An Earful of Terp-Produced Podcasts

Need some fresh content for your commute or a new soundtrack to make those errands fly by? Lucky for UMD listeners, Terps are casting a wide net in the podcasting sea, with shows covering everything from the arts and athletics to cybersecurity and statistics.

More and more people are tuning into the downloadable audio episodes, with 100 million Americans—34% of the population aged 12 or older—listening to at least one podcast every week, according to a survey by Infinite Dial last year. That’s up from 31% in 2023 and 26% in 2022. On Spotify alone, listeners can choose from more than 6.5 million shows.

UMD students, faculty, staff and alums are hosting and producing their fair share. Pop in your AirPods and take a listen to some of the latest:

Black Pod Class | Briana Barner, assistant professor of communication, and her students
Terps taking Barner’s “Special Topics in Digital Communication: Black Podcasts” class examine how various audio installments help make sense of the cultural meanings of race, gender and sexuality—then take those lessons to the recording studio to create their own episodes. Students in the course interview Black podcasters and producers about their experiences, from true crime hosts to TV critics.

Cover Story | Stephanie Shonekan, College of Arts and Humanities dean
Who did it better: Dolly Parton, with her original “Jolene,” or Beyoncé, with her rendition on her Grammy-winning “Cowboy Carter” album? In this show that “uncovers the covers,” ethnomusicologist Shonekan invites guests to dive into different versions of classic songs.

Disability Awareness Month Podcast and Disability Talks | Emily Singer Lucio, ADA/504 coordinator
After spending past Octobers interviewing Terps with disabilities about their campus experiences for Disability Awareness Month, Singer Lucio started a new show with guests from beyond UMD. In the first episode, which debuted in May, she spoke to a former Harvard University disability coordinator who now works for the Transportation Security Administration, about her experience with a common form of dwarfism. She plans to add more episodes to both shows this year.

Elevation Nation | Sam Panitch ’18 and Parker Yablon ’18
When Panitch and Yablon felt unsatisfied with their consulting firm jobs post-graduation, they wrote down three life questions they sought to answer: Who am I? What is my fuel? What is my vision? They turned the thought exercise into a weekly show to help other twentysomethings similarly “elevate their mental fortitude,” sharing their own insights and interviewing entrepreneurs, CEOs, Olympians and more about their mental mottos.

Food Network Obsessed | Debra Puchalla ’04
Produced by Puchalla, senior vice president of digital content for Food Network, weekly episodes feature host Jaymee Sire and chefs, influencers and personalities from the channel dishing about culinary triumphs and failures, behind-the-scenes stories and more.

Generative Conversations: DCCxAI | Design Cultures + Creativity students
After spending a semester researching and experimenting with generative AI, first-year students in the interdisciplinary Honors College program interviewed a range of experts on campus last spring. Conversations with faculty like computer science Professor Hal Daumé III, director of the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland, and violin Professor Irina Muresanu, both with appointments at the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, explore how AI will transform education, work and culture.

Gettin’ Grown | Tykeia Robinson Ph.D. ’16
Robinson and co-host Jade Verette describe themselves as “two happy and hardworking (Blackity) Black women who are just trying to learn how to adult, for real.” They invite guests ranging from journalists to psychologists to stylists around their weekly “kitchen table” to figure out how to thrive as 30-somethings.

Hear the Turtle | Maryland Athletics
The official podcast of Maryland Athletics takes listeners into the huddle, offering interviews with UMD coaches, student-athletes, staff and other Terp personalities. The latest episodes feature “Voice of the Terps” Johnny Holliday hosting the “Maryland Basketball Radio Show,” with women’s head coach Brenda Frese and men’s coach Kevin Willard regularly giving assists.

Jobbing Out | A.J. Francis ’11, M.A. ’16 and former Terp Aaron Oster
Biweekly episodes star Oster and former UMD defensive lineman Francis, as well as co-hosts Glenn Clark and Brandon Linton, talking about everything pro wrestling, including event previews and recaps and their annual “Jobbies” awards.

Latinx Intelligentsia | Michelle Espino, associate professor, Department of Counseling, Higher Education and Special Education
As host “La Profesora,” Espino seeks to uplift Latinx/a/o students, faculty and staff, highlighting their achievements in higher ed. Her latest episode, marking her “slow return” to podcasting after some time away, provides tips and insights for navigating doctoral programs.

Leave Your Mark | Aliza Licht ’96
Licht—a bestselling author, award-winning marketer and former sassy Twitter phenom DKNY PR GIRL—offers “freshly brewed career advice,” with interviews with successful friends and guests.

