What inspired the idea of having a podcast?

“I used to make YouTube videos discussing different topics. One channel was dedicated to UFC sports, another one music and another one for video games. I’ve always had a passion for talking about things I like and also have friends that do, too. I came up with this thought while talking about it with my friends and thought, why not take that interest of mine and turn it into hub where I can broadcast that and talk about it online.  The whole thing to do with the podcast was through (Courier Adviser) Jim Fuller. We met at a new student orientation group, and he began to talk about this involvement with The Courier newspaper and the broadcast program at the school… I met with him following that, and we discussed having a podcast through the newspaper.”

Where did the name ‘Level Up’ come from?

“The idea of the show came up similarly to how I come up with podcast topic ideas. I was writing down a few ideas for what the name could be. One of the cool things was that Jim told me I had free range and creative freedom to name the podcast whatever I wanted. From there I wrote out a few different names. I wanted to come up with a name that wasn’t specific to one topic so I could talk about sports on one end and movies on the other. I think it’s a universal name because you can level up in business and life, but it also has sort of a video game reference to it.”

How do you prepare for podcasts?

“I have basically bullet points going into the podcast. I write out topics I want to discuss and things I want to cover, and my co-host, Sean, does the same. I don’t have a written out script, so I just send my co-host Sean what I have or whoever I’m speaking with that week, and we go from there.”

What do you do and don’t enjoy about having the podcast?

“What I like about it is I get to have creative freedom. I remember a professor I had last year had said that people who are more creative thinkers can come up with ideas easier when there is full freedom. When you have a paper or an essay that has a little more structure to it, there can be limitations to your creativity. Besides that, the most stressful thing is converting the file into an MP3 when were done. The only difficult part is small technical difficulties we face.”

What can listeners look forward to in the future?

“In the future people can look forward to possibly doing an interview with Peter James to talk about business. I don’t know how soon I’ll be able to do that, and it’s not a guarantee because he is super busy. I have to work on his schedule along with reserving equipment but hopefully everything can coincide.”

Anyone can listen to Kenneth McKinney on his podcast “Level Up” on The Courier’s Soundcloud profile at https://soundcloud.com/user-201219115.