How fun would it be if you and your friends got together to create a podcast based on a common interest?
Cal High seniors Lauren Wang and Yusra Sulaiman did just that when they started a podcast together during the second semester of their Sophomore year to educate others about the psychology behind everyday scenarios.
At first, the podcast, Why Did I Do That?, wasn’t something they took too seriously. But after reaching more than 2,000 downloads on Spotify. Why Did I Do That? grew into something much bigger.
“It definitely turned into more than I was expecting,” Wang said.
Wang and Sulaiman created the podcast after they found out during a study session that they shared interest in psychology. The podcast dives into specific topics including the reasoning behind certain behaviors such as procrastination, peer pressure, and self control.
During podcast episodes, which range from 15 to 30 minutes, Wang and Sulaiman provide tips for ways to improve everyday life through psychology-backed research, articles and papers.
The podcast was originally intended to appeal to young middle and high schoolers. Little did they know it would reach an audience of all age groups throughout the Bay Area and different corners of the world, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, India, Nigeria, Philippines, and Japan.
Sulaiman said she enjoys spending time researching and picking out the topics for the podcast episodes. She is interested in pursuing a future career in psychology or the medical field, which is one of the big reasons why she started the podcast with Wang.
“It gave us an oppurtunity to learn a lot of things that we might not be able to learn at school,” Sulaiman said.
Senior Rookia Alam was involved in designing the podcast’s cover, which depicts its name with a brain for the “o” in Do. Alam was also involved in the early development stages of the podcast when they were still putting ideas together.
“In the beginning stages, I had a little bit more involvement,” Alam said. “I would see their scripts beforehand.”
Alam is excited to see how their podcast continues to grow.
“I think its great and I can see a lot of growth for it [the podcast] in the future,” Alam said.
Several Cal students have listened to the podcast since it started about 18 months ago.
Senior Meghan Boyle has been listening to the podcast since it first started in 2022. She played an active role in testing the quality of the podcast and providing feedback on the content discussed.
“Psychology can be a very complicated topic,” Boyle said.. “I think they make it more digestible [for younger kids].”
The topics Wang and Sulaiman cover vary by episode. Some topics they have addressed so far are mental health, love, and social media’s effects on an individual’s brain.
“They make psychological topics interesting and relevant to a lot of modern phenomenons,” Boyle said.
Some recent podcast episodes include guest speakers, including some members of Cal’s Practical Positive Psychology Club, for which Wang serves as president.
Sulaiman and Wang decide on guest speakers based on personal experience with the student being interviewed. During these podcast episodes, guest speakers are provided with a general script to follow. So far, Wang and Sulaiman have had two interviews with guests, and they are planning on bringing in more guest speakers in future episodes this semester.
“I just think it’s great and I can see a lot of growth for [the podcast] in the future,” Alam said.
Junior Amrin Gill, the secretary of the Practical Positive Psychology club, is their co-host. Gill has been on the club board for two years. Even though she hasn’t taken a psychology class yet, she is fascinated by the topics that are discussed on the podcast. In the future she plans to maintain the same core ideas for the podcast. So far, she has recorded two episodes and she is excited to create more short 20-30 minute podcasts about aspects of life and how they relate to psychology.
“A lot of people, especially our age, don’t know too much about it,” Gill said.
Staff writer Trevor Allen contributed to this story.
