Photos courtesy of Lindsey Neff
New Albany High School Senior Lindsey Neff could talk about running for hours – and that’s not an exaggeration. For her senior seminar project, she decided to do just that.
NAHS developed the program to give students varied, authentic educational opportunities. Neff sees the course as the opportunity to combine her love for cross-country running while also learning about the art of podcasting.
“Running is my favorite thing to talk about, so it seemed like the right option for me to have a conversational setting to talk about my favorite sport,” Neff says. “I’ve grown a lot through (cross-country) and I figured out that self-improvement through running is really enjoyable. I wanted to share that with other people.”
With no prior experience, Neff ran headfirst into the project, researching editing platforms and creating outlines for each episode. She admits that she faced a lot of challenges at first, but allowing herself to change her perspective really helped.
“At first, I was dead set that I had to do interviews because all the podcasts I like to listen to are interviews, but the logistics of it just didn’t make sense for the time I had,” says Neff. “I really had to learn how to talk by myself. It’s really hard to do and it’s really easy to trail off. It was good to challenge myself to become an articulate speaker, clearer and more effective.”
Neff was able to break the podcast, The Catch Up, into episodes surrounding different topics within the sport: proper gear, recovery and injury prevention, and motivation. Each episode is between 15 and 20 minutes, allowing Neff to dive into every topic where she combines her personal experience and research to offer listeners a deeper understanding of running. While she isn’t currently producing any additional episodes, she is interested in producing a second season.
“I do think I’d like to try the interview aspect. I dove into each aspect of running that I could think about, so I think it would be really interesting to bring on other people so I could talk with them and get their perspectives,” she says.
Neff is currently busy with post-graduation plans, and is exploring potential paths to take in college. She’s interested in majors such as sports medicine, computer science and audio engineering. Regardless of her degree choice, she knows that running and podcasting will remain a passion. She intends to join her future school’s cross-country team and maintain her audio production hobby.
As for the competitive world of podcasting – Apple reported in 2019 that more than 700,000 active podcasts are currently available – Neff says it’s important to go in with a plan.
“Have a clear intention and a set goal for the podcast,” she says. “It’ll help you know more about the art of podcasting beforehand.”
Zoë Glore is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at zglore@cityscenemediagroup.com.
