Category: Podcasts

SPORTS: Rise of women’s college basketball, stagnation of WNBA

by Duncan Weigand and Eden Kaplan–

Women’s sports are on the rise and one sport that is no stranger to the rise in popularity is college basketball. Viewership has absolutely soared since the tournament last year. The tournament produced record number viewership and it seems like it’s only becoming more popular. 

However, with the rise in popularity of women’s college basketball the numbers for the Women’s National Basketball Association have remained stagnant. Game 4 of the WNBA finals only drew in 889,000 fans in comparison to the 10 million viewers that Iowa and LSU brought in for their March Madness finals appearance. 

But why, if the popularity of women’s sports are on the rise do the WNBA numbers remain low. Is the WNBA failing to capitalize on an untapped market? Why hasn’t the success in the college game transferred over to the WNBA? Newsfeed reporters Duncan Weigand, and Eden Kaplan talk about this disparity.

SCI/TECH: Complexities of Vaping

by Ava Dorn, Eden Kaplan –

Vaping has become increasingly popular in recent years, but what do we really know about it? This podcast explores the science, technology, and risks of vaping, and provides a balanced perspective on this complex topic. News Feed Reporter Eden Kaplan shares a personal experience to the topic. This podcast demonstrates the real health risks that come along with vaping. Whether you’re a current smoker, a concerned parent, or someone who’s just curious about vaping, this podcast will explore how vaping works, the health effects, and the marketing tactics that led to the younger demographic obtaining the addiction.

The catalyst for this podcast topic was the FDA’s recent ban on menthol pods. Here is an article discussing the recent ban. We discussed how even with the FDA’s efforts there are still room for appeals from these large companies. Only time will tell what the future has in store for vaping. For now, the technology and science of it all is still evolving every day. The Real Cost has made it their mission to inform young teens and adults on the health effects of vaping. Their website has a lot of extensive and accurate information regarding vaping, the long term effects and also resources on how to quit.

POLITICS: Voting in local elections

by Alycia Baker, Colleen Henneberry-

In this episode, The News Feed podcasters Alycia Baker and Colleen Henneberry discuss why it’s important for people, especially young voters, to vote in the upcoming local elections.

Local elections are just around the corner on November 7: a date that not all registered voters feel is that important, but could evidently change their lives. In fact, just last year only 50% of registered voters in Virginia voted in their local elections. This can be due to a myriad of reasons, but not knowing who the candidates are is a simple excuse for something that can be easily solved with one quick internet search.

For Virginia Tech students, it’s even easier. Multiple faculty members and professors in the political field are available to help students make an informed vote and understand the policies being voted on in this upcoming election.

SCI/TECH: Metaverse disconnected from reality

by Colleen Henneberry, Gabriel Philipsen–

The News Feed pocasters Gabriel Philipsen and Colleen Henneberry discuss why the Metaverse, the big virtual environment closely tied with Facebook’s rebrand into the company Meta, has entirely disappeared after less than 3 years.

The shutdown of the assumed 13 trillion dollar entity is one that does not have a definite single-point cause of death, but rather many disparate causes, failures and problems that created a whirlwind that suckered investors and gained lots of hype, only to disappoint everyone who bought in and prove skeptics correct.

What makes this a body worth dissecting is the night-and-day difference between expectation and reality, and as a cautionary tale for the rest of the Web 3.0 tech crowd. Facebook is still one of the most popular websites around, but the Metaverse could only muster up 38 daily users.

With Apple’s upcoming plans for VR and the extreme backlash to generative AI art and text generation, tune into this short podcast by Gabriel and Colleen to get an overview on how Facebook learned the lesson of novelty-based-products the hard way.

SPORTS: Rise of NBA superteams

by Jackson Hardy, Dakota Richmond–

The NBA season is just underway with the preseason occurring now. During the offseason, we saw teams making big trades for top caliber players. Bradley Beal went to the Phoenix Suns from the Washington Wizard. The Milwaukee Bucks acquired Damian Lillard from the Portland Trail Blazers. These trades have created the rise of superteams, or teams with three or more All-Star level players. 

Superteams are not a new concept with the first being created in the 1970s when the Los Angeles Lakers drafted Magic Johnson, but they are becoming more prevalent. Superteams have received a lot of controversy among fans with many stating superteams create an imbalance of power in the league. In this podcast, Jackson Hardy and Dakota Richmond talk about the rise of superteams in the NBA.