During the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, social media and digital marketing became a top priority in today’s world. Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook were starting to increase engagement more than ever. While people were bored at home, they started posting on TikTok videos, creating reels on Instagram, and “zooming” with their friends to pass the time.

Three AIC students decided that they would follow the trend and create their own exciting and new podcasts. AIC football star Saleem Messiah talked a little bit about his podcast, Necessary Conversations. Saleem’s podcast is about having conversations one on one with any college athletes talking about what life’s like being a college athlete and how hard or easy it could be. From my own experience, being a college athlete can be tough; traveling and trying to get your work done at the same time can take a toll on one’s energy level. It isn’t always easy, but having that future aspiration of becoming someone can help you down the line. Messiah wants people to learn about the person he’s interviewing and really know what it’s like to be in their shoes.

“I think a lot of times, specifically with podcast[s], ‘celebrities’ or ‘high profile’ people are highlighted more,” Messiah said. “Of course we’ll have those, but I think it’s important give your everyday person a platform to give views on life and their opinions on things[.] That can sometimes be better than what a celebrity can provide.”

Messiah isn’t picky when it comes to who he wants to interview. “Anybody can be on, and you are given the platform to use your voice for whatever it may be for,” he said.

Messiah really highlights the importance of getting up every day and wanting to be someone better by interviewing “non-celebrities” and college athletes.

The editor in chief of The Yellow Jacket newspaper, Isaiah Longs, has also been working diligently on a podcast this semester with his assistant editor Li Su and arts editor Uwimana Liverpool. Their podcast is based on educating the AIC student population about current and past topics relating to campus issues and relating them to the real world. Longs said, “One of the biggest things we want people to understand is that if there is one thing the world needs more of (and likely will never have enough of) is empathy. Not sympathy necessarily, but just the willingness to understand or try to understand someone from a different point of view… We strive to be real and authentic; we’re humans like everyone else, except we have the privilege to be backed by the entire college institution at times.” Some college students have trouble relating things back to empathy. Longs wants others to understand where other people are coming from. His hope in doing this podcast is to help students “build back a true college feel.”

Jack Neves, a member of the American International College golf team, and Bailey Gilbert, a member of the Central Connecticut State Club golf team started their very own podcast called OnlyBirdies.Podcast, which you can find on Spotify and on Instagram. Neves and Gilbert are both active golfers and passionate about the sport on both a professional and a college level. The podcast talks about how Bailey has only been playing the game for a year now and how the game has boosted her confidence and created new friendships for her. She’s competed in one golf tournament and hopes to be competing in another one very soon. Their long-term goal is to help out listeners who are just beginning the game, and to reach listeners who have been playing for years, like Neves. They want their listeners to pick up a golf club and to try something else because golf is a game you can play for a lifetime. It’s also a great way for people to make new friendships and to build confidence.