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“You can listen to it on the treadmill or while driving. It has an amazing way of connecting people. It’s the theatre of the mind. There’s something about podcasts and voices, we get to hear the passion and the excitement. It’s really persuasive. It’s like potato chips or tattoos — you can’t just have one.”

Jan. 3, 2019

 

With more than 100 podcasts on his phone at any given time, Professor Pat Perdue is, in his own words, a podcast junkie. He has either listened to all of them or he plans to. His favourites include This American Life, Whiskey Cats and Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids. And now, #SenecaProud.

This week, Seneca launches a brand-new podcast dedicated to the multifaceted people that make up Seneca. Created and hosted by Perdue, and co-produced by Perdue and Seneca, the first series of #SenecaProud features one-on-one interviews with professors from a variety of academic programs and industry backgrounds.

“Seneca professors have really interesting stories,” said Perdue, who teaches in the Business – International Business and the Fashion Business Management programs. “They are really into what they do. They love their programs and they love their students. None of them is doing this for a job.”

Professor Pat Perdue is host of the new #SenecaProud podcast, launched this week.

Prior to joining Seneca two years ago, Perdue led customer experience initiatives for companies like DraftFCB, JC Penny, Bell Canada and Tommy Hilfiger USA. He is currently founder/CEO of Socialicity Media, a full-service customer experience and digital branding agency with clients like Scotiabank, Tommy Hilfiger USA and Calvin Klein. His latest startup, YCASTR, focuses on driving sales and employee engagement through internal communications.

Perdue is also the creator and host of Pat Perdue’s Customer Experience Podcast, which receives more than 10,000 downloads per episode globally, and Yay! Monday!, a podcast celebrating Mondays by featuring companies that are great places to work.

“Unlike radio, which tends to be for a mass group of audience, podcasts are very targeted. They feature topics that are relevant to people with specific interests,” he said.

For Perdue, it was Season 1 of Serial, an investigative journalism podcast, that got him hooked on the increasingly popular medium five years ago.

“That was the first podcast I listened to and I couldn’t stop listening to it,” he recalled. “I listened to the whole thing in four days. After that, I was podcast-curious for about two years before I created my own first podcast.”

Professor Brian Bell is interviewed by Professor Pat Perdue in a Sandbox studio at Newnham Campus.

Perdue describes podcast as a “passive form” of content.

“It asks very little of the listeners,” he said. “You can listen to it on the treadmill or while driving. It has an amazing way of connecting people. It’s the theatre of the mind. There’s something about podcasts and voices, we get to hear the passion and the excitement. It’s really persuasive. It’s like potato chips or tattoos — you can’t just have one.”

For this reason, a teaser and two episodes have been released simultaneously for the launch of #SenecaProud. The first episode features Professor Amanda Cupido, who began teaching in the School of Media last January. Cupido, who has previously worked as a journalist, is also a podcast producer and author of Let’s Talk Podcasting: The Essential Guide to Doing It Right

The second episode features Brian Bell, Program Co-ordinator of Business Analytics, a new graduate certificate program welcoming its first intake next week. Bell has been teaching business at Seneca for nine years. Effective this week, he also heads up the School of Leadership & Human Resources as Chair.

“It’s a lot of fun interviewing Seneca professors and hearing their excitement about their programs, plus the huge experience they bring to their roles,” Perdue said. “I’m hoping that when people listen to the #SenecaProud podcast and hear the profs talk about what they do and who they are, they’ll really get a sense of the magic that makes Seneca such a special place.”

Professor Amanda Cupido is the featured subject of #SenecaProud, Episode 1. (Submitted photo)

New episodes of the #SenecaProud podcast can be found every other week on Seneca’s News and Events site, iTunes or other podcast apps. It is just one of the many ways in which we tell interesting and inspiring stories about the people who make Seneca great. If you or someone you know have an interesting story to share, please fill out the Seneca Success Story online form.