By Mackenzie Langham | Podcasts are extremely popular in today’s culture, and have been for some time. It is fascinating how so many people desire to stop and listen, not only for the sake of entertainment, but in many cases so people can be poured into.
One of Howard Payne’s very own students has chosen to do a bit of this “pouring” into people through his own podcast. Wayne Snell, is a sophomore Christian education major and the host of the podcast Salt Talk.
When asking Wayne why he started Salt Talk, he said, “I started the podcast to help people find answers to the hard Christian questions no one asks, and to help people grow in their faith.”
Overall, Snell has a passionate heart for the Lord. This is evident when listening to his podcasts. His first episode, “Pilot,” gives the listener a feel for what the podcast is going to be like.
Snell reaches out to a variety of God-fearing people and features them in his Salt Talk episodes.
In an episode released January 31, Snell featured long-time friend, Abi Brown, Howard Payne senior and art major. The episode is titled, “What is Sabbath?” In this particular episode, Snell and Brown talk about “the meaning and importance of Sabbath” and rest. College students have a tendency to go go go without taking time to pause and rest. Snell discusses how the world as a whole seems to find an odd fulfilment in busyness. The end of the episode shares that if we do not rest in God and take time out of our week to do so, we will find ourselves emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually exhausted, and burnt out.
Of course, there is preparation that comes into each episode. Prayer is one of Snell’s main tools.
“I try to get in contact with my guest a week in advance, and ask if they have a topic God is placing on their heart. If they don’t, then I pray about it myself, and if nothing comes still, I ask people I know…. Then I spend the week preparing and praying.”
Podcasts are a great way to say what you want to say and reach a broad audience. Snell gave advice for people interested in starting a podcast.
Snell said, “Do it on something you are passionate about. If you don’t you will quickly lose the motivation to keep your project going. Also, you don’t need amazing gear to make it happen. I use two mics, an audio interface, and a laptop.”
Another podcast to check our is hosted by former student of Howard Payne University Eian Kinder. Kinder was a student of Howard Payne from 2012 through 2014. Unfortunately, he did not end up graduating from HPU due to family issues.
Kinder’s podcast is called HearThisNow (HTN). It is co-hosted by Kinder and Rhett Roden, and produced by Raymond Searles.
Kinder says it is “basically a talk show where we have up-and-coming musical artists to play songs for us, and promote themselves. Our first guest was actually HPU alumni Austin Upchurch who is doing very well in his music career this far!”
With an audience focused on “people interested in music, musicians, stories, and comedy,” it is no wonder the show podcast has gathered “10k unique listeners.”
Kinder informatively said, “We have certain questions we ask our guests each episode like what got them started in music, who are their influences, etc. For the most part though, we keep it pretty go-with-the-flow organic conversation style.”
When asking Kinder what advice he would give to anyone starting a podcast, his response was similar to Wayne Snell’s in that it needs be based on personal fire and passion.
He said, “To anyone starting a podcast I would say make sure you’re doing it based on something you are passionate about. Don’t get discouraged at first. Keep grinding. Good podcasts take time to manifest and take off. We’ve stayed the course doing what we love….”
After hearing the stories of these two podcast creators and influencers, students should feel inspired! Both Snell and Kinder have separate passions and dreams but found an outlet to share those passions with an audience and to spread their messages through their own podcasts.
If students are attempting to find an outlet, starting a podcast could be the way the Lord is calling them to do just that.