- Don't.

No, we not, we not going to do that.

(upbeat music) (people chattering indistinctly) - [Presenter] "A Slice of the Community" is made possible by the support of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.

(upbeat music continues) (audience applauding) - Hello, and welcome to another episode of "A Slice of the Community."

I'm your host, Jerome Moore.

Today with Live in Studio, joined by audience with students and leadership from the MMPS Johnson Learning Center.

How y'all doing?

- Good.

- Good.

We're really good.

- Doing good.

We got, now we got Austin, we got Janie, we got Mr.

Hanna.

- Yes.

- Y'all feeling good?

- Yes, sir.

- Yes, sir.

- Now, I have to say that I'm proud to also be a MMPS graduate, right, Nashville native.

So this is a big moment for me to be able to champion y'all for the work that y'all been able to do, just in media, podcasting, but just as students to be here tonight and have the community come out here and support y'all.

So, if y'all don't know, this is a big deal.

I wanna let y'all know now, this is a big deal and we all proud of y'all.

(audience cheering and applauding) Yep!

- Thank you.

- So I wanna jump straight into the "Hawk Talk Podcast."

If y'all didn't know it's the biggest podcast out there in Middle Tennessee, right, if you didn't know.

Go like, subscribe, and all that good stuff you supposed to do with podcasting.

If anybody hasn't heard the "Hawks Talk Podcast," right?

If they haven't heard the episode yet, what would they get?

What would they feel from that experience, listening.

I'm gonna start that with you, Janie.

What would they, if nobody heard the "Hawk Talk Podcast," how would you explain it to 'em?

- To me, I feel like it's a very open-minded and welcoming like podcast to go on.

Like, if you, if you go on it, you're gonna hear a lot of different stuff about like, education, community, and just leadership.

Like, just how to connect with one another.

And you can see that in the podcast too, as connecting with, us connecting with the other person.

- [Host] Yeah.

- And I feel like that's very important for a podcast, for it to go well.

And I don't know, I feel like you'd also get inspired 'cause we're like, we're also kids, you know, and I feel like younger kids watching it would get inspired to maybe wanna start their own podcast one day.

Might maybe wanna talk about what, you know, helps inspire them.

- I was inspired to start my own podcast while watching it.

Shoutout to Mr.

Franklin, Principal here.

(group laughing) Who's in the audience with us?

Shoutout to Mr.

Franklin.

How about you, Austin?

- A podcast ran by students, like Janie said, we interview a lot of different people with a lot of different careers that do a lot of different things.

So the questions we ask is more on like the come up of their life as being young and in the middle age where they chose a career path or chose not to do something and something they did big in their life usually, the people around them that encouraged them, just stuff like that.

Keep going more into their background and they come up.

- What are some of the favorite stories I think you've heard from doing a podcast, or something that you've taken away from listening to one of your guests on the podcast.

- Whatever you want to do, go for it.

Don't listen to nobody else.

- Yeah.

How about you, Janie?

- Basically kind of what he said, like, don't ever give up on what you're going for, no matter, like, do your struggles in life, you know?

Just keep working hard for what you want.

- Yeah, what was one of y'all's favorite guests y'all had on the show?

So give us the people, like the high, y'all done had some really, you know, high tier influential people on the podcast.

So this is the time that- - I'm gonna say 2'Live Bre.

- 2'Live Bre, okay.

Yep.

- Just because like, his name ringing bells in the city and he was, he made time to come see us, you know?

So him.

- And he's also an MMPS graduate.

- Yeah.

- Here in Nashville.

And, you know, had one of the biggest country records in Nashville.

So yeah.

That's huge.

How about you?

- Probably Camille Carlson.

- Okay.

- Yeah, she was a very, like, I loved her, having her on the show.

I loved her, like outside the show, like, she was just a very like, welcoming person.

And I like the fact she also worked with Lil Wayne and a whole different lot of creators.

That's like, that's pretty big - Now y'all gotta get on her show.

You know?

That's what y'all got.

That's the next, y'all just gotta go on a show run at this point.

You know, a media run.

I'm gonna pass it to, to you Mr.

Hanna for this question.

You know, being a teacher advisor on the podcast, being a musician, yourself, being around just production and equipment, you know, what has surprised you working with Austin and Janie, but also the other students as a part of the podcast?

- I would say just seeing how the students kind of rise to the occasion.

