This is the second part of a projected three-part series featuring UChicago faculty and instructors who have used podcasting in the classroom to promote deeper student engagement. Read Part 1 of the series here. Part 3 is forthcoming.
Keeping students focused in classes and engaging with the material can be a real challenge. Professor Melih Levi, Assistant Instructional Professor got creative and integrated Podcasting into his course to help keep the students engaged and discover the material in new ways. He realized that podcasting can be a tool students can use to create, evaluate and analyze the works they were studying. It is a powerful medium for students to express their arguments and analysis of the material. “It [Podcasting] is an opportunity to experiment with new ways of engaging with texts, asking questions, and communicating the relevance of your inquiry to different audiences. Ideally, this assignment influences how you approach your writing, helping you discover an academic voice that’s more alive, brimming with embodied gestures and idiosyncrasies—a voice that’s a bit more you. ” Levi explains. “You come up with your own question. You’re invited—and encouraged—to play around with your voice and how you structure your argument, but make sure you have a clear focus and stick to the kind of “close-reading” you did for your midterm papers. ” In this interview, Professor Melih Levi shares his experience, strategies, and advice gleaned from integrating podcasting into his Humanities course.
What course did you use podcasting in?
Melih Levi: I used podcasting as the final assignment in the Humanities Core course Human Being and Citizen. Instead of the traditional final paper, I asked students to create an 8–10-minute podcast if working solo, or a longer podcast—around 15-20 minutes—if they partnered with a peer.
How did you come up with the idea for podcasting as a creative assignment?
ML: This was my first time teaching in the Humanities Core, specifically the sequence Human Being and Citizen. One obvious reason I chose podcasting was that many of the texts we read in this Core are rooted in oral tradition—like Homer’s Iliad, or even Plato’s dialogues, which, although composed as written philosophical texts, portray spoken conversations. The rhythms and gestures of spoken language and orality are key features in almost every text we study in the Fall quarter, and of course, we emphasize that. We think about orality and oral-formulaic composition as essential parts of the formal, linguistic, and dramatic aspects of these texts.
But when students begin to analyze or write essays about these texts, that awareness of orality often fades—as if a switch has been flipped off. Suddenly, it’s easy to forget the spoken qualities and treat the works as purely written artifacts. I think this happens in part because many first-year students come from high school writing environments that are highly formulaic—full of dos and don’ts, or shaped by rigid formats like IB or AP essays. So, when they encounter a paper assignment, those structured, rule-bound writing habits kick in almost automatically. One of my goals in teaching first-year students is to help them rediscover the excitement of finding their own voice and style—to feel a bit freer to experiment, take risks, and grow. More than anything, I want them to see their ideas as worth sharing with a wider audience—not just writing to impress me. If we’re not helping students build the habits of thoughtful, public-facing intellectual work in the Humanities Core, then where else is that supposed to happen?
All of this got me thinking about alternative kinds of assignments. During a faculty orientation event, I heard a presentation by ATS about the podcasting studios in Regenstein and was immediately intrigued. I set up a meeting to see whether they were just spaces to record—or if there might be room for deeper collaboration. Thankfully, there was. Right away, podcasting struck me as the perfect way to push students beyond the traditional academic paper. It offered a chance to use Human Being and Citizen not just to build analytical skills, but to develop a public voice—to take risks, rethink old habits, and discover new ways of thinking and arguing that could energize their inquiry, both here at UChicago and well beyond.
I should also give a shout-out to Sarah Geis, audio editor and producer, who teaches courses on podcasting and oral history at UChicago. I don’t remember exactly how, but one day I found her website, Audio Playground, and instantly knew I wanted to bring more sound work into my teaching. I encourage everyone to check out her site and the sample assignments and sound recordings there—they really show the creative, personal, and flexible potential of sound as a medium for storytelling and reflection, inviting vulnerability and voice, and using micro-prompts to spark creativity.
What problem did this solve/ need did this fill?
ML: It gave students a space to explore tone, personality, and emotion in ways that are harder to do on the page. But the most important and direct answer for me is about the audience—cultivating the muscles for public voice and public thinking. The Humanities Core provides the best possible avenue for this, and we should seize it.
