Podcast school 2023:spring semester 

The Podcast School brought to you by the NCRA/ANREC brings together over many years of podcasting experience from our team of Podcast Presenters.

We draw expertise from the community broadcast sector and others to find you presenters who have broadcast experience and a background in training. 

We are confident that our curated 12 course semester will give podcasters of all experience levels great value from the information provided. All courses will be recorded and shared with students afterwards, so if you aren't able to attend a couple classes you will have the recordings to go back to. 

Below you can see the bio from all of our presenters, and the timeline and descriptions of the sessions being presented.

SESSIONs TIMELINE

WEEK 1
March 7th

Defining the aim of your podcast / Making a trailer
Presenter: Pamela Haasen

This session outlines exercises for a podcaster of ANY level to create the reason for your podcast and the methods you’ll use to achieve that result. This is a step most often skipped by podcasters but to accomplish it means saving a lot of work for yourself in the future. How to make a trailer is simply the how, why, what, and who of a teaser/trailer for your podcast (to get people excited, to release on social media, to apply for money, etc).

WEEK 2
March 16th


Sound Like A Pro: Tech SetUp
Presenter: Phil Shirakawa

In this seminar you will learn how to get the most out of yourself and your recording equipment, to assist in making your show sound it’s best. From speech techniques, physical placement of announcer(s), microphones and recording spaces to professional editing techniques, you will be able to increase the technical quality of your show, making it easier for your listeners to enjoy. Hosted by NCRA Award Winning Programmer Phil Shirakawa.

WEEK 4
March 28th 

Grant Writing for Your Podcast
Presenter: Pamela Haasen

Whether you are new to podcasting or you’ve been at it for years, you know that monetizing and making money podcasting is tricky. There are many avenues to take, but finding the right one for you can be daunting. Pam Haasen is hosting Grant Writing for Your Podcast to help you pitch your show as a viable project, tips to make your grant application stand out, as well as what roles and items to include in your budget and description.

WEEK 5
April 6th 

Different types of podcasts
Presenter: Phil Shirakawa

What type of podcast is right for me?
In this course NCRA Award Winning Host/Producer Phil Shirakawa walks you through the many different styles of podcast. He explains the pluses and minuses of many of the popular ways to podcast, helping to aid in your selection of the type of show you will be making.

BONUS
April 18th 

he future of Podcasting and Radio
Presenter: Barry rooke 

This bonus session will touch on the future for podcasting and radio. Will also touch on any unanswered questions asked throughout the Podcast School and any closing thoughts and discussions.

WEEK 1
March 9th

Walking the Talk: How to be a representative for your podcast
Presenter: Kattie Laur

Half the battle in podcasting is getting people to click “play”. While there are plenty of great tips, tricks, and best practices across the podcasting landscape, a big part of a successful marketing campaign is being about to articulate what makes your show unique, what you bring to the table as its creator, and why people should listen to it. In this workshop freelance podcast producer, Kattie Laur, will help you discover the messaging that lands your show on someone’s queue.

WEEK 3
March 21st

Hands On Editing – Good Practice for Beginners
Presenter: Pamela Haasen

In this workshop, Pam Haasen is throwing away the notes about how one could edit a podcast and just plain showing you how to do it. Without guidance, you can waste a lot of time figuring out the best methods for editing, so this workshop is for people ready to record and edit their show. She’ll show tips for organizing clips, shortcuts, and quick fixes for recurring issues. To get the most out of this workshop, have a notebook to scribble some notes, and prepare by writing down some of the barriers that persist in your editing.

WEEK 4
March 30th 


Making A Podcast On A Budget
Presenters: Max Collins

Since the grassroots beginning of podcasting, on-demand radio has grown into a multi-billion-dollar industry with new businesses and investors getting involved every day. Despite all of the money being thrown at this new(ish) type of media, one can still start and maintain a podcast for little to no money invested. But if you want to invest a little bit of money in your podcast, where should you start? In this course, the instructor will take you through the essentials needed to start a podcast, and you’ll get a few tips on how to get the best bang for your buck if you want to splurge on a new recording kit or theme song for your series. This course also lightly covers Creative Commons licenses.

WEEK 6
April 11th 

What’s your story? Researching and script-writing your podcast
pRESENTER: Aniruddho Chokroborty-Hoque

Learn how to create a well-researched tightly scripted podcast episode. How do you conduct background research for your story? What are some of the writing techniques you use to script your story? This class will tell you how to conduct airtight background research, carry out revealing interviews, and combine these with stellar writing techniques to script your podcast episodes.

WEEK 2
March 14th

Ethics in storytelling and why it matters
Presenter: Hina Imam

This session will begin with fundamental media concepts, touch upon problematic framing, and dive deep into contemporary examples from Canadian media, as well as, highlight objectivity and its limitations. 

