“Love Factory” is a 13-minute film that touches on themes of fame, privacy, technology and the blurring between what is a real, authentic life and a what is a manufactured one.
In this week’s film, we enter the world of two livestreaming agencies in China whose work is to scout promising newcomers and mold them into high-earning stars. But what’s it like working for a company that engineers every aspect of your life — and then requires you to livestream it all day long?
What happens when all you show the world is a manufactured life?
Students
1. Watch the short film above. While you watch, you might take notes using our Film Club Double-Entry Journal (PDF) to help you remember specific moments.
2. After watching, think about these questions:
What questions do you still have?
What connections can you make between this film and your own life or experience? Why? Does this film remind you of anything else you’ve read or seen? If so, how and why?
3. An additional challenge | Respond to the essential question at the top of this post: In China, livestreaming your life is big business. What happens when all you show the world is a manufactured life?
4. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)
5. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.
• Read our list of practical teaching ideas, along with responses from students and teachers, for how you can use these documentaries in the classroom.
President Biden’s call to forgive $10,000 in student debt per borrower has reinvigorated a debate over the $1.7 trillion that Americans owe for student loans.
Do you believe that canceling some or all student debt is a matter of economic and racial justice? Or would it be unfair to those who have already paid off their loans, not to mention those who did not attend college at all?
Whenever I think about student loan debt, one of the first things I think about — besides my own — is a 2018 essay by my colleague M.H. Miller. As one of the 45 million Americans who collectively owe $1.71 trillion for student loans, Mr. Miller wrote about what it is like to have debt — more than $100,000 worth in his case — become the organizing principle of your life, to be incapacitated by it, suspended, at age 30, “in a state of perpetual childishness.”
A lot has changed since Mr. Miller wrote that essay. For one thing, the national student debt increased by a couple of hundred billion dollars. But the most striking difference is how quickly calls for the president to cancel that debt, a vast majority of which the federal government owns, have migrated from the margins to the center of the national policy debate, from a radical demand chanted by activists to a proposal championed by the top Democrat in the Senate.
Mr. Bokat-Lindell supplies two arguments for canceling student debt:
The economic injustice argument frames education as an investment that has increasingly become faulty or even fraudulent: Generations of Americans were told that a higher degree was the path to financial security and upward mobility. In recent decades, however, as administrative expenses ballooned and public education budgets were slashed, schools shifted their rising costs to students, causing tuition to skyrocket. Still, people held on to the promise that the investment would eventually break even — after all, the federal government was lending them the money to pay for it.
… The enlightened society argument frames higher education as a public good, much as it’s treated in other wealthy countries and as K-12 education is already treated in the United States: It should be free or cheap for all, financed by taxes that can be raised on the rich, and no one should have to go into debt to get it.
Mr. Bokat-Lindell also raises two arguments against student debt cancellation:
Skeptics of all these plans argue that there are better ways for the government to spend its money. First, debt cancellation of any kind is arguably unfair to borrowers who have already paid off their loans, raising the question of whether they would be owed reparations.
Second, mass cancellation “boosts the balance sheets of people who attended college while doing nothing for people who did not attend college, even though the latter is, on average, worse off in many respects,” as Mr. Bruenig writes. “If the government is going to sprinkle $1+ trillion of net worth onto household balance sheets, should it really do so in a way that leaves out those without college educations?”
The 20th-century government programs that built and supported the white middle class were explicitly exclusionary, and that helped create a wealth gap in which the median white household has eight times the assets of the median Black family. Less wealth means that Black students, particularly Black women, take on more debt when they attempt to go to school.
The problem is compounded by employment and wage discrimination. Black families earn just 80 percent of what white families with the same education level do, and Black women earn just 63 cents on every dollar paid to white men with the same degree. So Black people need to obtain more credentials to obtain incomes equal to white people’s, and additional education costs them more because of the extra debt and accruing interest that lead many to struggle with repayment.
… But a full cancellation would provide the best outcome of all, and would protect young Black people who sought to use education as a tool for social mobility rather than punish them for pursuing the very credentials they need just to obtain the income of less-educated white people. Because Black graduates have more debt than their classmates, a full cancellation would even the playing field instead of leaving more Black graduates mired in the educational debt trap.
