Podcast Prodigies: How Wenatchee High School Students Are Shaping the Future of Audio Storytelling

Meet Brandon Harle, a teacher at Wenatchee High School.

Brandon created a Podcast Production & Audio Storytelling class. In the first year of the class two students received honorable mentions from NPR and the New York Times for their entries in podcasting contests.

Brandon shares how his podcasting program came to be. As a member of the social studies department, he wanted to make courses more engaging for a diverse student body. Incorporating his passion for genealogy and primary source documents, he developed a project-based learning approach. Inspired by advice from the technical education director, Brandon embarked on a new adventure – creating a podcasting program.

So, grab your headphones, tune in to this episode of “Exploring Washington State,” and dive into the fascinating world of podcasting, where education and creativity intertwine in perfect harmony.

Brandon Harle Wenatchee High School Podcasting Episode Transcript

Scott Cowan [00:00:04]:

Hello, friends, and welcome to the Exploring Washington State Podcast. My name is Scott Cowan, and I’m the host of the show. Each episode, I have a conversation with an interesting guest who is living in or from Washington State. These are casual conversations with real and interesting people. I think you’re gonna like the show. So let’s jump right in with today’s guest. I’m sitting here today with Brandon Harley of Wenatchee High School. And Brandon, I’m gonna you sent me an email, and so this is how I’m gonna introduce you. You sent me an email and your signature card says you’re a social studies teacher, senior class advisor, yearbook advisor, podcast instructor, media production, and TSA advisor. Right. What do you do in your spare time?

Brandon Harle [00:00:50]:

Not much right now. It’s actually less that I used to do. I also used to be an assistant football coach. So that’s

Scott Cowan [00:00:57]:

what I thought I saw somewhere. It was a you were a football. Okay. So you you’ve you’ve you’ve streamline the workload just a little bit. What? A little bit. So I’m not I’m it’s been a long time since I’ve been in high school. Let me just look at me. But what is a TSA adviser? Because that makes me think you’re training kids to work at SeaTech Airport. Right. And, you know, so what’s TSA? For some.

Brandon Harle [00:01:19]:

It’s an unfortunate, connected acronym. Right? TSA is the, technology school association.

Scott Cowan [00:01:27]:

Okay.

Brandon Harle [00:01:28]:

So, part of in technical education, the programs that we all offer Washington State have to have some form of a professional organization. For a club. So for podcasts and media production, our engineering teacher, Doug Merrill, our forensics teacher, Lindsey Hildorfer, We’re all TSA advisors. That’s part of our requirements for CTE Career And Technical Education.

Scott Cowan [00:01:54]:

Now, unfortunately, you just now I’m down the rabbit Harle, and we’re not even gonna talk about you. You have a forensic adviser.

Brandon Harle [00:02:01]:

Yeah. With the with with our Washington State is really, aggressive and facing on the the the issue head on about like, pathways, students that are having kind of, like, ideas about what they wanna go into for post high school. And, our pathway requirements, students are supposed to kind of steer their way towards classes that that that will potentially lead into a career after high school. K. So our technical education, uh-uh, director, Jake Wolts, has offered a swath of different classes that, that lead kids to all sorts of opportunities. And, forensics was added last year. And Lindsay’s done a great job with that. There have been some faux crime scenes that students have to come and, analyze. And and I don’t really know that much about her particular course, but the TSA aspect of it. They they she’ll bring a group of kids to one of the TSA, oh, I guess, conventions, and they’ll have a mock seen that they don’t anything they don’t know anything about beforehand, and they have to try to use what they’ve learned in class to solve that particular, event.

Scott Cowan [00:03:18]:

That’s crazy. Okay.

Brandon Harle [00:03:19]:

Yeah. Well,

Scott Cowan [00:03:20]:

that’s that’s okay. So as as I’ve said before on on episodes, you know, I I typically have a conversation with my guests you know, pre you’d get on the phone, talk for a little while. And and one of the things that I said to you when we were on the phone was that my very layman’s view of schools is that they’re very much within the box. Mhmm. And and and so I was really when I heard about this podcasting program and and and your students, which we’re gonna get to, I promise you, is I thought how cool that is that that’s outside the box. And now you’re telling me the same school has a forensics program, which, I mean, I’m gonna be honest with you. That’s really outside the box to me. That’s like crazy. That’s that’s really that’s very cool. So

Brandon Harle [00:04:04]:

Yeah. We we we have a lot going on. I don’t I I really don’t know how much the average person knows just how many things a big school like ours has in terms of school student opportunity and just the the wide variety of classes and opportunities. One of our pathways that’s within our social studies department now is a law and justice. So Wow. We have mock trial, constitutional law, and that even though the social studies banned, it is within the context of career and technical education because, obviously, law and justice is a a career opportunity. Those kids get to compete at state National conventions and We are incredibly fortunate. We Harle, a former California state supreme court lawyer who would Wanted to get out of that, and he came to be a social studies teacher when I had you high school. So, that is that’s a one off. That’s not something that’s super common. To have a a a a certified bar certified California lawyer teaching, law and justice.

Scott Cowan [00:05:10]:

That’s crazy. Alright. So last question about Wenatchee High School in general. I know we’ll come back to it in some ways, but this is my so you mentioned big high school. What is the approximate attendance. You know, how many students go there?

Brandon Harle [00:05:23]:

Well, we’re a weekend. So I don’t know if I have the most updated, but I think it’s pretty safe to say. We always go with 2000 and that could be a little bit more depending on the year, but It’s a minimum. It’s 2000. It might be a little bit higher than that 21100.

Scott Cowan [00:05:38]:

So last year in the graduating class of of 2023, how about how many graduated

Brandon Harle [00:05:44]:

I at 460 ish, somewhere in there.

Scott Cowan [00:05:48]:

So what when you went to high school, how many how many kids did you graduate with?

Brandon Harle [00:05:52]:

I I graduated from Wenatchee High School in 1993, and we had, about 265, I think. Yes.

Scott Cowan [00:05:58]:

So my my school that I graduated in 1980 in Tacoma was about 240. So 400 and some kids, that’s just I knew the school was big. I didn’t know it was — Yeah. — I didn’t know it was quite that big.

Brandon Harle [00:06:11]:

On my list of things you mentioned. I’m, the senior class advisor, and I’ve done that for 17 years. And that role really is just about getting the graduation ceremony and and kids going through that. So I could tell you that last year’s class was cons one of the smaller we’ve seen this downward trend. So we’ve had as many as 600 And, so we’ve had a a couple that have been lower than 460, but, yeah, it’s it it’s all over the place. Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:06:39]:

Where so your backstory so you went into Wenatchee High School. So you grew up in with Wenatchee? Yep. Where’d you go to college at?

Brandon Harle [00:06:46]:

I went to a naturally college. Then transferred to central and finished out my social studies degree there.

