Thomas Young, Contributing Writer
The artwork for “Dorm Talk” a podcast by UMF freshmen Riley Cushing and Corbin Bouchard (Photo Courtesy of Thomas Young)
Dorm Talk, an untraditional and lighthearted podcast created by UMF freshman Corbin Bouchard and Riley Cushing consists of authentic discussion between the co-hosts on a wide variety of topics.
Creating the podcast was Cushing’s idea. “I always found [podcasts] really interesting,” Cushing said, “I always liked listening to them, so why not?”
Bouchard, on the other hand, was originally against the idea. “[Cushing] dragged me along,” Bouchard said with a chuckle about his co-host.
A podcast is essentially a free audio blog. Typically a podcast comes in a series, with each new episode published regularly. Podcasts allow for a strong connection to exist between the listener and the host due to the conversational atmosphere created by its audio form.
Dorm Talk had a rough start. It took three attempts to record the first episode due to technical difficulties. Neither student has any sort of podcast or audio editing background. “It’s a little challenging sometimes,” Bouchard admits.
Traditionally a podcast will focus on one theme, such as politics or video games. Dorm Talk does not follow this style, and instead the co-hosts talk about a new topic every episode in order to reach the interests of their many followers. “It’s very broad, [because] we have a broad audience,” said Cushing. Dorm Talk’s podcasts are anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes.
In their first podcast the pair talks about how they faced doubt from a lot of people when they mentioned they wanted to start a podcast. “Right off the bat, we didn’t even get a chance,” Bouchard said in episode one titled “Getting Started.” In order to get the word out about the podcast, the aspiring co-hosts “spammed everyone they knew,” Bouchard said, to which Cushing added, “and we actually got a lot of views.”
In episode two, while moving on from the difficulties faced during the creation of the podcast, the two co-hosts discuss the struggles of having, or not having, a girlfriend on Valentine’s Day. In episode three, the duo moves away from the theme of romance (or lack thereof) and into an entirely new one about road rage. It’s in this episode that they have their first guests: Alison and Jorja Hooper.
Bouchard and Cushing never prepare a script before the recordings. In fact, for a recently recorded episode, Bouchard admitted to not even knowing the episode’s topic until fifteen minutes before recording. “When we come up with a topic, we agree to not talk about it until we are in the studio recording so that it’s more authentic,” Bouchard said in an online correspondence. “Dorm Talk is supposed to be raw, and sorta messy,” said Cushing.
The co-hosts said that the hardest part of making Dorm Talk is scheduling. With different course loads, it can be hard for the duo to find the time to create an episode. Since this is the biggest difficulty they have faced thus far, both Bouchard and Cushing highly recommend to anyone who might be interested to create their own.
Dorm Talk is currently posted on Youtube, Spotify and SoundCloud under the name “Dorm Talk.” Any student interested in buying stickers of their logo, or potentially t-shirts in the future, should follow and message the Instagram account “dormtalk.”