When it comes to writing papers, students often feel like they are performing for assessment. That pressure can make them hesitant to take risks or personalize their work. The real cost is that they often avoid asking about the stakes of their arguments—why their inquiry matters, and what broader implications it might have. Ironically, as Humanities scholars, we too, sometimes retreat into the safety of disciplinary discourse—leaning on inherited language or academic jargon and sidestepping the bigger questions: Where is this going? What does this interpretation do in the world? What are we trying to illuminate, challenge, or change? These questions carry risk and that’s good. We have to find ways to make students feel invested in intellectual inquiry, to feel why it matters, and to articulate that as part of their argument. That’s why I love teaching first-year students—this need is alive for me every time I design my syllabus and step into the classroom to meet my new interlocutors.
Podcasting really helps because I invite students to decide on their audiences. Most imagined their podcast as the nth episode in an ongoing series; some address a religious crowd, others a political commentary show, some spoke to readers of a public humanities blog. This made a real difference. They weren’t addressing me anymore, but imagining their voice doing work in the world—making interventions, commentary, reaching audiences with specific interests and expectations. I was glad to see that by the end of the course, this public thinking muscle had become more deliberate and active.
One short but related aside: Today, social media often rewards quick reactions, soundbites, and heated arguments—making public discourse feel rushed, polarized, and hostile. We are losing the ability to engage patiently and thoughtfully with ideas that challenge us. Podcasting offers a crucial alternative. Chenjerai Kumanyika says, “As much as people talk about social media, social media is not great for that; things turn negative very quickly. Podcasting is a place where people have kind of agreed to listen and reflect and think. I think that’s powerful and may even be willing to change their minds and reconsider things that they’ve thought… So I love podcasting for that reason.”
How do you design this? What are the most important elements?
ML: My collaboration with ATS, especially Mohammad Ahmed and Andy Poulos, was essential throughout the process—from our initial meeting to the submission stages of the assignment. They provided invaluable guidance, shared helpful resources, and supported students in completing the assignment in ways aligned with both their needs and the course objectives. Our first meeting focused on defining the assignment’s goals, podcast length, evaluation criteria, and grading. ATS also gave me a tour of the podcasting studios, explaining how they work, potential challenges, and how to help students feel comfortable using the space. This firsthand experience was crucial for designing the assignment, so I highly recommend anyone considering podcasting to arrange similar meetings and tours.
A particularly valuable part of the preparation was when ATS kindly hosted one of our classes at the Regenstein Tech Lab. Students visited the studios in groups to explore the space and anticipate what recording there would be like. Between this visit and the final recording, students worked on drafts designed for spoken delivery, which they refined in writing seminars and office hours. But more generally, the preparation for the podcasting assignment began on the very first day of class. Throughout the quarter, students submitted weekly responses, with half of these required to be op-eds. This emphasis on op-eds was intentional: I wanted to cultivate a rhythm of close reading alongside active thinking and reasoning, encouraging students to approach central questions with more freedom and a public-facing voice. The goal wasn’t to move away from close reading, but to show that close reading happens best when driven by motivated, engaged inquiry—not just analysis for its own sake. By mixing op-ed style responses with traditional close-reading papers, students practiced balancing careful textual analysis with thoughtful, active engagement. Throughout the quarter, discussions on voice and personal style were central, so podcasting became a natural extension—combining analytical precision with public communication.
One suggestion from Mohammad that I didn’t implement this time—but definitely plan to for the future—is having students start with shorter recordings, like a brief introduction early in the quarter or some weekly responses recorded on their phones. I think this would help them get more comfortable with the medium before moving on to the longer final podcast.
What skills or concepts does this develop for students?
ML: I’ve touched on some of these already: helping students relax some of their assumptions about writing and move away from “academese”; giving them tools to approach writing, argumentation, and intellectual inquiry as processes that require cultivating a distinct voice and style; and encouraging them to appreciate the power of media and intermediary tools in shaping thought, along with public scholarship, critical thinking, and presentation skills.