Scott Cowan [00:06:52]:

K. And then was the plan always to come back to Wenatchee? Like, see, like, my story grew up in Tacoma. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. I went to I went to Central myself, and I wanted to stay in Ellensburg. I loved Ellensburg. I still hold it My bio says it’s my freshman year was the best 6 years of my life. So I had a really good time in Ellensburg, but I really I really like that town. Was your plan to come back, or were you thinking about going elsewhere?

Brandon Harle [00:07:21]:

I knew I I tell my students when they ask me, I allow them to interview me. They always ask, when did you know you wanted to be a social studies teacher? And I was fortunate that, I had some really powerful and impactful social studies teachers in particular. And I can vividly remember sitting in Room Two Zero One, my senior year, kind of contemplating what is it that I wanna do, teacher, sports medicine, something else. I I don’t really know. But knowing that we had this station today. We were talking about China. I remember my teacher, and I looked around the class, and everybody was having a good time. We were enjoying ourselves while still learning and this mentor of mine, it’s just that moment. It’s like, I wanna be a social studies teacher when I had your high school. And I was one of the few people that go to college who didn’t change his major. So when I went to central you know, when I finished up those classes, I had a student teach, and I and I I student taught over at Eastmont, which was something that I didn’t wanna do. But it ended up being the best thing that I could have done. My master teacher over there was somebody who, I am still deeply indebted to in terms of who he is is is a person. I I aligned myself. I’m like, that’s that guy. He’s I wanna be like him when I teach. So, and then it took me almost, almost 9 years. To get a full time social studies job after that. So k. I taught 4 years in the business department Harle. I went to actually high school from 2001 to 2005, teaching a variety courses, that I wasn’t overly excited about. I wanted to be a social studies teacher. And after 4 years of that, I I I left. I I left education for a year. So — Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:09:15]:

— that change.

Brandon Harle [00:09:17]:

Yeah. I came back. I taught a year later, I came back I taught a year in Chelan at, at the high school up there.

Scott Cowan [00:09:23]:

Yeah. We’re at

Brandon Harle [00:09:24]:

the link bus up to Chelan every day for a year. And that was an incredibly just powerful experience for me to get my, kinda open my eyes to a smaller school and a and a community that it, I’d only been on the periphery of as a tourist or somebody who had visited up there as a as a lot as a kid, but, And then in 2007, I I I came back here.

Scott Cowan [00:09:48]:

Okay. That’s that’s what a great story.

Brandon Harle [00:09:51]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:09:53]:

Let’s talk podcasting because that’s why we’re that’s what that was the original reason we’re

Brandon Harle [00:09:58]:

doing it.

Scott Cowan [00:09:58]:

So I’ll just tell you what I I know, and then you’re gonna you’re gonna fill in the blanks. So I saw, I think I saw it on Facebook, and I think somebody shared an article from the Wenatchee world about a Wenatchee High School student who won honorable mention in a podcast contest held by the New York Times. Mhmm. I thought that was amazing. Then I did a little bit of a little bit of research. And I saw that he was in a class at Wenatchee High School, which kind of made me go, that’s really cool. And then I your name popped up. I actually looked you up on LinkedIn. I messaged you on LinkedIn. You were kind enough to respond back. You may be regretting that now, but here we are. I wanna know How did this program get started? What was what was the the root of this? And, like, because once again, I come at this with the idea that high school schools, public schools in general Harle, like, tied into this little box regarding text testing.

Brandon Harle [00:11:04]:

Right.

Scott Cowan [00:11:05]:

How did you how did this podcasting program get started?

Brandon Harle [00:11:09]:

So let’s, I gotta think about the dates. So it’s fall of 2023. So it was the spring of 2022. I was the department head for our social studies department for several years, and I had been imagining a way that we could recreate the courses that we taught in social studies to be a little bit more broadly appealing to our students in particular student body that, is a very diverse student body. And the traditional is, you know, like, a world studies kinda course, a US history course, and then your senior year, you take a contemporary issues or civics course, and that rinse repeat over and over again. And, I I felt with our our our depth of of knowledge, and so many of our people that have these life experiences, we should be able to have courses that tended to be a little more unique. And one of the things I wanted to try to do is implement more, project based kind of students could share the things that they learned. And I had created, I’m I’m very passionate about genealogy and family history, and I used a lot of history of my own through that means to share with my students primary source documents, historical events and all these little minute details that you can actually be a part of even though you might not think about it through tracing your family history. And social studies doesn’t have a big budget. And we don’t have the means to create, like, I wanted the kids to be able to do what we’re doing, like, a recorded video or an audio story. To share with their family or friends. So I went and visited with our current technical education director, Jake Wolts, about kind of equipment they Harle, what kind of options would, that look like? How could we create a, like, an audio lab that students from social studies could go potentially use? Any he was very great about it. He said, you know, let me think about it. Let me get back to you. So he came back to me a couple weeks later, and he said, here’s what I’m thinking. How do you feel about being the person who creates a podcast in class? Wasn’t exactly what I asked for. It wasn’t anything that I had really thought about in terms of, that kind of a change in the way that I was doing it, but it was exciting that the idea that Here’s a guy who saw enough in me to say, Harle, why don’t you lead this? I had never had any experience with audio or, podcasting on my own. Like most people, I think COVID hit, and I kind of got into the podcast groove. It was a nice way to to to fill the day and hear some great stories and follow some, people that I enjoyed listening to, but I didn’t know anything about it. So he offered, me a chance to to to study some of those things. I took some classes through the, University of California, Berkeley school, graduate school of journalism, their Advanced Media Institute. And I learned so much. It was it was so enjoyable. To build kind of my knowledge base and to create this course. And, we ran it. We we schedule them. The the kids schedule several months in advance before the the school gets out. So we had an well, more than enough to run a course, that for last year. And starting in the fall of 2022, we ran with it. And, like, anything has been pretty shaped getting it off the ground right away. I I, you know, it’s one thing about having a knowledge base, knowing how to teach, putting them all together, finding the, the the means to of instruction. I had all the equipment. My my, Mister Rules was awesome about finding us, the equipment, letting me purchase equipment that was very much tied to industry standards, the things that we used in the courses that I took, and we built the course from there. And, it it still is a work in progress. But the way that I wanted to, I imagine that we have an incredible sports medicine program here at Winneti High School, a nationally recognized one, And in my mind, I thought I wanna do for high school podcasting what our sports med program has done for that program. I want kids to be able to get, notice, in notice at the national state level for what they create. And maybe potentially earn them some scholarships or, steer them towards a career in audio engineering, podcasting, whatever it might be, whatever media field they’re interested in.

Scott Cowan [00:15:59]:

That’s very that’s very impressive.

