Finding their voice on the airwaves: Milestones students share stories through weekly podcast

At a recent podcast recording session in Northampton, a lively debate was underway over a green, swamp-dwelling cultural touchstone: Shrek. The discussion isn’t just a casual movie chat — it is the active center of a unique podcasting class giving local creators a powerful new platform.

“He’s a very shy, very scary, kind of personal kind of person,” said Genevieve Lewis of the movie’s titular character. “He has his big horns, and he is very, very big.”

“He’s kind of a freaky-looking guy, but he’s kind of like the hero of the story in a lot of ways, right?” replied Nick Vogt. “I feel he’s not a bad dude. He just looks kind of freaky.”

The organization Milestones, part of Whole Children at ServiceNet, offers a weekly podcasting class to its students aged 16 and up at its Inclusive Community Center in Northampton. The podcast the students create, called “Mega Spectrum Connection,” features participants with intellectual or developmental disabilities talking about topics like jobs, travel and music. The class began during Milestones’ last session, and it continued on Wednesday afternoons this spring with a different group of four Milestones students.

Staff members Vogt and Evan Sabourin host and produce the episodes. They keep the dialogue flowing by asking questions, clarifying a participant’s point when necessary and narrating visual moments happening inside the studio. For instance, during a discussion about Puss in Boots, participant Aidan O’Donoghue perfectly mimicked the character’s signature big-eyed, fake-innocent expression.

“For our audience at home, Aidan is doing a cat impression right now,” Vogt said. “He’s moving his little paws.”

O’Donoghue, who took part in the recording that day while wearing a ribbon from a Special Olympics event, said he signed up for the podcasting class because he wanted to be able to host his own radio show someday. 

Lewis joined the class to reconnect with her past on the air. She had served as a college radio DJ about two decades prior and remembered how much she loved being behind the microphone.

Karen Weneczek signed up in part because she’d had such a great time playing a news anchor in the organization’s original production, “All the Feels,” in 2025. 

Sydney Meininger enjoys exploring a wide range of subjects on the air. While the green ogre dominates the studio energy, “It’s not all Shrek,” Vogt laughed. Meininger hopes to parlay these conversational skills into a career as a sports reporter in a few years.

The class was discussing “Shrek” because the 2001 film is well-known and well-loved at Milestones. According to Vogt and Sabourin, the movie’s distinct humor is entirely accessible to everyone, regardless of age or ability. 

“The way we approach teaching here is … we’re often right there with the participants,” Vogt said. “So if we’re watching the movie, we can appreciate it, too. It connects [staff and students].” Besides that, the movie “really knows that it’s silly, and it’s leaning into that a lot. It is very goofy and knows it, and it’s not really trying too hard.”

Because the film is so familiar to staff and students, it also doubles as a reference and teaching aid in classes. Sabourin explained that if, for example, a student is making a particularly good or bad choice, “We can use that to be like, ‘Remember when this [scene] happened? Didn’t feel really good’ … or, ‘Didn’t that feel great?’”

Being on the podcast also helps participants build onto the conversational and social skills they learn in other Milestones classes: for instance, taking turns in a conversation, making small talk and making sure quieter people are heard.

“When we do conversations in the [boundaries and relationships] class, everyone’s working on stuff. But when we put [students] in front of a podcast, all of a sudden, everyone has so much to say, and it’s really interesting. We’re able to build the conversation skill in our roundtables that, otherwise, is kind of difficult to do if you’re just putting someone on the spot,” Sabourin said.

To help, Vogt has the participants imagine an audience is listening in on the conversation live, even though it’s actually edited later.

“There’s something about the idea of it being a produced product and a show that is getting people to talk more, I think, and it’s cool because we are always working on back-and-forth conversations and being able to share more about yourself,” he said.

The class prioritizes on-air performance over technical production. Vogt noted that Milestones students thrive in creative, active roles rather than “the more grinding kind of work, where you have to sit with it.” As a staff member, his job is to be something of “the vessel for people to be creative through.”

Of course, the curriculum is designed to be fun as every recording session ends with a game. When the Gazette visited during the penultimate class, Vogt introduced the latest edition of “Choose Your Dude” — an activity he created for the students to play in the final session the following week. The rules require students to pick between two “Shrek” characters and debate hypothetical scenarios, such as who would make a better cook or a superior beach companion.

“I think this can be a really epic podcast because it’s all of our voices in one,” Lewis said. “And we all have our own voices and our own stories that we’re going to share, and I am looking forward to having it come out and sharing it with my family and my friends so they can see what an opportunity this is for everyone.”

“Mega Spectrum Connection” is available on podcast streaming platforms. For more information about Milestones, visit wholechildren.servicenet.org.