Our New South | Journalism Professor of the Practice Kevin Blackistone and Jeremiah Tittle ’01
The Levine Museum of the New South’s podcast, produced by Tittle and co-hosted by Blackistone, examines the evolution of the American South and how its cities are confronting societal issues, including religious expression, censorship in education and displacement.

Quantitude | Gregory Hancock, professor and program director, Department of Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation
Hancock and co-host Patrick Curran, professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina, talk about “serious statistical topics, but without taking themselves too seriously,” doing their best to make quantitative methods and data analysis fun.

Rhyme & Reason | Shonekan, ARHU dean
In the College of Arts and Humanities’ podcast launched last summer, Shonekan delves into the scholarship of faculty guests tackling issues of race, equity and justice. Episodes cover everything from the history of antisemitism to the political landscape of Africa to food and ethnic identity.

Scandalized | Charlie Hunt Ph.D. ’19
Remember when South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford disappeared without a trace in 2009? Hunt joins co-host Jaci Kettler, both political science faculty at Boise State University, to spill on this and other scandals in American history.

Seemingly Unrelated | Andrew Johnstone ’07, M.A. ’11 and Jason Schlafstein ’08
What does the Scripps National Spelling Bee have to do with … the Chinese Exclusion Act? What about Margaret Thatcher and sperm whales? Johnstone, a digital humanities lecturer at King’s College London, and Schlafstein, a wrestling commentator, invite listeners twice a month to “draw completely outrageous connections” between two seemingly unrelated things.

SESYNC Audio Interviews | National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center
In biannual episodes, center researchers explore the intersections between the science of human behavior and the natural world, discussing topics like natural disasters, private land management and sociology.

Testudo Times | Testudo Times team
Student sportswriters from the site host shows including “The Testudo Talk Podcast,” with game previews and recaps, and “Under the Shell,” exploring behind-the-scenes stories of Maryland Athletics.

The Black Studies Podcast | Ashley Newby and John E. Drabinski, faculty members in the Department of African American and Africana Studies
Launched last May through support from a $100,000 Mellon Foundation grant, this series of conversations examines this history and cultural meaning of the Black studies field. Recent episodes have highlighted the research of faculty from Brown University, the University of Illinois and Morgan State University, as well as a curator and artists from the Slavery in Motion multimedia collection.

The CyberWire Daily | Dave Bittner ’91
Published each weekday, episodes feature interviews with industry experts and researchers and break down the latest in cybersecurity, from AI to cyberattacks to Apple security updates.

The Garden Thyme Podcast | College of Agriculture and Natural Resources/University of Maryland Extension
Co-hosts Mikaela Boley, principal agent associate in Talbot County; Rachel Rhodes, senior agent associate in Queen Anne’s County; and Emily Zobel, senior agent associate in Dorchester County; “get down and dirty” to help plant parents thrive. They dig into gardening tips of the month, spotlight native plants, and cover how to repel common pests.

The Nice Guys on Business | Doug Sandler ’86
For 10 years and counting, Sandler and co-host and producer Strickland Bonner have been interviewing entrepreneurs and industry experts to prove “you don’t have to be a jerk to run a successful business.”

The Pre-Health RX | Jeff Hall, assistant director of the Reed-Yorke Health Professions Advising Office
What’s the best pathway to medical school? And how do you survive—and thrive—once there? Hall and guests from the health care world offer advice, whether you’re aiming to be a doctor, dentist, occupational therapist or other professional in the field.

The RPP Exchange: Equity Through Research-Practice Partnerships | College of Education’s Racial and Social Justice Collaborative
Participants in research-practice partnerships discuss their challenges and successes as they work to address inequity in education. The latest episodes take listeners through a three-part series examining the changing sociopolitical landscape and new ways to diversify the classroom.

Wise Traditions | Hilda Labrada Gore ’83
Host and producer “Holistic Hilda” looks to ancestral traditions and insights to achieve optimal health. Every week, she interviews chefs, farmers, doctors, and other health and wellness experts to offer advice on eating nutrient-dense diets, improving mental health and more.

With Love & Struggle | “Visualizing Social Justice” First-Year Innovation and Research Experience (FIRE) students
Researched, written and produced by seven undergraduate women, the seven-episode season traces enduring women’s issues like reproductive rights and domestic labor through the pages of a 1970s radical feminist journal, Off Our Backs. After producing the show in 2023, the FIRE research stream is working to develop another season.

WMUC Sports | WMUC Sports team
UMD’s student-run sports radio station occasionally distills full broadcasts of Terp games into super-digestible highlights episodes, perfect for catching up on the action on your way to work or class.