The Power of Podcasting in Social Work Education

[Episode 129] Today’s episode is about the Power of Podcasting in Social Work Education. Shimon Cohen, founder and host of Doin' The Work: Frontlines of Social Change, and I read the article we wrote for New Social Worker Magazine about podcasting for social work education, taking a few detours along the way to explain what is on the written page. 

We talk about how to integrate podcasting into assignments and class discussion, and highlight the use of podcasts as a way of addressing systemic inequities. For the transcript of our episode, please check out our article at: https://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/technology-articles/power-podcasting-social-work-education/

To download the Winter 2021 issue, go to: http://www.socialworker.com/magazine/digital-edition/the_new_social_worker_digital_issues and click on "Winter 2021." To download the full-color print issue, go to http://newsocialworker.magcloud.com

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Transcript

Hey there Podcast listeners, Jonathan here. Today’s episode is about the Power of Podcasting in Social Work Education. I’ll never forget being at the annual Council on Social Work Education conference several years ago when a professor from another university came up to me and said, “thank you so much for your podcast. Because of you I can attend the conference and know my students are still getting an excellent lecture.” You could think of it as being an unpaid substitute teacher. But I like to think of it as achieving one of the goals I set when I started the podcast. To provide high quality content for people to learn on the go. When I published my first episode on January 22, 2007 I didn’t imagine that the person being on the go would be a professor, but then again there were lots of things I didn’t imagine in 2007 that have come true today. 

And speaking of today, I’m really excited to have Shimon Cohen, founder and host of the Doin’ the work podcast: Frontline Stories of Social Change. Shimon is a clinical social worker, advocate, educator and podcaster. His podcast has been highlighted as a resource by the Council on Social Work Education. In Fall 2020, Shimon and I talked about writing an article outlining some of the benefits of podcasting for educators and students, as well as giving some tips for social workers who wanted to start their own podcast. Lucky for us, Linda Grobman, editor of New Social Worker Magazine agreed to publish the article. We thought, hey let’s record an audio version of the article and publish it as a podcast. 

In today’s episode, Shimon and I read through the article, taking a few detours along the way to explain what is on the written page. Shimon was in Florida and I was in Connecticut and I don’t think either of us had read our article out loud before recording. Pro tip: always a good idea to read through your script at least once before hitting the record button. We use the term BIPOC, which stands for Black, Indigenous and People of Color. The phrase, People of Color has been used for years, but BIPOC seemed to be adopted almost overnight during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 as the more expansive if not uncontroversial replacement. We don’t interrogate this term, but if you’re interested in listening to a debate about BIPOC, including how it is pronounced, check out the NPR Code Switch episode, “Is It Time To Say R.I.P. To 'POC'?” 

We also reference the 1619 podcast which comes from the Pulitzer Prize winning 1619 Project. According to creator Nikole Hannah-Jones “The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.” 

We also give a shout out some other social work related podcasts, including the Equity Matters Podcast, and Decolonize Social Work. In the first 10 years after I started started the Social Work Podcast there were 4 other podcasts started by and for social workers. In the past 4 years, social workers have started nearly 30 new podcast series. Shimon’s Doin’ The Work podcast is one of them. If you haven’t heard his podcast, check it out. In the past few years this is the part of the introduction where I thank people for transcribing podcast episodes. But we flipped that on its head with this episode. If you want to read the transcript of today’s show, check out our article at the New Social Worker magazine website at socialworker.com.  And as always, the links to everything we talk about can be found at the podcast website, socialworkpodcast.com. 

If you’d like to connect with Shimon (@ShimonDCohen) and I (@socworkpodcast), please check us out on Twitter. 

And now, without further ado, on to Episode 129 of the Social Work Podcast: The Power of Podcasting in Social Work Education

For the transcript of our episode, please check out our article at: https://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/technology-articles/power-podcasting-social-work-education/

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APA (7th ed) citation for this podcast:

Singer, J. B. (Producer). (2021, January 16). #129 - The Power of Podcasting in Social Work Education [Audio Podcast]. Social Work Podcast. Retrieved from http://www.socialworkpodcast.com/2021/01/powerofpodcasting.html