One major goal of this course is to help students develop clarity in their ideas through thoughtful and deliberate expression. When I introduced the assignment, I stressed that voice and speaking are already key parts of their writing process. During office hours, I often ask students to step away from their screens and just tell me their argument out loud. This shift—looking away from the Word document and voicing their thoughts—can be transformative. Speaking forces them to clarify gaps in their thinking and test whether their ideas actually make sense. When students skip this step, they often fall into a trap: using cryptic or overly abstract language to hide that their arguments aren’t fully formed yet. Scholars do this too—retreating into jargon to mask uncertainty. So I ask: “What’s your argument? What are you really trying to say?” Usually, after wrestling with their ideas aloud, students realize they can express themselves more clearly and directly than they first thought. The typical response? “So why don’t you just say that?” Podcasting is brilliant because this whole process is built into the assignment. Students write drafts imagining their words will be spoken. Writing for voice naturally helps students develop clear, deliberate thinking habits.
If I had to select one key skill this assignment develops, however, it’s close-reading—and I want to stress how important that is. Teaching close-reading is central to the Humanities Core, and voice plays a crucial role in how we teach it: we read texts aloud, respond to how they feel in our mouths, have different people perform various readings, and use our spoken voice to engage deeply with the text. Yet, close-reading is often narrowly seen as just a writing technique done on the page, which can confuse students. Sometimes it feels like we send them out expecting a type of close-reading different from what they practiced in class—when really, it’s a continuation of the same work. Podcasting can be a more organic continuation of our classroom work, as it necessarily requires lifting the text off the page.
More importantly, close-reading relies just as much on the gestures around it—how we introduce, quote, and contextualize passages, and how we invite listeners to engage with the text. These aren’t just extras; they actively shape how close-reading happens. What’s interesting is that when working in a voice medium like podcasting, students naturally feel the need to introduce, contextualize, or even dramatize quotes—something they often overlook in writing. Podcasting streamlines this process, making these crucial moves almost automatic and helping students develop these instincts more naturally.
How did you grade the students?
ML: I shared a rubric with the students which covered things like professional equipment and duration, development and organization, delivery, and, most importantly, close-reading. Even though podcasting is quite different from traditional academic writing, close-reading remained the heart of the assignment. The biggest chunk of the grade—40%—was based on how well students guided listeners through one or two key moments in the text, helping us hear or see something fresh in the language.
You might wonder why using professional equipment counted for so much. After all, the students just had to show up at the studio and use it, right? But it was important to make clear that recording on a phone or
any other simple device wasn’t an option. The medium matters—and learning to work with it, even feeling a bit of productive distance from it, was key. When we write papers on laptops, the device feels invisible, just a tool to get our thoughts down. But stepping into a studio, speaking into a microphone, and thinking about how your voice will sound on the other end changes everything. It slows you down, makes you think more carefully about the choices you make, your tone, your pacing—how your voice carries.
One of the biggest surprises for students—and honestly one of the best parts of this assignment—is hearing their own recorded voice and thinking, “Wait… is that really me?” It’s a moment of discovery that feels different from the pride they get when they finalize a paper. Listening to themselves out loud brings a fresh sense of curiosity and immediacy to their own ideas. As instructors, especially with first-year students, part of what we do is help them develop a genuine fascination with this creative process: turning thoughts into a new form, revising, and watching their ideas evolve along the way. For me, it was really important that this assignment not only teach podcasting skills but also help students appreciate how the medium itself can shape—and sometimes transform—how we present and even think through our ideas.
Conclusion:
Effective student discussions can start with thought-provoking questions or real-world scenarios that stimulate curiosity and critical thinking but they must also include creating an open, inclusive environment where students feel encouraged to express their thoughts and connect course material to their own experiences. Faculty can facilitate deeper engagement by giving students the tools and processes to do this, such as Podcasting. It can be adapted to almost anything to help foster discussion and reflection. Podcasting gives students the opportunity in any discipline to be creative as they figure out the structure of an episode, what types of questions to ask, and decide how to pair it to other episodes. It offers an engaging way for teachers to merge project-based learning with digital media analysis and production skills. These are all transferable skills that will give students a competitive edge as we send them into the wider world.
Further Information
To learn more about podcasting and how this strategy might serve your course check out our Enrich your Classroom Teaching with Podcasts blogpost. To take a tour of our podcast studio or schedule a consultation fill out the Podcast Request Form.
Subscribe to ATS’ blog and newsletter for updates on new resources to support you in using these tools. For individual assistance, you can visit our office hours, book a consultation with an instructional designer, or email academictech@uchicago.edu. For a list of our upcoming ATS workshops, please visit our workshop schedule for events that fit your schedule.
