The Baird Journalism Dinner has been a beloved April tradition at Kingswood Oxford for the past 30 years. This month, after a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols, KO invited 2017 alumna Carolyn McCusker back to campus on Thursday, April 7, to speak to her experiences in the field of podcasting, and, more specifically, to her current internship at WNYC’s award-winning podcast “Radiolab.”
The Baird Journalism Dinner first began in 1992 when Warren Baird, former faculty advisor of the KO News, was moving away from the paper. Given his departure and the fact that he contributed so much to the KO News, shaping it into the publication that it is today, the staff at the time decided to hold an annual dinner in honor of him, in which a professional journalist – usually an alum – would be brought in to speak to the KO News staff, journalism students, and any interested faculty members.
The main goal that the KO News staff members who launched the first dinner 30 years ago had – to honor Warren Baird as an integral part of the paper – is still pertinent today. But, another central goal of the dinner is to bring in someone who went to KO, who worked on the paper during their time as a student, and who has ultimately come to make a name for themselves in the field of journalism. “It’s really to show students that [working in journalism] is an option and that there are many paths in the field of journalism that you can follow,” English Department Chair and current faculty advisor of the KO News Catherine Schieffelin said.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic hindered the Baird Journalism Dinner from taking place in 2020 and 2021. In 2020, Ms. Schieffelin was all-in on planning the dinner, getting in touch with Ryan D’Agostino, who serves as the Head of Features for Hearst Publications; however, the March lockdown put a damper on these exciting plans.
Last year, even with things still quite uncertain and with many usual in-person events being canceled, Ms. Schieffelin still made efforts to hold the dinner. “I was in touch with a woman named Maria Spinella, who works in television broadcasting for the Don Lemon Show,” Ms. Schieffelin said. “She was very eager to come back to KO, but she didn’t want to do anything virtual, and at that point, we couldn’t schedule an in-person dinner.”
Even though the state of the world did not allow for the Baird Journalism Dinner to take place in 2020 and 2021, with school running as close to normal as it can be this year, Ms. Schieffelin excitedly began making calls and getting things going for this year’s event. Ultimately, she chose Carolyn to serve as the 2022 guest speaker. “I had heard that Carolyn was in podcasts, and so I reached out to her during the winter,” Ms. Schieffelin said. “I knew she was local, and we haven’t had anyone come in who has done any kind of radio broadcasting or podcasting, so I thought it would be a nice change. She is also just so personable and engaging as a speaker.”
Indeed, during her time at KO, Carolyn was an avid performer and public speaker. She was a committed member of Model U.N., several selective performing arts ensembles, such as the choral groups Oxfordians and Outlook, and the KO theater program. In addition, during her sophomore year, Carolyn took her knack for public speaking to the next level, coming in first place at the annual Speaker’s Forum. Carolyn was also a valuable staff member on the KO News, and during her senior year, she took on the role of Head Editor of the investigative section.
Carolyn’s love for podcasts began to blossom at KO, while taking a Global Online Academy course on creative nonfiction during her senior year. Though only one unit of this class revolved solely around podcasts, Carolyn dove head first into the art of audio recording, with which she had no prior experience. Ultimately, Carolyn’s final project in this course consisted of making her own podcast with her peers, a podcast about what it means to be a bystander. Her specific episode dealt with feeling like a bystander to your own life, and it was the process of putting this episode together that really sparked Carolyn’s love for podcasts. She was able to talk with and learn from a variety of individuals from psychology professors to her next-door neighbor. Following this eye-opening experience, Carolyn continued to immerse herself in the world of podcasts, taking several podcast courses during her time as an undergraduate student at Amherst College.
Not only did Carolyn engage with podcasts through her college coursework, but she also gained firsthand experience of what it could be like to pursue a career in podcasts through taking on many impressive internship positions during her four years at Amherst. Her first podcast internship opportunity came in the summer after her sophomore year at Connecticut Public Radio in Hartford – Hartford’s NPR station – at their talk shows “Where We Live” and “The Colin McEnroe Show.”
“Even though I didn’t have a lot of prior experience, I was able to try pitching stories, interviewing, recording, and producing, and I even got to produce my own episode of ‘Where We Live,’” Carolyn said.
Her second internship was at PBS NewsHour Classroom during the summer after her junior year, which largely entailed writing and making lesson plans based on the news.
Carolyn then interned at NPR’s longform narrative podcast department called Enterprise Storytelling Unit, which consists of a unit of three podcasts: “Invisibilia,” “Rough Translation,” and “Embedded.”
Now, Carolyn’s current internship is at WNYC’s podcast “Radiolab.” Her main jobs in this internship are managing listener responses, carrying out research for pitches in order to present the best case for a story, and booking and going through interviews. Recently, she was even able to pitch her own story. “I pitched a couple of stories when I first got to the show, and I got the go-ahead on one of my recent ones,” Carolyn said, “so I’ve been doing all the stages of the production process, which include researching, interviewing people, recording, reporting, and producing it with the help of others on the team.”
At the Baird Journalism dinner, Carolyn was very eager to share with KO student journalists and faculty details about all of the work that she has done over the past several years, as well as answer questions about working in the field of journalism and podcasting in general. When asked what she enjoys most about podcasts and why she believes podcasts are so popular today, Carolyn spoke to the fact that podcasting is a field that virtually anyone can enter into freely and create something uniquely theirs to share with others. “I like where podcasts are at right now in that it’s in a space where so many people have podcasts and anyone can make one,” she said. “I like that it’s a medium that people are able to openly experiment in.”
Carolyn also discussed what she believes is the appeal of podcasts. “Podcasts are so diverse, with each type of podcast, like narrative podcasts, investigative podcasts, or research podcasts, holding importance for different reasons,” she said. “I think people are so drawn to podcasts because they can fit into a piece of your world that often this kind of content wasn’t going into. If you are on a walk or commuting or in the car, you can’t watch the news, but you can enter into the intimate space of podcasts quite easily.”
Carolyn provided guests at the dinner with three important pieces of advice: bring your other passions and interests with you to your job, try not to fear rejection and do not take rejection personally, and start your own passion projects to really get excited about the work that you’re doing.
These messages resonated with many of those in attendance, including sophomore Ava Cashman. “Her advice was very impactful because it showed the many ways you can bring your own passions into a journalism career, “ Ava said. “Her speech made me realize that a career path in journalism is very doable and your own experiences and passions are what drive it.”
Senior Garrett Gallup agreed. “It was great to hear from someone who is actually doing work in the field of journalism, as it allowed me to get a sense of what it could be like,” he said. “I liked how she emphasized the importance of combining your outside interests with your work, and she offered us great advice on ways to make this happen, like with passion projects.”
Overall, the 2022 Baird Journalism Dinner was a success, and especially after COVID-19 put this dinner on a two-year hiatus, KO News staff members, student journalists, and faculty were eager to come together as in years past and connect over a shared passion and love for the art of journalism.
Ms. Schieffelin is very pleased with how the program went. “I’m so glad that we were able to hold the Baird Journalism Dinner in person this year,” she said. “Carolyn was the perfect speaker to bring us all together.”
We thank Carolyn for coming back to KO to join us as this year’s guest speaker, and we are already looking forward to next year’s dinner!
