Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was the “Pure Podcast.” Seniors Ethan Smith and Mohammed Drammeh have put in hours of work to build one of the most successful podcasts Shorewood has seen.
After listening to podcasts in their sophomore-year English class taught by Amy Pottinger, the two were inspired to make one of their own. They felt they could create a podcast to make up for what the ones they were listening to in class had been lacking. “We could take this and elevate it times 10,” Smith said.
In their class, they were assigned a project to wrap up their podcast unit. Thinking outside of the box, Smith and Drammeh instead approached Pottinger with their own idea for their project. They asked her if instead of doing the final project, they could make their own podcast. Pottinger agreed to this, and the “Pure Podcast” was born.
The naming of the podcast wasn’t a simple process. They enlisted the help of a friend, senior Nate Burkell, to assist them in finding a name. “When we first decided we were gonna do this, we had a lot of names that we thought of, we made a poll, then Nate was going around and collecting people’s opinions,” Drammeh said. Once Burkell reported back to them with the results of the poll, Smith and Drammeh decided to disregard what the winners were. “We actually ended up picking the least voted one, which was the Pure Podcast,” Drammeh said.
The podcast touches on a variety of topics and things that take place both inside and outside the halls of Shorewood. Past episodes have included topics such as homecoming, sports, and things that have been going on in their lives. “Sometimes we do a sit-down episode, we really talk about anything,” Smith says. Their episodes vary between interviews and talking between themselves. “For the most part its themes are comedic and a lot of food discussion I’d say, a lot of vlogs also,” Drammeh says.
When it comes to brainstorming, their process is pretty simple. They just let the ideas come to them. “If we have an idea we’ll talk about it for a second and then be like alright let’s do this,” Smith says. This was how their episode where they each ate a pepper with guest, senior Finn DeLaChappele originated, which is Drammeh’s favorite episode. Other times, they may just “start recording and make it up as we go,” Smith says.
As of right now, the future of the podcast is tentative. As the two are preparing to go to college, they are unsure of where they will end up and how they will plan to continue the podcast. “If we both get into UW and go there, you’ll definitely see it amp up. If not, we’ve done podcasts during the summer long distance…so we’ll probably do that,” Smith said.
Smith and Drammeh have received a tremendous amount of love and support from their fellow Stromrays as they have pursued their podcasting hobby over the past two years. “We just love our fans, everyone comes up in the hallways and asks for autographs. It makes us so happy,” Smith said. Touched by the reaction they have seen from all their classmates, Drammeh hopes to reach everyone with some final words: “My message from us to all the listeners would be: subscribe.”
