Relevance

Creating learning opportunities that are engaging and stimulating, which foster community and/or connection and lead to skills development, or a deeper understanding of concepts is a challenge that Cooperative Extension faces every day. Educational podcasts meet this challenge head-on in addition to being always accessible, offering unique and effective learning experiences that cater to diverse learners in a variety of contexts and situations.

Response

Podcasts have increasingly been utilized as an educational tool in Extension because of their innate ability to bridge the gap between research and the local community. Podcasts can effectively disseminate research findings and academic expertise to a broad audience beyond the academic community, making scholarly work more accessible and relatable to the general public. They are an effective education tool due to their ease of use (both for the user and the educator) and scalability. Podcasts increase engagement by offering diverse voices (experts, peers, guest speakers) and are easily accessible, allowing students to learn anywhere, anytime.

FCS Extension developed the Talking FACS (Talking Family And Consumer Sciences) podcast which excels at weaving information into narratives which resonate with listeners to make learning more engaging and memorable.  With a variety of voices and perspectives bringing our research-based content, we are able to reach a broad audience with relatable experiences.

Providing learning opportunities on the go makes the podcast experience convenient and accessible. Links in show notes with further guidance which drives= listeners to their local County Extension office extends the educational experience beyond the brief interaction of the podcast episode.

Because transcripts and chapter markers accompany each episode, all shows are accessible to all audiences

Results

The Talking FACS podcast has just completed its seventh season which has produced 437 episodes featuring topics related to food, family, finance, fitness and everything relevant to families. Our shows have been downloaded 62,370 times and reached more than a million listeners, which speaks to how our topics resonate with families. We have listeners in all 50 states, and US territories as well as more than 40 countries. The top 10 list for FY 2025 includes shows that were released this year and shows that were release as far back as 2019, which is indicative of the timelessness of our content.

We have a nationally recognized, award-winning podcast and our show format is featured in journalism and other university classrooms on our campus and across the country.

The Talking FACS podcast built a foundation for two great partnerships within the University of Kentucky, the Markey Cancer Center and the College of Dentistry reached out for spin-off shows hosted by Talking FACS.  Cancer Conversations on Talking FACS (now in its fifth season) is a monthly show featuring doctors from Markey Cancer Center as guests sharing the latest cancer research in an accessible format for Kentuckians. Kentucky Smiles on Talking FACS featured one year of shows discussing a variety of dental issues with the experts at the dental school.

Public Value Statement

The Talking FACS podcast creates learning opportunities that are engaging and stimulating, which build community and connection and lead to a deep understanding of presented concepts. It fosters relationship development and offers unique and effective educational experiences that cater to diverse learners in a variety of situations.