The VICE podcast ‘Is Going to College Worth it?’ is hosted by Keihan Salam and features journalist and author Anya Kamanetz, where they explore the advantages and disadvantages of going to ‘college’ or as we like to call it, university. It is 58 minutes long. There are many different factors discussed in the podcast that offered an interesting argument such as how the government may not be offering generous loans to students, the cost of university and funding of professors. An argument discussed is how it should be free for all students, and another focuses on how many students actually finish and graduate from their degrees – which leads back to the question ‘is it worth it?’
What I like about the podcast is that the discussion is intelligent and complex with two different perspectives and it is easy to listen to; they both speak formally in a calm manner and are both confident in what they are saying. The host asks thought provoking sentences and Kamanetz replies with well thought out answers. An interesting fact I liked from this podcast that I will take with me is that the outstanding student loan debt in America is over 1 trillion dollars which is more than credit card debt.
I wanted to know if this was a relatively new subject for podcasts but it seems lots of other podcasts have has episodes on this exact topic. To name a few, the Joe Budden Podcast, CrewCast Podcast, SwampED and SchoolSucks Podcast all discuss the question ‘is going to college worth it?’ This isn’t to say there arent many different valid points and arguments in each of these podcasts, but most of the main topics covered have most likely been spoken about already. In conclusion I think this VICE podcast was educational and structured very well. There were no awkward pauses and it was a constant flowing discussion the entire way through.
Annabella Skinner 