This is a once in a lifetime type of experience.

You don't really see kids, or I should say, youth, working with industry standard equipment.

So like, the equipment we're using is almost in comparison to what might be at our regular production studio.

And the students, they're not only just, I would say taking leadership in it, but they're also holding their peers accountable.

So when the students are even selected to be a part of this great club, we would first, you know, ask the school, kind of show them like, how we're gonna select the students.

We might do an audition, what have you.

But once all of that is done and the school, we kind of did our part, we then put the onus on them, and as our school, 'cause we have, I would say transient students, meaning our students are in and out.

They might be here for about two, maybe three months or so, sometimes a year.

But we don't really get a chance to really be with a student for the longevity.

So we really put the onus on them because they get to see their peers more than we actually get to interact with them.

So we would ask them like, who do you want to be, part of the "Hawks Talk?"

Like, who do you see as the next host?

Who do you see as the next person to be the audio engineer?

And they'll literally be honest, like, no, don't pick this person because he's great.

Like he has great character, but we might end up just talking and not really focused in class, Mr.

Hanna.

So don't pick this one.

I'll be, okay.

I'm glad you're honest about that.

But it's amazing how they're now starting to do stuff like what HR would do.

What we put in our resume, HR is looking at like, is this person qualified, suitable for this position?

And they're doing it.

So that's like, the amazing thing for me is like just seeing how they gravitate to the opportunity.

And sometimes we overlook as adults, we'll say, oh, they might just because they're youth, or they're young, they might not really be ready for it.

But given the opportunity, like our students and being at the school and the culture we've been able to manifest at the school, I have found like, they surprise me all the time.

- Yeah.

Keep surprising Mr.

Hanna.

You know, keep surprising.

And so doing this partnership, especially, with the American Revolution and talking about what does it mean to be an American, you know, 250 years later, right, the good thing about it, what they may not know, you all kind of, we talked about this a little bit last fall around September a little bit.

Right, now y'all have had a chance, you know, seven, eight months, you know, later to really dive into what does it mean to be an American 250 years later.

Doing this podcasting process and having these conversations, what have you taken away and what does that mean to you now being an American 250 years later for you all right as students, right, and as young folks, because y'all are our future.

And I'll start with you first, Austin.

- What it means for me is just to stand for yourself.

I mean, being part of America is the opportunities that we have that other people across the world don't have.

So just taking them opportunities and doing the best of what you can do.

- Yeah.

How about you, Janie?

- Kind of like what he said, like freedom, like freedom to be who you want, freedom to be like anything you wanna be in life, you know, like.

- [Host] Yeah.

- I just feel like it's a very important thing about America.

- Yeah, I think, you know, y'all do know y'all the future.

Just made that clear.

Okay.

So it's important for y'all to talk about what that means because y'all are gonna define what it means for the next 250 years, right, of what is to be the, because we ain't gonna be here, you know, we headed out the door, right?

(laughing) (indistinct) You know, and so it's up for y'all to figure out what that looks like, and as students, right, you know, many of the many great movements in America led by students like yourself, right, especially right here in Nashville, which is a mecca of student-led movements, specifically during the civil rights movement, right.

And so how has it been being able to use your voice, right?

I know we had t-shirts made, like your voice is a revolution, right?

How has it being able to use your voice and use communication skills, right, through podcasting, talking about your experiences as Americans, but also getting the perspectives of other guests.

I'll start with you, Janie, on that one.

- I think it is great.

I feel like everyone should have the opportunity to speak their own voice and their opinion, 'cause everyone has their own opinion and everyone's opinion matters.

- [Host] Yeah.

- Like, I don't know, I just, it's just honestly been great being able to like, try to help people, inspire people.

Just being able to speak my voice.

- Yeah.

How about you Austin?

- It's been cool.

Definitely when like, I hear about more schools wanting to do a podcast or wanting to come to our school to come see our stuff and come see how we run things, it's definitely a cool thing to be a part of because it's like, we are kids, so some people think we don't have a voice, but part of being American is everyone has a voice.

So that's the cool part about it.

Being able to see those, other school leaders at other schools seeing us with our voice, they want their kids to have a voice too.

So it's kind of a repetitive thing.

- Yeah, and I think that's great to look at it like that because y'all are inspiring literally other schools to try to, y'all create the blueprint, right?

People don't know you all are the first MMPS student-led podcast, right?

