A southern-style string melody and prepare whistle sound someplace within the distance because the voice of pupil host Jade Emerson marks the primary episode of The Drag’s “Girl Fowl” podcast. “In a personal room adorned with household photographs scotch taped to the partitions, 51-year-old Girl Fowl Johnson ready to present a speech…”
The Drag, UT’s audio manufacturing home, partnered with the Lyndon Baines Johnson Basis to supply its latest podcast, “Girl Fowl.” The 12-episode sequence connects pupil hosts with UT alumna and First Girl Claudia “Girl Fowl” Johnson by means of archived audio interviews. An intimate look into Girl Fowl’s life and legacy, the podcast particulars her research at UT, romance with President Lyndon B. Johnson and private experiences within the White Home.
“While you consider important First Girls, you consider Eleanor Roosevelt or Jackie Kennedy,” mentioned Katey Outka, managing director of The Drag. “However Girl Fowl hasn’t been in that dialog. She’s diminished to the beautification woman or the wildflowers woman or no matter. Lots of people don’t understand she was a lot greater than that. She was such a useful adviser to LBJ. She had a front-row seat to so many important elements of historical past from the attitude of being a politician’s spouse. I believe she’s usually neglected, particularly because the partner of somebody with as large of a persona as LBJ.”
After a profitable launch on the Girl Fowl Johnson Wildflower Middle final week, the primary episode of “Girl Fowl” is now out there on podcast streaming platforms. Future episodes will embody a particular installment devoted to Girl Fowl and President Johnson’s love letters and a bonus interview with the couple’s daughter, Luci Baines Johnson.
“I keep in mind we have been at a listening session, and I assumed, ‘Wow, this simply jogs my memory of going by means of my outdated childhood diaries or sitting with my grandma and going over her little scrapbooks,’” mentioned Sofia Vargas Karam, advertising communications supervisor of The Drag. “We actually wished to remember the fact that that is any person else’s voice and story that we’re telling in a really intimate means.”
Distinctive amongst The Drag’s productions for its intensive use of historic information and in-depth story-telling, the sequence is “in contrast to something that’s ever been made earlier than” for Karam.
“My hope and my objective is to get individuals my age to take heed to (“Girl Fowl”) and fall in love with it,” Karam mentioned. “We will learn textbooks, and we are able to learn articles on-line, however lots of people don’t need to type by means of archives or plenty of letters and outdated handwriting only for enjoyable. So we did “Girl Fowl” in a cool means the place you have got all this content material in a single place with cute and attention-grabbing audio.”
New episodes might be launched each Tuesday. Robert Quigley, founding father of The Drag and govt producer of the podcast, mentioned he hopes pupil listeners can draw inspiration from Girl Fowl’s story.
“First girls are a fascination of the American public,” Quigley mentioned. “However listening to about (Girl Fowl’s) relationship struggles, how she hated her chemistry class or about her mates and the place they go to have enjoyable round Austin — it’s plenty of enjoyable. I believe college students will see plenty of themselves in her story.”
