The Excuse to Learn Podcast was established in my first quarter at the University of Oregon. With Joe Krasnowski, a fellow sportswriter, I hosted, filmed, edited, and produced episodes of the podcast featuring various guests — including the one who inspired us to start the show.
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Our first guest was FOX Sports commentator (and Oregon alumni) John Strong, who told us that we were "A little bit terrible at this" — meanwhile providing excellent advice and yet another excuse to learn.
The name comes from our desire for a reason to make use of the opportunities around us, from the world-class facilities in Oregon's Allen Hall to the wealth of knowledge that inhabits it. It's all an excuse — one well worth using.
What's On Our List
When we pitched the show to several professors, fellow writers and classmates, we showed them a list of things — skills, bits of knowledge and areas of expertise — that we wanted to glean from this experience. Those included increased confidence in speaking on air, the ability to shoot and edit a full-length podcast, work on social media and simple networking.
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So far, we've been able to explore several of those paths — and uncovered several more that we are excited to learn about. It's fascinating and enlightening to work on a project like this, and it allows us to learn through experience rather than solely in the classroom. We're able to apply skills, try ourselves, and (most importantly) fail — for without failure, there is no growth.
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What's on our list is just a starting point, but it's one that will continue to guide us through the lifetime of this project. I can't wait to see where it goes.
What We've Done
Social Media » Follow on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok @ExcusePod, where we post links to episodes alongside short clips and featured content from ourselves and other writers.
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Stream full episodes on Spotify and YouTube.