Behind the scenes of Warren’s student-run podcast

DOWNEY — Warren High School seniors Ian Fernandez and Brian Martinez take their seats in front of two microphones, a classmate flanking each of them in seats to their right and left. Their spirited conversation is just starting to pick up when a voice from the back of the room interrupts.

“What did I tell you guys about talking before you record?” scolds drama teacher Kyle Deichman. “You’re not going to have anything left to talk about.”

The room goes silent before another student, standing behind a camera, starts a countdown.

“5…4…3…2…”

Martinez doesn’t miss a beat.

“Welcome to Hanging in Bear Country.”

“Hanging in Bear Country” is Warren’s newest podcast, hosted and run almost entirely by students.

On the show, Fernandez and Martinez host their classmates to discuss varying topics ranging in scope and depth, from campus happenings, to current events, to relationships, body positivity and mental health.

But it didn’t start off that way.

“It was very surface level, and it wasn’t until Ian was like, ‘Hey, those aren’t bad ideas, but I’m being put to sleep by them, let’s come up with something actually chatter worthy,’” said Martinez.

“A lot of important topics that we do need to cover because we’re highschoolers and getting ready to become independent, it’s like, ‘You guys need to know this stuff,’” added Fernandez.

Deichman oversees the podcast but is “rarely involved” when it comes to topic selection.

“It’s pretty student-run by them,” said Deichman. “They were exhausting on topics, so we discussed going a little deeper with topics, stuff that matters, and they started to navigate towards that.

“As far as what they say, I’m not going to let anything out that would affect negatively the campus, per se. Very rarely, they may say something in jest that is funny, but if it’s taken by the wrong person the wrong way, it’s done.”

Deichman says that he likes “when they’re able to talk openly about themselves and what’s going on in their lives,” as he believes it “helps other people out there.”

Students often shift around and try different roles before settling into a preferred or desired position.

Senior Sarahi Padilla has been in front of the camera a few times but prefers directing behind the camera.

“We try to. We switch a lot of people out,” said Padilla. “We have our main crew. We’re very tight because we’ve gone through a lot of technical difficulties. But we do have a couple of people that we try to bring in more often, we try to include everybody as much as we can.”

Martinez added that sometimes it can be difficult to get others to participate.

“The biggest frustration of the class isn’t even the technical difficulties that come up. Sometimes it’s just finding someone that wants to do the job,” said Martinez. “Everyone wants to be an anchor, because of course everyone wants to brag to their friends, ‘Oh, you were on camera.’

“Not everyone is built for it. Sometimes they’re a little too robotic. There’s no shame in it. There’s noting wrong in saying you tried it and it didn’t work out for you. But because of that then, we can find a job for you to do.”

Warren High is no stranger to broadcasting; the morning announcements have been both recorded and live streamed for several years now. The “Hanging in Bear Country” podcast, however, is new to this year.

“Hanging in Bear Country” was inspired from a field trip to USC last school year, however, it took some convincing to bring it to reality.

“Ian was like, ‘Dude, we should do a podcast.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, good idea, but I’m not sure we can get that going,’” said Martinez. “We constantly pushed the idea, like, ‘Oh, we can name it Hanging in Bear Country,’ where we talk about regular things that go on in the school.”

“Mr. Deichman was like, ‘No.’ We were like, ‘Please?’ He was like, ‘No.’ We were like, ‘Please?’ He was like ‘Maybe.’ Just casually in like two weeks, he says, ‘Okay, I have the set built.’”

Deichman built the set over the summer.

“When we walked in this year, just to continue what we were doing last year, we walked into the studio and we see this whole new podcast set built, and we were just in shock,” said Padilla.

With Fernandez, Martinez, and Padilla being seniors, their time in Bear Country is quickly coming to a close. Deichman, still a drama teacher at his core, says that eventually he will need to hand the broadcast off to someone else.

Still, there is a hope that “Hanging in Bear Country” is here to stay.

Martinez says that he doesn’t like the podcast being labeled as “our podcast,” saying instead that it’s the “school’s podcast.”

“It’s supposed to go on even when I’m in college or when I’m off doing who knows what,” said Martinez. “If I can come back here 20 years later and it’s still going on, perfect.”

“Hanging in Bear Country” can be watched on YouTube and streamed on Spotify.