Make Pop Ed Pop Again
“Popular education” is the notion that we can keep learning throughout our lives — and that often the most effective ways to do that don’t involve attending lectures in a classroom somewhere.
My 5-minute weekly podcast is, I think, a good example of a pop ed project. In order for popular education to be popular it needs to reach the populace. Due to the nature of the content, you won’t be hearing this stuff on big corporate networks.
But especially with projects like this podcast, there are many extremely useful things anyone can do to amplify the message. Here are some of them — most of which could be applied to any similar endeavor.
Each episode is a new opportunity to reach new people — a new reason to share it with:
- your followers on social media
- anyone you know who is particularly involved with the subject of this week’s episode
- anyone you know who is into podcasts, as listeners or podcasters
- folks who have shows on community radio, especially Pacifica affiliates who use Pacifica Audioport
- Program Directors at community radio stations near you
- anyone who blogs or writes or organizes around the subject of this week’s episode
- any teachers who teach about subjects I address, who may be looking for supplementary materials
When it seems appropriate, it’s always good to mention that the podcast can be found wherever people get their podcasts, if they just search for This Week with David Rovics.
Creating a buzz around anything — be it a demonstration, a festival, a podcast or a tennis shoe — requires ultimately that people hear about it, whatever “it” may be, from at least three different sources. We live in the era of TMI — Too Much Information. For better or for worse, people don’t tend to notice things until they hear about them several times through several different means. Repetition is key — but not repetition of the same recycled information. Thus, new content each week and a new excuse each week to do some more outreach.