Should student loan debt be canceled? Do you support partial or full debt cancellation — or none at all? Why or why not?
Are you considering attending college? How has the possibility of taking on student debt influenced your decision-making, if at all?
Which of the arguments in favor of canceling student debt do you find most persuasive? Are you most swayed by the economic injustice argument, the enlightened society argument or the argument that student debt cancellation would begin to address the racial wealth gap? Why?
Which of the arguments against canceling student debt do you find most compelling? Is debt cancellation unfair to those who have paid off their loans? Do you think that it makes sense to make a major investment that leaves out those who do not attend college? Why?
Do you think that student debt cancellation is the right place to focus efforts on making higher education more affordable? Why or why not? What other reforms do you think would make a difference?
Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
In “What Is a Ballet Body?” Gia Kourlas writes about how the pandemic has made many dancers rethink their relationship to weight:
Like many ballet dancers, Lauren Lovette has had some questions during the pandemic. One keeps rising to the top of her list. What is a ballet body? And a corollary: What does healthy look like? “Am I really working on being a better dancer?” Lovette said. “Or am I just trying to starve and get skinnier, so now I have the line?”
In ballet, line isn’t just about the body’s shape on a stage. It has to do with the body’s overall harmonious outline: how, from head to toe, limbs and torso create the illusion of continuous reach and length. Weight, with its bulk and bulges — including, yes, breasts — plays its part and can interfere with a seamless, sculptural quality.
For Lovette, a member of New York City Ballet since 2010, this pause from performance has brought some clarity. “I’m not going to be dancing at 94 pounds anymore,” she said. “That’s not going to be me.”
Since the pandemic began nearly a year ago, similar questions have been spinning in my mind: How can body image, a fraught topic for any female dancer, no matter her size, be a source of strength rather than agony? Could this pause in live performance be an opening for the aesthetic requirements of ballet — especially extreme thinness — to change?
Ballet is an elite art form. Certain physical attributes are necessary — good turnout, along with flexible ankles and feet — but there is no single standard. It really comes down to how a body moves through space: with dynamism, musicality and athleticism.
Ballet is subjective; what looks good, what becomes a kind of standard, is set by the company director — typically a man, and a white one at that. Many think that change is overdue. Benjamin Millepied, the former artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet who now leads the contemporary company L.A. Dance Project, said: “We’ve gone through a longtime trend of this idea of the skinny body, and I’m really against this. I want to see dancers who have their individuality.”
Before the pandemic, female dancers were embracing their athleticism by incorporating strength training into their regimen. While they seemed less frail — a good thing — the overall look of a ballet company remained Twiggy thin.
Right now, many dancers — like the rest of us — are living with slightly different bodies. Marika Molnar, a physical therapist and director of health and wellness at New York City Ballet, said she thinks the dancers she works with look great at the moment. “Maybe they’ve gained five pounds, but they look fantastic,” she said. “I don’t know how that’s going to translate onto the stage and a tutu, but they all look terrific now, very healthy.”
The article continues, examining the intersection of race and body image in dance:
Another thing that female bodies in ballet have historically been is white. For Black dancers, body image and racism are inextricably linked, and it’s about more than thinness. Black women especially have long dealt with stereotypes that they are too muscular, too athletic.
“We accept that the white body can be anything and everything,” said Theresa Ruth Howard, a former dancer who writes and speaks about equity in ballet. “For a white ballet dancer, physical shortcomings — bad feet, a little bit tight, a little bit turned in — they get to be that.”
Erica Lall, a member of American Ballet Theater, recalled that as a student in Texas, when she was 13 or 14, her mother was told in a meeting that she had bulging muscles. “I was just kind of like, how?” she said. Lall, who aptly described herself as a “string bean,” is naturally slim with a short torso and long legs — what many would consider an ideal ballet body.
Quarantine, along with the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer, gave her a chance “to think and feel what I hadn’t allowed myself to feel in the ballet world for a long time,” she said. “I was preventing myself from strengthening my quads and my hamstrings and even my rotator muscles, because I was worried that I would just bulge too much.”
She focused on building strength, realigning her body with Gyrotonic training. “You need those muscles,” she said.
