In Spring 2022, The Annex Sociology Podcast hopes to develop a streamlined show development system that helps us create better content and better employ our expanding behind-the-scenes capacity to produce content. We are soliciting collaborations with sociology professors and graduate students to co-develop podcast episodes and web content related to their areas of research or professional experience. This post describes the project and what to expect in participating.

Our Show

The Annex Sociology Podcast has generated hundreds of episodes featuring hundreds of American and international sociologists from 2017 until today. We discuss matters of professional interest to sociologists but do so in a conversational, informal and unpretentious format. In addition to providing a different vantage point on our discipline’s work and creators, we are also creating an archive of conversations featuring our era’s top sociologists for future generations. Prior to COVID-19 in 2019, The Annex regularly ranked as a Top 20 Social Science podcast in the United States, and peaked as a Top 15 Science podcast in the US in 2019. In that year, we won the Public Sociology Award from the ASA’s Section on Computers, Information Technology, and Media Studies.

How the Process Works

Our production team will solicit and develop topics for episodes of The Annex. A member of our production team will then reach out to colleagues who can serve as consultants and co-hosts to an episode related to their expertise. Producers will propose and take feedback from these colleagues on interview invitees, questions, discussion topics, related web content, and any other content-related decisions for the episode. Our producer schedule a recording time that works with everyone’s schedule. These matters are sorted out via email over the course of a week.

Want to learn more about hosting? Check out our Annex Hosting Guide

In the days running up to our recording session, our production team will send an email reminding participants about the general discussion topics and soliciting last-minute feedback. On recording day, we will meet for about 90 minutes to hold our planned discussion. The discussion is unscripted and informal. After that, we will work to produce a polished version of our discussion, and let you know when it is ready to be distributed.

Topics Currently Under Consideration

We welcome your ideas for a podcast episode, and we welcome collaborations with colleagues who are interested in podcasting and want to try it out by making an academic sociology-themed podcast episode themselves. We are interested in topics that:

• Showcase research and professional activity taking place through ASA Sections
• Showcase the research, scholarly traditions, and public engagement of sociology in countries outside of North America
• Debate both sides of a controversial topic or proposition. The controversy must exist within sociology with substantial constituencies for both sides.
• Discussions on the practical management of sociology courses, curricula, departments and professional associations

Am I a Research Subject?

No. I am not observing your reactions and using them to generate generalized theories about people. You are a colleague who is trying out an experiential learning activity, and offering me advice on a manuscript, as is common in our profession. This particular manuscript is trying to teach people to develop and execute a discussion-based podcast episode, and so I am grateful to draw on any wisdom you can offer both as a participant in this exercise and as a professional educator. Collaborators who help advance the manuscript will be acknowledged in it and any publication that derives from it.

Who Owns the Episode?

All content released by us is on a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license. If you record and produce the final cut of your episode’s audio file, then the episode is your property. If I or my team members are actively involved in an episode’s development process, then you agree to our release of the public version of our episode publicly with a CC (BY-NC-SA) license.