As communication students at Arcadia University, we, the producers of this podcast series, spend much of our college lives talking about media. But so do most people, because media is all around us and has been for our entire lives. The act of consuming media is often a shared experience—people attend concerts together, watch movies together, and share playlists and film reviews with one another.

So what about these experiences? Matt, Leah, and Sinarely set out to explore the overarching theme of nostalgia induced by two different media sources: film and music. Media has the power to affect people in personal and uniquely emotional ways. So in the span of three weeks, we asked various community members about their favorite films and music. We asked this with specific research questions in mind.

Why is it that some songs bring back specific memories for one person, but not for another? Is there a shared experience surrounding a particular piece of media? For example, why is it that a particular song may bring back the same feelings of being in elementary school for one group of people, but may not for another? How does childhood and what we were exposed to shape our musical preferences?

By speaking to people about their personal nostalgia surrounding film and music, we hope to shed some light on both the immediate emotional effects of media on its consumers, as well as its long-term effects after years of the initial exposure. We also seek to explore whether or not this nostalgia is shared.

By exploring these ideas, and bringing in additional resources written by psychologists and journalists, we intend to provide content that our audiences will both enjoy listening to and find relevant to their lives. A podcast was a fitting medium for our purpose because of its intimacy and conciseness; the audience will be able to hear pieces of actual conversations we have with our interviewees that we feel are most representative of all of our research. But beyond just an audio podcast, this project provides supplemental sources for consumers who are interested in getting a more in-depth view of our research.

The experience of producing a podcast is valuable for us as media students in and of itself, but the final product will also build up our internet presence, which is one of our objectives as college communication students. In future career endeavors, we will have this experience to reflect on: hands on knowledge on what it takes to produce a collaborative media project. But we feel it is also beneficial for our audience. Everyone experiences nostalgia. Our goal is to make this topic relatable to a 21st century audience through an artistic and more stylistic approach of presenting research. In doing so, we hope to expand the horizons of research writing, and we hope you view this website as such.