Her Campus sat down with Cydney Gardner-Brown ‘21, the host of “The Sit Down” on AM 1700 and a sophomore who is interested in Public Policy at the University of Michigan.
HC: Why did you decide to start a podcast? What was your intention?
CG: “The Sit Down” is a dialogue-based conversation featuring the voices of college students, and we talk about different relevant cultural topics ranging from politics to philosophy. There’s no one topic. It’s meant to mirror those 3 a.m. conversations you have with your peers in the dorms or your apartment. So there’s no one thing that we talk about.
HC: Do you think it’s hard for female voices to be represented on the radio or in podcasts?
CG: Yeah, I think it can be hard given that generally there hasn’t been a lot of encouragement for girls to voice their opinions on that platform. But usually when I have female guests or even when I’m the only woman on the show, I have incredibly fruitful conversations. I just think that women add a powerful dynamic to conversation.
HC: What was your most memorable conversation?
CG: All of them have been really good so far. I mean there’s only been eight so…well, yes – the first one with my co-host Aubrianna Wickings (Episode 7) – that one was really good because sometimes with this kind of show or platform you feel the need to be very professional. You feel the need to be very informational and that can take away from the beauty that is people’s own life experiences. Instead of attempting to be very professional on a topic, we should just be acting like college students who are learning about the world and sharing our ideas. That’s what I want, and Episode Seven is a great example of that.
HC: Do you talk about stuff going on at the University of Michigan?
CG: Well yes, usually the guests are students that go to Michigan. We talk about what it’s like to be going to a major PWI (predominantly white institution), and not everyone on the show is a person of color, I’ve had a range of people come on the show…My next episode is covering hate language. Have you ever been in the basement of Alice Lloyd?
HC: No, I have not.
CG: Well, there’s this really big art studio and the walls are covered in drawings and recently, someone came in and in big, red letters wrote “MAGA” all over the walls and all over people’s artwork. I had a discussion recently with someone about how hate language affects people, and they were arguing that the words “Make America Great Again” are not inherently hateful, but, when you do things like put that over people’s artwork or write it on people’s doors, that adds context and qualifies as hate language.
HC: If you could interview anyone from history, who would you choose to interview and why?
CG: I would, off the top of my head, probably choose Michelle Obama. Because I want the show to be about raw dialogue rather than having professionals come and talk about issues. It’s a show for people who can hold an authentic conversation, and I feel like Michelle Obama would be really interesting to talk to on that intimate level.
You can listen to “The Sit-Down” live on Fridays by tuning into AM 1700 or am1700.com at 10 am. If you miss an episode, you can find it on iTunes and MixCloud under “AM1700 Presents: The Sit Down.”