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Being Bolder Podcast: Why a Magazine? - Episode 2
5 Plays7 months ago
Welcome to Being Bolder, a podcast all about our journey creating BOLDer Magazine! Our team of teachers and industry experts is on a mission to share our knowledge and spark curiosity about the origins and importance of the natural resources that shape our everyday lives. We hope to inspire anyone who picks up our magazine to learn more about where things come from and why it matters so much.
Learn more about BOLDer Magazine at boldermagazine.com
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Transcript
Introduction to Being Bolder and Bolder for Kids
00:00:17
Speaker
Hey, everyone. Welcome to Bean Bolder. I'm Reston Hamilton here with Bronwen Weaver. This is our second podcast on the topic of a new publication that is out right now called Bolder for Kids A to 80 that talks about the Earth's natural resources and how we use them in our lives. Excuse me. And Bronwen, first of all, Bronwen, how's it going? How you doing today? Oh, it's great. Hi, Reston.
00:00:46
Speaker
Good, good.
Revival of Print Media for Kids
00:00:47
Speaker
Well, this episode, we want to really give you some background into how this all came about in the first place. and Again, you probably understand how starting a magazine is probably very a very unusual thing at this point. There's actually more of them that are being developed now than there has been in probably 20 or 30 years, but um we it is still unusual. And so Bronwyn, I want you to really talk about how you came up with this idea in the first place and kind of bring us up to speed to where we are now. that's Yeah, let me dive in. i am
00:01:28
Speaker
I've been in and around print for a long, long time. and as rusten said in the last well Certainly in the last 15 years, people have thought print was kind of dying out, going to be completely replaced with everything digital.
00:01:43
Speaker
And I think it's in the last couple of years, especially when it relates to kids, people are discovering that getting offline, getting away from digital devices is a real healthy thing to do. And so there is a resurgence in interest in books and in magazines and things in print so that kids have an experience that they can hold in their hands and really engage with in a in a different way and that you as a whether you're a in a school situation or a parent or frankly even if you are an adult yourself and you want to just step back from all the noise
00:02:27
Speaker
picking up a good old book, picking up something that is really well done and engaging is is ah a wonderful experience that a lot of us are are getting back to. But let me lay the groundwork on
Inspiration and Long-term Collaboration
00:02:42
Speaker
this. and And I guess maybe even just because we're starting out with this podcast and there are people that may not know you and I and the fact that we've worked together for more than 10 years. ah we were We work in the same company. Rustin and I have often been the team that but have been the storytellers for um
00:03:06
Speaker
for for the industry, for companies, for people. And so this is not anything new to us per se. But about a year ago, our team started to think about what we could be doing that would be really leaving its mark as a positive thing for, especially for kids and for families.
00:03:29
Speaker
There are those of us that are parents. My kids are are grown now, but I really appreciate how important it is to support learning in a fun and engaging way and something that doesn't um does the opposite of like tuning out, so how to create that experience in an engaging way. and As I mentioned before, I've got this experience in print, so does Rustin. And so the power of writing something that
00:04:04
Speaker
sparks the interest of of somebody, that's a pretty powerful thing to be a part of. And those of us on our team that are involved in natural resources, I have a geology degree, um we're outside all the time with our work. we're We're rubbing shoulders with the people that have really cool jobs that maybe have invented pieces of equipment that make things more sustainable or processes more efficient.
00:04:33
Speaker
um we're We're working with people that have stumbled on really fascinating stories just being outside and in nature. I felt a real desire and it was really about this time last year that things started to come together and it validated that I was going in the right direction with creating what this experience
Transition from Workbooks to Magazine
00:04:58
Speaker
was going to look like. And it first started out thinking we were going to maybe create a series of workbooks or a series of publications instead of a monthly magazine. That really came to us um about six months ago.
00:05:12
Speaker
where we had enough evidence that magazines are starting to come back, that print really is a smart um would be a smart channel, ah for lack of a better word, for us to be engaging in. And the fact that you could have a relationship with your readers i think that's the part that i got so excited about you know what i mean that we would have yeah not only could we create something one month but then the next month we could improve upon it and make it even cooler for kids and that we would be that trusted resource for parents teachers grandparents neighbors you know um we'd be trusted in where our information comes from
00:05:58
Speaker
We would be able to use our creative genius because Rustin and I are cool, but man, we work with some really smart people and some really creative geniuses in terms of the way things look and feel and sound.
Building the Team: New Members
00:06:13
Speaker
And so to have an outlet like that It was, at that point, it was up to us as a team to be courageous about it and to start putting the groundwork together to really make this thing happen. And we had to bring on um a couple of new team members to this project to fill in some gaps. ah we've We brought on um Tina Russell, who has
00:06:40
Speaker
more than 15 years experience being a a teacher a real credible uh resource not only for teaching but before that she was she homeschooled her kids so she really has solid credentials in terms of how do we get this information in a form that will support learning on lots of levels and we brought in um dan o'connell who is ah Professional geologist he's worked for more than 20 years within the industry So what he knows about geology just blows my mind um And he also has a lot of experience working with the educational councils with the Boy Scouts getting out mineral information I I can't even imagine how many rock boxes he's handed out in his career um and so we've we've
00:07:36
Speaker
brought in that to the team that I really feel like gives us solid um credentials in addition to having the supportive team members who are under 30 on this effort because we want to be really relevant to everybody and we don't want to be, I don't know, out of date, old fashioned or preachy in any way. We want to make it fun. Sure.
00:08:03
Speaker
um I don't know, that that gives you a little bit of a context to what we're trying to accomplish oh with how we've put this together. Well, it's kind of interesting because, you know, we we are now, I think, at to the generation ah that, you know, the younger part of the generation that we are aiming for here, kids who are ah early teens, ah supposedly, you know, maybe even a little bit earlier than that.