Students, read the entire article, then tell us:
What is your reaction to the stories that the dancers shared? Did any of their experiences, revelations or insights resonate with anything you have thought about or felt during the pandemic?
How have sports, the arts, social media or your peers affected your perception of an “ideal” body type? What outside influences most affect your body image and your beliefs about what a body “should” or “could” look like?
How has the pandemic shifted your relationship to your body? Has your body changed at all during this time? Have you begun to think differently about your body? For example, do you pay less or more attention to how you feel physically? Do you feel grateful for your health or do you constantly worry about it? Do you feel less or more pressure to have a “perfect body” right now?
The article examines body image through the lenses of gender and race. What role do you think identity — race, gender, gender presentation, class, ability and so on — plays in body image? What kinds of bodies are typically celebrated in mainstream media and social media? What kinds of bodies are valued in the communities you belong to? How do these standards influence how you think about your body? Have you pushed back against them in any way?
How comfortable do you feel in your body? When do you feel most appreciative of your body? When does your body feel strongest and healthiest? What does having a positive relationship with your body look and feel like for you?
Have you heard, or are you a part, of the body positivity movement, which aims to accept and affirm bodies of all shapes and sizes? Do you feel like this mind-set could be helpful in your understanding, acceptance and appreciation of your own body?
Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
1. After looking closely at the image above (or at the full-size image), think about these three questions:
2. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)
3. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.
Each Monday, our collaborator, Visual Thinking Strategies, will facilitate a discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time by paraphrasing comments and linking to responses to help students’ understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.
4. On Thursday afternoons, we will reveal at the bottom of this post more information about the photo. How does reading the caption and learning its back story help you see the image differently?
Java and JavaScript are two of the most popular programming languages. Because they both have “Java” in their names, you may think they’re related. But they’re actually very different.
As Brendan, a full-stack developer, shares in the video below, it’s kind of like the difference between donuts and Doritos. Both are snacks, and both start with “do,” but that’s where the similarities end. Brendan goes on to explain the differences between Java and JavaScript. He touches on their origins, defining features, applications, and associated career paths.
If you’re interested in learning more about the differences — or trying to figure out which is the best language to learn — watch the video or read on to learn more about whether Java or JavaScript is right for you.
Java vs. JavaScript: History and development
Let’s start at the beginning. Sun Microsystems first released Java in 1996. At first, they intended to implement Java into televisions to enable interactivity, but these plans fell through. Instead, Java found its niche in server-side programming — the invisible background workings of applications.
In 1995, Netscape created a programming language called Mocha. Later renamed JavaScript, Mocha was designed with simplicity in mind. Like CSS, it was meant to be embedded into a website’s HTML. But whereas CSS adds style, JavaScript adds interactivity.
Later, in response to the rising popularity of Internet Explorer (a major Netscape competitor), Netscape and Sun Microsystems struck a deal. Netscape offered Sun the opportunity to run Java apps in web browsers, which allowed them to benefit from the language’s popularity. In return, Netscape changed Mocha’s name to JavaScript.
Java vs. JavaScript: Differences and applications
Interested in learning a new programming language and not sure whether to start with Java or JavaScript? In a conversation about this very topic in the Codecademy Forums, Codecademy learner LeChuck shares:
“It depends entirely on what you want to do.
In general, if you want to develop for the web then choose JavaScript. If you’re thinking you might like to make Android apps, then Java would be better.
What is it that you want to do with your programming knowledge? Answering that questions will likely steer your answer to which language(s) you want to learn…”
In this section, we’ll take a look at the applications of Java and JavaScript to help you figure out which one is best for you.
Java
Java is a statically typed programming language with rigid syntax around declaring variables. With Java, you have to specify the types of values you’ll be saving to a specific variable. Once you declare a variable as a particular type of data (like a String), it must remain such for its entire lifetime.
Java is also class-based. Classes serve as reusable templates to produce objects. Objects are data structures used to store information. When programming in Java, you’ll use classes and objects to model real-life situations in code. Here’s an example:
public class CheeseCurls {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Here's a bag of Cheese curls");
}
}
As you can see, Java requires a lot of code, even for something as simple as printing out “Here’s a bag of Cheese curls.” First, we write the class declaration, illustrated by the first line of code in the example above. Within the class declaration, we create the main method, which is a method that automatically gets called when the code runs. Lastly, we specify what we want to happen.
