I first had the pleasure of meeting Maia last fall when she joined Blue, the school's literary magazine club. Over the course of the year, I was lucky enough not only to get to know her better as a person, but also to see and publish her phenomenal submissions to the magazine.
Recently, I was not at all surprised to hear that Maia takes her passion and creative endeavors to mediums beyond literature and art. When she asked last week if she could share her entirely self-produced podcast through the Quaranzine, I was thrilled to have the chance to share her work and to learn more about a medium I know relatively little about. I interviewed her about her podcast and its origins, the podcast creation process, and how other students can follow in her footsteps to create their own podcast series.
I hope you enjoy reading our interview as much as I enjoyed speaking with her!
Isabella: I’m here with Maia, a current Grimsley junior enrolled in the IB program. Maia's also the Vice President of the school literary magazine Blue. Eliza and I are the co-founders of the club, so as you might imagine, the three of us work closely together. Last week, Maia shared an interesting project she’s been working on with me—a completely self-made podcast. I admit that I’m not too familiar with the podcast world, so I jumped at the opportunity to learn more and to share her work with other Grimsley students. Maia, to start, could you tell me what your podcast is about?
Maia: Basically, it’s just me talking about unconventional stuff. I call it Clocking Out because I’m talking real and because I’m “off the clock” from being in school or even in church. I only have six episodes up, but so far I’ve been able to discuss the Black church and its origins, misogyny from both sides (specifically as it relates to the song WAP), how to cope with a lack of closure, and what specialization and purpose look like in real life.
Isabella: It sounds like you’re covering quite a few interesting topics! What you said about sexism caught my attention in particular. Could you clarify what you mean when you said 'misogyny from both sides?'
Maia: Yeah! So I noticed a lot of people saying that the song WAP empowers women—and I acknowledge that—but to me, it doesn't feel that way. I feel embarrassed and grossed out to be female after just hearing the lyrics and seeing some of the music video clips—though I don't talk explicitly about them in the episode because of their content. If women are supposed to be the audience for the song, why do the lyrics and video still objectify them? Why does they still appeal to the male gaze and the male fantasy of how a woman should look or act? My argument was that, regardless of who was making the money from the music, it still wasn’t doing anything empowering for anyone; objectification is still objectification, and that’s wrong to me.
Maia: I also clarified that I fall in the middle politically: liberal when it comes to policies and conservative when it comes to personal ambitions. I emphasized how that was my opinion, but enough people from my side weren’t talking about or discussing the song from an alternate point of view.
Isabella: What inspired you to start a podcast?
Maia: Honestly, Kai Foster! Over the summer, I was thinking about what sorts of things I could do for CAS [the required creativity, activity, and service component of the International Baccalaureate program] on a continual basis, and I listened to one of her episodes about how she puts her podcast together. A lightbulb kind of came off, and I just, you know, did it!
Isabella: I'm not familiar with Kai Foster, but I commend her for inspiring her audience to look into sharing their voices! Could you tell me a little more about her for anyone that might be interested in checking her content out?
Maia: Sure! She’s a podcaster and lifestyle Youtuber who dropped out of college to be more creative and to improve her mental health. She’s Black, lives in Atlanta, and is a Sagittarius—a topic that comes up a lot on her channel!
Isabella: I’ll be sure to link her Youtube channel when I transcribe our interview. So, when you watched Kai's video and became inspired to start your own podcast, did you have any previous experience with the medium?
Maia: No, I didn’t. I use a platform called Anchor, where I just talk into my earbuds, replay the audio, and add background music to each episode as I see fit. It’s easy to pick up—I still don’t know how to actually edit episodes!
Isabella: So you’re fully self-taught?
Maia: Yeah, I just figured it out on my own. I made a trailer to introduce myself to the world and to test out the software, then I just kept going with episodes as I got ideas to make them. I don’t have a special upload schedule; whenever I have a good, meaningful idea, I talk about it. If I don’t have one, I don’t make an episode.
Isabella: That’s a relief for people like me that don't know the first thing about digital editing. Would you say then that podcasting is a relatively easy hobby for anyone to get into?
Maia: Absolutely! Anchor even gives people sponsorships for their Podcasts, though I don’t have one—if I was paid, I couldn’t count my podcast as CAS hours. Anchor also distributes your podcast as it grows. Right now, my series is on six different platforms, and I didn’t even have to do anything extra to upload them elsewhere. Anchor just automatically shared my podcast for me!
Isabella: It sounds like a great platform to grow an audience! Do you have any plans for where you want to take your podcast in the future?
Maia: Not really! I plan to continue doing it into college because it’s the only definite place I have where I can really be myself, talk myself out, and find meaning in things—but I don’t have a particular future in mind for it.
Isabella: It’s been fantastic to hear about your experiences starting your podcast. I’d always imagined the process as being much more labor-intensive and expensive in terms of technology, but it sounds like there are some great platforms working to make podcast creation fun and accessible for everyone. With that in mind, if another Grimsley student wanted to start their own podcast, what advice would you offer them?
Maia: The biggest piece of advice I have is just to start, my guy! Everything’s completely up to you, so give yourself that freedom to just be who you are. A lot of spaces in our lives aren’t designed with us in mind, but because this is your product, your brand, and your place, you’re the captain of your own ship—something that took me a while to figure out.
Maia: The second major thing I can think of is not to overthink it. This is one of the only things in my life that I don’t overanalyze or get anxious about, and that’s the main reason why I’m so protective over it. If it gives you the freedom because you allow yourself to be free, you’ll know that this process—writing, speaking, using language—is for you, by your own design. If it doesn’t give you freedom, that’s okay too. Creativity is a progeny of the marriage between self-awareness and personal freedom; keep that in mind, and you’ll be fine.
Isabella: That’s excellent advice. As a writer, I couldn't agree more with your points on creativity. Creativity should be a liberating form of self-expression—an important point to keep in mind in today’s environment when so much feels like means to an end. Art should be its own end: that’s what makes it enjoyable to the creator. Having shared that valuable advice with us, do you have any other parting remarks you'd like to make?
Maia: Yes! There are some minor things for new podcasters to keep in mind too. Feedback is a good thing, especially from people that you know are listening. Keep your earbuds or microphone close to your mouth; sometimes your passion can get the best of you, but you have to speak directly into your audio input at all times. Don’t force yourself to talk about something when there’s nothing to say, you’re not comfortable, or you’re forcing yourself to upload on a particular time table. The people will come to you, not the other way around. You’ll see analytics and data regarding who’s listening to you and from where. Remember that your voice matters to them, but don’t get obsessed with the numbers. Your passion will show itself in your work.
Isabella: Thank you so much for sharing your experiences, Maia! I encourage everyone to listen to Maia's podcast Clocking Out by clicking on the link—I, for one, look forward to listening. If any other students have podcasts, hobbies, or other creative endeavors and accomplishments they'd like to share, don't hesitate to get into contact with us through our email grimsleyquaranzine@gmail.com or through our Instagram @grimsleyquaranzine!
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