For this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay celebrates the podcast’s tenth anniversary with the members of Marshall University’s Dead Podcasters Society, a club that is dedicated to artistic expression and following one’s passions, much like the fictional group in the 1989 film Dead Poets Society.  

The event becomes a master class on podcasts, the intimate form of audio storytelling that has hooked hundreds of millions of listeners around the world. Kay talks with students about how he encourages people to tell him their stories and about a lifetime spent forming connections with people who hold views that are very different from his own. 

He also gets inducted into the Dead Podcasters Society with a ceremony that involves a sword and a vow to “seize the sound.”

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the CRC Foundation.

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It is near 11 p.m. on a recent evening in Huntington, West Virginia. The grass is wet from showers earlier in the day. I’m standing in a courtyard of the James E. Morrow Library at Marshall University with people who are dressed in graduation robes and scholarly garb. Some have electric candles. One person is holding a sword.

These are the members and guests of Marshall’s Dead Podcasters Society, a student club modeled after the club at the center of the 1989 coming-of-age film Dead Poets Society, starring the late Robin Williams. 

They invited me to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Us & Them, talk about my experience as a podcast pioneer, and reflect on a decade of telling stories about America’s cultural divides.

Journalism Professor Rob Quicke has long been inspired by Dead Poets Society and he keeps copies of the movie around. Quicke, the director of the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Marshall University, launched the Dead Podcasters Society. He, like Robin Williams’ Mr. Keating, encourages students to find their voice and express themselves through creating and appreciating the medium of podcasting.

“Because podcasting is so huge now, so popular, I thought there should be a club on campus for students who want to be involved in putting together and appreciating podcasts. Someone said, ‘We’re the weirdos, we’re freaks, we’re outsiders. We’re students who don’t quite fit in everywhere else — or anywhere else.’ You know, I would never say that myself, but the fact that they said that, and that they believe it, and that they found a safe space to express themselves and be who they really are — that wasn’t something I planned on, but it’s probably been our biggest success.”

— Rob Quicke

Watch this scene from the 1989 film “Dead Poets Society.”

Us & Them got its start in May 2015. The pressures of running this operation are huge. I’ve put thousands of miles on my car reporting stories. I’m always raising money. And every day, I’m up against a deadline. 

But the rewards are even bigger. I’ve met incredible people and have forged bonds with folks whose views and opinions are far from my own. I deeply enjoy listeners’ feedback, positive and negative. And doing this work has helped me find my voice.  

“In the beginning of my Us and Them podcast, I decided that I thought that what I wanted to do, at least in the initial part of the podcast, was to show how maybe you could have a connection with people who were very different than you. That in many ways, we don't really talk to people who are not like us."

— Trey Kay, creator and host of Us & Them

Links to the Us & Them episodes that Trey Kay shared with Marshall’s “Dead Podcasters Society”:

I played several excerpts from shows highlighting what I’ve learned from each one. I also discussed how I use a variety of audio sources, like voicemails, to illustrate my plight in one episode when I was trapped on a snowy interstate for more than 24 hours. I took questions from students.

“It was definitely, definitely interesting to me. I’ve never seen such open conversations like that. Usually, they’re much more heated, or the stuff I engage with is fairly one-sided and doesn’t really speak honestly.”

“A lot of the clips you played were about deeply personal things for the people you interviewed — even the one about being trapped on the turnpike. They were tumultuous situations that could inspire fear or intense emotion. Does it take a toll on you personally, having to hear these things?”

“I do a podcast about tea with a friend from choir, and we try to create a very comfy atmosphere. How often do you find yourself needing to create that kind of comfort to get people talking? And how often does that atmosphere work against the kind of conversation you need to have?”

— Questions and comments from members of Marshall University’s Dead Podcasters Society 

After my presentation, journalism Professor Rob Quicke inducted four new members into the Dead Podcasters Society - including me. I have arthritis in both knees, so several students helped me kneel on the ground. Quicke used that sword I saw someone carrying before the ceremony and tapped me on each shoulder, as if I was being knighted, as I recited the society’s induction vow:

I, Trey Kay, accept the mic and the power it holds. I vow to tell stories that matter, to speak with purpose, to listen with intent, and to never fear the pause. In the silence between words, I find meaning. In sound, I find soul. I'm a podcaster of the living and the dead. Carpe sonum. 

And then I was given a medal! 

Carpe sonum! (Seize the sound!)

“In a world of endless noise, you have chosen the mic. You believe in stories, in silence and in signal. You're not afraid of dead air, only dead ideas. For those about to be inducted, you now join the ranks of those who listen deeply, speak truly and edit wisely. Carpe Sonum.”

— Rob Quicke