For our fourth iteration of the HPN Symposium, we find ourselves interrogating, engaging with, and pushing the boundaries of the concept of  “best practices” and how it relates to humanities podcasting. Our initial inquiry was born out of a discussion about the need to counteract worker invisibility and exploitation on university campus podcast teams. But this raised a larger, thornier debate: Are there other agreed-upon principles of podcast-making and audio creation?  If so, have they emanated from particular forebears and models, or sprung up out of habitual creation like unwritten, but widely understood, common laws? Are there contexts peculiar to podcasting that deserve their own careful ethical treatment or understanding?

So, now we are turning to podcasters in academia, industry, and everywhere else to make headway on these questions. What methods and trends evident in scholarly, educational, activist, and other creative spaces point toward the existence or need of “best practices” for humanities podcasters? Or are there reasons to believe that no such code exists or can be set down? 

The 2024 HPN Symposium Planning Committee seeks proposals for panels and individual presentations on topics related to the idea of best practices in podcasting. Panels should fit within a 1.5-hour time limit inclusive of Q&A. Preference will be given for full panels of three or more presenters, but individual submissions are welcome and will be grouped with similarly themed proposals. Solo submissions should be suitable for a 15–20 minute presentation. 

Submissions may touch on such topics as:

• Practices around founding an original podcast from its nascent stages of ideation

• Practices around collaboratively choosing and pursuing subjects for episodes

• Practices around inviting, booking, and interviewing guests

• Practices around hiring, managing, and compensating production teams

• Practices around enacting the values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility within production spaces

• Practices around using podcasting in the classroom as a medium for learning and creation

• Practices around editing, mixing, and distributing podcasts

• Practices around funding, monetizing, marketing, and growing podcasts

• Practices around employing GenAI and other technologies in podcast production

• The rejection of ‘best practices’ altogether!

All of our sessions will be recorded  and uploaded to the HPN YouTube channel, and may be used in a future HPN podcast. We are also delighted to present a “Best Practices” experimental workshop/roundtable in which we will open the floor to attendees to propose and revise concepts for a collaboratively generated “Best Practices” document.

Proposals of up to 250 words for panel and individual submissionsare due via Google Formby 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday, September 23. Please contact the HPN Symposium Committee at humanitiespodnetwork@gmail.com with any questions, and include “HPN Symposium 2024” or “Best Practices” in the subject line.

Panelists and discussants will be notified by Monday, October 7. The Symposium will take place on Zoom on Friday, November 8 and Saturday, November 9.

Attendance is free! Registration (forthcoming) is required.