Meara Isenberg, a senior journalism major at the University of Texas, will be helping out with The Drag’s podcast, “Crooked Power,” this semester. She was instantly gripped by the story behind the podcast and is extremely excited to join the team for a few months before she graduates this spring.
During her time at UT, Isenberg has focused on improving her journalistic writing, and worked for the Daily Texan newspaper for multiple semesters. She has also written stories for a few magazines in Austin as an intern, and currently works as a journalism coach for the Moody College of Communication’s Writing Support Program. While this is her first-ever time working on a podcast, Isenberg is passionate about storytelling, and she’s eager to learn about the process of doing that through a new medium.
Over the past week, Isenberg has spent time familiarizing herself with the podcast and met its two kind and talented creators, Cesar Perez and Maya Fawaz. Her job this semester involves spreading the word about “Crooked Power” to the public, and she also might help proofread a podcast script or two. She feels driven to help the podcast prepare for its expected air date in the fall of 2021.
Isenberg was surprised and intrigued when she first heard about the story covered in the “Crooked Power” podcast, and how it involved Perez’s family in Ecuador. Reading through a draft of the podcast’s first episode, she can already sense that the story will be well-researched, and passionately told. She feels lucky to be able to contribute to this project, and can already tell she’s going to learn a lot from it.
Isenberg’s first task will be working on getting the “Crooked Power” team to the 2021 International Symposium on Online Journalism. Any questions for Meara? You can reach her at [email protected].
