The SC New Legacy Project, the youth organizing body of the SC Progressive Network, has started a podcast to engage, educate, and mobilize young people in the Palmetto State. To date, they have taped three episodes, although the latest, on the group’s Monument Tour, has not yet been posted.
Although she is quick to share credit, the force behind the podcast is Vikki Perry, a Pamplico, SC, native and graduate of the Modjeska Simkins School of Human Rights, another Network project. She is rightfully excited about the podcast, and shared with us a little about how it came to be and where she hopes it willl go. [Note: for a primer on the New Legacy Project, listen to the last 45 minutes of this episode.]
Chris McLauchlin, Chris Gardner, Dale Joyal, Vikki Perry, Wayne Borders, and Curt Shumate tape an episode of the South Carolina New Legacy Podcast. Photo by Danielle Dandridge.
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First, the Network is impressed with the podcast, and we can’t wait to follow your progress. What was the genesis for it?
While the idea of a podcast has been around for a long time in NLP, we decided to start it right now for a few reasons.
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There is a lot of expertise and experience in the room at the SC Progressive Network/NLP. A podcast is a good way of sharing that information around our community. By virtue of location, our group is pretty Columbia-based. We want people outside the Columbia metro to know what is going on, too.
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In the last few years, local news coverage has dwindled to a trickle. National companies are buying local news outlets and there is a dearth of coverage of local issues. Everything is national, and in the age of Fox News and Sinclair Media, there is an agenda to a lot of that media coverage. We have an agenda, too, but we’re up front about it and we try to support it with facts and real stories about the people in our community.
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We want to build an apparatus for communication that fits into the 21st Century model. Podcasts are an easy entry point and add a sense of community. But maybe someday, we’ll move into videos or some other integrative format to add that same sense of community.
As for who is responsible for this, it is a collective effort. I remember sitting at the Modjeska House [where the group met before it was closed recently for renovation] and saying, “Guys, if you want to do a podcast, stay after the meeting for a little bit.” No one at the table moved. I was like “Okay, this is going to be a thing now.” So we’ve all worked together over the last several months to decide on a format and some topics. I’m really excited about where we’re going to go with this.
Briefly describe the podcast.
The South Carolina New Legacy Project is a South Carolina-focused political podcast that aims to educate, agitate, and organize in our local communities. It is a show that will feature deep dives into policy, local stories, and interviews with people who are making a difference on either a national stage or a local stage or both.
We plan to regularly feature a segment that we’ll call “Corrupting the Youth.” These will be intergenerational interviews where younger activists interview a more seasoned activist about their lives, their work, and how they see what is happening around the state and nation.
What audience are you hoping to reach?
Young progressives or young-at-heart progressives who want to be politically active in South Carolina and don’t know where to start. When you’re a progressive in South Carolina, you can feel isolated and somewhat powerless. For me, finding the progressive network has given me a sense of community and some of that power back. I want us to help foster that same sense of community and give people who can’t come to our meetings because they live in Myrtle Beach or Easley or somewhere else in the state.
We get lost in the cacophony of liberal groups in this state who maybe aren’t doing the same kind of work we’re doing on a local level. The podcast is a very literal way to be heard over the noise.
How often do you plan to record?
Currently, we plan to release an episode every two weeks, but ultimately, we’d like to do something on a weekly basis.
Who are your key collaborators on the project?
I have taken the role of cat herder, organizer, and learning to produce the podcast as I go. Chris Gardner has taken the role of our sound guy, and has composed the theme music that we’re going to use. Wayne Borders loves doing the intergenerational interviews so you’ll probably be hearing a lot of him.
But we have a large collective, and we’ll all be contributing as we go on depending on the topic. Curt, Janessa, Chris, Danielle (our photographer), Daniel, Omari, Dale, and we will pull in people from the broader collective of the Progressive Network as we need their expertise like Sarah Keeling and Kyle Criminger.
What can listeners look forward to in the coming sessions?
For some time now, the New Legacy Project has been working on something called The State of the Youth. We’ve been researching several main areas where the youth of South Carolina are impacted including health care, criminal justice, economics, education, and voting rights. You can definitely look forward to hearing more about that. Education will be coming up in the next few weeks.
But we have some fun topics that we’ll discuss as well like history, barbecue, movies set in South Carolina, colleges, and more.
Our next episode is going feature the Monuments Project and how it came out of the Modjeska School for Human Rights. Curt and I may also talk a little bit about one of the people who are memorialized on the State House lawn. You’ll need to listen to find out who!
Anything you want to add?
First, you can find us HERE and wherever you listen to your podcasts including iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and Soundcloud. Search for us under South Carolina New Legacy Podcast.
Second, we take suggestions for topics and stories. If you’ve got anything you want to hear about, we’ve probably got people who can discuss it. Tell us. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Our email address is scnewlegacyproject@gmail.com.
Look forward to hearing from you!