120: Season 13 Finale- Using Creative and Cultural Industries to Shift Perspectives

Catalyst is a Creative Industries podcast, from Chapman University. Each episode features Chapman students who have completed a Podcasting course through the Center for Creative and Cultural Industries at the university. Students who had no podcasting experience or technical ability in the genre before taking the course were able to contribute all the segments to Catalyst this season with the goal being that they will take this ‘hands-on’ experience and carry it over to the launching of their very own series. Each episode of Season 13 will feature one to two different interviews conducted by CCI students, exploring different aspects of the Creative and Cultural Industries.
We start the Season Thirteen Finale off strong with a look the incredible life and work of Zaydee Sanchez, a Mexican American documentary photographer, visual journalist and writer originally from Tulare, California whose work focuses on labor workers, the environment, and migration, who is interviewed by Kendal Roney. They begin with a discussion of Sanchez’s journey of becoming a journalist including how she started off by taking photos at Skid Row to display the heart of the community and then transitioned to documenting a Guatemalan man for two years. They talk about the impact visual journalism has on our society and why it’s so valuable. Sanchez dives into the process of documenting hot button topics of recent years and explains how she paints an authentic picture of the people and communities she covers, noting the strict morals that go behind it all. They conclude with Sanchez explaining her evolution as a visual journalist and why it started from a passion project.
And we send the 13th season of Catalyst off into the sunset with this concluding interview of TikTok content creator Sarah Pascarella by Samantha Perez. A graduate of Cal State Long Beach University with a degree in Interior Design and a minor in Journalism, Sarah discusses how she made the decision post-graduation to live abroad as an Au Pair in Paris, France. Sarah and Samantha discuss how Sarah, having not known the language at first and experiencing the cultural shift of the move, decided to document her experiences on TikTok sparking discussions on the cultural differences. Sarah’s documentation of her life and work have given her a unique voice as a content creator, as she looks at her own perspective shifts in witty and authentic ways. The pair also discuss how diving into the role of influencer has given her new career goals and how she plans to integrate her creativity into her influencer content. They wrap up the interview with some poignant advice from Sarah regarding taking new leaps in life and how new experiences can shape you, just as her choices in career and living in Paris have shaped her own development as a person.