00:08:31
Speaker
um that magazines are not even probably considered an old thing by that generation. They're almost considered a new thing. Yeah, that's true. That is so true. Yeah. And so I think for anyone who may be looking at this going, well, my kid's not going to like this because it's an old format. I don't think that's necessarily the case. yeah And and i I think that they will embrace it just like kids have a tendency to embrace anything that is interesting. And this is very interesting and so yeah we're going to we're going to in future episodes future podcasts talk about more about content and so forth uh you kind of talked about what the the publication is and how it came to be talk a little bit about what it really is not well it's not it's not boring i mean i think one of the things that
00:09:25
Speaker
um and As part of the industry for my whole career, I've had lots of evidence and unfortunately, I've even been involved in those efforts where at the end of the day, we're trying to shove so much data into what we want people to appreciate.
00:09:41
Speaker
We don't make it interesting. We don't really highlight the things um that sparked us maybe as young people to get into these careers or to be interested in in being involved in these industries.
Balancing Education and Engagement
00:09:56
Speaker
And so we're going to try to have a balance in every issue of not only talking about where things come from and why it's important, you know the natural resources, how we use them, um interesting things about the the machines, the processes, the people behind the scenes so of producing those resources. But we're also going to be talking about being outside and being in nature and the whether it's ah critters or the difference between a moth and a butterfly,
00:10:28
Speaker
or how many hearts an earthworm has. We're going to be talking about things that many of us just have at our fingertips to discover and explore and be interested in, but maybe we've just been too distracted to even notice. So it's a um it's a balance that we want to have. um We want to make sure that there's a lot of interactive places in the magazine.
00:10:55
Speaker
But we want a 27-year-old to be just as compelled to pick up a pen and see if you can find the pathway through an elaborate maze as we do a fourth grader or a fifth grader who has been given kind of a ah the beginning of a story or a journal prompt, and we want them to just take off with your imagination. You know, one thing that has been part of this discovery is that There's been a lot of attention over the last 10 years on STEM, science, technology, engineering, and math.
00:11:34
Speaker
and in the latest iteration of that, it's become STEAM. And that's where it really gets my attention because they've added A for art.
Incorporating Art into STEM: STEAM
00:11:46
Speaker
They understand that with all of this science and technology, there's also a really important place for creativity and your imagination. And maybe even more than that,
00:12:01
Speaker
allowing your intuition to develop. And that's something that ah especially for young people, and I would even argue that for families to be able to have that kind of an environment um is really important. And um for people that are our age, we remember the way it was.
00:12:25
Speaker
And I think that for somebody that might be in their 30s with a young family, this may be a whole new thing to discover. um and And just like you said about the printed magazine, Rustin, it might be a new experience, not an old outdated one that we're bringing back. you know Yeah, no doubt. Well, and here's the other thing,
Curating Earth’s Resources Topics
00:12:51
Speaker
too. you know For those who may argue, well,
00:12:54
Speaker
you know my kid could just Google these things and find out about them. yeah they're they' Obviously, that's that's the case. However, what do they know to be Googling about when it comes to these topics? yeah Essentially, we are curating the most important topics to be ah reading about and discussing such a gite when it comes to earth sciences and how the earth's resources are being used in ways that that that benefit us. And so um so in addition to everything else, we are really trying to put out there the most important things
00:13:33
Speaker
to be aware of. ah And frankly, the the most the most interesting things to spend time ah you know reading about as well. so and And the final thing I want to just add, because I think you brought up such a good point. And as we're closing, I just have a final thing I'd like to add. We are also although we are not looking at the world through rose-colored glasses, okay? We are looking at things pretty optimistically because we know all the progress that's been made.
Positive Approach: Abundance and Sustainability
00:14:03
Speaker
We see ah what's real and what's on the ground. um the The whole tone out there, when you're talking about the Earth or our resources,
00:14:17
Speaker
is is usually pretty twisted and negative and all about catastrophe and scarcity. When we know the difference, we know that that's not the case at all. There's actually an abundance out there, and it is going to be up to the next generation to do things even more sustainably, to have even more cool equipment and processes.
00:14:39
Speaker
And we want to be right there on that cutting edge talking about it so that we can spark that next generation to be interested in all of this and maybe find a place in their lives for whether it's a a walk or a hike um and investigating nature more closely or it's like, no, I think this is really cool. I'd love to be inventing this equipment that's used out in the field um to do something that we're describing and to do it in a better, smarter way. so that's ah I think that's a really important part to add to what we're trying to accomplish. and Absolutely. Well, we'll look forward to talking more details about the publication. we're going to
00:15:27
Speaker
ah dig into a ah variety of things in the coming days and so forth. So thank you for being along for the ride. um Again, if you if you wanted to if if you missed our first episode but want to learn a little bit more about just for in general about the publication, kind of a 101, our first episode really kind of conquered that.
Subscription and Online Content Details
00:15:49
Speaker
and And also, if you want to subscribe to the publication or learn more about it, just go to Boulder magazine dot com
00:15:58
Speaker
Again, the magazine is only in printed form, but you can learn more about the magazine, find out more about bonus content. on the website, and and also that is where you would go to subscribe. So anyway. And you can always get in touch with us at info at boldermagazine.com. We would love to hear from you. After all, all of this we're doing for our subscribers. And please, if you can, subscribe and help us get the word out by sharing and liking us on social media, by sharing this video. We really appreciate it. Thank you.
00:16:34
Speaker
Absolutely right. Have a great day everybody. Take care. Bye bye.