Students will also discuss ethics scenarios drawing from the class material.

WEEK 3
March 23rd 

Accessibility in Podcasting
Presenter: Jess Schmidt

This session will touch on the importance of transcripts, and how to get the best bang for your buck in generating them. We’ll also discuss why it’s a creator’s responsibility to make sure that their work is as widely available as possible, and look at some options and proof cases of why transcripts aren’t just the right thing to do – they’re also an awesome marketing tool that are as important to your show’s packaging as your cover art, publishing copy, and all the other assets that help make your show unique.

WEEK 5
April 4th

Creating an Energetic Narrative
Presenter: Anthony Sanna

A narrative style podcast is a different format to many podcasters. The session is aimed at new podcasters and experienced ones alike. 

In this course, participants learn: – how to share their voice with authenticity within a narrative-driven podcast. – how to structure their podcast in a way that is compelling to listeners – to host and drive the story forward in a non-linear manner. – understand who your listeners are and what they want to hear. 

The session allows for conversation and Q&A throughout.





WEEK 6
April 13th 

Promoting Your Podcast on Social Media
Presenter: Aniruddho Chokroborty-Hoque 

You have created your podcast episode – it has stellar audio, a tight script that tells a wonderful story. But how do you get people to listen to it? How do you attract audiences and maintain those numbers? This class will tell you how to create your marketing strategies, what tactics to deploy, how to measure your marketing efforts, and how to create and leverage your web presence and social media to get audiences.

The PODCAST PRESENTERS

  • Jess Schmidt
    Jess Schmidt (she/her) is a podcast producer/consultant and accessibility advocate based in Calgary, AB. She works on a number of branded and indie podcasts across an array of genres, and is also a closed captioner & transcriptionist for live and post-production media. Visit her website at jessdoespodcasting.com.
  • ANTHONY SANNA – Radio/Podcast Producer + eMail Marketing Pro + Copy Editor/ Writer + Online Content Producer + Health Seeker + = Online Marketing Smarty Pants. Saving the world, one byte at a time. Co-host of Fusion Health Radio podcast (since 2015) www.fusionhealthradio.com Community Radio producer/ host/ trainer (since 2013) – CJLY 93.5fm Nelson, BC, Kootenay Co-op Radio.
  • PAMELA HAASEN – Pamela Haasen works as the News Producer and hosts a weekly radio show called I Digress for CICK Smithers Community Radio in Northern BC. Previously she worked as the Program Director for CHRW in London, Ontario.Pamela is a podcaster and has created and released 3 short podcast series and is working on the next 2 coming out this spring and fall of 2021. You can check out her work at haasenpod.com.
  • MAX COLLINS – Max Collins (any pronouns) is an award-winning podcast producer born in Calgary, AB. Having started their audio career at the University of Victoria campus station, CFUV 101.9 FM, they know the ins and outs of making a podcast with a small (or nonexistent) budget. Now specializing in sound design for scripted fiction and other high-production value mediums, Max has worked on projects for the CBC, Al Jazeera, BBC World Service, Audioboom, and more. Max’s work has been written about in such publications as Vulture, IndieWire, and SAD Magazine. They currently live in Vancouver, BC, with their girlfriend and their very needy but loveable cat.
  • After graduating from the Broadcasting Program at Algonquin College in 2011, Phil began producing his NCRA Award winning music show The Album Drop on CHUO 89.1 in Ottawa. (Winning in Music Programming for 2016, Honorable mentions in 2018 & 2019) He has also worked as a talk show producer for Bell Media Ottawa.
  • ANIRUDDHO CHOKROBORTY-HOQUE – Aniruddho has migrated from 15 years of conducting research to a lifetime of writing its stories. He loves to break apart research from science and technology, medicine, social sciences, arts and humanities, find the SO WHAT WHO CARES of complex, technical, cutting-edge work, and share it with audiences through Word and Sound. For the past six years, his stories, press-releases, podcasts & social media content have built bridges between research institutions and policy-makers, funding agencies, and the general public. Check out www.researchstoryteller.com for his podcasts (and writing).His latest, Espresso Knowledge (Twitter: @espressoknow) delivers research news in the time it takes him to make an espresso shot – quick, on the go!https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/espresso-knowledge/id1527684922
  • HINA IMAM- Hina Imam is a multimedia journalist interested in social justice, race and representation, intersectional feminism, and sociopolitical issues. Currently, she is the Spoken Word Coordinator and host of the show This is Not Fine at CiTR.
  • Kattie produces award-nominated, independent and branded podcasts that advocate for a better world, from her cozy, pink, home studio in Brantford, Ontario. She writes about the Canadian podcast ecosystem on her biweekly newsletter, Pod the North. Kattie also makes Alpaca My Bags, the responsible travel podcast, with travel writer and podcaster, Erin Hynes.