Brandon Harle [00:16:02]:

I don’t know. I I was that the long,

Scott Cowan [00:16:04]:

Wow. That but see, that’s see, I I think so what I what’s in what my takeaway from that is is that you you put in the effort, but I do have one question. So You you said the kids register Harle. So the course wasn’t ready when the kids were registering for it. Where was it? You you were kind of It’s just

Brandon Harle [00:16:24]:

advertised. Yeah. I I, paper with my director’s help. He’s like, get the word out because we know that, kids are are selecting their courses by February or the following year. And and but 2000 students and our the way that our our our our classes are constructed. It is it is amaze of madness. Our our assistant principal, Ricardo Energas, He runs that, and that is, you know, it’s a it’s it’s a huge process. So we have to know that Harle. And, I think by advertising it and being a teacher who’s been here for a while and and is, I think, earned a reputation of being pretty adapted working with students. We wanted to get the word out and, you know, it it the initial numbers were higher, but, you know, you gotta make sure you have enough to fill one class and, because kids can say, hey. That sounds cool. They put it down as one of their picks, but then later go, you know what? That doesn’t fit into my schedule. So the numbers always drop down a little bit and but we had more than 30 signed up initially. So there we go. And we had 30 to start the year last year.

Scott Cowan [00:17:36]:

Okay. So you had 30 students to start the program. Now one thing you you also you said when we were on the phone, or at least I think you said. So I’m gonna ask for some clarity. This was open to all grades. It wasn’t just oh, so it was open to all grades. Yep. When actually high school, how many of the classes are available to all years?

Brandon Harle [00:17:58]:

Well, I think for the most part, all of our and technical education programs are open 9 through 12.

Scott Cowan [00:18:04]:

Okay.

Brandon Harle [00:18:05]:

There’s some that have the advanced component to it. Like, for instance, like, you have intro to welding and then advanced welding. Right. So those wouldn’t be open to 9th graders. We, you know, some of our, English and science and math courses tend to be a more aligned to grade level. Okay. You know, you take sophomore English as a sophomore, which makes sense. Yeah. Our social studies that we have tried to kind of that up a little bit. So we have some freshmen now taking some of our social studies classes. And we’re we’re we’re allowing for more of that. But for for the most part, CTE, PE, music, I think we have a our sports med program, which is part of our CTE, our art programs, our foreign language. Those are all open to all grade levels.

Scott Cowan [00:18:52]:

Okay. So your class is open to all 4 grades. Mhmm. Your initial class. What was kind of the mixture? Mostly juniors and seniors? Was it Freshman? No.

Brandon Harle [00:19:02]:

It was it was all 4 grades. Being the first time, what’s interesting, Kate, one of our students who was recognized for his podcast. He’s a freshman. My , who’s a freshman, was in that class. My daughter who was a senior was in that class, we had a mix of all all 4. Okay. And and all students from lots of different kind of backgrounds. So it was very eclectic.

Scott Cowan [00:19:33]:

Had you ever had the experience of teaching your kids before as far as being a teacher, not not being a parent, but being a teacher,

Brandon Harle [00:19:42]:

my daughter, I took I had had her for, APUS history or junior year, but that was that coming out of COVID, it was just kind of a funky didn’t have a usual feel. So, yeah, my daughter was, in my class theater before.

Scott Cowan [00:19:56]:

Okay. Alright. That’d be I don’t know. My kids are great. I don’t know that I could have been their teacher. I don’t know.

Brandon Harle [00:20:05]:

Well, my wife’s the 7th grade teacher, and she had my daughter in class.

Scott Cowan [00:20:09]:

Okay.

Brandon Harle [00:20:09]:

But she didn’t have my son. She knew that that wouldn’t be a a dynamic that would be very functional. Not in a negative way, but she just loves all over him and definitely Wenatchee when my daughter and her came home, they would, part ways. And I just spend a lot of time through the day with each other. And then when they get home, the last they wanna do is more of that.

Scott Cowan [00:20:29]:

Got it. Alright. I shouldn’t laugh at that, but that the way you described it was kinda cute, actually, to be honest with you. Okay.

Brandon Harle [00:20:34]:

It was very, uh-uh, like, sitcom time. I was watching him walk in the door. Just go opposite directions.

Scott Cowan [00:20:41]:

So this is the 1st year you’ve run the course. I’m sure everything went flawlessly. There was nothing you already alluded to. Things weren’t what you expected. But I’m gonna put you on this by Harle. Here’s a now this is where I’m gonna start asking you very pointed questions that may or may not be possible to answer. Let’s I’ll get that right out of the way. But Sure. What Did you not see coming that happened? Either good or bad. I mean, was there something that you’re like, I would have never thought about that.

Brandon Harle [00:21:10]:

Well, I was really intentional about the way that I titled the course. I wanted students or people that were interested in podcasting not to think that they were just gonna come in and it was just gonna be the Joe Rogan podcast.

Scott Cowan [00:21:26]:

K.

Brandon Harle [00:21:26]:

The title of the course is, intro to audio podcast production or, sorry, intro to podcast production and audio storytelling. So, what I didn’t expect was

Scott Cowan [00:21:41]:

some of

Brandon Harle [00:21:41]:

the students who came in who really, I think, thought that it was just, hey. We’re gonna for 86 minutes every other day, listen to podcasts. And, you know, kinda figure out how the tech then we’ll interview some people and and it it’s I I guess in my mind, I wasn’t really prepared for that. There’s always the tech hurdles. Our students all have Chromebooks in the one at you school. Does or at least in the one at you high school,

Scott Cowan [00:22:10]:

Mhmm.

Brandon Harle [00:22:10]:

So, some of the the Zoom, audio recorders that we use that’s a pretty common device. Don’t integrate as easily with Chromebooks, where, you know, most either Mac or PC base have a software that I kinda help with that. So, we had to work around some of those issues. Yeah, I I mean, I think that everybody that comes to a podcast has a different, interpretation of what that is. When you sit down and you listen to podcasts, Sometimes it’s just to learn something. Sometimes it’s to have a laugh. Sometimes it’s to hear an interview. So what I think I wasn’t prepared for was the fact that students tend to have, like, one view of what a podcast Cowan. And that was different than what I was hoping to, engage them with.

Scott Cowan [00:23:02]:

K. So when you’re when you’re sitting there in September and students are filling into the room 1st week of school type of thing, did you did you ask them Were they were most of the kids in the classroom pot did they were they podcast listeners?

Brandon Harle [00:23:20]:

I would say Probably not. Uh-uh, about 5050.

Scott Cowan [00:23:24]:

A 5050.

Brandon Harle [00:23:25]:

I mean, I think most of them had listened to one — Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:23:29]:

—

Brandon Harle [00:23:29]:

before but I wouldn’t say that all of them were consistent listeners. K. My daughter who’s in the class, she had she was going into her senior year. So she had started to kinda, like, find some ones that kinda kinda connected to her personality. I talked to some other students who You know, they they listen to the big ones that they they they would tune in for sports reasons or but nobody was really an avid podcast listener. I didn’t get that sense. And and there were certainly some that did only, like, had listened to a couple from time to time, but, you know. Alright.

Scott Cowan [00:24:07]:

See, I was hoping you were gonna say the whole class listened to Exploring Washington State. Just Just kidding.

