ENC3934 – Spring 2027 – Lathan

Issues in EWM invites students to put podcasting's storytelling power in service of civic listening. Each student selects a contemporary social issue that matters to them personally, then researches its competing arguments and interviews two people who hold genuinely opposing positions on it, one broadly for and one broadly against. Across the semester, students learn to write an interview script: crafting open-ended questions, sequencing them for narrative and emotional arc, and adapting in real time to what a source actually says rather than what the writer expected to hear. Students then shape their recorded interviews into a fully produced podcast episode, gaining hands-on experience with field recording, editing, sound design, and audio narrative writing alongside sustained written work, including issue pitches, interview scripts, a full episode script, and a reflective analysis of how the finished piece represents both sides of a contested issue fairly and without editorializing. Because the course requires students to seriously engage perspectives unlike their own, interview across genuine disagreement, and represent that difference without caricature or dismissal, it satisfies the Alterity requirement for majors. Because it requires substantial scripted, revised, and workshopped writing at an advanced level, culminating in a polished, publication-ready episode script, it also satisfies the Upper-Division Writing Requirement. No prior podcasting or audio production experience is assumed or required. Primary evaluation rests on two components, weighted equally: the written interview and episode scripts, and the final produced podcast episode, each assessed for craft, fairness of representation, and technical execution.