Paw’d Defiance: the local UWT podcast

UWT runs their podcast Paw’d Defiance for over 100 episodes and continues to educate students and the community at large about multiple relevant topics.

Paw’d Defiance, the only official podcast affiliated to and run on the UWT campus, is a podcast that covers a range of topics in relation to campus and the greater Tacoma area. The show has a range of guests including faculty, staff, students and experts in their related fields. 

The show, for the first 50 episodes, was student-hosted until effects from the COVID-19 pandemic caused changes. The current host and runner of the show, formerly the producer of the podcast, is Senior Content Specialist Eric Wilson-Edge, who works for the Office of Advancement and also manages the central social media sites for UWT. 

While the goal is to return to the original student-hosted format, Wilson-Edge was available to answer questions about Paw’d Defiance. 

What’s the general sort of content that Paw’d Defiance tends to cover? 

Eric Wilson-Edge: “We cover anything related to the UW Tacoma community, whether we’re talking about students, faculty, staff, research that’s happening, or initiatives that happen around campus, but we also do border community issues that could also impact the UW Tacoma community, which has allowed us to reach out to UW faculty in Seattle to talk about climate change in the Pacific Northwest and other relevant topics. Specifically our content is sort of a broad definition, but a majority of what we cover is focused on something happening at the campus or folks at the campus.”

What sort of student jobs are affiliated with the podcast, is there anyone helping to find content or simply the host position?

Wilson-Edge: “The goal or idea behind it was to find a student who was interested in communications and pursuing a career in that area and then having them be host to gain experience, or teaching them how to be host if they didn’t know how to already. We would teach them how to edit audio, do research, and it was essentially skill building to help those students who want to go into that field. With our first and only two regular hosts, that was what we were doing.”

Are the episodes recorded on campus or in an off-campus studio area? 

Wilson-Edge: “The first 50 episodes we rented space in a studio called Moonyard Recording studio in town, which was run by Doug Mackey, who is one of the people who puts together the Channel 253 podcast. We paid to use his studio whenever we needed it, and then either myself or the student would do the post-editing. The pandemic hit and we couldn’t do the studio anymore, and so we have been using Zoom ever since, and while the sound quality is better in the studio, Zoom opens up availability and options for people.”

Is there anything else you want to share or talk about in relation to the podcast?

Wilson-Edge: “We, just a few weeks ago, published our 100th episode, and it might be helpful to know that our audience is a general audience. We might be talking about UW Tacoma, but it’s not specifically meant only for a UW Tacoma audience, it’s meant for a broader community, and so we have listeners from all parts of the globe listen to the podcast and learn about the work that goes on here.”

The Paw’d Defiance podcast can be listened to on most major streaming podcast platforms, but updates, as well as call episodes, can be found through their UWT website page at: https://www.tacoma.uw.edu/news/pawd-defiance-uw-tacoma-podcast. 

Students wishing to offer suggestions for content or episodes can email uwtnews@uw.edu as the show is always open to new ideas, or having students or other guests on the show.