Brandon Harle [00:24:13]:

That’s one of the things that I’ve I’ve recognized. I mean,

Scott Cowan [00:24:16]:

there there

Brandon Harle [00:24:17]:

is an unlimited amount of podcasts out there. It is. Endless. You find it on the top. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s one of the things that I was trying to to press upon my students was There’s something out there for all of you. Let’s find it. I mean, it is there.

Scott Cowan [00:24:34]:

Right. Well, one of the things that I think is really kind of fascinating is now when I when I was a kid and that, you know, go back I could’ve interviewed my grandfather using a cassette recorder. Right? I could’ve recorded that and I could’ve had him tell all his stories, the the verbal history, you know, of his life. And I didn’t, but I could. The technology was there, but now I mean, do do you want to be using zoom zoom h one n’s the little the little handheld ones. Right? Yep.

Brandon Harle [00:25:12]:

That’s the common one.

Scott Cowan [00:25:13]:

Yeah. Cell phone. I mean, there’s so much The technology has changed so much that you could if if you were so inclined, you could sit down and record conversations with family members. And store them, use them, chop them up into not the I’m not trying to say you should profit off your family. That’s not what I mean, but you can tell those you can tell those family stories. And you can share those family stories very easily.

Brandon Harle [00:25:42]:

Right.

Scott Cowan [00:25:43]:

So it’s kind of a fascinating that that aspect of it’s fascinating.

Brandon Harle [00:25:47]:

Right.

Scott Cowan [00:25:48]:

The other thing, you know, there’s so many other things you can do, but the other thing you can do is you can, like, I’m doing. I I when I started this, which this this podcast was a product of the pandemic because our website was getting, hate me was too strong, but during during during the lockdown, a large number of people that follow explore Washington state, whether the website or our social media, they actually think we’re the state of Washington. And so we were getting we were getting some pushback from people saying, hey, you’ve locked us down. You said we can’t do this. How come you’re telling me to go to this restaurant? Or or go on this hike. And so it was like, well, wait a second. Well, this is kind of a we’re we’re our what we do change during that period of time. Well, I didn’t wanna shut the whole thing down. So the idea was, well, let’s just start talking to people and see what what happens. I had no idea that I’d be doing this 33 plus years later and still enjoying it. In fact, probably enjoy it more now than I did then if I’m being honest because I’m more comfortable doing it now. Sure. And I’ve had some some fascinating conversations with a just like, I’m talking to you. I had no idea. A week ago, I think, let’s say, 10 days ago safely. 10 days ago. I had no idea that when actually high school had a podcasting program, much less thought I’d be talking to you today. Are I’ve talked to, you know, Fairly well known people. I punched way above my weight, for access that I wouldn’t have gotten had I just sent a a blind email to the CEO of a company saying, hey. I’d like to ask you questions. It would never gone anywhere. But I can say, hey, I have a podcast and I’ll send the doors open. It’s it’s very it’s very interesting. And I don’t think it matters that I’m my age or fourteen. I think these your students can if they wanna interview somebody, if they approach it well, There’s not one right way. So I don’t wanna say right. Like, there’s only one way, but if they approach it, their their likelihood is pretty good. I think that they can they can have that conversation with somebody no matter where that person is. Know, we’re not sitting in the same room right now. We’re using technology. I mean, we could because we’re actually in the same. So one of the rare rare episodes run-in the same town as my guest, but You know, I don’t have to be in the same room. And the technology is cheap. It’s easy to use. It’s pretty reliable. It still needs a good internet connection, but that’s pretty common most places. And I think it’s a great way for kids, not just kids, but people learn storytelling, people to learn how to to share something that’s important to them and interesting to them. So walk me through. I’m a a student in your class. What do I have to do to get a good grade from you? What’s the requirements of the course? What what are you having the students do? What’s the course work like?

Brandon Harle [00:29:01]:

Well, like most of our courses, we always wanna make sure we start off our kids with some kind of an entry task, for the podcasting class, I pick one of the ones that has been an award winner for students either from the New York times or NPR student podcast contest over the last 6 years. So when they enter class for the 1st 5 or 6 minutes, they’ll listen to one of those and give some feedback. We’ll talk about that. Those Harle easy quick points to kinda them focused in on what we’re doing for that day. And then we have, just whatever particular podcast we’re working on, being that it’s project based, We have a number of our podcasts that are that have due dates. Okay. So the NPR podcast is due in, I think, by the end of March, the New York Times 1, I think, is by the 1st week of May. K. The the organization you mentioned earlier, the technical student associations, the Washington State TSA, the one we, compose, they’re great because they come up with a, a prompt. And that prompt everybody’s got their own version of what they wanna do. Last year was describe a product that high school students use every day. So, that’s pretty far reaching. And the kids had, you know, there’s parameters for each one. So for this course, we’ve really project based. We have a lot of deadlines. You know, you have to have this many interviews by this day. You have to have, you know, we go over, like, copyright issues with regards to, sound and music use. Some kids. We we found some sites that kids use that allow for you to make your own sounds of music. We I think I had a couple lessons last year where they had to do some foley sounds, to reenact the the actual, the sounds that are made that they could put into their video or their, their podcasts.

Scott Cowan [00:31:06]:

Right.

Brandon Harle [00:31:07]:

So to get a good grade, though, I mean, it’s really about did you fulfill the requirements of this particular podcast. Did you do it in a way that allows for the listener to to listen to it easily and and structurally sound? Every other kid in the class after the due date has to listen to all the other students and they they get a grade. They well, that way, they give me the feedback based on that. And, I I use my grade, but their grade can be, impact by what the other students also, give in. Students are kind of, finicky. You know, they don’t like anything about that topic. So this podcast isn’t my favorite. Like, that’s fine. That that that’s not what we’re trying to do. You know? So, it could be, I had a couple kids do. We’ve had, as a football coach, we’ve had some students who have gone on to play college football, and we’re lucky enough to have some students who Harle, played at University of Washington. And so one of my students, who’s the son or the brother of, Kate and the son of the head football coach, called a couple of the guys that University of Washington had that are still Wenatchee grads and, so did a spring preview for the husky football team last spring. You know, that he fulfilled the requirements. He had 3 interviews. He put in sound that was non copyrighted. You know, he He found some sounds like the husky barking in the background and, you know, it’s more about the skills than the actual, podcast themselves because just like if somebody writes a paper, you don’t agree with it, really about the structure of the paper. Did they did they do all the things that were required for that grade? And that’s what the podcast has to be. The rubric that we have is it doesn’t have these parts. Now the skill and the talent, like, you know, you said after 3 years, you’re you’re really comfortable lot of kids aren’t comfortable right away hearing their own voice, making edits, you know, I had one of the podcasts that was turned in, that it was like a 10 minute podcast and 9 minutes of it was their interview. You know, asking one question and letting the person they were interviewing talk. Right. And they they threw some music in, like, a little intro, and it it it didn’t meet any of the requirements. So I I punted it back to him and say, hey, guys. You gotta this isn’t a podcast. This is a recording of somebody’s answers that you asked. And that takes time. I think that the idea that they want to just interview people and that’s good enough is different than a storytelling aspect. You can have both

Scott Cowan [00:33:45]:

Right?

