After taking deep dives into critical and meaningful issues, a host of Mercer Island High School (MIHS) students rose to the top of the teen podcast world in a pair of prestigious contests.

In the New York Times 6th Annual Student Podcast Contest, five Islanders garnered awards, and one student notched the top spot in mental health reporting in the NPR Student Podcast Challenge. All of the student-journalists are members of the KMIH 889 The Bridge broadcast team.

Grand-prize winners in the Times contest — which featured almost 1,100 entries — are Maggie Blohm, Sam Paddor and the duo of Kate Lenington and Renn Novak, with Elise McDonald earning a runner-up award.

Grace Go took top honors in her category in the 3,300-entry NPR competition.

KMIH adviser and general manager Joe Bryant was thrilled to note that the students presented compelling, creative and high-quality podcasts.

“To see this sort of success makes me feel very good about the future of Mercer Island High School media. Even more importantly, it makes me feel good about the future of the world in general,” he said. “This is a generation that I feel really confident about handing the keys to this whole operation over to as time goes on.”

Natalie Woods, another KMIH adviser and community outreach coordinator, added: “This represents really what outstanding and creative and innovative students that we have at our high school, and particularly in our radio program, because they are able to come up with these amazing ideas and then take the mentorship that Joe and I are providing to really make their stories stand out (nationwide and worldwide).”

The Reporter reached out to the students and asked them why they chose to delve into their podcast topics and what the experience was like. Here’s a glimpse into their podcast process, which included insightful interviews to guide them along their storytelling path:

* Go told her personal story through mental health reporting for her podcast, “Discomfort Food,” which focuses on her cultural and emotional connections to her favorite Korean dish that led her to face and then overcome a mental health challenge, reads a press release. The dish in the spotlight is budae jjigae, which she described as “ham, sausage, spam, a packet of instant noodles all cooked in a spicy broth topped with American cheese and chopped scallions,” in an NPR story.

“I was fascinated by how Asian Americans could have a paradoxical relationship to food. It’s not a common topic of discussion, but an important one,” she told the Reporter, and added about her thought and work process in bringing the podcast to fruition, “I honestly cranked out my project in less than a day. Once I get in the ‘zone’ and start putting together my piece, it’s hard for me to lose focus.”

* Through her podcast, “The Two Milligram Murderer,” Blohm tackled the real impact of fentanyl with interviews from a pediatrician, the DEA, and sadly, a mom, reads a press release.

“I saw a subject that I didn’t know a lot about, which meant most people probably didn’t either, and I saw an opportunity to use my platform as a radio student to change that,” she said. “A lot of people carry a sense of invincibility when it comes to drugs, but from the get go I understood that fentanyl sets out to prey on that sense. I think it’s important that people understand that just like most things we’ve seen in the past few years, this too is unprecedented. The idea that my work could ‘save a life or two’ is intimidating, fulfilling, and seems progressively less ludicrous as I learn more about the severity of the fentanyl crisis.”

* Paddor’s podcast, “On-Stage at Woodstock,” features interviews with three of the legendary musicians, including Arlo Guthrie, who graced the stage at the original event in 1969 at Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in Bethel, New York.

“I’m personally really interested in music and the stories behind songs and artists,” he said. “At 889 The Bridge, I have a podcast called ‘My Back Pages’ where I interview mostly older musicians to try to document the fascinating stories they have to share. Woodstock is an incredible part of music history and I absolutely fell in love with it after watching the Woodstock movie. I know that a lot of kids in our modern generation might have only heard of Woodstock and not actually know about it, so I wanted to share the stories behind the Woodstock and the ’60s music scene in America.”

* McDonald focused on the “History of Snoqualmie Pass” and how her great grandfather brought the rope tow to Washington and invented night skiing. When the opportunity arose to dig into a story for her podcast, this was the perfect choice, she noted. She’s proud about the podcast she produced.

“It’s extremely personal to me, as it is a history of my family, which directly affects the community and has been a cool story I’ve always wanted to share. I honestly just hoped to spread a cool story that a lot of people within the community might not know,” she said. “Interviewing my grandpa and my mom was definitely meaningful because I got to see a part of them I’d never seen before. To see them talk about their childhoods and something they are so passionate about was really inspiring.”

* Novak and Lenington thoroughly examined a piece of Seattle’s art history with their podcast, titled, “Aurora Bridge Spotlight: How a Troll Saved Fremont.”

“Sometimes, growing up and spending so much time in Seattle means the little things get lost. You forget to stop and appreciate what’s around,” Novak said. “The Troll is a piece of city framework that sometimes gets lost in comparison to bigger things like the Space Needle, but is closer to locals’ hearts. Creating a podcast on it was such a personal and silly way of connecting back and paying tribute to our surroundings.”

Added Lenington: “I thought the story I was telling was unique and it was a story of positive change, and in that aspect I felt that I did have something special. My thought process going in was just make something to submit; I have the resources, opportunity, and ability so just try and submit something. But by the end, I had talked to the creator of the Fremont Troll, done so much research and worked really hard and I was really proud of the piece of work I made, and I’m extremely happy with the outcome.”

The duo formed a close friendship this school year during their radio class, and Novak discussed their podcast journey: “It felt appropriate to be creating a final work with her, and to shoot towards big things. It felt special in its creating because we had a lot of fun doing it. As well as it felt like a culmination of our skills. I’m just stoked that a wider group of people was able to feel the joy we felt while making it.”

To access the podcasts, click the links on the school district’s site: (New York Times) https://tinyurl.com/v3m8fv98, and (NPR) https://tinyurl.com/3ka73jtk