The HHF Presents: The Making Of By Barbara Athanasoulas
For the 200th anniversary of the 1821 Revolution, the Greek government put out a call to Greek diaspora communities around the world to pitch celebratory or commemorative projects. That put the HHF’s History Committee to work, trying to come up with an idea the Greek government would accept. When volunteer Helene Papadolias suggested a historical podcast, everyone around the room instantly knew that would be the HHF’s submission.
The Idea of Greece was launched as part of Greece 2021’s official commemorations. And podcasting has become one of the Committee’s consistent activities. The HHF Presents now has six seasons under its belt, which can all be found on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and at hhf.ca
The volunteers were committed to creating an objective retelling of Greek history that looked at all sides of the story and gave our diaspora community a better understanding of how events in Greek history shaped not only the nation, but our community as well. The cheeky tagline from the podcast’s initial launch, “Not what you learned in Greek School!” still holds true today.
This year’s production—Greece’s Darkest Decade, Part One—covers the devastation of World War II and will be followed by a Part Two in March, telling the subsequent story of the Civil War. The many interviews collected by the HHF Greek Canadian Archives, of Greek Canadian immigrants telling their stories from their youth during the 1940s, are incorporated into the podcast.
But what goes into the making of a podcast with the HHF?
With 25 volunteers on the History Committee, collaboration is the beginning and end of everything. “The History Committee’s work is made possible by the dedication, passion and skills of our volunteers,” says Sandra Gionas, the Chair of the History Committee. “People really put in the time to create good storytelling. It also allows our volunteers to develop new skills in the process.”
Every season begins with brainstorming a new subject area after everyone has had time to research and offer their ideas on the topic. With academic guidance from committee member Professor Sakis Gekas, the HHF Chair in Modern Greek History at York University, and other history grad students, the committee decides how many episodes to produce and what each episode should be about.
Then the production picks up speed: teams are assigned to each episode, potential guests for each episode are identified and contacted, and the research team goes through books, articles, archive material, news reels, — to novels, photographs and poems—anything and everything is used to help make the podcast livelier. The researchers come up with the episode outline and the entire episode team holds a production meeting where that research is compiled into a script of questions for the episode’s guest.
The recordings take place at York University’s Making and Media Creation Lab, with committee volunteer Theo Xenophotos acting as Technical Director. With limited studio time, the recording team must be prepared and precise on taping day. Guests may be squeezed into the tiny facilities at the Lab or join in via Zoom.
From there, the Story Editor creates a paper-edit, which is an initial refining of the taping, along with the placement of soundbites and music. Then Editor Stan Papulkas, who is based out of Edmonton, Alberta, puts all the audio together into an initial draft of the podcast. The History Committee’s “listening team,” combs over the taping adding suggestions for clarity and sound. After those final edits, the podcast is ready to go!
The feedback since the HHF podcasting project began has been hugely positive, says Sandra. “We often hear at Greek academic events or through our guests that our various podcast series are making it onto many recommended resources lists in History and Political Science university courses.”
The HHF Presents recently reached a milestone of 25,000 downloads. The History Committee’s volunteers were thrilled to hear this. It’s a sign their passion for Greek heritage and culture is shared by so many people out there, from both history buffs and novice enthusiasts.