Brandon Harle [00:33:46]:

But you also have to like, you’ve learned, you have to have the skills to be able to communicate with people and talk to them. I mean, this is an interview without, like, a job offer at the end. Right? I mean, you’re you’re still it’s a back and forth banter that takes practice. And the more you do it, the more comfortable you become.

Scott Cowan [00:34:04]:

Well, now I’m I’m I really don’t want this to go down the technical rabbit hole, but I guess I’m gonna have to ask a couple technical questions. You said you’re having the students edit What are they using to edit? Because they’re using Chromebook. So they’re they got a little bit of limitation. So what what software I think I know the answer. I I think I know what you’re gonna I have an idea. But I’m curious. What are you having a minute with?

Brandon Harle [00:34:28]:

Okay. Well, that’s the that was the thing. I I guess I should’ve went, but you asked me a question. What was I not ready for? And, I had done all the front end work the class that I taught, we worked through it in Adobe Edition — Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:34:43]:

—

Brandon Harle [00:34:43]:

which is an industry standard software, you know, that’s considered one of the top of the lines, but no Chromebooks run on running that stuff. And I have a few computers in the class, that we purchased the students had access to, and we gave them full access to Adobe edition.

Scott Cowan [00:35:01]:

Okay.

Brandon Harle [00:35:02]:

The problem is is, like, Adobe edition is like calculus. Right? And if somebody comes in only knowing how to do addition and subtraction and you say go after it, and here’s a device that doesn’t really speak to its language. It just puts all this. So I wasn’t really ready for that. I had high expectations. And so with some help from the students, we found, a, web based system called Podcastle. Is that the one that you were

Scott Cowan [00:35:29]:

— No. It’s not. No. I’ve never heard of that. Okay.

Brandon Harle [00:35:32]:

Yeah. So, podcastle.ai is it’s a our students all have, accounts that allow them to sign in through, like, a kind of a Google attachment Harle one of actually schools accounts. So, they offer a free plan. You can obviously purchase a bigger plan that offers more bells and but we don’t really need that. The podcast 1 allows me to render, a little bit of sound out, create different, layers of their audio so they can do their voice, their music, transition sounds, whatever they want. So It’s all web based. So and because our students use, a Google based web system, We all have Google drive, which is basically their hard drive so they can take their audio files from their Zoom recorder, drop it in their, their Google drive, and drag it over to podcast if they need to and, manipulate it that way.

Scott Cowan [00:36:30]:

Okay. I was thinking, there was 2 that popped to mind I was wondering if it was Audacity, and that’s a, a free tool. That’s quite popular. It’s not calculus, but it’s it’s it’s advanced algebra.

Brandon Harle [00:36:49]:

Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:36:50]:

Or Hindenburg, which is more. Hindenburg is more designed for journalists. It’s designed to edit the spoken word. A lot of like, if you have a Mac, a lot of people use garage bag. And you can you can go crazy with garage band and that, you know, I’ll put a violin in here and you can have 32 tracks of music.

Brandon Harle [00:37:11]:

Right.

Scott Cowan [00:37:11]:

Hennenberg is designed more for storytelling. And — Gotcha. — it’s it’s not free, but I think that they have a a fairly deeply discounted educational program. Time. And it’s pretty lightweight in the grand scheme of things. It it’s still I mean, all software is heavy, but it’s it’s pretty lightweight. So those are the 2 I was thinking.

Brandon Harle [00:37:35]:

Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:37:36]:

Another one would be Descript. Have you heard of that?

Brandon Harle [00:37:40]:

No. I I I don’t think I Harle, the script running him down. I’d I think we came across Audacity. I haven’t heard of Hindenburg, and then third one you said was what?

Scott Cowan [00:37:49]:

Descript. Descript is kind of a visual editor. You you put the file in and it it creates a transcript.

Brandon Harle [00:37:57]:

Oh, okay.

Scott Cowan [00:37:58]:

And you edit the transcript. So, like, I wanna cut out all the ooms and ah, so you just click and they’re all gone. It’s kinda kinda cool. It Yeah. It’s nondestructive editor. Lot of interesting things now. The other thing with the advanced version of descript is that you can record your own voice. And let’s say I say something like when Ashley’s playing Eastmont, Friday nights, June or September 11th, and it was like, oh, it’s supposed to be December 12th. I can literally go in and cancel out 11, type in 12, and it’ll say it in my voice. It’s just kinda creepy, big brother stuff, but it’s kinda cool, you know, for, like, a quick quick on the fly editing. And they’ve locked it down you can’t, like, upload Morgan Freeman’s voice and and and all of a sudden have all your shows sound like Morgan Freeman or something like that,

Brandon Harle [00:38:44]:

but it has

Scott Cowan [00:38:45]:

to be you. Anyway, so you’re having the students you’re walking them through all of this very specific, you know, guidelines and all that. Now What? Okay. So you’ve mentioned 22 podcast contests. You’ve mentioned the New York Times and you mentioned NPR. We’re and we’re gonna give you your we’re gonna go back to that in a second, but how many of your students entered those competitions. Was that a requirement of the class? Is that they enter?

Brandon Harle [00:39:16]:

My I wanted it to be a requirement but because such the broad and all, you know, we had students that had never done anything with audio to some that had a little bit of experience. Nobody had a lot. Okay. And because we’re kinda limited. Right? Students try to find somebody to interview about a certain topic or and you’re you’re you’re a 9th grader. You can’t drive to go interview somebody. Like you said, I I one of the things that I pushed towards the latter half of the year was let’s find ways to connect to people. Let’s, let’s let’s email this person. Let’s call this office and see if they can set up a time. We’ve created that opportunity for kids to find ways to try to connect with people. So That took a little bit of time to try to find a way to do. And because of that, not everybody had a product that met the the kind of threshold that you know, that we wanted to submit. Okay. I had a handful of kids, submit to both of them. And that was fine. So my hope was they would submit, you know, but if it wasn’t ready, I didn’t wanna, waste their time or the good folks in NPR and the New York Times. They had to listen to thousands of these anyway. Not to say that it wasn’t about the effort. You know, they learn still. But, that was the hope. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:40:44]:

Okay. So the article that I saw was that you had a student win honorable mention in the New York Times. Mhmm. And then After I saw that and you and I spoke, you sent me another email and you had just found out that another student had honorable mention in the NPR — Right. — contest. Let’s let’s talk about both

Brandon Harle [00:41:04]:

of those.

Scott Cowan [00:41:05]:

I’ve I’ve listened to both of those episodes.

Brandon Harle [00:41:07]:

I I

Scott Cowan [00:41:07]:

thought that they were both really well done. What how much of that can you walk me through? Are those 2 those 2 students? What we walk through what you think their workflow was to put these 2 episodes together?

