NPR Pupil Podcast Problem highschool winner : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2500x1875+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff7%2F7e%2F073fa6224a568e6985cbe1e9a2fe%2Fnpr-avani-yaltho-podcast-challenge-031.JPG" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2500x1875+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff7%2F7e%2F073fa6224a568e6985cbe1e9a2fe%2Fnpr-avani-yaltho-podcast-challenge-031.JPG" class="img" alt="Avani Yaltho, the 2025 high school winner of NPR's Student Podcast Challenge, poses for a portrait in her room with her recording setup in Houston. " fetchpriority="high"/> Avani Yaltho, the 2025 highschool winner of NPR's Pupil Podcast Problem, poses for a portrait along with her recording setup in her room in Houston. Joseph Bui/for NPR conceal caption

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Joseph Bui/for NPR Avani Yaltho's podcast, The Issues We Buried, begins with the trill of a picket flute. The haunting sound propels the listener on a visit into the previous, set in movement by her first line:

"My grandmother says mango bushes used to belong to everybody."

Her narrative takes listeners to the villages of Kerala, a state on the southern tip of India, the place Avani's grandparents grew up. Her story explores the issues which have disappeared over a long time of urbanization and globalization in India.

Our judges discovered it so shifting that they selected The Issues We Buried, from the almost 2,000 entries we acquired, as this yr's grand prize winner for highschool in NPR's Pupil Podcast Problem.

"It was an exquisite exploration of what will be misplaced over time," stated B.A. Parker, a number of NPR's Code Swap and one among this yr's judges. "And she or he well shepherds conversations along with her household whereas holding the hand of the listener in a cool manner."

Avani describes communities full of colourful homes with doorways extensive open to the world. Teams of kids would run to the mango tree on the town and watch for the wind to shake the fruit unfastened.

"No fences, no possession — simply laughter, sticky fingers and the easy pleasure of being collectively," she says in her podcast. "That was Kerala."

Her descriptive prose at instances seems like one thing out of a storybook, and he or she makes use of household interviews to weave a cohesive narrative.

"[Now,] should you go to many of the cities or villages, you will discover an aged couple dwelling there alone," Avani's grandfather, Jacob George, says within the podcast. "The children are nowhere to be discovered. The youngsters are leaving. They do not wish to keep in India."

Saira George, Avani's mother, jumps in so as to add: "It is extra like they have been leaving for higher alternatives — their schooling, jobs overseas."

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/1875x2500+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F2a%2Fcf%2Ff8af4a844326be8d0ce85e8cccbb%2Fnpr-avani-yaltho-podcast-challenge-027.JPG" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/1875x2500+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F2a%2Fcf%2Ff8af4a844326be8d0ce85e8cccbb%2Fnpr-avani-yaltho-podcast-challenge-027.JPG" class="img" alt="In the center, Avani Yaltho poses for a portrait with her grandfather, Jacob George, and grandmother, Molly George, in the backyard of their home in Houston." loading="lazy"/> Avani Yaltho (heart) poses for a portrait along with her grandfather, Jacob George, and grandmother, Molly George, within the yard of their house in Houston. Joseph Bui/for NPR conceal caption

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Joseph Bui/for NPR Many years in the past, Avani's grandparents have been a few of these "children" who have been leaving India for extra alternative. They settled in Texas and raised their daughter. Now, their granddaughter is a second-generation Texan and a senior at St. Agnes Academy in Houston.

She stated getting older has made her take into consideration her childhood extra, and the distinction between her youth and that of her grandparents.

"It is simply type of loopy to me that I have never had fruit that I picked from a backyard," Avani advised NPR after we visited her at house in Houston. "I've by no means had that … and part of me needs that I obtained to see what was earlier than."

Avani has been to India as soon as, however all that is left of her grandmother's home and the mango tree is a few bricks and a stump. The fields close to the place her grandfather grew up at the moment are subdivided into small plots full of homes.

When she began her podcast, she enlisted the assistance of a cousin in Kerala to seek out sounds of kids enjoying exterior. However, she advised us, when she obtained the recorded clips again, all you may hear was the sound of site visitors within the background. Equally, the birds posed an enormous problem.

"It was troublesome to get these hen sounds, and particularly the koel hen," she advised us. "Nobody might discover it."

Many issues are totally different, however generally an surprising consolation from house will take root. For Avani's household, that consolation comes within the form of a curry leaf tree rising up the facet of their home in Houston.

Years in the past, her grandmother tossed some seeds exterior with out a lot thought. Now, that tree is prospering. So, who is aware of, Avani says. Perhaps a backyard is subsequent.