From the Nominator

The Blue Sky initiative enabled faculty at Michigan Engineering to create mini-research centers—piloting out-of-the-box solutions to climate, energy, water, and antibiotic resistance. We wanted to showcase their efforts with a new kind of content that has been gathering steam for long-form information: the podcast.

To capture these complex projects in the researchers’ own words, one of our two reporters sat down with each of the leads of the four projects to record on professional equipment. Then, the reporters took turns drawing information out of one another, with the person who wasn’t in the interview asking most of the questions. We modeled this format on the NPR program Radio Lab, which uses a conversation between two hosts to guide listeners through challenging and technical topics.

We launched it as a special series within the existing Michigan Engineering podcast channel.

From the Judges

This show has great voice talent, and it's very easy on the ears. We also like that it got right to the topic and thought the scripted pieces were strong. The format is a smart approach for explaining difficult content.