New UB podcast to highlight work of faculty researchers

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The University at Buffalo premiered a new regularly scheduled podcast yesterday that will feature research and scholarship from a different faculty member in each of its monthly installments.

The podcast, “Into the Blue,” is part of UB’s Division of University Communications’ (UC) effort to use a variety of vehicles for sharing the many stories about the university and its people, according to John DellaContrada, vice president for university communications.

“The goal is to provide another way to learn more about the amazing work of our faculty and get a glimpse into what motivates them to pursue new ideas and knowledge,” said DellaContrada. “We’re fortunate to have a skilled broadcaster like Bert Gambini on staff to tell these stories in collaboration with our faculty.”

The podcast will be available for download on Podbean.com and distributed through social media channels and UBNow, the university’s publically accessible online newspaper.

The debut episode of “Into the Blue” highlights a recently published study co-authored by Dejan Stojkovic, a professor of physics in UB’s College of Arts and Sciences, which outlines a method for detecting wormholes, a highly speculative, but intriguing astrophysical phenomenon.

Annual podcast downloads are in the tens of billions nationwide, but the medium is still relatively young. It was only 15 years ago that content providers began hosting podcasts.

So how does something expand so significantly is such a short time? One answer might be historical.

“Think about radio 15 years from the arrival of the first commercial stations and you land right in the Golden Age of broadcasting,” says Gambini, who worked in Buffalo radio for more than 20 years before joining UC in 2012. “In many ways, the same might be true of podcasting. This is the medium’s Golden Age and we think it’s a perfect time for the growing podcast audience to hear about of what’s happening at UB.”

It’s a new stage for UB stories. Listen and share. 

“We think you’ll like what you hear,” Gambini says.