Augie Access students start up sports podcast

Sometimes all it takes is an idea, and a third-year Augie Access student had a good one.

Well, John James’ mother had it. She told him he should chase his love of sports and start a podcast centered around Augustana athletics. 

James has fostered a passion for the school’s athletic teams since he first stepped on campus his freshman year. 

James mulled over his mother’s idea. Although at first he was hesitant about his mother’s words, he decided to pursue them. That’s when the idea for “On the Spectrum with John and Luke” began to come to fruition.

“My mom came up with the idea last semester of my sophomore year,” James said. “Starting it right away wouldn’t have been good because we wouldn’t have had enough time to get all the equipment.”

James will have a co-host in fellow Augie Access student Luke Van Meeteren. The two have been working to look at the Augustana athletic landscape and use their knowledge of sports to establish the podcast.

“I have been the manager for the football team for three years now,” Van Meeteren said. “I am very excited to start this podcast. We have been talking about it for a little over a year now.”

The idea was slightly setback due to the need for equipment; however, James mentioned "On the Spectrum with John and Luke” to a few friends in the Augustana Student Association, and its production was set on track.

The podcast’s official journey to creation began when senior JayVian Farr, a member of the ASA Diversity, Equity and Social Justice Committee, mentioned it in a meeting. 

From there, the information was passed to second-year student Prince Adhikari, ASA’s technical director and head of media. Adhikari emailed James about getting the podcast up and running and since then, James and Adhikari have been working together to make the idea a reality.

“Since December we have been working on solidifying the process, and now we are getting started,” Adhikari said. “We will start simple. Right now it might not be that fancy, but at least we will be getting it done now.” 

James and Adhikari then approached Jessica Lamb, the program director of Augie Access, inquiring about financial help to purchase microphones.

“We used some of our Augie Access leadership funds to help fund some of the equipment that could be used between ASA and this podcast,” Lamb said. “It’s not just for Augie Access or just ASA. I mean, it could be used in partnership going forward to help keep podcasts going on campus for the two entities.”

Lamb said the Augie Access program’s contributions were simple. Aside from the $150 leadership funds provided, it also provided peer navigator hours to Adhikari. 

Lamb said the rest was all coordinated by Adhikari and James. They worked together to make James’ mother’s idea something concrete.

James said he and Van Meeteren both brainstormed ideas of which coaches and athletes to interview. 

The first episode of the podcast will air on Spotify for a few days before permanently transitioning to Apple Podcasts and feature Farr, a defensive back for the Vikings football team. He’s the first on a list of numerous athletes from sports teams across campus.

“Luke and I are going to have some questions for them, and we are going to do it in the ASA office,” James said. “ASA media is going to take it over for the rest of the semester and then if Luke and I want to go independent, we will just keep the mics and do it ourselves.”

For now, James and Van Meeteren plan to co-host the podcast with ASA’s help. Adhikari heads ASA Media, which has the intent of creating better communication and engagement with the student population. 

“We know that communication and the transparency on ASA is lacking or has been lacking or had been lacking before,” Adhikari said. “So my special goal when I came into this position was to address that barrier.”

Some of those goals are to create opportunities for students to use ASA funding and resources to support student ideas. Adhikari said he accepted the opportunity to help James because he believes a large duty of his position is to give students an opportunity to get started in media work.

James said he believes a successful semester for the podcast would be to start publishing and to grow his personal brand. He said he hopes to eventually work in sports media one day with the Timberwolves, Twins, Vikings or Wild in Minnesota.

Lamb has additional hopes of James’ and Van Meeteren’s success. She said she believes the podcast will open the eyes of the Augustana community about people with disabilities of all kinds.

“The thing that I hope to see is, I hope it helps to bridge this notion that a person with a disability has the same interests, same goals, same desires as anybody else,” Lamb said. “And it doesn’t matter if there’s a disability in there. Everything that anybody wants out of life, wants to give, wants to take, wants to do is the same, whether or not you have a disability.”