Brandon Harle [00:41:25]:

Well, yeah, I get a little bit of it. Of course, the first part of it is just, with both NPR and the New York times, it’s wide open. You could be on any topic. NPR tends to also encourage students to pursue a podcast that deal with, mental health issues that so many students are struggling with coming out of COVID. But the I mean, it’s such a literally anything. And, you know, as I don’t know if you were like that as a college you’re like, alright. I can do it on anything. You’re like, oh, man. I can do it on anything. I I how do I narrow that down? So,

Scott Cowan [00:42:00]:

I’m like that as an adult. Yeah.

Brandon Harle [00:42:02]:

I mean, it it’s kind of a nice option, but it also is kind of daunting because you really can go anywhere with it. So we sit down and we talk about some ideas that kids might have and if certain students need more time to discuss, like, a topic, we can do that, but, you know, the the clock’s ticking, with Cade, his podcast call. I think it was the the the crash at sea, if I remember right.

Scott Cowan [00:42:28]:

Let me

Brandon Harle [00:42:29]:

see if I can see it here. Yeah. The crash should see. I’ve known Kade since the day he was born. That story was one that I’d heard from his dad for 20 years. So when he told me, he’s like, hey. I’m thinking about doing the story. In my mind, it just was that has that is great. Do that because with just my mind went through all the sound editing he could do, the interviews that he could create. Kate had actually, interviewed his dad, his uncle, and his grandpa, but had a phone call out the coast guard. Like you said, you know, you try to reach out to these people, and people wanna hit 10. I I it’s I think it’s pretty common people wanna help high school students, any students, really. Sure. They didn’t give me a few minutes of their time. So I don’t think that the the coast guard was ditching, Kate on a call. It’s just they’re busy too. And it so he he put in a call of the coast guard, outfit out of Portland that it’s probably one of the busiest in the United States if if I’ve remembered hearing it right, the bar there, because he wanted to get some interviews, like, hey. What do you do when you when a boat gets hit like this, what’s the what’s the procedure? So, you know, I try to help them with some ideas. Mhmm. And then you know, we’ll we’ll do a couple searches and look for some people maybe that they can talk to an interview. A lot of kids, and I wanted them to lean on kinda personal experiences. So the girls who did the life inside the green band tent Wenatchee told me that all three of them were banned students. They were partnered up. They could they could work on groups of 3, and that was fine. And they told me that they were gonna do that. I was just so excited. And and when I found out that later on, I was also picked as a, honorable mention I was a little disappointed because I thought actually I had a better shot than just honorable mention, but I was so proud of him for getting that alone.

Scott Cowan [00:44:22]:

Mhmm.

Brandon Harle [00:44:23]:

Because that story in and of itself, the the green tent story. You could do many podcasts on how ugly that got here, for the the staff and you heard it. Some of the interviews that people provided about, the ugliness that we, we had Harle, throughout phone calls and emails and, you know

Scott Cowan [00:44:44]:

— I was really surprised. Honestly, I was like — And

Brandon Harle [00:44:47]:

there’s a lot more to it that, — Yeah. People don’t know about.

Scott Cowan [00:44:52]:

Well, the, yeah, there’s a part. Yeah. Anyway, I I’m good. We’re gonna link to both of the episodes. Right. I appreciate it. I want So, folks, if you’re listening to this episode, I’m just gonna say pause right now, go to the show notes page, go listen to these two episodes that you understand more clearly what we’re what we’re discussing because they’re both excellent, stories, and they’re both, what, 6 minutes long. I mean, they’re both they’re both — Yeah. — very short. And that’s part of what the NPR 1 had to be, what, less than was it 5 or 6 minutes? It was it was pretty cool.

Brandon Harle [00:45:20]:

I think it’s 6 or so. The the New York Times one is 5 minutes. Yeah. Exactly. So if you have any lagging airtime, any intro, kids were learning to cut that, like, milliseconds to

Scott Cowan [00:45:33]:

— Right. —

Brandon Harle [00:45:34]:

because if it’s a tenth of a second longer than 5. They just delete it. They won’t listen to it. Wow. Yeah. But see

Scott Cowan [00:45:39]:

that’s you gotta learn. That’s the those are those are standards in in jobs than when you Harle no matter what what the thing is. So I did read that, Cade doesn’t know that he’s going to stick with podcasting. I think it’s it’s I think that’s paraphrasing it fairly fairly accurately. Is he in the class this year?

Brandon Harle [00:46:00]:

No. We it it’s still just one course. We offered a, we we wanna offer an advanced podcast where we do something similar where we have, like, a weekly, interview, you know, where a group of kids can, sit down with a guest and talk about what’s going on in the district or or or whatever it might be. But, no, right now, it’s only a a one off you take the class one time and then, you gotta move on.

Scott Cowan [00:46:27]:

Okay. So it’s 1 and done. So alright. So this year, It’s early on, but how many students do you have for the class this year?

Brandon Harle [00:46:38]:

Just had the class. I’m thinking probably about 25.

Scott Cowan [00:46:41]:

25. Yes.

Brandon Harle [00:46:43]:

Maybe it’ll yeah. How about that?

Scott Cowan [00:46:45]:

Fairly equally distributed amongst all 4 grades?

Brandon Harle [00:46:48]:

Not as many this time. I think there’s less seniors this year.

Scott Cowan [00:46:52]:

Okay.

Brandon Harle [00:46:53]:

More sophomores in junior, heavy. Yeah. Less freshmen, less seniors, and more, the other groups.

Scott Cowan [00:47:00]:

Okay. So this year, are you what changes based on your 1st year? You got through it. You you survived. Congratulations.

Brandon Harle [00:47:07]:

Yeah. Thank you.

Scott Cowan [00:47:09]:

This year, what changes are you making to improve the class?

Brandon Harle [00:47:18]:

The a couple of things. 1, I wanna focus more on the actual skill of having these kind of conversations. I’m working on, asking better questions and and not being afraid to reach out and and contact people that are willing to maybe give you a few minutes of their time. So many kids just kinda defaulted to I’m gonna go ask this teacher and interview this teacher again.

Scott Cowan [00:47:41]:

Mhmm.

Brandon Harle [00:47:41]:

And, that that teacher, you know, maybe had the same prep period as my class. So they’re getting the interview over and over and over again. So I want kids to try to find a way to use this medium, right, zoom, and, the the ability to record these, as a way to add to their other skills. The communication thing is such a rough thing. Kids, as a whole, generally struggle talking to adults, even when they feel comfortable. You know, it’s just such a foreign conversation a lot of the time. That that creates some discomfort. So I wanna make sure that they are willing to, kinda stretch their legs a little bit in that respect. Little more structured about, which, entries that we have scattered throughout and the way to build those. You know, it’s instead of handing them an entire box of parts and say put it together, let’s put a couple parts together first and then build that into another piece. You know? So in in teachers speak, that’s like that’s called scaffolding. Right? Your building is you go to kinda create something that stands up at the end.

