Who inspires you? Introducing On Our Minds Season 5

April 2, 2025

The fifth season of PBS News Student Reporting Labs’ Edward R. Murrow-award winning podcast about the teenage experience, On Our Minds will launch April 16 and explore the question: who inspires you?

This season will feature teenagers in conversation with people they admire and look up to — in their families, local communities, and in the literary world. This theme was developed in response to Student Reporting Labs’ student advisory team’s recommendations to report more stories that focus on solutions and the good that students see and experience in their communities.

Media coverage about teens and their well being is overwhelmingly reported by adults; On Our Minds is hosted by and co-created with high school student journalists, platforming their unique perspectives and experiences. This new season involves 33 student producers from 10 states.

“Our student producers are having fun recording conversations with the people who really inspire them. On Our Minds gives them a chance to ask the questions they’ve always wanted to ask and to express their gratitude. These stories demonstrate the power of honest, heart-felt conversations. They model to listeners how to tell people they matter to us and how to be an inspiration to others,” says Briget Ganske, SRL’s lead podcast producer. 

This eight-episode season will feature interviews with authors including Bryan Stevenson (Just Mercy), Viet Nguyen (The Sympathizers), Dr. Joy Harden Bradford (Sisterhood Heals), and Nic Stone (Dear Martin) and will highlight stories of the friends, family members, teachers, and community members who young people look up to.

On Our Minds is distributed by PRX/Dovetail. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes and segments are also available for free republication: learn more here.

 

Meet the co-hosts!

Evelyn Chao is a senior at Los Altos High School in Los Altos, CA. Her immigrant background has shaped her belief in the power of storytelling, inspiring her involvement in medical research and volunteering at hospitals. Evelyn also enjoys speech and debate as a platform to advocate for diverse perspectives on societal issues. In her free time, she loves exploring new hobbies—from ice baths and cookie decorating to quiet pursuits like writing letters and starting a patch sticker collection.

 

 

 

Eason Dong is a senior at Los Altos High School, in Los Altos, CA. Eason is a photographer for the Midpeninsula Post, an independent publication created by student journalists, covering events and profiles. He also volunteers at the local aviation museum. In his spare time, Eason enjoys exploring the local scenery or getting lost in internet research rabbit holes, such as one that led him to obtain a certificate in rat tickling. 

 

This season, On Our Minds is working with 33 student producers from 10 states to produce the segments in each episode, plus student videographer Ryan Janes and journalism educator Jodi Hwang from Los Altos High School.

Episode 1 – On Friendship

  • Michelle Liu (VA)
  • Sakeenah Amatul & Tanya Mehreenasi (IL)
  • Tianwen Gao (social video) (TX)

Episode 2 – Interview w/Dr. Joy Harden Bradford

  • Bree Campbell (NY)

Episode 3 – On Family

  • Ava Gilberg-Stroud (WI)
  • Denver Humphrey (FL) & Dylan Humphrey (MA)
  • Mina Bixby (NJ)
  • Priscilla Sharifie (CA)
  • Jessica Wang (social video) (TX)

Episode 4 – Interview with Viet Nguyen

  • Khadeejah Khan (CA)
  • Annalise Huang (CA)

Episode 5 – Educators

  • Connor Yuhas & Jay Schuel (MI)
  • Jay Tamirisa (TX)
  • Marium Zahra & Aruja Misra (TX)

Episode 6 – SXSW EDU interviews

  • Katherine Garcia Gonzales (TX)
  • Beatrix Lozach (TX)

Episode 7 – Interview with Bryan Stevenson

  • Kiran Bhatia (MA)

Episode 8 – Community Leaders 

  • Alia Soliman (NY)
  • Ashley Sollars, Hannah Foster, Brooke Parks, Serenity Burgos, & Keenan Tucker (MI)
  • Evelyn Dawes, Avery Smith, & Mack Schaffer (NY)
  • Seven Jamison (TX)

Contribute to On Our Minds

The production team wants to include even more student stories this season! Contribute to On Our Minds by recording and submitting your question or story for the Dear On Our Minds segment. 

About Student Reporting Labs

PBS News Student Reporting Labs (SRL) is a hands-on journalism training program from PBS News and WETA that connects young people to real-world experiences and their educators to tools, resources, and community. This national program trains and equips educators and teens with the tools and training to report stories in their own communities, and provides platforms for their stories to reach national audiences. Since 2009, Student Reporting Labs has helped students publish over 150 video news reports on the PBS News Hour nightly broadcast and many more via local media outlets. Student Reporting Labs supports educators through StoryMaker, its free learning platform. Visit www.studentreportinglabs.org and www.story-maker.org to learn more.

About PBS News 

PBS News is the consolidator news brand within NewsHour Productions LLC, a wholly-owned non-profit subsidiary of WETA Washington, D.C.  Corporate funding is provided by American Cruise Lines, BDO, BNSF, CFP Board, Consumer Cellular, Cunard and Raymond James, with additional support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the National Science Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, Friends of the News Hour and others. More information on PBS News is available at www.pbs.org/newshour. You can watch and find PBS News programming on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. News Hour Productions produces PBS News Hour, PBS News Weekend and Washington Week with The Atlantic.

About WETA

Founded in 1961, the Washington Educational Telecommunications Association (WETA) is the leading public broadcasting station in the nation’s capital, serving Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia with educational, cultural, news and public affairs programs and services. WETA hosts the production of PBS NewsHour, a classical music radio station, and programming that focuses on the United Kingdom. Learn more at https://weta.org.