By, Maria Thomas and Alexandrea Velez, Staff Writer and Contributor
If your morning commute has been boring you lately, the LWGRC has you covered with an inspired new podcast.
Two interns at the Lasallian Women and Gender Resource Center (LWGRC), sophomore Emilia O’Neill and junior Caitlin Lambe, started The LWGRC Podcast in conjunction with the center, which focuses on bringing feminism, social justice and representation for marginalized groups to campus.
Each intern employed at the center has a specific area of focus related to these ideals, such as research on eating disorders, mental health, racial equality and sexuality. The goal of the podcast is to create a platform for this work, and similar work relating to the LWGRC’s mission, to listeners.
Lambe, a communication major with a concentration in public relations, explained her hope that the podcast allows for difficult content to be discussed freely.
“Our main purpose of the podcast is to provide a general platform for having conversations that, quite frankly, need to be had,” said Lambe. “It’s basically an opportunity for not just the interns at the LWGRC, but anyone on campus who reaches out and wants to have a conversation regarding an area of interest to them, and to bring in any sort of research that they’ve done.”
So far, the podcast has released four episodes, each with a unique topic and a variety of guests. “Destigmatizing Eating Disorders: Control, Addiction and Reclaiming Your Sense of Self,” featured junior Kyla Guilfoil as a guest and delved into both the scientific and emotional bounds of eating disorders. “Dark and Divine Femininity,” featured sophomore Zoe DeFazio, and was centered around spirituality and female energy, while the “Honoring International Women’s Day,” episode featured junior Ciara Dalton and seniors Sydney Waitt and Ashley Lawton.
The fifth episode has been recorded, and will soon be released. In it, Lambe and O’Neill talk about happiness, toxic positivity and mental health in honor of International Happiness Day.
In the future, Lambe and O’Neill plan on doing an episode about domestic abuse and featuring LWGRC Co-director, Rachel Cirelli as a guest.
“We’re talking about that because we have a lot of students who come in concerned about their own relationships, or concerned about their friends’ relationships,” said Cirelli.
The format of a podcast is beneficial for students because it is an effective way to spread information. This is partly why Lambe and O’Neill chose this format.
Cirelli also spoke to the inspiration behind the project.
“Every student is different; some students love the idea of the LWGRC because of the physical nature of it,” explained Cirelli. “They like to be physically at a center that feels a certain way, looks a certain way, is comfortable, and a place where they can meet like-minded people. But not everybody maybe has the capacity or maybe has the need to be in that physical space, but they may appreciate our mission. So, [the students created] a podcast where you could listen to it wherever you are.”
According to O’Neill, this podcast is also a way for this variety of student work to be archived and organized, for both the center and the podcast’s listeners.
Cirelli also focused on the importance of maintaining the legacy of the work students produce through the center.
“To me this is almost a way to archive the amazing personalities of our students,” said Cirelli. “You know, we’ll look back in 10 years and be like, ’Oh, remember season two, or remember this student, I wonder what they’re up to.’”
In her time co-directing the center, Cirelli has also been serving as the college’s director of the Center for Career Development. Cirelli noted how not only is this podcast beneficial for spreading awareness and information to the student body, but the experience of creating and maintaining a podcast is a useful and practical skill set for Lambe and O’Neill.
“What I say to students is, ‘Your passions are your career a lot of times.’ Right? So I really love that they’re kind of diversifying their skill set,” said Cirelli.
In the future, Lambe and O’Neill hope to extend the podcast to more campus members who might be knowledgeable in specific topics related to the LWGRC’s mission.
“We’ll always be open to any sort of new voices on the podcast, so it’ll just depend on the topic and how we can incorporate that into a reflection of the Women’s Center,” said O’Neill.
For future updates with the LWGRC, follow their Instagram account @mc_lwgrc. Episodes of the podcast can be found on Apple Music.
Editor’s Note: Kyla Guilfoil, who is mentioned in this article, is the Editor-in-Chief of The Quadrangle. Zoe DeFazio, who is also mentioned, is the assistant arts and entertainment editor for The Quadrangle.