While still in the planning stages, a Podcast Club is set to be formally introduced within the next week.

“Initially it’ll be known as a Podcast Club, but we’re working on a type of branding,” English teacher Brian Turnbaugh said. “I’m going to put out a survey to some of my students to get a feeling about what they think is going to be the most intriguing type of name, one that they think that they would want to listen to.”

Students can now offer their input via the newly released survey.

The club will let participating students produce podcasts that tell a story, and will become available for students to listen to in their free time.

“We learn best by storytelling. It’s not that reading isn’t wonderful and watching TV and movies aren’t, but there’s just something about hearing someone telling a story. I think we’re wired to that,” Turnbaugh said. “I think that because the medium of podcasting is so easy to do. You could do it right on your phone, you have the capability of having a really interesting story that someone has witnessed.”

A currently undecided form of social media will help get the podcasts out to the student body, along with the possibility of uploading podcast to itunes for students to download.

“The thing that could always come into conflict with this is podcasts require time,” Turnbaugh said. “So that would be my concern, that we make all of this really good stuff, but will people actually listen to it. And I think that’s where social media comes in, to fan out and get people interested in listening to it and streaming and downloading it.”

There is no set range concerning what stories could be told through the student-made podcasts. Once the club is formed and opens, decisions will be made that answer the questions of how many shows will be run, what different shows will be about, how many students can run with their own show or idea, how often the shows come out with a new podcast, and the general format of the podcasts themselves.

“I think that there’s a lot of different ways that we can have different ideas, so whether or not we have a panel discussing horror movies or what to expect on the next “Star Wars” movie, we can have a podcast that’s just dedicated towards all things film and television. Then we can have people that can have their own podcasts that deal with things like the Anime Club. There’s really no shortage of stories that we can have in the school, so I think that’s kind of exciting,” Turnbaugh said.

Podcast Club will let students tell stories in ways that the school has not seen before.

“What we hope to do is to have students produce their own segments and go out, interview people, come back, and get scoops for stories that people would want to hear,” Turnbaugh said. “It’s different from what you (see) in the newspaper, which is news and opinions. This is just stories and the stories of the people that we walk amongst here at the school, and what they know and what they’ve experienced and how they perceive things, and I think that’s what’s so fun about a podcast and its potential is that we have that type of interest.”

With this new form of student storytelling, other clubs and school activities can be highlighted and gain publicity from the work.

“We really think that this is something that will really I think not only could help existing clubs, but also existing extracurriculars as well,” Turnbaugh said.

There is no set date as to when the first podcast will be released, but it is anticipated that the club will start sometime before November so that the topic Halloween is still relevant.