Ivan Panov, Staff Writer
Crowded into Burton D. Morgan’s 1st-floor lecture hall on Feb. 27, Journalism students, faculty, and enthusiasts alike vied for the chance to claim the coveted Buzzy Grand Champion Trophy.
Five professors instructed their students to create an audio story of their choice for the eighth annual Podcast-a-thon, along with a community participant submission option for anyone who is not in a participating class. The participating professors were Eric Klemetti, Amy Butcher, Lucy Bryan, Alan Miller and Doug Swift.
Each contender got a chance to meet with Denison journalism alums, who gave advice and guidance on their stories. Theo Theophilus ’25, Jen Clancey ’23, and Sarah Hume ’22 served as the audio mentors this year.
Each professor picked 3 audio stories from their class and submitted them to the audio mentors who picked the finalist for each class.
Competition judges Heather Rhodes, Jeff Gill and Matthew Smalley evaluated the entries during the competition to decide on the winner of the Buzzy Grand Champion Trophy.
Swift reflected on the quality of the stories he received this year, saying, “This was a really, really deep year. I got to listen to a lot of stories from all over the process.”
Abby Jump ’25 and Mia Fischel ’26 served as the 2026 emcees. According to their presentation, this year’s Podcast-a-thon had “87 students [and] 56 student projects.”
This year’s Buzzy Grand Champion was “Watching West Virginia,” by Eva Altizer ‘28, who is a student of Swift’s Multimedia Storytelling course.
Altizer’s story was about a journalist reporting in West Virginia. This story has meant a lot to her as she wants to report on issues in West Virginia because it is an overlooked place. She continues by saying that she wants to show that the stories of these people still matter even if they are often written off.
“I am very happy to have won the Podcast-a-thon, and that people took an interest in my story,” she said. “There are so many stories to tell in my hometown and it is reassuring to know that there are people who would like to hear them.”
This year’s Honorable Mention Awards went to “The Stolen Christmas Tree” by Santiago Grandbois ’28 and Henry McLean ’27 on behalf of Miller’s Journalism Ethics and Empathy course and “Playing Hooky” by Margaret Hill ‘27 on behalf of Butcher’s Studies in Literature: Literary Memoir.
The People’s Choice Award also went to “The Stolen Christmas Tree.” It recounts how a group of Denison college students stole a Christmas Tree that a class of elementary school children had. The audio story discussed the debate and ethical issue over whether the students who committed that act should be named publicly in an article.
“We Focus on Love” by Maddie Luebkert ’27 won the Community Participant award. This audio story is about a woman who leads sound healing meditations as a way to cope with grief and help others find peace.
The organizer of the Podcast-a-thon and assistant director of the journalism program, Beth Lossing, explained that a goal of the Podcast-a-thon was “To get classes from all different disciplines and majors together to do storytelling in a new modality. It allowed professors to come together and teach in a new way to express their information through audio storytelling.”