The growing popularity of podcasts as a form of news has been adopted by student council, placing students’ voices in the spotlight. Podcasts can be a fun and informative medium for entertainment, news, advice, or meditation. Additionally, they can be enjoyed while multitasking, which appeals to busy student schedules. The Viking Unscrolled podcast seeks to provide students with a platform that discusses their concerns and informs about relevant school events. 

Chris White runs student council and has been a part of revitalizing the podcast. 

“The goal of the Podcast is to be the voice of the students,” White said. “We want to use this platform to discuss the concerns of the student body. We want the student body to know that we hear them and take their concerns seriously.” 

The Viking Unscrolled podcast was originally started two years ago by student council senator Dylan Turner. He named the podcast Unscrolled because its purpose is to “un-scroll” the people that are seen all the time, but have little relationship with, and to learn the contents of their character through conversation. The podcast consisted of interviews and news updates. Viking Unscrolled had been gaining success, with 150 student viewers. However, the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic led to its temporary shutdown. This year, revitalization efforts by student council senators aim to address student concerns and relevant events in a unique way.  

Student body President Florian Sloan (12) is taking charge of Vikings Unscrolled, following Turner’s goal to shine a light on student voices. He aided in buying equipment and establishing a team of senate members to help create the podcast episodes. The first episode was published March 11 and featured Florian Sloan (12), Ellen Fields (11), Journee Lawhorn (11), Jennifer Waddle (9), and Zion Littlejohn (10). 

Senate member Journee Lawhorn participates in recording and acts as the podcast editor, editing the episodes and formatting them before release. 

“Dylan Turner started the podcast 2 years ago, once he graduated the council took the idea to continue it,” Lawhorn said. “The goal is to share information that is usually not known to students.” 

When filming the episodes, conversation is kept casual with each recording member bouncing ideas and conversation points off each other. A list of topics is preselected before that cover both past and future school events. Once recording begins, speakers follow a loose plan involving freestyling as new thoughts and opinions arise, keeping the podcast full of surprises.   

Sloan works to keep the podcast conversational and not overly scripted, keeping listeners entertained and interested. 

“We want to be able to carry out all this information in the most inviting way possible by having friendly conversations between my cohosts and me,” Sloan said. “We try our best not to over plan or script our episodes in order to preserve surprises in our conversations.”