Because of its capacity for stability and data handling, Java is used for:
Large-scale projects by big enterprises within the financial, trade, and automotive industries
Android app development
Back-end development
Scientific computing
Hardware and Internet of Things (e.g., Raspberry Pi, Sonos speakers, and Smart Refrigerators)
Java takes a while to learn, but its demand, versatility, and earning power speak to its value. You’ll also find that there’s a satisfaction that comes with building a big project from the ground up — especially when it’s your code that makes it all run smoothly.
If you’re interested in computer science or see yourself building the next hot Android app, learning Java is a great first step.
JavaScript
Maybe you’re more interested in building interactive websites or game development. In that case, you might be better off learning JavaScript.
JavaScript is a dynamically typed programming language with less rigid syntax around declaring variables. With JavaScript, you don’t have to specify what type of data you’re saving to a variable. You can also reassign variables to values with different data types.
Unlike Java, JavaScript is prototype-based and isn’t bound to a code pattern. Recent updates to JavaScript have enabled class construction, but it’s not a requirement. Here’s an example:
console.log("Here's a bag of Cheese curls");
With JavaScript, there’s no need to add classes or functions — you just write what you want to happen in one line.
Due to its lack of rigidity, JavaScript is easier to build and get off the ground. However, Java’s rigid structure is less prone to bugs. While it takes longer to get off the ground, it’s much more stable.
Known as “the language of the web,” JavaScript dominates web development. Its uses include front-end development and web-based projects. However, years of open-sourced development have led to huge libraries and APIs that can extend JavaScript’s capabilities.
While initially limited to the web browser, JavaScript’s recent breakout framework Node.js allows it to be used for back-end development, too. In a survey of professional developers, Stack Overflow found that over half of them use Node.js.
Even if you’re not looking for a new career, learning to code can still benefit you in your current position. One of our learners recently shared a post about how they were able to build a script to improve time management after only learning JavaScript for a couple weeks.
Getting started
Interested in learning more about Java or JavaScript? Here are some courses to help you get started:
Many of us, whether at school or in the workplace, puzzle over how to use commonly confused words like affect and effect, farther and further, and capitol and capital.
We were excited to discover that Claudine James, an English teacher who is a member of the first-ever class of The New York Times Teaching Project, has helped students tackle many of these tricky words through an engaging, accessible platform: TikTok.
Ms. James wanted to find a creative way to reach her students remotely during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I started posting grammar lessons on TikTok because my students who were virtual learners weren’t watching my YouTube videos,” she said. “I asked my students what would they like for me to do to get them to watch the videos, and their answer was TikTok. I started the account that day.”
Using the handle @iamthatenglishteacher, she brings the topics she covers with her eighth-grade English classes in Malvern, Ark., to a much wider audience. Her account now has more than one million followers.
We have paired five of Ms. James’s videos with examples of how commonly confused words have been used in The Times. We hope that this piece serves not only as a learning tool, but as a reminder to students that their English lessons can be relevant everywhere — from social media to The New York Times.
Farther and Further
Use farther for describing physical distance and further for non-measurable or metaphorical distance or advancement.
You can see these words in action in the Upshot article “The Typical American Lives Only 18 Miles From Mom.” The writers Quoctrung Bui and Claire Cain Miller use further to describe points on the socioeconomic scale and farther to describe physical distance:
“It speaks to a class divide in the population,” Mr. Pollak said. “Particularly as you go further down the socioeconomic scale, people are living pretty close to their parents, and this means they’re able to provide help.”
Families live closest in the Northeast and the South, and farthest apart on the West Coast and in the Mountain States. Part of the reason is probably cultural — Western families have historically been the least rooted — but a large part is geographical: People live farther apart in rural areas.
Affect and Effect
Most of the time, affect is a verb and effect is a noun. Vocabulary.com explains the few exceptions.
Color therapists themselves disagree about why and how color acts as they believe it does. Mr. Birren, who has concentrated on the psychological effects of color, said he does not believe those effects are directly physiological. As designers and interior decorators have discovered, color sets a mood; this in turn, Mr. Birren said, affects health because as many as half of modern man’s diseases may have a psychosomatic component.
