Sound Storytelling
For WBEZ Chicago’s “Prisoncast!,” Medill and Northwestern Prison Education Program students work together crafting public radio segments.
By Marc Zarefsky
Thomas Gordon vividly remembers the last holiday card he received. It had a Christmas tree on it, covered in ornaments that Gordon said were gleaming with gold and silver. From his bunk in Sheridan Correctional Center, he looked at the card and viewed it as a reminder.
“I still have somebody out there that loves me,” he said.
Gordon, a Cohort 5 member of the Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP), shared those words on "Prisoncast!" a quarterly WBEZ radio show created for people incarcerated in Illinois and their loved ones. But before his words made it on the air, they were said directly to Sophia Casa (BSJ27) and Georgia Kerrigan (BSJ27), two students in a Medill course called "Storytelling: Making a Radio Show in Prison."
Casa and Kerrigan were two of seven undergraduate Medill students in the special topics class in fall 2025. Each week, the group drove roughly 75 miles southwest from Evanston to Sheridan, Ill., home to the Sheridan Correctional Center, an adult male medium security prison, where they collaborated and learned with students from NPEP. NPEP is an initiative of Northwestern University to provide a high-quality liberal arts education to incarcerated students in Illinois.
This was not a class for the Medill students to tell the incarcerated students' stories, explained Natalie Moore, a Medill senior lecturer and director of audio journalism programming who led the course. The course was intentionally designed so that the students worked together creating audio productions that would resonate with "Prisoncast!" listeners.
Students on their way to Sheridan Correctional Center: Front row, from left, Brandon Kondritz (BSJ26) and Taylor Hancock (BSJ27); middle row, from left, Edward Simon Cruz (BSJ27) and Carlotta Angiolillo (BSJ26); back row, from left, Georgia Kerrigan (BSJ27), Anavi Prakash (BSJ27) and Sophia Casa (BSJ27).
Students on their way to Sheridan Correctional Center: Front row, from left, Brandon Kondritz (BSJ26) and Taylor Hancock (BSJ27); middle row, from left, Edward Simon Cruz (BSJ27) and Carlotta Angiolillo (BSJ26); back row, from left, Georgia Kerrigan (BSJ27), Anavi Prakash (BSJ27) and Sophia Casa (BSJ27).
"I wanted the Sheridan students to feel like they had agency and weren't background players for the Evanston students to do their work," Moore said. "I didn't want anyone feeling like the Evanston students are the ones in charge and that this is their class and the Sheridan students are the background players."
Sheridan students began the course by pitching potential story topics. Class time included lectures from Moore, followed by opportunities for students to interview one another and brainstorm what outside sources would be needed to flesh out their stories.
The Medill students used their access to audio and production equipment to conduct interviews and research off site. They then brought back the results of their reporting to the NPEP students, who collaborated with the Medill students to produce the final audio packages.
A microphone in a recording studio. (Photo by Jacob Hodgson/Unsplash)
A microphone in a recording studio. (Photo by Jacob Hodgson/Unsplash)
"This is a group that's already so disempowered, and it would have been so unfair for us to come in and take advantage of the fact that they're in prison so we can make stories about them," Kerrigan said. "Instead, this ended up being an outlet for a lot of them to talk about things and have a platform to voice their opinions."
That's just what happened for Gordon.
During that initial story pitch process, he recommended producing a piece with advice for how incarcerated individuals can manage their mental health during the holiday season. He wanted therapists to share tips and techniques on how to stay grounded at a time of year that can be particularly painful and challenging in prison.
Gordon worked with Casa and Kerrigan to identify potential sources and develop questions for the story.
The final piece aired on "Prisoncast!" in December.
Other stories from the class that aired in that episode included:
- A Q&A with Joseph Mapp, the City of Chicago's director of reentry, about how those incarcerated can rebuild their lives after being released from prison.
- A feature on the challenges of managing money in prison, including the decisions some prisoners face between eating and gaining access to video games.
Moore said her ultimate goal of the course was to show students what community engagement journalism looks like.
Thomas Gordon, featured in a WBEZ Chicago “Prisoncast!” segment, shares the difficulties of incarceration during the holiday season.
Thomas Gordon, featured in a WBEZ Chicago “Prisoncast!” segment, shares the difficulties of incarceration during the holiday season.
Sophia Casa (BSJ27) preparing for an interview.
Sophia Casa (BSJ27) preparing for an interview.
“Journalism can feel very top down. We're telling you what you need to know,” Moore said. “This is an example where it's a two-way street.”
Moore, a former reporter and editor at WBEZ, also wanted students to understand the power of audio — both in terms of an interviewee's voice as well as the sounds used to piece a story together.
It was a lesson Kerrigan said she appreciated.
"A big part of audio journalism is to let other people tell their own stories, and you, as the journalist, are the conduit to that," she said. "A big goal of mine was to take a step back and learn from the people actually telling their stories."
That opportunity to learn from one another was one aspect that excited NPEP Director Jennifer Lackey about the course. NPEP is designed to provide high-quality educational opportunities to incarcerated students, and this class taught everyone in it the value of listening to someone's voice — and all that comes with it.
"We create rare spaces in which these two groups — typically kept socially and epistemically siloed — engage in mutual inquiry and co-authorship," Lackey said. "The educational experiences in a course like Moore’s audio journalism course are designed to interrogate the structures that shape human lives, while simultaneously modeling a more just form of storytelling — one grounded in listening, relationships of trust and collaboration, and shared authority."
To explore more reporting from Medill and NPEP students in WBEZ Chicago’s "Prisoncast!" series, see these stories on "Advice for surviving the holidays — on the inside," "One man’s journey from prison to Chicago's City Hall," and "Managing money in the age of prison tablets."
Read about Medill and NPEP students creating film documentaries together.
Marc Zarefsky (BSJ07) is a content strategist and writer based in Evanston, Ill.
Special thanks to Alex Keefe (MSJ09), engagement editor at WBEZ Chicago, for story production support.
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