We are excited to launch a new podcast called "Behind the Springs!" It's a casual, in-depth look at local government with hosts Ted Skroback and Jen Schreuder. Spoiler alert: This podcast is going to be FUN!
“We want to be educational, lighthearted and FUN, which can be an elusive word in local government,” said podcast host Ted Skroback. “We’re excited to talk about our parks, the city’s history and road improvements in the first few episodes and then, we hope people will let us know which topics they would like to hear about in the future.”
So, are you ready to get into the local government podcast you never knew you needed?
“Behind the Springs” will be available twice per month and can be found on most major platforms offering podcasts. The show will feature conversations with various elected officials, department managers and employees.
The new podcast is one of many tools used by the City of Colorado Springs’ communications department to reach the community with important news. Information about the podcast can be found at www.ColoradoSprings.gov/podcast or on social media by following @CityofCOS. Comments or questions are welcome via email at BehindTheSprings@ColoradoSprings.gov. The podcast will be hosted by communications specialists Ted Skroback and Jen Schreuder, who work for Colorado Springs City Council and the Mayor’s office respectively.
Transcript of Episode 0.5
Speaker 1: (00:03)
Colorado Springs, nearly 500,000 people, Olympic City USA, Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak. It's a growing city. Our local government has a lot of employees. What exactly do they do? How does it impact my life? This is where you find out Behind the Springs an inside look at your local government.
Speaker 2: (00:25)
Welcome, welcome, welcome. I can't believe we're finally doing this after long discussions and planning and uh, here we finally are in the podcast booth. My Name's Ted Skroback. I'm the communications specialist, which always sounds too good for the Colorado Springs City Council alongside of me.
Speaker 3: (00:44)
Jen Schrader, I'm communication specialist for the city of Colorado Springs and um also work for Springs TV, which is our video production department. And excited to be here. Woo. We made it.
Speaker 2: (00:55)
We finally did it. This is a been an idea that's been tossed around and then, and then recently has come to fruition over the past couple of months here. And I just want to welcome everybody to episode 0.5.
Speaker 2: (01:08)
That's right. A big celebration. Yeah.
Speaker 3: (01:10)
Woo.
Speaker 2: (01:11)
And also I want to tell you episode one, which you've probably already seen, uh, wherever you're listening, this podcast is up as well. And we'll be talking to a, to about parks in that one. And I want to move over to Jen and just ask you, why are we doing this?
Speaker 3: (01:27)
Are we doing here? Uh, well I'll tell you, it's another tool, uh, that we can use to communicate with people in Colorado Springs. We have a lot of tools, springs, TV, like I mentioned, our local government access TV station where you can find city council meetings and all those fun things on. That's one. But of course we're on social media, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. We have a great website. Um, there's lots of places to find us, but we know that some people want to get their news and information from podcasts. So we wanted to have one available to make, um, to create kind of a fun platform in a place where people can meet or, Whoa, you said fun. Oh no, that's an elusive or is that a little crazy
Speaker 2: (02:04)
crazy when it comes to government fun. And I remember when I walked into your office to pitch you on being a cohost with my crazy self. And I said, the main thing that I want is to hit that elusive word, which is fun in government. And I'm hoping that's what we're going to be able to be able to do with this.
Speaker 3: (02:20)
we can do it. We know enough fun employees around here. I know that they can bring it to the table and I think people are gonna be really excited to hear from them and hear more about what they do. And I think there's not many local governments that are doing this, that are, that have this kind of conversation and podcast going on. And so we're excited to join just a couple of others across the country that are trying this out to really get people acquainted with their local government and excited about what's happening in their city.
Speaker 2: (02:47)
Insane. To me, we only found two others that are doing it right now. I'm sure there's others. Uh, you know, we do have full time jobs, so there's only so much time that we can look up what other cities and municipalities are doing this, but it only seems like a couple and this is something that, you know, I think Colorado Springs is at the forefront of a lot of different, a lot of different aspects and this is one, especially on the local government level. I really think that we can be trailblazers with this. I think we can bring this to other municipalities throughout Colorado. This could become something that maybe something El Paso county wants to do something at the state level wants to do and just another, like you said, another tool in the toolbox to get you closer with your local government. But we're just going to focus on Colorado Springs.
Speaker 3: (03:25)
Yes. And I hope, I hope people do get excited about it because I think we've got great topics coming up. Um, we are, like you said, going to focus on parks to start out with and we're going to hear from our parks director. Um, and a lot of people aren't familiar with what goes into maintaining a park and, um, all the questions that come up about our parks, I think we can answer some of those for folks, which will be really nice. And mostly we just want people to meet everyone from our mayor who has agreed to go on the show.
Speaker 2: (03:53)
Unbelievable. By the way, I mean, what a victory that you pulled off for us. It was the biggest upset I've ever seen. We thought by episode eight, nine maybe
Speaker 3: (04:02)
we'd be begging Mayor Suthers, but he's gonna he's gonna do it.
Speaker 2: (04:05)
He's chomping at the bit to get on this show. Like most people probably
Speaker 3: (04:08)
there's going to be great and he can shed some light on some of our history, um, which falls under our parks department, which is one of the many topics that we want to tackle. We want to talk about public safety roads, just a lot of the things that matter to people who are here in our community and maybe don't have the information that they need. Um, and we want to hear from you all about, about what you want to hear about too.
