Prepare for a long thread about my students' podcast, which is now live.

This semester, my students in HIST395 created a podcast about American explorers, which they called "Uncharted: American Expeditions." Its six episodes span the globe and even the cosmos. (1/n)

This wasn't a freeform project; the students had to write a script, find primary sources to include, and work with a composer to create music for their episode. (More on the music in a minute.) (2/n)

The move to online proved immensely challenging for us. Not only did we lose our recording space, which meant our production values went down quite a lot (something the students were extremely disappointed about), but making these collaborations work was HARD. (3/n)

That said, I still fully believe in the collaborative project as a way to teach students real-life skills. They had to work with 1-2 people closely to produce their episode, but we also had to make production decisions as a whole class. Compromise and cooperation were key. (4/n)

There were many, many moments over the last 8 weeks where I thought this was going to be an epic disaster. But it isn't. In fact, I'm incredibly pleased with all of these episodes. The students made something they should be really proud of. (5/n)

One of the things I'm the most proud of is our collaboration with the New Sound Collective, a student composer group directed by @accpercussion. The music really makes these episodes shine, and it binds them together thematically. (6/n)

I'm also so grateful to those who volunteered to help us by doing voice acting for our primary sources. They also take these episodes to the next level. (7/n)

So here, without further yammering, are the episodes. First, Continental Exploration: The Washburn Expedition, which focuses on one of the early explorations of Yellowstone. https://www.spreaker.com/episode/27694320 (8/n)

Second, Oceanic Exploration: The Ringgold-Rodgers Expedition, which focuses on a naval expedition to chart the coastal islands of Japan and China. https://www.spreaker.com/episode/27694883 (9/n)

Third, Polar Exploration: The Jeannette Expedition, which focuses on an ill-fated disastrous failure to explore the North Pole. https://www.spreaker.com/episode/27695032 (10/n)

Fourth, African and South American Exploration: Theodore Roosevelt, which contrasts two expeditions that the former president took. https://www.spreaker.com/episode/27695102 (11/n)

Fifth, Deep-Sea Exploration: The Black Sea Expeditions, which focuses on one of the expeditions of Robert Ballard to explore shipwrecks in the Black Sea. https://www.spreaker.com/episode/27695149 (12/n)

Sixth, Space Exploration: The Voyager Mission, which focuses on the yet-ongoing mission to the outer planets which has resulted in the exploration of interstellar space. https://www.spreaker.com/episode/27695170 (13/n)

And finally, a bonus episode, The Making of Uncharted: American Expeditions, which @accpercussion and I put together as a way to commemorate the work of the semester and to say thank you to those who helped us. https://www.spreaker.com/episode/27762840 (14/n)

Thank you to @H_Doug_Garland @adgarland @natesleeter @rfelty @PMatzko @kellenfunk @D__Hutchinson for doing voice work for us; thanks to @petersagal @NPRinskeep and @RundAbdelfatah for inspiring us. (15/n)

And most of all, though I assume they're not following me, thanks to my students, who persevered. Full credits and show notes for each episode are at https://unchartedpodcast.wordpress.com/ . If you are so inclined, give our podcast a listen and give the students some positive feedback! (16/16)

One last thing: You can access our podcast right now on Spotify; it should be up soon on Apple Podcasts (and thus then on your favorite podcast app, like @OvercastFM ). (17/16)