Slowbillard Podcast 1

9/8/2025

I'm showing off my new toy -- a Wavo Podcast mic with a Joby pop guard. Onward with some podcasts! Question: How will it help us improve our ability to compose quality journalism?

Slowbillard podcast 1

Hello Herald Heroes, this is your devoted advisor/teacher launching a shot-in-the-dark effort to explore how a new-to-me technology might help me get you more engaged in learning how to compose stories. Also, after thinking about how slowly I speak, I thought you might appreciate having the opportunity to listen to a recording that you can speed up to your warp-speed mind’s abilities.

All this raises some fundamental questions:

How does this technology help me teach journalism?
More importantly, how does this technology help us deliver our journalism to our audience?
Who is our audience? Students? Faculty? Staff? Parents? Do we create content that matters to anyone beyond the North Cross community?
What kind of content should we be creating?
When, or really how often should we be publishing our content digitally?
Where, or really what format is or what platforms are most useful for reaching our community/consumers? (If we consider them to be consumers, it makes sense to acknowledge how important it is for us to raise money through ads so that we have money for buying technology.)
Why do we do this thing we call journalism? Let’s make sure we stay focused on the why, which is also the what. What is the point of all of this? I have some strong ideas about this essential question, but I want to hear what you think. Ultimately, you have to care about the stories we create in order for people to care about consuming the content. You students know best what our audience wants, because it is probably what you want. What would you want to read/hear/see?
How do we create content? How do we compose stories worth reading/hearing/seeing?

https://www.loom.com/share/cd2d4d30d9ae4443850e026393329a15?sid=6a8bc9fb-5fb5-4ede-8d4b-7c5f422879f7

0 Comments

Author

The school photo from 2019 should be a classic example of a school portrait. “Smile!” She said. “Chin to the side. Head back, shoulders down, chest out. Now take a deep breath, smile, and hold it! Hey! Looks great.” In this case, I felt thoroughly uncomfortable. I dressed in somewhat garish, bright clothing. Wearing a vest made for me in Shanghai of green faux velvet with a custom fitted salmon colored shirt and a white tie with faint polka dots. It looks like someone is holding a lollypop up above the camera for me to gaze at merrily. Using Photoshop liberally, the photo company editing my photo to put much more space between my eyebrows, erased most of my numerous wrinkles, and whitened my teeth so that I looked like a contestant for a George Hamilton look-a-like contest. I guess the yearbook advisor didn’t want to use it, so they reused the previous year’s photo.

Letters to the Editor: [email protected]

Founded in 2010 and based in the Journalism elective, The Willis Hall Herald is the official student-led publication of the Upper School at North Cross School. The Herald may be published in magazine form three or more times per year. Founded in 2017 and produced by the Herald staff, GeoPrism: A Global Studies Journal may be published in magazine form once or twice per year. The Herald welcomes letters, commentary and submissions of original content that adhere to the Herald’s dedication to factual journalism. Letters and other content must be signed and may be edited for length and Herald style. The Herald does not guarantee publication of outside submissions. Submit letters to [email protected]. The Herald won Gold Medals from Columbia Scholastic Press Association in 2012 and 2015. The Herald also became a member of the National Student Press Association, which awarded the Herald First Class status for the 23-24 issues.

The Staff

Co-Editors-in-Chief .............................................................Aadeetri Pandey ‘26 and Mason Bibby '27

Asst. Editor-in-Chief........................................................................................................Kaitlyn Perkins ‘28

Senior Editor of Page Design.....................................................................................Anderson Ratliff '26

Digital Publishing Editor .................................................................................................Anna Ciccozzi ‘26

Photography Editor ....................................................................................................... Andrew Weng '28

Staff Writers..........................................................................................Jax Bentley '29, Piper Malloch '29

Advisor......................................................................................Robert Robillard P’35

Robert Robillard, Advisor