“This picture is of me and my friend Bobby Becker in the process of recording our podcast Challah Talk…I’ve always been interested in podcasting…Bobby and I came up with the idea to do a talk show with students and teachers at my high school to introduce people to different perspectives and different types of people, all unified off of Jewish bread. We realized that we had to find something to talk about that only we could talk about. Every episode is just a 30 to 40 minute conversation with someone new, who preferably has a different background than ours. I ended up meeting and learning a lot about people that I never would have gotten to know because my high school is so large… When we released our first episode I didn’t really know what to expect. I was very proud of my Instagram marketing skills and video editing to make some funny promos, but when I got to school the next day, seeing all of the people that listened was kind of remarkable and genuinely shocking…It gave me something to not only pass the time but actually work on my podcasting skills. Podcasting definitely helped me be a better conversationalist. It’s basically just a conversation. If you can’t talk to people, you can’t podcast, so I’d like to think it made me improve my social skills.”

Jack Yonover is an 18-year-old from Wilmette, Illinois who graduated from New Trier High School in 2020 and is attending the University of Southern California this fall.