Butler Eagle announces new podcast; tickets available for live preview on Jan. 25
The Butler Eagle will present a new podcast — Alter Eagle — this month with a live preview Jan. 25 at Vintage Coffeehouse in downtown Butler.
“The Alter Eagle is another way for the Butler Eagle, which has been around for 150 years, to tell the stories of the Butler County community,” general manager Tammy Schuey said.
Doors will open at 5 p.m. at the coffeehouse at 209 S. Main St. for the podcast kickoff event, leading up to an exclusive, live recording of its first episode at 6:30 p.m.
“I wanted to do a live recording with a live audience, just to get the buzz going about the podcast,” said Eagle podcast producer Laura Crago of Butler. “I think it can be really interesting when you have people sitting and listening and seeing what goes on behind the scenes.”
Representing the Ellen O’Brien Gaiser Center in Butler, Dr. C. Thomas Brophy, center medical director, and Joe Mahoney, executive director, will help introduce the first season’s topic: addiction and recovery in Butler County.
“Something that Dr. Brophy and Joe get into is really the neuroscience behind this and the mental health aspect that comes with addiction,” Crago said.
Tickets for the live podcast event are limited and cost $25. They are being sold through eventbrite.com.
Guests will be treated to a free latte and pastry as well as an assortment of hors d'oeuvres and a potential “surprise guest” for the evening.
Crago said she hopes the evening will spark conversation about the topic and that she is looking forward to engaging with the county and introducing real, local resources.
“I think it’s going to be a really interesting topic to do a live recording for,” she said. “Then that recording will come out on Feb. 5, which is when our first episode will drop on all streaming platforms.”
With a background in performance and voice acting, Crago said she hopes to show “a different side” of the county’s 153-year-old news source with the aptly named Alter Eagle podcast.
“I’m very grateful to be here and to bring focus not just to everyone’s stories but to the connection between us here at the Eagle and the community,” she said.
Schuey said Alter Eagle will take an “issue-based” approach to telling Butler County’s stories.
“That’s what we’re looking at with Alter Eagle: We take a subject and we explore it for whatever that season length is,” she said. “This particular season is going to run for 17 episodes over two months.”
With the Butler Eagle taking a proactive approach toward technology, according to Schuey, the new podcast is an ideal medium to “not only entertain, but educate.”
“It just made sense for us to be a part of that platform and explore how we can shed light on the stories of Butler County for a new audience,” she said.
And the first season’s topic of addiction and recovery in Butler County lent itself well to that purpose, according to Crago, highlighting the benefits of the new format.
“There’s a lot of resources; there’s a lot of stories,” she said. “And one of the things we realized was that we wanted to start the conversation around changing the stigma behind addiction.”
The first season will also heavily focus on the role of mental health in addiction, according to Crago, something that “we all need to be taking more seriously.”
Alter Eagle will release Feb. 5 on popular audience apps like Apple, Spotify, Google and more, with new episodes every Monday and Wednesday.
For the podcast’s first season, Crago said her guests have been “very vulnerable and open” about their experiences with addiction. Similarly, she hopes guests at the Jan. 25 preview will be “open-minded” as the podcast explores the topic.
“Human connection is very powerful, and that’s something that is very prevalent in this season as well as with addiction,” she said. “A lot of people continue to suffer because they don’t have that human connection, and I think getting people together in a space and talking about the hard things can be very powerful.”
