Photo by Bryce Owen ’17 – Max Fees ’17 listens to his recent episode of The Lasso. The podcast interviews member of the Brophy community and incorporates all aspects of student activities.

New student-produced podcast covers campus issues, people

Click here to listen to ‘The Brophy Lasso’

By Jose Cardenas ’16
THE ROUNDUP

Max Fees ’17 created The Brophy Lasso at the beginning of the year, a new five to seven minute podcast that is released in the daily bulletin every other week, featuring interviews and weekly highlights.

Inspired by other podcasts and radio shows like Serial, Fees created the podcast with the Student Council.

“Part of the Student Council’s mission statement is to be the brotherhood builder of the campus and this was another way to bring in all different aspects of the community,” Fees said.

Fees has interviewed students and faculty, and those guests have included Cade Knox ’17, the podcast’s first guest and athlete; Mrs. Sue Hornbeck, a staff member of the Office of Faith and Justice and Maanik Chotalla ’16, the speech and debate team manager.

“We sit down with someone from our Brophy community and hear what’s going on with them. Then we have three questions that we ask everybody, and that catalogue of answers unites the campus,” Fees said.

The podcast seeks to be both informative and entertaining, something its creator continuously strives for in each installment. The fact that this is the first year where all students have iPads made the Lasso even more accessible through email and podcast apps.

“It’s a great way to find out what’s going on around campus, which is really what we tried to set out for,” Fees said.

Since its first episode, the podcast’s crew has expanded from just Fees working on his own to include Justin Pasionek ’18, who gathers information for every episode’s guest or weekly recap.

“It is definitely a great new creative outlet, similar to The Wrangler. It involves the common Brophy student with a greater depth of information than what just touches the surface,” Pasionek said.

The podcast has also received the support of the Student Council’s moderator Mr. Pete Burr as a way to spread the word about more student activities.

“We were trying to find find different ways to shine a light, for lack of a better term, on students on campus who maybe don’t get the attention they deserve sometimes or do cool things that their peers don’t know about,” Mr. Burr said.

Mr. Burr said he believes that as long as technology moves forward and the passion for the podcast burns bright, its popularity and impact on the campus will only become larger.

“Anytime something cool happens in the Student Council it has been because a student takes the initiative for something they’re passionate about … So when something new sees a little success, I get excited about it. So I am excited that people are interested in the Lasso and I hope it continues to grow,” Mr. Burr said.

Even the podcast’s guests said they find the podcast experience to be exciting and more communal than those of other publications and formats.

“The experience of recording was awesome. Things were very casual and very professional, and a lot of my friends are talking about it. So I think the Lasso is definitely taking off as a podcast … a fantastic idea for Brophy,” Chotalla said.

While the next episode is being prepared and new guests are being featured in the podcast, Fees, the Student Council, and everyone else involved in The Brophy Lasso hope that its audience will only grow going forward, bringing students and the Brophy brotherhood closer together.

“This is a podcast by and for Brophy, so everyone is a part of it,” Fees said.