In an era where everybody's trying to do a podcast, right?

Everybody got a microphone in their hand, right?

And so to set that example, to set that example in blueprint for your other peers, that's something big.

That's history, right?

Y'all can literally say, Hey, we was a part of the first student led me MMPS podcast.

And so all the other schools come and say, we doing the podcast, you can be like, yeah, we done that already.

You know?

(group laughing) Like, y'all got it from us, you know?

- Yeah.

At my school too.

Like they have a podcast and they haven't really started it yet, but they've been, I was like, oh yeah, I already like know what to do.

Like I already know all this like 'cause of Johnson, like.

- Precisely.

And so when y'all move on and like, like y'all can go ahead and put that on your resume.

Go ahead and start a LinkedIn page right now.

Just go ahead and do it and say, hey, yeah, I started a podcast and you know, MMPS because that matters, right?

And to do it now you all are already ahead of the curve.

And so many people in your age group, especially many people that already wanting to get into media, right?

I'm gonna send this to you, Mr.

Hanna, understanding, you know, socially where we are, socially, what's on, you know, just the pressure mentally that's on students every day, whether it be just from community, from home, or just just being a youth these days, what's happening digitally, right?

It's a lot of different avenues and angles that they're experiencing that maybe you and I didn't experience as, you know, high school or middle school students.

How are you seeing this outlet as far as podcasts and being able to allow them to use their voice in different ways that maybe you and I didn't get the opportunity to when we was their age in school?

- Well, as a creative arts teacher, I've always found like the arts to, I would say, open up an individual emotionally, allow them to connect socially with others.

But one thing I find with podcasting, which is kind of slightly different than just learning music, was it really, I would say activated the student voice or the inner voice in some of our youth.

Some stories that I would hear from parents would be, my child is now coming home and all they're thinking about is who they have to research about.

So now they're not just listening to music on YouTube, or I would say, or even learning music, right, or doing a piece of artwork, but they're actually using skills that can be applied to other jobs, other paying jobs, right?

And that's a tangible thing.

Like when you get that skillset, that's something that does not go away.

And I think by the, our students being involved with the podcast and them having this opportunity, it kind of just opens their minds to say, hey, like there are other avenues for me outside of just the sports, outside of just doing music.

- Right?

- Outside of even just my regular academics, like I can now monetize my voice.

I can monetize the thoughts that I come up with.

Another story that I kind of heard, which really touched me, was when the student went home and was talking about what they were doing, their younger sibling who was now watching and observing, not fully understanding of how to use, you know, all this great equipment.

He immediately became like intrigued, like, I want to know more.

And instead of saying, Hey, I'm gonna go to mom or dad, I now have another opportunity, I have another connection of building a deeper relationship with my sibling.

- Right?

- So now here's the younger one coming to their oldest sibling, like, Hey, can you now teach me about podcasting?

- Yeah.

- That's kind of cool.

Like, you know, when you have a family and you start sharing your stories about, you know, your brothers and sisters, which you might used to do, wouldn't it be cool to say like, how y'all sat down, or was like actually thinking about issues of the society and how you can possibly solve it?

And then who knows?

You actually created a podcast like, Austin even shared a story, like he's getting ready to go into basketball and he was like, he saw when we came here for a field trip and he immediately saw the, what you call the mobile mic.

- Yeah.

- And just the mobile system.

And he was like, this would be cool if I could use this to go on the court and then maybe talk to some of the coaches, talk to some of the athletes, start documenting that and maybe do a podcast.

And I was like, that's a really good idea.

- But just don't be getting crossed up, you know?

- But think about it- - That's the thing, you know, if he wasn't doing podcasting, all he'd probably be thinking about is wanna better his skillset in basketball, which is great.

But if you ask every athlete, everybody's gonna say, yeah, I have a backup plan.

He's already starting on his backup plan, - Right?

- So he's like way ahead of the curve right now.

And then who knows what other doors that's gonna open up for him, right?

So it's, I just see it like endless, endless, endless opportunities of potential that it just kind of puts on them.

Like, it just allows them to grow.

- So Austin, I want to kind of piggyback off of that.

Entering into this podcast space and, you know, doing these interviews, what is something that you learned about yourself that you maybe didn't think that you liked or you didn't know you had that talent of, you know, that came from doing podcasting.

- I learned a lot by myself.

I never knew like I could stand in the camera and actually interview somebody.

