‘Middle of Nowhere,’ together

When Lindsay Farrar was a young teenager, she listened to Hanson, a pop band that took the charts by storm in the early 1990s.

“We took a deep dive into the lyrics and purpose of the ‘Middle of Nowhere’ album, which was written essentially by children,” Farrar said.

Farrar, a counselor at SUNY Adirondack, teamed with Broadcast Media professor Kevin Ankeny, whose students were each assigned a song Farrar associated with a mental health topic, such as depression, fitting in or breakups.

Aiden Moulton is a Broadcasting major who participated in the project.

“I picked the topic ‘fitting in’ because out of all the topics presented, that’s the one I connected with the most and have had the hardest time dealing with,” Moulton said. He played Hanson’s “Weird.”

“What I liked about the music in ‘Weird’ is that it’s a slow build, but it never feels depressing,” he said. “I liked the music, but the lyrics weren’t for me. [The music] feels like you’re being accepted and I think that works well even if you don’t have lyrics.”

Moulton also played The Doors’ “People are Strange” during his episode, since he normally listens to classic rock (he never heard of Hanson before this project) and finds the song relatable.

Episodes in the series ranged from 3 to 15 minutes and varied greatly, since students made the assignment their own.

WHAT: Students in Broadcast Media class team with Lindsay Farrar, an on-campus counselor with a focus on diversity, to create a series of radio shows inspired by Hanson’s “Middle of Nowhere” album.

WHERE: SUNY Adirondack’s Radio Studio

THE PROJECT: For “Mental Health Minutes,” students selected a mental health topic, were assigned a song from the Hanson album, which they then discussed on air with Farrar.

WHY: Farrar said she sees students struggling to engage with others. “I wanted to do something fun and de-stigmatizing, a way to reach people. People aren’t comfortable with people anymore.”