“Route 30” Podcast Offers Sneak Peek at Pitt-Greensburg Storytellers Event Dec. 3

The audience at Pitt-Greensburg’s Storytellers Showcase on Wednesday, Dec. 3 at 6 p.m. in McKenna Hall 131 will get a preview of the university’s forthcoming podcast series, “Route 30: Stories from Westmoreland County.”

“Route 30: Stories from Westmoreland County” is a Pitt-Greensburg Production, sponsored by the Center for Digital Studies and supported by an Innovation in Education Grant. Coordinated by Assistant Professor Sean DiLeonardi and a team of interdisciplinary faculty and led by groups of Pitt-Greensburg student researchers and journalists, the podcast is designed to bridge connections between the campus and broader community by focusing on issues, local histories, and stories that make Westmoreland County unique.

“There are too many stories in small, mostly rural communities like Greensburg and its neighboring towns that never get told,” DiLeonardi said. “Podcasting is one way that twenty-first-century technologies have opened up ways to tell those stories, and made them accessible to much bigger audiences, especially when steered by thoughtful, hard-working individuals like the students we have at Pitt-Greensburg.”

At the Storytellers event, DiLeonardi will offer a teaser introduction—written, recorded, and produced by Pitt-Greensburg student Miguel Perez. The introduction features interviews with two teams of student podcasters—Isaac Stephens and Zakery Wiles, whose episode focuses on politics and the history of banned books in Westmoreland County; and Shannon Grace and Alissa Brown, whose “Get Lit Westmoreland” episode uncovers local literary treasures, including the Westmoreland Museum of Art’s Poetry Bridge project and the latest books published by Westmoreland County’s WPA Press, an independent press devoted to publishing working-class poets and writers. 

“These first two episodes will show how topics that generally demand a national (or even international) stage such as literature and politics take up roots right here in Westmoreland County, shaping our classrooms and public spaces in ways that affect nearly everyone,” DiLeonardi says.

Future episodes of “Route 30” will include even more student researchers who will focus on topics such as immigration, local veterans, and local food culture, DiLeonardi says.

The Storytellers event is free and open to the public. In addition to the podcast preview, the event highlights the importance of human storytelling in all its forms. The evening will include readings from student poets and fiction writers, and screenings of short digital stories. A reception, a poetry-on-demand station, and a free-book table round out the celebration.

For more information about storytelling at Pitt-Greensburg, contact the organizers of the Storytelling Showcase — Professor Lori Jakiela at loj@pitt.edu or Professor Dave Newman at dpn15@pitt.edu.