Capitol and Capital
The U.S. Capitol is the building where Congress meets, but a capital is the city that’s the seat, or location, of government. Capital also has a few other meanings, such as an uppercase letter.
The seven-foot-tall metal fencing that has sealed the perimeter of the U.S. Capitol grounds and fortified the Supreme Court across the street is temporary. But it portends lasting change likely to come: In the capital city, there will be more hardening, more barriers, less openness, less access.
Accept and Except
Use accept when something is being received. Use except when something is being left out.
In the Real Estate article “A Bed-Stuy Apartment: Well-Known Terrain,” Joyce Cohen uses accept to say that an apartment hunter received a new job, but uses except to exclude a period of time.
Except for her years in college and graduate school, Patrice Fenton always lived in Brooklyn.
… Last December, the family, which now included a daughter, Haile Masani, came home for the holidays. Ms. Fenton, her coursework done, accepted another job at the school where she had worked, Fort Greene Preparatory Academy. While they apartment-hunted, they stayed with Ms. Fenton’s parents in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
Access and Excess
Use access when talking about the ability to enter or use something. Use excess to say there is too much or more than is necessary.
In “From Example to Excess in Silicon Valley,” Jenna Wortham uses access when talking about the ability to use the internet and excess to describe an over-the-top wedding:
Then there is Facebook. Over the last few years, the company has been accused of valuing profits over privacy and the public good. So last month, when its chief, Mark Zuckerberg, announced an effort called Internet.org to expand Web access in the developing world, some contended that the plan was motivated mainly by self-interest.
… If there was a single event this summer that symbolized the perceived excess of Silicon Valley, it was the wedding of Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster. He threw a multimillion-dollar “Lord of the Rings”-themed wedding in the redwoods of Big Sur, complete with a nine-foot-high cake and custom-made costumes for the attendees.
Questions for Reflection
Which of these words do you already use correctly? Which are the most difficult? What strategies did you learn for remembering definitions for the most challenging words?
Do you think that TikTok is an effective way to teach short lessons about spelling and grammar? Do you plan to delve further into “GrammarTok?”
What other words do you frequently confuse? What topics do you hope Ms. James covers next?
I have recently published a paper (with co-author Paul Gardner) on the effects of temporary mark withholding on academic performance and feedback views in university students (1). Temporary mark withholding is a feedback strategy whereby on assignments students are provided with the feedback first without their marks – then, a few days later, the marks are released to them. The idea behind temporary mark withholding is to provide students with time to engage and process the feedback before releasing the grades. Students tend to focus on grades at the expense of written feedback – which may be detrimental to increasing future performance. The exciting part about our paper is that we report two experiments that we ran in authentic learning environments where students worked on credit-bearing assignments. Thus, the conclusions that we can draw from our findings are highly relevant for real-world learning settings. In this post, I give a brief overview of the paper highlighting the findings and practical implications.
What did we do?
The experiments were run at two Scottish universities. The first experiment involved second-year Psychology students who worked on a report in their first semester. Half of the cohort was randomly assigned to the Grade-before-feedback condition – receiving their grades three days before their feedback – and the other half was assigned to the Feedback-before-grade condition – receiving their feedback three days before their grades. We were interested whether this manipulation would affect a similar future assignment in the second semester.
The second experiment used a bit of a different approach. We assigned an entire student cohort of third-year Psychology students to the temporary mark withholding condition for their report assignment in semester 1 and measured their performance in a similar assignment in semester 2. However, it was important to have a control condition to compare any changes in performance between the two semesters to. We used a historical control for that purpose: As historical control we took the third-year students from the previous year who did not experience mark withholding (marks and individual feedback were released at the same time) and looked at their semester 1 to semester 2 report performance change. In addition to academic performance, we were also able to look at whether students viewed their feedback in semester 1 or not.
What do you think this image is saying? How does it relate to or comment on society or current events? Can you relate to it personally? What is your opinion of its message?
Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more.
Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
LIVERPOOL, England — Virgil van Dijk walked gingerly around the side of the field, ruefully shaking his head, muttering under his breath. He stopped to offer Jürgen Klopp a grimace and then trudged on, out of Goodison Park. That will be the last Liverpool, and the Premier League, sees of the Dutchman for quite some time.
How long, precisely, is not yet known. On Sunday, a consultant confirmed what both the player and his coach feared in that brief pause in the Merseyside derby: Van Dijk has damaged the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. It is too early to assess, precisely, the extent of the damage, but not too early to know that van Dijk needs surgery.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word grimace in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.
If you want a better idea of how grimace can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
If you enjoy this daily challenge, try using multiple Words of the Day in a 50-word story that you submit to our Monthly Vocabulary Challenge.
Do you listen to podcasts to find out what’s happening throughout the world? Or do you tune in to learn about sports, music or films — or simply to be entertained? Do you prefer shows with one host or multiple hosts? Are you interested in series that tell a story over many episodes, or shows that explore a new issue or interview a different guest each week?
Imagine you — or you and several of your friends — are behind the microphone. What would you talk about? What format would you use? What would be your unique podcast voice and angle?
In our Fourth Annual Podcast Contest, we invite teenagers to submit original podcasts of five minutes or less. Your creation can be about anything that interests you, in any form that you like. Our favorites will be featured on The Learning Network.
Take a look at the guidelines and related resources below. Please post any questions you have in the comments and we’ll answer you there, or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.
How to Submit
We will update this post with a link to the submission form when the contest opens on April 8.
Students ages 11 to 19 attending middle or high school anywhere in the world can participate in this contest. If you are 13 to 19 years old in the United States and the United Kingdom, or 16 to 19 years old anywhere else in the world, you can submit your own entry. If you are younger, an adult must submit your entry on your behalf.
The Rules
Create a podcast that produces a complete listening experience with a clear beginning, middle and ending.
Beginnings often draw the listener in or provide context. Endings often provide a summary, ask a question or tease the next segment.
Your submission can be an excerpt from a longer podcast, as long as you demonstrate thoughtfulness about how you are using time. An ending can be a hard “end” of a podcast, or it can be the conclusion of a segment, or even the closing of an introduction within a longer episode.
You can use any podcast format or genre.
Popular podcast formats include interviews, conversations, nonfiction storytelling and fiction storytelling. Popular genres include comedy, true crime, news documentary, history, radio theater and sports. But you can choose from unlimited choices of format and genre.
Podcasts must be five minutes or less.
Please check the length of your audio file. (Just to be very clear, 5:01 is longer than five minutes.)
Your podcast must be original for this contest.
We want students to be inspired by our contests and have an opportunity to reach a wider audience for their work. If you have already published a piece, then come up with something else to submit.
In other words, if at the time of submission your work has already been published, or selected to be published, by a radio station, another podcast contest, or any other site (not including a teacher’s class page), then do not submit it to our contest.
You are allowed to submit your entry to another publication or contest for possible publication.
Create your podcast by yourself or with a group, but please submit only one entry per student.
If you are submitting as a team, remember to include all the names of those involved. If you’re submitting as part of a team, you should not also submit as an individual.
Use appropriate language.
Assume your listeners are New York Times readers. No explicit language, please.
Be sure to use non-copyrighted sound effects or music, with some exceptions.
If you use any music or sounds effects, please list the sources in a separate field in the submission form. You cannot use copyrighted sound effects or music for the sole purpose of making your podcast sound better. Instead, you can find royalty-free music and sound effects on Freesound and SoundBible, or by doing a web search for royalty-free files. Or you can use audio editing software to create your own music or sound effects. However, there are limited fair use exceptions when you can legally use copyrighted work, such as when you are critiquing a song or reporting on a film. Read more about those exceptions to ensure that your use of copyrighted material does not infringe on copyright protections.
Upload your podcast to SoundCloud to make it easier for our judges to listen to your work.
We suggest that you use SoundCloud to host your podcast. However, our judges will listen to entries hosted on other podcasting sites, including Podomatic, Buzzsprout, Anchor, Spreaker and Podbean. Make sure that the track settings are set to “public,” and that you follow your hosting site’s terms of service. Note: Our judges have often had difficulty listening to podcasts hosted on GoogleDrive, so we strongly recommend you use a different method.