Scott Cowan [00:48:52]:

I I think it’s I I’m so happy to hear everything you’re saying. I just think this is this is awesome because you’re absolutely correct. In my experience, kids, don’t communicate all that great with with adults sometimes. And For example, in in my, I’m the PA announcer for the Wenatchee the AppleSox baseball team. And This summer, we had a Wenatchee High School. I think he’s a junior this year, as our head score keeper. Great kid. Got him to say, like, 3 words a game.

Brandon Harle [00:49:34]:

Right.

Scott Cowan [00:49:36]:

Great kid. It’s really and we we by the end of the season, he was much more comfortable with with the adults in the in the press box. And he’s just a great kid, and it’s he he loves doing that. He’s he’s a stats Geek. And I I mean, that is a complimentary term, not, you know, he loves baseball stats.

Brandon Harle [00:49:53]:

Right.

Scott Cowan [00:49:53]:

And but first first few games, and he was just up couldn’t couldn’t just just at the score sheet on the computer to keep everything going. And but I think that having them reach learn how to reach out to and handle no when they because you will get be you will be told, you know, or they won’t respond, you know, and you can’t take it personally. Alright. So I think what you’re doing is awesome. I do think that both the episodes that we listen to. I listen to. You’ve listened to him as well, so I can say, wait. I listen to. Both of them are great. I’m very, very happy, but I’m gonna turn the attention back to you just a little bit now. I always ask my guests three questions. And so here’s 1st of 3. And I don’t remember your I I kinda prepped you with 2 of them, I think, but I don’t remember your answer. Are you a coffee drinker?

Brandon Harle [00:50:46]:

No. Uh-uh. I I and I forget which store you asked me, but, no, I’m not a coffee drinker.

Scott Cowan [00:50:50]:

Alright. So you’re gonna have to play along then.

Brandon Harle [00:50:52]:

Okay. Where

Scott Cowan [00:50:54]:

if you and I were gonna go grab a cup of coffee and I’m making air quotes around coffee, coffee together in Wenatchee, where would you recommend we go?

Brandon Harle [00:51:01]:

Oh, man. My, my daughter and my wife, and actually my son love coffee. They so I’m going off of their recommendations,

Scott Cowan [00:51:12]:

but if

Brandon Harle [00:51:12]:

you’re just talking about, like, going to have a conversation you know, at a place that, serves beverages or coffee.

Scott Cowan [00:51:22]:

Yeah. Of course.

Brandon Harle [00:51:23]:

That’s my daughter loves going to Mila. She loves their coffee. Javedog is their go to, but, I mean, those are places you go. That’s drive through.

Scott Cowan [00:51:33]:

Right. Those are drive through. But but may gotta sit down downtown. Okay.

Brandon Harle [00:51:37]:

Yeah. It’s got a good vibe and, I know my students tend to like to go there and — k.

Scott Cowan [00:51:42]:

—

Brandon Harle [00:51:42]:

stretch their legs a little bit and maybe study a little bit there. And See,

Scott Cowan [00:51:46]:

I would have thought your students would be Dutch Bros.

Brandon Harle [00:51:49]:

That’s that’s Yeah. I oh, I mean

Scott Cowan [00:51:50]:

Not that’s coffee. That’s just, you know,

Brandon Harle [00:51:52]:

that’s that’s

Scott Cowan [00:51:54]:

I’m not sure what it is, to be honest with you, but — Right.

Brandon Harle [00:51:56]:

Yeah. I don’t know. I’m gonna refrain from making any comments about

Scott Cowan [00:52:01]:

those kids. So second question is where’s a great play? In your opinion, where’s a great place in Wenatchee to go grab lunch?

Brandon Harle [00:52:14]:

Oh, man. Well, I can tell you that, you know, doing this as long as I’ve done it, you end up having some connections and some people, you know, So sweet with barbecue,

Scott Cowan [00:52:23]:

is it’s a

Brandon Harle [00:52:24]:

great story. Our former, cafeteria manager. Her name was Anitra and her husband, Tom, on the side, had some barbecue as, a kind of the side hustle for a while. She retired from Harle, and he and her opened up a country boys in Cashmere.

Scott Cowan [00:52:47]:

Right.

Brandon Harle [00:52:48]:

So their son, Benj, opened up Sweetwood Barbecue later on. Uh-huh. Benj’s wife owns and operates Dilly Dolly right next door.

Scott Cowan [00:52:57]:

Right next door.

Brandon Harle [00:52:59]:

So, I’ve seen a few recipes from the old high school cafeteria mom make their way into a couple of those establishments, but, man, I, you know, I I wouldn’t say that I was a guy that, grew up loving barbecue that we kinda know as barbecue. But during the pandemic, Sweetwood was open for pickup. Yep. And I became an addict. I guess this is the only way to say this is, like, it it’s just so good. And I’m really excited that it’s a former student and athlete that we I help coach it. And,

Scott Cowan [00:53:39]:

Did you did you coach bench?

Brandon Harle [00:53:42]:

I wasn’t his position coach, but I was a assistant coach when he was on the team. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:53:48]:

He’s such a great guy.

Brandon Harle [00:53:50]:

Yeah. And I haven’t really seen him a whole lot, but, you know, I’ve had I have students who work there.

Scott Cowan [00:53:56]:

Okay.

Brandon Harle [00:53:56]:

So they’ll come in and pictures on the wall. They’ll football teams, and they’ll they’ll go to look for him. But I I definitely I when people come into town, like, hey. What do you wanna try? Like, you gotta go to sweet wood. You gotta have lunch. Get a sandwich or a a salad of dilly deli. Get the smoked chicken at dilly deli and the because it’s the the pulled chicken from leftover from the thighs the night before. Because yeah. And when people say, I don’t really like barbecue. I’m like, just trust me. Just go. You know?

Scott Cowan [00:54:22]:

Alright. Two questions. What’s your go to what’s your go to meal at Sweetwood?

Brandon Harle [00:54:27]:

Man, if It’s a Wednesday. I I I don’t know if I’ve ever ever had a better burger than their Smash Burger on Wednesdays. So

Scott Cowan [00:54:36]:

they’re solid. And I

Brandon Harle [00:54:38]:

can just eat the burger. I mean, that’s that’s that’s good enough right there, but I have not had anything on the menu that isn’t worth not going back for.

Scott Cowan [00:54:46]:

So you have connections. So I gotta ask, you know, this is this is this is why this is why having a podcaster is is awesome because I had no clue that you you knew these people. Yeah. The thing that I miss from country boys is their potato chips.

Brandon Harle [00:55:00]:

Yeah. You know, I didn’t make it out there as much.

Scott Cowan [00:55:03]:

Those are just

Brandon Harle [00:55:05]:

but they’re yeah. The the times that I went there, I’d get them they were good.

Scott Cowan [00:55:09]:

They were and, you know, I’m not a huge, like, potato chip fan. Right? But those were so good. I I So I’m gonna ask you to use your pole and and you need to talk to Benj and have him put the potato chips on the menu.