Speaker 2: (04:28)
Well, I want you to just mention the parks episode that that's already out right now. So if you're already sick of listening to this episode, 0.5
Speaker 1: (04:36)
[inaudible],
Speaker 2: (04:38)
which you shouldn't be, then you can go over and listen to episode one already and jump right into what our interview series of this podcast is going to be for. Now, if you're wondering who the heck are these people that are talking to us right now? I know we gave you our positions. I worked for city council as their communications person, not actually for city council. Right? Um, and then you, you work over here for Springs TV. Um, but Jen, give us a little bit of your background. You're a #native here.
Speaker 3: (05:03)
I am. I think that, you know, both of us, I know we're similar in that we both have broadcast backgrounds and so that gives us a little bit of cloud here, a tiny, tiny bit. Yeah. Um, but I think, um, our communications backgrounds are what really, I think motivated us to say we need to tell people about all the great stories we're witnessing and hearing and a part of here at the city. And mostly just to introduce residents to the people who work for them, I think is critical. And I think that, I know I'm just speaking for myself, but I think I speak for you ted, is that there is that element of I want to be part of the city to be a public servant. And I think you and I have that, but I think a lot of our folks who are filling potholes and their park rangers and their code enforcement employees, and they're out there doing their jobs every day, even if that's behind a desk and in a computer, it setting whatever they're putting hearts into it and they're really serve as serving our community in a positive way.
Speaker 2: (06:00)
Jen Don't dance around the question. Oh, we're talking about your background right now.
Speaker 3: (06:05)
Sorry. But that is my background. That's what I, that's why I really wanted to get into local government. I think the public service was the pull for me.
Speaker 2: (06:13)
Well, and where are you from? What brought you to Colorado Springs?
Speaker 3: (06:15)
I'm from the Denver area. #native, right? Yes. So I'm one gen one ted zero. Cause your Hashtag along Arizona was on, do you have a want wall? Arizona Native [inaudible] Arizona native. But we will still accept you here. We will accept anyone moving here from other places. We love to have you in our community. And especially those folks who are new. I think they can learn a lot too. And I think I'm an example of somebody I've lived here almost 20 years and I still don't know, um, uh, so much. And so I think it's important to just continue to educate yourself about what's going on in your own community.
Speaker 2: (06:55)
Well, and like you said, I came up from good old Tucson, Arizona. Uh, I came here about three years ago, worked for the same, uh, news establishment that you did just at different times, right. And, uh, and then moved over to working for city council as their communications specialist, which always sounds too great to be true. And, uh, and you know, we've talked about this before, but I found a, I found that I'm very nerdy about local government and that's why once this job opened up, it was a perfect transition for me to come over to this side. And then the other reason that I had gotten into local news to begin with was to serve communities. I didn't feel fulfilled that way. Now working on this side of things where I'm talking to people at public meetings, I'm talking to people over email, phone calls, uh, the appreciation, uh, that I'm sure you feel as well when you talk to people in the community, being able to answer their concerns, being able to answer their questions, feel like I'm doing a lot more on this side of things and my life is just fulfilled now, you know,
Speaker 4: (07:50)
[inaudible]
Speaker 2: (07:53)
we really got to get some more sound effects.
(07:55)
It was beautiful. I think the other thing is that people don't realize, they sometimes hear the word government and they do think nerdy and they think I have to be really into the structure of the legislative branch or how it all works. And that's not necessarily true. If you love our parks, that's local government. If you want your road to be paved, that's local government. If you're really into some of the traditions like Pike's peak or bust Rodeo, I mean the cities involved with all those things. So I think some things that you don't normally think of are part of what we do and we want to share that with with folks.
Speaker 2: (08:25)
Well and our goals are that you take away two or three small things from each episode and we want to be teaching teaching guys a lot, but it's like drinking out of a fire hose sometimes. And that also a, if anybody's talking too high level, we're going to bring them with an alarm and we're going to make sure that those acronyms are explained and any of this high level, a bureaucratic Babel as I like to call it, we'll be explaining sound effect for that. Yes. A as, as I said, we're going to work on our sound effect game over here and uh, and episode one, uh, you know, may I, I don't want to spoil anything, but it may even have better sound effects than we've already shown in 0.5. So coming up here in the next few months, we're going to go month to month with different, um, uh, different genres or topics that we're going to be hitting month one is parks has generally hit on.
Speaker 2: (09:12)
Um, we're probably going to be talking about 2C coming up here soon, uh, streets paving, uh, infrastructure. And then we're going to go on to, um, to discuss public safety as well as maybe homelessness later in the year as well. Um, but for now, we have episode one already up. I can't believe the mayor's going to come on for episode two. That's unbelievable. He can't wait. So make sure you're staying tuned every two weeks. We're going to have a new episode out for you and we want to hear your feedback if you want more, or if you want to hear about a different subjects as we go forward. So we're looking forward to bringing you even more about the city of Colorado Springs. Jen, you ready to do this?
Speaker 6: (09:51)
I am the springs. Yes. You're the inside. Look at local government. I'll get that right in. Something.