- Yeah.

- It was definitely stepping outta my comfort zone.

- Yeah.

Now look at you now.

You got the big camera shining on you, you know, jewelry glistening.

I like it, man.

You know, I wanna be like you, you know.

How about you Janie?

Did you learn something about yourself?

- Like you said, it definitely helped me step outta my comfort zone.

I was, I never really thought I could actually talk to people, like how I do, like actually connect on a different level.

I don't know.

I learned a lot about myself.

Just helped me just be more like, what's it called, like independent, helped me be more, I don't know, just like more like, what's the word?

Just connect with people better.

- Yeah.

- Kind of like that.

- When I say she is more confident and she is one that takes charge, like as soon as you, you cut that camera on and you're like, Hey, you're the host, it's a wrap.

It's a wrap.

She did the teacher of the year, the MMPS teacher of the year all by herself interviewing countless winners and everybody left like, man, that was a really good interview.

Like, she asked me questions, I was like, Hey, that's Janie.

- Yeah.

- And so that gotta be like, awesome as just a teacher and advisor for you to see like the growth and progression through each student and say, Hey, at first they may be, you know, scared to get on the camera or maybe didn't know how to operate one or, you know, the editing skills because y'all doing everything.

Like I know y'all doing photography, y'all doing editing, y'all hosting, you know, you're behind the cameras.

Yeah.

Audio.

And so y'all doing the whole kind of production ordeal, learning all those skills.

So I know they gotta be amazing to see, for you to see a student be like, I don't think I would like that, and now like, Hey, I want to be over this.

Let me take lead in this particular production model.

- I'm gonna tell you, it's now to the point when we have a episode coming up, the students immediately go inside, and if I start to be like, okay, let's do this, they'd be like, Mr.

Hanna, just hang back.

Like, we got it.

And just to see them start, how they handle the equipment, they know exactly how to set it up.

Like it's a very, I would say, thoughtful process.

- Yeah.

- Everything that they do, they're really putting it into practice, - Right?

- So it kind of shows me like y'all are really taking it to the professional level.

Y'all are just looking at this as like a regular club.

They're really looking at it as, Hey, we have somebody who's coming in to speak with us.

We gotta make sure that we have a nice professional setting and they take it to the industry standard.

And that's what we want is because, at the end of the day, they're high school students, and one of the main things we're trying to do is make sure that they are career and college ready.

- Yeah.

- So this club literally kind of, I would say, sets the platform or puts them in that environment where they can immediately say, Hey, yes, I can now go to this job.

I'm not afraid to put in an application for a corporate company.

Or I'm not afraid to go to 92 Q. In fact, when 92 Q came down, oh yeah, we were the first school, by the way, and the first podcast to have the whole cast- - Of 92 Q?

Shoutout, hey!

- Yes.

- Y'all just, y'all leading the way.

You know, you know, but y'all leading the way.

(audience applauding) - When they came, they immediately was like, this was really a great interview.

- Yeah.

- How y'all had this set up.

'Cause it, because, you know, 92 Q, it is a cast, it is a huge cast.

So we had to really split them up.

- Right.

- And how we did it, and I would say the questions that the students had, even the dialogues that they had outside, they just was like, okay, this was an interview.

- So Austin and Janie, I know y'all interviewed a lot of people during this process.

You haven't interviewed me yet, but that's another story.

We'll talk about, I'm gonna talk to your advisors and your principal about that, know what I'm saying, - Get back to school tomorrow, I'll look at the books.

- Okay.

You gonna schedule me?

I'll take it, man, whenever you can pencil me in, I'll make myself available for you.

But is there anybody in particular besides myself of course, that y'all want to interview that y'all haven't interviewed before?

Anybody that you can think of?

Anybody that's alive?

- Calvin Bryant.

- Calvin Bryant.

Okay.

(indistinct) Okay.

Okay.

We can make that happen.

You got his information?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

Calvin Bryant.

Okay.

How about you Janie?

- I don't know, I kind of wanna like, interview a rapper.

- Okay.

Any particular rapper?

Y'all had 2'Live Bre.

- Yeah.

- So that's one, he's in like, kind of that rapper-singer-songwriter genre.

But anybody in particular, I feel like you got like a particular artist in mind, you know, that you're not sharing with us right now.

Just tell us, just say it.

You never know.

