The Voices Heard on the Hill
The fluorescent lights flicker to life as two strangers shake hands — one, a St. Olaf student, and the other, a visiting professor from Johns Hopkins University. A microphone cable clicks into place as the student adjusts the recording levels on the console in front of them, while across the booth the professor settles more comfortably into their chair. A quick sound check, a correction — and the red studio light is ignited as the recording begins.
This recording session is one of many that make up Heard on the Hill, a student-produced podcast that makes campus conversations accessible to the St. Olaf community — both on and off the Hill. These dialogues take place between students and the experts who have been invited to campus by the Buntrock Institute for Freedom and Community to share their insights into a wide range of national and global issues. Before or after their public lecture, the guests sit down with St. Olaf students to record a podcast. Previous guests have included political scientist and Professor of Political Science at Marquette University Julia Azari, Professor of Journalism and Writer-in-Residence at Vanderbilt University Amanda Little, and Professor of Government at Harvard University and senior fellow for democracy at the Council on Foreign Relations Steven Levitsky.
“Heard on the Hill is an interview-based podcast produced by the Buntrock Institute for Freedom and Community student fellows,” explains Kelly Shirah, Associate Director of the Buntrock Institute. “The podcast provides a unique opportunity for the fellows to sit down one-on-one with guest speakers brought to campus by the institute.”
Established at St. Olaf in 2014, the Buntrock Institute for Freedom and Community encourages free inquiry and meaningful debate of important political and social issues among students, faculty, and the general public. The institute sponsors a range of programming opportunities, such as the Heard on the Hill Podcast, in addition to the lecture series, to further cultivate civil discourse within the context of the liberal arts.
“Part of the mission of the institute is to make a variety of viewpoints and perspectives come alive for students,” Professor of Political Science and Morrison Family Director of the Buntrock Institute for Freedom and Community Chris Chapp says. “To do this, we need to meet students where they are, and students listen to a lot of podcasts. For this reason, we had the idea to begin a student-run podcast in the fall of 2023, and it has been an adventure ever since.”
The Buntrock Institute works to make conversations about politics and current events less intimidating for St. Olaf students. The hope is that making these topics more accessible will encourage students to think critically about them.
“On the podcast, I have had the opportunity to develop questions for the speakers that we bring to campus and sit across from them for interviews,” student fellow Aisling Cox ‘28 says. “Personally, it’s so cool to have conversations with brilliant thinkers in a variety of different disciplines—I especially enjoy learning about topics that are completely outside of my discipline — but it is also an excellent resource for students who may not be able to attend the institute speaker events, and for people who leave the events wanting to hear the speaker discuss their work without premeditated comments, in a conversational style that may take a different direction than their lectures.”
Chapp reiterates this point, commenting that what makes these conversations compelling, is how differently they unfold compared to a traditional campus lecture.
“Campus speakers typically come to St. Olaf to lecture on a book or some other piece of scholarship — this is fabulous, of course, but the institute fundamentally values conversations from multiple perspectives. The podcast accomplishes this,” he says. “Student interviewers ask a range of questions that, I must say, are sometimes a bit of a surprise for our guests. It leads to really rich conversations — and even though the podcast requires campus guests to think on their feet, I regularly hear that the podcast was the best part of the visit.”
The process of creating these conversations, however, starts long before the speakers enter the soundbooth.
“In advance of the speakers’ visits, students familiarize themselves with the speakers’ research and craft interview questions with an eye toward what they think the student body would like to know more about,” Shirah says. “They are expected to read and critically reflect on the guests’ scholarship, so students are developing an ability to engage a range of interdisciplinary ideas.”
After the initial research, students must learn how to develop questions that are both informational and engaging for speakers and audiences.
“When developing questions for the podcast, I try to consider questions that students may have about the speakers’ paths to their careers, and how that work relates to the sociopolitical context of the world today,” Cox says. “This aspect of my job has developed my research skills by pushing me to consider both implicit and explicit biases in academic work and practice metacognition. I consider how the questions that I ask about our speakers’ work may help students develop their understanding of democracy, their potential to strengthen democracy in their daily lives, and their frame of reference for existing research on subjects that relate to strengthening democracy.”
The experience working on the podcast has given Cox valuable life skills.
“As a result of working on the podcast, I have further developed my active listening skills,” Cox says. “The conversational style of the podcast demands that I listen intently to the speaker as they respond to my prepared questions, while simultaneously determining which question I want to ask next based on the direction of the conversation. Sometimes this includes unprepared questions about experiences or intriguing insights that come up as the speaker is talking.”
Another strength Cox has developed is specialized audio recording knowledge.
“The biggest lesson I have learned is to take multiple audio tests and play them back before the interview begins to ensure that the sound comes through cleanly,” Cox says. “I like to explain to the guests what I am listening for in the tests and how the microphone sensitivity will respond to their movements/distance from the mic so that we can work together to produce a recording with the best possible sound quality.”
Another student who conducts many of these interview-style podcasts is Buntrock Institute student fellow Addie Johnson ‘27.
“Our goal is to foster meaningful debate and inquiry within our community at St. Olaf, and get students engaged in politically and socially relevant issues,” Johnson says.
Johnson had no prior podcasting experience going into this role.
“This position taught me how to synthesize complex scholarly work for a student audience and myself, encourage intellectual curiosity in others, and make connections between diverse academic disciplines and current social issues,” Johnson says.
Post-graduation, Johnson plans on pursuing a career in law, specifically constitutional law or litigation. The skills she learned through being an institute fellow and working on the Heard on the Hill podcast will serve her well in her career path.
“The opportunity to participate in discussions with legal scholars the institute has hosted allowed me to explore my legal interests and gain firsthand insight into the complexities of legal scholarship and academic practice,” Johnson says. “My work on the podcast has taught me to effectively research, analyze, and facilitate the presentation of arguments to a public audience — skills that will be essential in achieving my professional goals.”
Cox finds her experience equally informative.
“Each of my shifts at the institute office are different, but they all require collaborative creation of marketing materials and thoughtful discussion with other student fellows and our office administrators about reaching students and making our resources as accessible as possible,” Cox explains. “I work closely with Kaya Clemons ‘26 [Secretary for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Board] to develop public content that is both engaging and informative for our student body.”
Cox, just like Johnson, plans to pursue a career in law, but she wants to focus on bond law, which is a sector of economic development law.
“Economic development is a collaborative process that aims to meet the resource needs of a community while justifying conflicting public opinions about how funds should be used to accomplish this task — constructive civic dialogue is a significant aspect of this process,” Cox says. “My experience at the institute has given me the tools to facilitate discussions that may center around contentious opinions and empowered me to be empathetic and holistic in understanding the common threads that tie people together in order to make progress across differences.”
For Chapp, the ultimate goal of The Heard on the Hill podcast is to make civic engagement feel approachable — especially for students who may feel hesitant about politics or political debate.
“Politics can be intimidating, but they can also be interesting, engaging, and, dare I say, fun! And they are always relevant to students’ lives and really integrated into the public mission of the college,” he says. “Ultimately, I hope the podcast is an invitation for students to experience Buntrock Institute programming in a way that is approachable. And, I hope it opens a door to future involvement with us.”
Later — miles away — an Ole plugs their phone into the car as they prepare for the drive home from work. They open Spotify. Navigate to a familiar title. With a tap of the play button, the voices recorded hours ago begin to be heard — extending the conversation far beyond the Hill.
The “Heard on the Hill” podcast can be found here.