“I’d love to host a podcast one day,” Sarah says wistfully when I speak to her on the phone. She’s 17, from Georgia, and just graduated high school. She’s saved enough money to go traveling for a year, and plans to start college in 2019 if she can afford it.
Her parents are supportive, but they don’t understand why she would want a career in radio, which, to them, is made up of white conservative men in their 50s shouting over each other.
“They don’t understand that podcasting is different, and that someone like me — from the South, black, genderqueer — could make a career out of talking to people about my experience,” explains Sarah, who asked me not to use her last name for fear it might impact her future applying for jobs and colleges.
“Someone like me — from the South, black, genderqueer — could make a career out of talking to people about my experience.”
She didn’t grow up listening to podcasts or public radio. She was introduced to podcasting in 2014 when she…