Brandon Harle [00:55:21]:

I don’t know if I have that kind of pole, but

Scott Cowan [00:55:24]:

don’t don’t underestimate yourself. I mean, we should you and I will both walk in there together. We’ll scare them. How about that?

Brandon Harle [00:55:29]:

Well, I you know, whatever we can do to help promote the business to send down to those two places. I love that they’re locally owned and, you know, they they employ local kids and, you know, the kids. Man, and and it’s just good food. It’s also

Scott Cowan [00:55:44]:

a, you know — — was

Brandon Harle [00:55:44]:

a was a — — and aid.

Scott Cowan [00:55:46]:

Yeah. Sweetwood was a sponsor of the AppleSox this year. They actually fed the players for some games. He Benj was just a is just a great guy to to talk to every time I I go in there no matter how busy they are, good service. I love all of that.

Brandon Harle [00:56:00]:

Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:56:01]:

So this is fun because normally, normally, the guests are saying, oh, I go there and I’m that sounds fun. I’m looking at my watch. I’m thinking maybe my wife and I Harle gonna go to sleep with tonight. Thank you for Virginia. Okay. So last Well, I have two questions, but the last one is what didn’t I ask you that I should Harle asked you?

Brandon Harle [00:56:20]:

Yeah. That’s a great job interview question. Right? Uh-uh.

Scott Cowan [00:56:23]:

I know. What about the program? Didn’t we touch on that you would like to share with the public? Did we miss something?

Brandon Harle [00:56:32]:

Oh, man. I this is really the first time that I’ve had an opportunity to talk about it publicly. I appreciate the fact that you’re giving me, an opportunity to share the insights of what we’re trying to do, for the program, but So everything we talked about is is new, and and and interesting. We we Yeah. I, you know, I’ve coupled it this year. You know, you’re right at the beginning, media production. So we have another side of it where we’re trying to get some, video production going where we kind of produce a, like, a newscast that’s a little more traditional than for our morning announcements that can be more, consistent. K. So it’s not just podcasting. It’s also we got some video production and, you know, we have some sound boost that we Harle purchased that we were able to get some funding for.

Scott Cowan [00:57:24]:

Oh, wow.

Brandon Harle [00:57:25]:

The the guys from NCW Life, our local television channel, they’ve been fantastic about coming up and helping us, like, just set up, some acoustics and how to get the the the the cameras and the the component set up right because I’m I’m I’m an incredible novice, but I have a former student who is a phenomenal journalist, at a and he’s currently stationed in, Houston, where it’s one of the stations there. Seems Bryce Newberry. He he went to Arizona State and graduated the, Cronkite School Journalism there. So I haven’t taken pictures, and I’ll ask him, like, technical questions. And he sends me pictures of their sets and their lighting set up. And, I don’t know the verbiage for certain things, he’s been super generous, and and he’s an incredibly busy, journalist himself. So that helps me when the kids can see this guy’s, kinda doing some stuff that we’re trying to shoot for.

Scott Cowan [00:58:20]:

Mhmm.

Brandon Harle [00:58:20]:

But, you know, as for what you haven’t asked me, I think those are all the things. Everything that you’ve talked to me tonight or today about is, stuff that is new for me to share.

Scott Cowan [00:58:30]:

Good. Well, once again, kudos to this. Alright.

Brandon Harle [00:58:33]:

Thank you.

Scott Cowan [00:58:33]:

So we’re gonna wrap this up. This is a a very simple question. I I ask all my guests this question. You have to answer it. And you have to explain your answer. Alright? It’s very, very simple. Cake or pie. and why.

Brandon Harle [00:58:51]:

For me, I like pie.

Scott Cowan [00:58:54]:

K.

Brandon Harle [00:58:55]:

And I like pie because I like the texture and kind of the cake to me can be overly sweet, especially if the frosting’s not done right. Mhmm. Pie. I like the, the crunch, the the texture with the the sweet and the savory kind of mix of the the crust and the fruit. So

Scott Cowan [00:59:18]:

there we go. What type of pie?

Brandon Harle [00:59:21]:

And I knew you’re gonna ask for that.

Scott Cowan [00:59:24]:

Now you’re going to ask you the the the, yeah, the stock has to get a decent apple and and no one would question you.

Brandon Harle [00:59:29]:

But — Well, it’s, you know, I’m not. I my wife, I was like, don’t buy the Costco apple pie. I’ll murder the whole thing. Feel miserable by myself for a week. But, you know, I I really like a mixed berry, kind of a cobbler kinda crust, you know, the the oatmeal cracker crust.

Scott Cowan [00:59:50]:

Right.

Brandon Harle [00:59:50]:

It’s got that. That that’s the that’s the kinda go to. My mom makes a little bit of a cobbler kinda like that. But, Yeah. So There we go. It’s a good question.

Scott Cowan [01:00:00]:

But there’s no wrong answer here either.

Brandon Harle [01:00:02]:

No. No. No.

Scott Cowan [01:00:03]:

But it’s really funny to me. I’ve recorded multiple episodes. And it’s funny to me to watch people’s response. Some people are like instantly, you know, cake pie, and they’re just adamant. Like, that’s that’s the right answer. And then there’s other people are like, I can’t decide, and they’re it it’s the ice you think I’m asking them to choose what hand they’re gonna cut off. Yeah. And then And then there’s people like, well, can’t I have both? But — Yeah. — somebody asked me a question, and it no one’s asked me this this pushback question. And that is What do most of my guests pick? And I’ve gotta go through, and we’re gonna go through it and and listen to the episodes and and go and we’re gonna I’m gonna start publishing the results. Tally. The the, you know, we’ll have it like a, you know, or an election results or something. I would say this is my unofficial thing is that pie is in the lead. I think pie overall is is a winner. And then if we’re gonna dive down a little bit further, I think Apple’s probably going to be the dominant of that. But cake isn’t out of the running by any stretch of imagination. It’s just it’s just No. It’s never never is. So, if people wanna find out, you know, I don’t know with you. Normally, I ask my guesses too, but I don’t know with you if we do, people wanna find out more about what what’s going on with Nancy High School, what’s what’s going on in your program or anything like that, where can we send them?

Brandon Harle [01:01:30]:

Oh, well, simply emailed to me harle.b@oneachyschools.org. I’d be happy to share more information. While I haven’t had a lot of interview requests like what you’re asking me to do, I’ve got a couple emails from people asking me. Tell me more about what you’re doing there. Thinking about trying to do something like that too. So I’m happy to pass on what we’ve tried to start and where we’re still going and, what we’re trying to do.

Scott Cowan [01:01:58]:

Excellent. Well, continued success. I think I’m really thank you for taking the time, but I really think what you’re doing is is outstanding. And I’m —

Brandon Harle [01:02:06]:

Thank you.

Scott Cowan [01:02:06]:

— I’m really glad that you’ve done it.

Brandon Harle [01:02:08]:

I appreciate it. And I appreciate you reaching out to me and, let me do this.