like [00:08:00] 10 months.

It's like you meet once a month on a Tuesday or you meet every Tuesday. It's like every Tuesday for like 30 weeks. So it's like weekly and it's like three hours. My cohort is full of so many different people. Some people like me who already have a podcast. There's some people who are starting a podcast and then there's also some people who just have been in the podcast space like professionally.

And for me, my goal was to, I already had a podcast, so I wanted to kind of strengthen my podcast. I had like a new podcast idea that I [00:08:30] wanted to pitch and then I wanted to learn about the industry. I wanted to kind of like network and learn about that because I'm interested in doing podcast production outside of just my podcast.

So I love it and learned so much like through the podcast cohort I got to speak at podcast movement. Like one of my classmates was like, oh, I'm doing a panel. Do you wanna be on my panel? So that was like really cool. And we had final presentations last week, and then a lot of people went to go see the Yankees game afterwards.

So now I feel like, you know, with podcasting, you're kind of like in a silo, like you're at home on a [00:09:00] mic. Sometimes you're like in a virtual setting like this, but, um, with the cohort, it felt like I had like colleagues, right. And like people I could talk to and bounce ideas off of. And then the instructors are so amazing and they've been doing podcasting professionally.

So they would like allow us to have one on ones. They looked over my resume. Um, they're helping me like search for a job. And so it's just been like a really good way to kind of go backwards. Like I just started my podcast cause I wanted to, and I was inspired, but I never really thought about like, who's my audience and like, You know, my metadata, my meta [00:09:30] tags on like search engines in the actual platform.

So it really kind of gave me a moment to kind of sit back and be like, okay, let me do some of the stuff that I feel like I never had time for. That's very important. And also get like feedback from people. I met you through there. I've met so many other people who have given me free consultations and feedback.

on my podcast. So it's just been like a really helpful way to like connect with other people and learn. And I really am interested in like, even like how I can improve the sound of my podcast, like using [00:10:00] music or silence or like thinking about doing stuff outside, like the, just like laying tape and learning these terminologies that like I never knew before that are used in professional settings that I can now apply to myself and use moving forward.

Arielle: Is there one thing, one piece that you learned from this program that you can for sure say you did not know before the program? I love to give really concrete advice to folks that listen to me on podcasts, and I would love to [00:10:30] be able to transfer something from your brain to our listeners. One thing that really stands out to you.

Toya: That's so hard because there's so many, I learned so many things, but I think as someone who already had a podcast experience. in the program, I think I learned like, I cannot be my target audience. You know what I mean? Like it has to be something beyond that. And so we had a project where we had to like, if you already had a podcast, like I went on Instagram and was like, if you look to my podcast, let me talk to you for like five minutes and I'll give you like a bookmark or something.

And I actually got to Speak to people and being like, [00:11:00] Oh, like now I know the profiles of the different, like there's like three, two or three profiles. And I'm like, okay, this is who the people are that listen to my podcast. So now moving forward, when I'm thinking about topics or thinking about new segments, I know that this person, this resonates with these different people that listen to my podcast and they're not exactly like me.

And that's important in order to be successful. 

Arielle: Wanted to ask you about this program because I think it's really great that there are more and more programs like this popping up. I did an audio documentary program in Maine [00:11:30] called Salt, where I learned about journalistic ethics and how to produce audio and how to interview and how to find good tape.

And I love finding out that there are others like it that exists because it's all in service of growing the podcast space. And I'm really excited to see what you and your cohort do after you officially wrap up just, I mean, I guess last week, right? 

Toya: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Last week. I'm excited. I'm excited to get back into podcasting and apply what I've learned..

Arielle: Awesome. There is just one more thing to do before we wrap up things here. It's time to [00:12:00] find out which of your three facts is a lie. Remember that from just a few minutes ago. So to recap, my guess was that you did not study abroad in South Africa for seven months. You studied abroad in South Africa, sure, but not for seven months.

And also there was a juicier part to that fact and I just didn't even get into it. So I'll let you let us know.

Toya: The lie is that I was born in a hospital that no longer exists. 

Arielle: Okay, tell us more about that. 

Toya: Um, the hospital I was born in still exists. [00:12:30] I just put it in there. 

Arielle: That's a good one. Honestly, it got me. Like I said, the hospital I was born in doesn't exist anymore. So it hit me. 

Toya: But yeah, I did study abroad for seven months.

I did have a relationship with like my instructor and I did skip school in second grade. It was a substitute teacher and he was gullible. So me and my friends were like, we lied and said our babysitter was here. 

Arielle: Wow. So you fully showed up to school. There was a substitute teacher and you were like, nah, Going home.

Toya: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my friends were like, Oh, our babysitter's like, are [00:13:00] already here to pick us up early. And he just let us leave. 

Arielle: What did you do with your freedom? 

Toya: We went to McDonald's. It was across the street from the house. And I mean, from the school and my mom, I told, I told on myself, because I'm like such an honest person.

I was just like, mom, I have something to tell you. Don't be mad. And she was like, what? I was like, I skipped school today. But she had no idea because it's like, we went to McDonald's, went back to like the playground and then school was let out and our babysitter came and picked me up. So we just like in the playground.

So she didn't really, but I just like, I don't know, I felt guilty and my mom was just more upset that I was able to do that. Like she was just upset [00:13:30] with the school. 

Arielle: Right. How did they let you out? 

Toya: Yeah. Like you just let a student leave a classroom. Like you don't check. 

Arielle: Who is eight years old. 

Toya: Yeah. Like you don't check this. Where's the babysitter? Like what's going on? So yeah. And that's when I, but she pulled me out of that school after that. 

Arielle: Well, I love these insights. They make up who you are today, which is a wonderful podcast host and a wonderful guest to kick off Season 2 of Podcast 360. Can you let our listeners know where they can find you, any social handles, websites, or shoutouts that you'd like to [00:14:00] give?

Toya: Yeah, well, my podcast, you can find wherever you listen to podcasts, and that was in my textbook. And then, um, that's also my handle on Instagram. And my personal handle is Toya From Harlem. I cross promote all the time. So if you look one, you'll find the other. And yeah. Um, we're coming back in June right now we're sharing a lot of classic episodes. We have like the history of Memorial Day coming up, that's coming up. And then yeah, we'll kick off with some episodes in so. 

Arielle: Awesome. Thank you for listening to our first episode of season two [00:14:30] of Podcast 360. And thank you to the Podcast Academy and DCP Entertainment.

Follow us on social media at The Ambies and at DCPOfficial on Instagram and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so that you never miss an episode.

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Podcast 360 - Season 2: Listen Here