The idea was inspired by Shoe Leather, a podcast produced by students at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism with their professor, Joanne Faryon. Shoe Leather goes back decades, delving into events of New York City’s past. The plan for our podcast: go back one decade, track down people quoted in news stories and ask What was it like being in the news? What was it like being interviewed? What changed after? What’s happened since?

I shared that vision with students on my first day at TMU – and they ran with it!! Amazing. It’s wild to think back to Season 1 and realize that for most of the semester, we didn’t even have a name for the podcast. We came up with it together, as a class. One student suggested “We Met U in 2012” with Met U being a play on the university’s new name, Toronto Metropolitan University. I said, let’s avoid specific years because I’d love for this to be the first of many seasons. That’s when another student said, “how about just, We Met U When…”

Launching

Those founding producers laid the groundwork for everything that came next. Season 1 students collectively chose the theme music and by Season 3 a student connected us with Eric Croda, a local artist, who created and performed new theme music. Our Season 2 logo was designed by a student and during production of Season 4 the entire class was involved in designing our updated logo and this website. Collaboration is key. And from day one TMU production technician Angela Glover has supported us, making sure we capture the best sound and teaching us how to perform magical repairs when we don’t!  

Today and The Future

We Met U When…focuses on people who’ve been in the news and what we can learn from them. We hope to gain insight into journalistic practice, we learn a lot and we meet fascinating people. Student producers are learning a professional podcast production workflow and the responsibilities involved in reporting ethically and accurately. We are particularly mindful of the harm some interviewees have experienced and we learn steps to avoid causing harm in our reporting.

Student producers are leading by example, pushing themselves to be part of positive change in the industry. They’re challenging their own biases, stepping outside their comfort zones and that hard work is getting noticed. We are so proud that Season 3 won the Silver Prize at the 2025 Canadian Online Publishing Awards (COPA). Student producers have won an Award of Excellence in Narrative Audio from The Broadcast Education Association (BEA), were finalists for the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) student Award of Excellence and received Honourable Mention in the inaugural Canadian Student Journalism Awards from J-Schools Canada. For a more extensive list of awards, visit our Awards & Press page.