by Vaidhehi Veena Sanmugananthan

Graphic design by Lauren Jones

The pursuit of growth is an ongoing experience, and overtime there may be situations that force us to push our boundaries. These experiences can have a profound impact on the trajectory of new projects, ideas and our own lives, in unexpected but impactful ways. 

Raw Talk Podcast (RTP) is a student-run podcast housed at the Institute of Medical Science (IMS) that is made up of students from diverse graduate and professional programs in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. RTP is currently on its eighth season and has produced over 120+ episodes to date. The episodes developed are a collaborative effort involving the Executive Producers (EP), Content Creators, Show Hosts, Audio Engineers, Promotions Team, and Science Writers. As with any student-developed initiative, the podcast itself and many of its members have undergone journeys during their time on the team that have allowed them to grow in profound ways. In listening to the experiences of previous and current RTP members, I have come to realize that “growth” in part embodies what it means to be a part of RTP. 

In episode #124 Raw Talk Reunion: Our Co-Founders, Atefeh Mohammadi (current Co-EP of RTP) spoke with our Co-Founders Richie Jeremian and Jabir Mohamed, who provided insight into how the podcast was created. As they recalled on the episode, RTP stemmed from another project that they pitched to the IMS called Spotlight. Richie shares “ …it was about highlighting the faculty at the IMS and possibly the students as well. We create a one minute video trailer where a question pops up on the screen where we ask a researcher about some of their work, and then they answer it.” Richie and Jabir explained that Spotlight was intended to give members of the IMS the space to showcase who they were as people outside of their research. While developing these videos, Richie and Jabir found that there was a lot of potential in the left-over audio gathered in the production process. This sparked the idea of creating a podcast with the remnant audio, which eventually led to the formation of RTP. 

Earlier RTP episodes each featured one IMS Faculty member, however starting in Season 3, each episode became centered around a specific theme and slowly grew to include guests across the University of Toronto and beyond.  Jabir shared “…as the episodes went along, we realized that the story, the science was just as important as the researcher. There were also a lot of other stakeholders, the patients, the benefactors of the research and the care legislators, politicians, industry, people, and others who would be just as important to feature.” Hearing this story as a current member of RTP really put into perspective how much the podcast has changed over the years. Since joining the podcast as a Science Writer back in Season 6, most of our episodes have been framed around the concept:  Behind every discovery, there’s a story. With each year, the stories have grown wider to encompass as many perspectives and voices as possible pertaining to a topic. It is clear that since its starting point, RTP has been shaped and cultivated into the podcast that we know and love today. 

“Whatever you do and you invest in, there’s always going to be a civic reason…this is the problem that we’re trying to solve. Then there’s a selfish reason, the difference you want to see in yourself.” Jabir’s words set the stage for the next aspect of growth that RTP has provided for many of our team members, which is personal growth. In episode #125 Raw Talk Reunion: Our Alum, Eryn Tong (RTP alum) spoke on how RTP helped build her confidence. She recalled that she was encouraged to get involved in different aspects of the podcast, like writing summaries for the website and hosting segments for episodes.  These were tasks outside of her comfort zone. However, the positive team environment encouraged her to take on new challenges, helping her grow and build confidence. As well, being a part of RTP informed her decision to pursue a career that required her to be empathetically attuned to others. She is currently studying Clinical and Counseling Psychology, and  has the opportunity to listen and amplify the perspectives of others. Similarly, Ekaterina An (RTP alumnus), expressed that her time with RTP set the stage for her learning experiences going forward. As a medical student at McMaster University, she found that creating podcast episodes on a variety of topics and speaking with different guests helped her foster open-mindedness. She states that “Raw Talk really helped me break down that perfectionism and just embrace curiosity and learning in everything that I do”.  These are a few examples of how RTP has provided an opportunity for growth in students, and has helped them develop key skills that are transferable in their careers and their own personal lives. 

Both Atefeh Mohammadi and Madison Hossack (two of three current EPs of RTP) think that the next steps of RTP’s  growth may involve more engagement of the community. Atefeh shares “ we have grown…becoming a source of community for graduate students across the University of Toronto campus and an educational resource for our local community, helping make medicine and scientific research accessible to all. As the RTP grows, our responsibilities in the community also grow.” She states one way in which this responsibility is practiced in RTP is through intentional steps in choosing guests that represent unheard and unappreciated voices. As well, Madison shares “I can totally see the team taking advantage of in-person capacities moving forward by coming up with creative new ways to engage with the community on campus”. Overall, more engagement of the community in the podcast episodes could make them more diverse and relatable to the general public. It is clear that RTP has seen considerable change since its launch back in 2016, and surely will continue to grow in the years to come.
The perspectives provided here are only a snapshot of what was covered by our podcast team in the conversations with our Co-Founders and alum. To hear the full conversation, please tune into episodes #124 Raw Talk Reunion: Our Co-Founders and #125 Raw Talk Reunion: Our Alum.