Some of the best student podcasts in the country are coming out of Miami Dade College — at least according to NPR.
Out of more than 500 submissions from across the U.S., just 10 students were named finalists in NPR’s College Podcast Challenge — and two of them are from MDC.
WLRN's education reporter Kate Payne spoke with them.
‘This is how I’ve been living my whole life’
Growing up in Medellín, Michael Vargas Arango would talk to people who weren’t there.
In his original podcast episode The Monsters We Create, he tries to explain. From the first moments of the episode, listeners hear a booming, distorted voice calling Michael’s name — and threatening him.
“Why would you tell them I exist?” the voice asks. “They won't understand.”
The echoes of the voice pulsate and pound, warping and crescendoing until we hear Vargas Arango’s voice crying out, “Stop!”
“You're giving me a headache. Can you shut up for a second?” Vargas Arango says.
But that other, echoing voice — it’s his own, constantly taunting him and whispering in his ear.
“This is how I've been living my whole life,” Vargas Arango explains.
“Liar,” the voice whispers.
“But you're probably wondering, 'What is this guy talking about? Who is he even talking to?'” Vargas Arango asks.
His family had theories about those voices — that it was just an imaginary friend. Or maybe ghosts.
“I will never forget the look in my mother's eyes when she saw her son playing with his invisible friend. I'm Colombian, so you can probably imagine what the reaction of my Colombian religious mother was,” Vargas Arango says. “‘This kid is possessed.’”
“No you’re not,” the other voice says.
Eventually, Vargas Arango says he got a diagnosis — schizoaffective disorder.
“Why should I hide who I am? Why should I hide what I'm living with? I want to bring some light. I want to spread this message of mental health awareness.”Podcaster Michael Vargas Arango, who has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.
‘Why should I hide who I am?’
Out of more than 500 entries for this year’s NPR College Podcast Challenge, Vargas Arango’s vivid soundscape and candid conversation about his own mental health drew listeners in.
“I have lived a life just as you guys have. My imaginary friend faded away one day,” Vargas Arango says in the podcast. “But I can still hear him talking to me.”
“Here I am,” the voice chimes in.
“These voices that one day I thought were just intrusive thoughts … it was him. And nothing has happened,” Vargas Arango says. “I am not dangerous. I am not crazy. And I am not delusional.”
“No, you're not,” the voice agrees.
“I'm just one more guy with a mental health condition living with it,” Vargas Arango says.
In the episode, we hear Vargas Arango walking around Miami Dade College’s Kendall campus, where he’s studying psychology. He asks other students — what would you do if you found out someone with schizophrenia goes here?
“I would be really scared,” one student tells Vargas Arango — having no idea she’s talking about him. “And I would probably call someone or call public safety because I would not feel safe.”
The reactions from his fellow students were no surprise, Vargas Arango said. They were exactly what he thought they would be.
“I didn't specifically feel anything, because I already knew it,” he said. “I was only proving my point.”
Through his podcast, Vargas Arango was able to share what his mind sounds like and to challenge the thinking of people around him — including his girlfriend, who had asked him not to share his diagnosis with her friends.
“That's basically how I decided that, from just my own girlfriend trying to protect me,” Vargas Arango told WLRN. “But why should I … why should she protect me from being who I am?”
It was that conversation that pushed him to make this podcast.
“Why should I hide who I am? Why should I hide what I'm living with?” he said. “I want to bring some light. I want to spread this message of mental health awareness.”
Letting go of shame to chase a lifelong dream
The other winner from MDC is challenging stereotypes in a different way.
In her podcast episode called Midway Through, Ana Bassett opens up about letting go of the shame that kept her from chasing a lifelong dream.
“I recently turned 48. I felt I wanted and needed a change. So I went looking to fulfill a dream of mine,” Bassett recounts in the episode.
“For years, I wanted to go back to college to finish my education. When I graduated high school, I wanted to be a mental health therapist. But I dropped out in my sophomore year. Regret followed me for years after that,” she says. “I really became burdened with guilt and shame.”
“I recently turned 48. I felt I wanted and needed a change. So I went looking to fulfill a dream of mine."Ana Bassett, who delves into her return to education as an adult in her podcast.
But life went on. Bassett had four kids and stayed home to raise them.
“It brought me so much joy. But over time I realized how demanding and exhausting it was. Over time, I felt lost. Lost because I stopped taking time to hear my voice. To check in with myself,” she says.
“Eventually, I realized I was living through my kids. Experiencing joy and pride in their experiences … but I lacked my own.”
Watching her kids grow up — and pushing them to complete their own educations — Bassett would daydream of going back to college herself.
“Every now and then, I would tell my oldest kid that one day, we would be graduating college together,” she says. “I’d say that with a smile on my face but sadness in my heart … wondering if I’d ever get that opportunity.”
But after 28 years away, Bassett did go back to school — at Miami Dade College. And she found herself surrounded by people young enough to be her kids.
Bassett was excited — but also intimidated … and humbled. She had forgotten how to use Powerpoint and wasn’t up to speed on the classroom app called Canvas.
Finally, she met another mom-turned-college student named Angie. In Bassett’s podcast, we hear them whispering in the campus library.
“A stay-at-home mom can do anything. Because the fact that you keep your family functioning, that right there, people should jump at hiring us,” Angie tells Bassett. “Because we can make things that nobody else can make happen.”
And we hear what it’s been like for Bassett’s 18-year-old son Julian to go to college with his mom.
“For me, it's very inspiring to see you going back to college,” he tells his mom in the podcast. “Because you're proving that no matter how many times you may let go of your dreams, you can always get them back and you can always follow them.
“You’re creating a second chance for yourself at a time in your life where not many other people think they could do the same.”
Seeing herself through her son’s eyes, Bassett said, “how can I not feel moved by that?”
“That's exactly … not the only reason why I'm doing this, but it's a strong reason,” she told WLRN. “And it's like I said earlier, what I'm gonna leave behind — that Mom is going after what she wants. And I want them to do the same in their lives.”
‘It’s a professor’s dream’
Both Bassett and Vargas Arango made their podcasts for a class at MDC — Intro to Communications with professor Emily Sendin.
“It's a professor's dream,” Sendin said of her students’ accomplishments.
Sendin says her two students are so different. Vargas Arango was eager for the spotlight.
“I remember walking out of class and he went and he talked to me. And he was telling me, ‘I really think I could win this’. And I’m like, ‘I really think you could!’” Sendin recalled with a laugh.
Meanwhile, Bassett was so nervous, she had to walk out of the room when Sendin played her episode for the rest of the class to hear.
“But I give her so many kudos too because she did something that really scared her,” Sendin said of her student. “And she overcame that fear. And look where she is right now.”
This was the first semester that Sendin built her communications class around NPR’s podcast challenge. But she says it won’t be the last time. Her students have so many more stories to tell.
The winner of NPR’s College Podcast Challenge will be announced in late March. Each of the finalists will be given a $500 cash prize. The grand prize winner will receive a $5,000 award. Honorable mention entries will be announced in the coming weeks.
