Podcasts

Gays in the Bay: A podcast created by Sydney Enthoven for all the queer people out there. Check out our first two episodes below!

Episode 1: Representation Frustration

Episode 2: The Lavender Scare

About the Podcasts:

Non-honors podcast – Representation Frustration: This episode of Gays in the Bay is a lighter episode where guest Annabel Flint and I take on the issue of LGBT representation in Hollywood.

Honors Podcast – The Lavender Scare: This episode of Gays in the Bay is a historical episode about the Lavender Scare. I take listeners through the cause and effects of the Red Scare’s lesser known cousin, and encourage people to learn about more queer history for themselves.

Podcaster Bios:

Sydney Enthoven is a Senior at Los Altos High School and Freestyle Academy in the Bay Area. She enjoys stage management, playing volleyball, making and watching films, and baking. As a lesbian, she wants to use her podcast as a platform to talk about all things LGBT, from history to representation to just chatting about flannels and beanies. In the future, she hopes to work in the theater or film industry, but who knows? Maybe this podcast could be a part of it.

My guest, Annabel Flint, is a bisexual, biracial, basketball playing high school senior. She attends Los Altos High School in the Bay Area, and is committed to play basketball at Haverford College in the fall of 2020. She enjoys sports, traditional art, watching animated movies, and playing the flute.

Questions:

Why are we doing a Podcast project?
I think there are a lot of different points to this podcast project. We’ve done storytelling without dialogue, and now this is only dialogue. It’s a lesson in writing. We have to edit it ourselves, helping us learn new skills in pro tools or audition. But this project is also one of passion. We get to choose any topic we want! Being able to produce something with barely any limits is exactly what Freestyle is about to me.

What are the project goals as you understand it?
I think the goals of this project are to learn what a podcast is and how to write one, how to properly record and edit a podcast, how to work within a time limit, how to use sound effects and music properly, and most importantly, how to use this new medium to tell good stories.

What were your inspirations for your Podcast?
CollegeHumor does a podcast called Tales from the Closet that immediately comes to mind. Talking about gay issues with other gay people is something I’d love to do more of, and gives me an excuse to have interesting conversations with people like me. I also love history, so it made sense to do a history-based podcast. My USHAP class skipped over things like the Lavender Scare and even the entire AIDS crisis, so I wanted to bring that knowledge back to light. I also wanted to talk about frustrating issues, like bad representation in Hollywood, in a way that would hopefully reach other people and educate them on the daily frustrations of our community.

Reflection

What did you value from the Podcast Project?
I really valued the ability to choose whatever we wanted. Sometimes Freestyle projects can get a bit limiting, particularly if we’re learning a single new skill. I hate doing music projects, for example, but we had a few months of just music production. This project, however, invited us to do anything as long as it’s a podcast. We could talk about art, music, history, math, or coding. We could tell a story, ad-lib something with a partner, or write a complex script with tons of sources. This project gave me so much freedom and I enjoyed doing the research and wanted something good to come from it.

What advice do you have for first time podcasters?
First time podcasters, my advice is to pick a topic you’re truly passionate about, one you could go down a Wikipedia rabbit hole about for hours. Take water with you when you record, something I forgot to do. Have fun if you’re recording with friends, but make sure you have a plan so things don’t get too off the rails, you stay on topic, and you stay on time. Record in sections, don’t get upset if you mess up, and have a good time!