You must meet our eligibility requirements to participate.
Students ages 11 to 19 enrolled in middle school or high school anywhere in the world can participate in this contest. The children and stepchildren of New York Times employees are not eligible to enter, nor are students who live in the same household as those employees.
If you are not sure if you are eligible for this contest (for example, if you’re taking a gap year), please see our more detailed eligibility rules.
Resources for Teachers and Students
A unit plan on writing for podcasts, which includes writing prompts to inspire your work; a mentor text featuring past winners of our contest; a lesson plan that focuses on storytelling, interviewing, editing and producing; and much more.
A live webinar on March 25 on writing for podcasts in which you’ll hear from a school librarian with experience teaching podcasting to students, New York Times podcast producers and previous student winners of our contest. You can watch a recording of our 2020 webinar on YouTube (above).
Answers to your questions about writing, judging, the rules and teaching with this contest. Please read these thoroughly and, if you still can’t find what you’re looking for, post your query in the comments or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.
We are primarily looking for thoughtful pieces with a clear beginning, middle and ending. Here are a few tips to get yours noticed by our judges:
Choose a topic that matters to you. Not only will your passion sustain you during the creative process, but it will shine through in the final product. Remember, though, you have only five minutes, so make sure you choose something that you can do justice in that time. For example, you probably won’t be able to take on all of climate change, but you can focus on a small aspect of it, like food waste in your community.
Use a format that brings your topic to life. Ask yourself: What is the best way to tell this story? Is it appropriate to tell the story from your own point of view or should you conduct interviews? Does it make sense for the podcast to have a rigid structure or should it be more of a free flowing conversation? Should it be a nonfiction account or could a fictional story be more entertaining or meaningful?
Prepare. Before recording your podcast, create an outline or a script. Having a plan will both help you make the most use of your five minutes, and make it easier for your listener to follow along.
Make sure your audio is clear. You don’t need to have high-grade recording equipment to make a great podcast, but do be mindful to speak clearly and to eliminate background noise as much as possible.
Use sound thoughtfully and intentionally. Spoken word, music, sound effects and environmental noise can all make for a compelling listening experience. Consider how you might use them strategically to provide context, create structure for your podcast and engage your listeners’ emotions.
How do I come up with a topic for my podcast?
Your podcast can be about anything. To get ideas, start by browsing our list of 1,000 writing prompts, which includes questions on everything from video games and fashion to smartphones and parenting. Try responding to a few prompts that interest you. Then, you might choose one you enjoyed writing about as inspiration for your podcast.
You are welcome to get feedback on and suggestions for your podcast, but the work you submit, including the editing and production, should be fundamentally your own.
Where can I find examples of podcasts in The Times?
You can find all New York Times podcasts in the Podcast column. Here are a few of our favorites:
“The Daily,” a 20-minute morning news program powered by New York Times journalism.
“Still Processing,” a weekly show about all things culture, from television and music to dating and the internet.
“Modern Love,” stories that explore the complicated love lives of real people.
“Popcast,” a podcast by the The Times’s pop music team on music news, new songs and albums, and artists of note.
Your work will be listened to by producers and journalists on the New York Times podcast team as well as by Learning Network staff members, professional podcasters and educators from around the United States. We will use this rubric to judge entries.
What’s the prize?
Having your work published on The Learning Network.
When will the winners be announced?
About six to eight weeks after the contest has closed.
My podcast wasn’t selected as a winner. Can you tell me why?
We typically receive over 1,000 entries for this contest, so, unfortunately, our team does not have the capacity to provide individual feedback on each student’s podcast.
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QUESTIONS ABOUT TEACHING WITH THIS CONTEST
I’m a teacher. What resources do you have to help me teach with this contest?
Start with our unit plan for creating a podcast. It includes writing prompts, mentor texts and lesson plans that can support this contest. To learn more about how to teach with this unit, join our live webinar on March 25.
Do my students need a New York Times subscription to use these resources?
No. The Learning Network is completely free.
How do my students prove to me that they entered this contest?
After they submit their podcasts, students should receive an email from The New York Times with the subject heading “Thank you for your submission to our Podcast Challenge,” which they can forward to you to show their entry has been accepted.