They might see this and they might be like, oh, you know, you might have the pencil me into the books.

- Either Kodak or Lil Wayne.

- Black or Lil Wayne.

Okay.

All right.

Lil Wayne supposed to be coming down here soon.

He coming on tour, you know, Lil Wayne, we need you to come down here and get this interview.

Then you go, look, Mr.

Hanna know everybody in the music, he can maybe hook that up when we doing it.

We getting a little, (group laughing) you ain't got that Lil Wayne, feed that podcasting... - But if he come in here, oh we'll we'll talk to you.

- You gonna talk to me?

See, I'm trying to get on "Hawks Talking."

Talking to me.

I've gotta work my way up.

During the process of the podcasting and communicating and talking to people, I'm curious of what is one thing you learned about people and how they feel about being American themselves.

Right?

What is one thing that you took away about people when you asking them questions like, Hey, after 250 years, what does it mean to be American for you?

What was something that popped out to you that somebody said to you all.

I'll start with you Austin.

- That everybody's different.

Like when we asking that question, it's not, they only give us a quick answer.

It's always, they take some time to reflect on their self and really think.

- Yeah.

- But the one that just pops out to me is all the opportunities that we have about really being an American.

- Yeah.

- Because that's mostly, that's the answer we get most of the time.

But it's really a good answer and a really valuable one because it's a lot of opportunities we get that a lot of people don't have for real.

- Right.

How about you Janie?

Does anything pop out to you when you asked a particular guest, like, Hey, like I know what it means for myself to be an American, but did something pop out to you that a guest said that really struck you?

Or maybe something you didn't think about before?

- Probably like the evolution of America.

Like on how it like, and how before like a lot of people didn't have rights.

And now like, even though it's not like the best, you know, it's still like, it's still way better than it was before.

And I feel like that's very important.

I feel like something we should very be proud of every day.

- Mr.

Hanna, when we talk about collaboration right, and you know, working with Nashville PBS and working with the American Revolution on the Kim Burns film, why is that important for community and school, you know, especially public school collaboration.

Why is that important and what would you say to encourage more community partners, community organizations to partner with schools like Johnsons and others?

- Collaboration in schools is highly important.

The world right now that we live in is growing at a very fast pace.

And I say that because when you go to, especially when you get to go to college, you really see it, right?

You get to meet a lot of different people.

But most of, if you look at, I would say the ratio of students going to college now is smaller.

- Okay.

- Which means there's not that much exposure that students are having the opportunity to get outside of the city that they're in.

So when you're able to say, Hey, you're a business in the community, you're another business in the community, if you can come in to show them how you support the community and how you also are supporting outside of Tennessee or how you're supporting outside of Nashville, right, it would allow them to open up their minds on like what are the things that are out there?

One thing we found with working with the organizations, especially with PBS, was we didn't realize how much educational resources there are.

So for us in the classroom, we were able to really, I would say support our students, especially, with the podcast and to show them different things, show them different types of interviews and even different information that they probably didn't have access to.

- Right?

- And then being able to come here and actually have hands on experience that allowed them to really, I would say, tap into areas like understand like what career or what pathway is available.

And then now they can link that up, come back to school, and share like, Hey, what college can I now apply this with?

Or what career opportunity can I attach this with?

- Yeah.

- Or what maybe summer internship might be available.

So it's a really, I would say, when the community gets involved, now you actually have a working community - Now, we talk about community and we're gonna end it off with this, right?

We talk about community.

If you have to leave one thing, Janie and Austin, to community right now, if you had to leave one message, act like we on "Hawk Talk Podcast" right now, right?

You gotta leave one note, you know, to our community.

What would it be, Janie?

- To never give up and always believe in yourself.

'Cause I never, I always wanted to be on TV and now that I finally am, it's crazy.

- Hey we here, how about you, Austin?

- Same thing Janie said, but as the community that just is like say we are, we are one.

Like we all together as a community.

- Yeah.

Work together as a community, not just like, bring other people up, don't bring other people down here.

- Yeah.

Cool.

- Well look, let's get a round of applause everybody.

(audience applauding) And look, we thank y'all for watching another episode of "A Slice of the Community."

If you wanna watch more, please download the PBS app or check us out on YouTube at YouTube.com/NationalPBS.

So we appreciate y'all.

- [Janie] Thank you.

- One more time.

Giving up for them.

(audience applauding) (gentle upbeat music)