‘Phoenix Live’ podcast tells students’ stories

ments made, and only 62 people successfully donated, which is barely half the usual total.

Many people offered explanations for the drop-off in donations. Moving the blood drive outside the building made it less visible to students. Additionally, the truck can hold only four donors at a time, which led to longer wait times and might have made some students decide to back out while waiting. The chilly, drizzly weather also may have discouraged some students from heading outside to donate.

By Ralph Braha Contributing Writer

After more than 50 years, there’s a new branch to The Phoenix Phoenix Live is Flatbush’s new, student-run podcast.

The podcast has already produced two episodes; each one covers a complete range of topics of concern to Flatbush students, including SGO, college applications, sports, and the latest news on Taylor Swift’s concert tour.

The students behind Phoenix Live say its purpose is to give a voice to the students. It’s a podcast from the students, for the students.

on East 17th Street.

“It was actually not the school’s idea to use mobile buses, but the New York Blood Center’s. Initially we didn’t think this was a good idea and I was very hesitant, although the directors from the center were really persistent with the idea and we decided to follow through,” said Nurse Fagye.

Nonetheless the responses for the drive started to flood in. According to the school’s records shared by Nurse Fayge, in a usual year there are approximately 150 people registered to donate at the Spring blood drive, and about 120 successfully donate. This year there were 110 appoint-

“This was one of my worries about the mobile drive,” Nurse Fayge said, “so I got two helpful students, Jacob Azarbad and Shimon Elbaz, to make sure everything would run smoothly and avoid these types of issues.”

Azarbad and Elbaz tried to make the blood drive run as organized as could be under hectic circumstances. “Nurse Fayge asked for some help. I didn’t hesitate, initially trying to get out of class, but it turned out to be a lot of work,” Azarbad said. “I had to be super organized getting everyone in at the designated times, I had to squeeze in kids who didn’t sign up who decided to donate. I learned about what really goes into running a blood drive. It was pretty cool seeing how organized and precise everything is. I even donated myself. I went back and forth calling names at least 100 times, no joke.”

Additionally, some seniors decided to back out because of other school activities. “I wanted to give but then I realized that I have a game tonight and didn’t want to feel all gross from giving blood,” said one student athlete. However, other seniors just simply forgot that the event was happening at all. “There was a blood drive?” said several confused seniors when asked if they donated.

With so many obstacles, the event’s organizers saw 62 donations as a success. “There were many factors to play in this event being not as successful as past times, but a good amount of people did still donate and that is still considered a success because lives were still saved as a result of the donations,” said Elbaz.

Eric Azrak, a current junior, and his crew of about eight students were able to make this idea of a Flatbush podcast a reality. Azrak, who first proposed the idea and took initiative, quickly inspired other students to get involved in the project. Now, it has a full team of students working hard to produce episodes. Along with assistance from faculty advisor Ms. Deutsch, Ms. Shatzkes, and use of the new Multimedia Studio, the podcast is up and running.

Each episode of Phoenix Live starts with an intro from cohosts Azrak and Morris Shamah and then contains a variety of segments, aiming to include something for everyone. Each segment focuses on its own topic and usually has its own student leading the conversation. This allows many different students to talk about what interests them. They discuss events inside and outside of school and even have many guests join the conversations. Students, teachers, and even alumni have been included to give the listeners diverse perspectives. The episodes vary in length but are relatively short, intended to offer quick bites of entertaining, informative conversation.

The Phoenix Live team has been working hard to bring students a platform where their voices can be heard. “The podcast gives all students a way to express their thoughts and share their opinions. We want to represent as many student voices as possible and want to hear your thoughts and ideas about the podcast,” Azrak said.