By Laura Haight

If it’s Tuesday, you’ve got a new opportunity to learn something important about your community.

That’s courtesy of Greater Good Greenville, the producers of the relatively new, but increasingly popular podcast, Simple Civics: Greenville County.

The podcast launched in November 2021. Its premise, according to host and Greater Good Greenville Executive Director Katy Smith, was that “policy is a huge way that work gets done. There are important services that nonprofits and philanthropy can provide, but both are a drop in the bucket to the role that government plays.” And yet, as important as that is, the organization also realized “how few people are interested in or educated about how policy is made and how it works, especially at the local government level.”

With that premise, Smith and the advocacy committee, which assists in developing programming ideas and identifying guests, “started asking how we could give people the basics about how government works, who are the players, what are the issues, and how you (the listener) can engage.”

They resolved to give it 16 weeks then decide whether or not to keep going. 

Forty-one episodes and 10,000 downloads later, Simple Civics is filling an important role. Episodes on neighborhood associations, property taxes, understanding Greenville’s explosive growth, and getting to know some of the movers and shakers through casual 10-minute conversations, are giving listeners manageable but essential information on the importance of local government on their lives, how to get involved, and why it matters. 

The logistics can be challenging. With its technical partner, The Greenville Podcast Company, the group records once a month with multiple episodes recorded in a day. Invited guests sign up for an interview slot using an online scheduling tool, but there’s still some wrangling of schedules that Smith must deal with. A “season” is 16 episodes, and the group has now committed to a full 52 weeks.

Smith says it has not been hard to come up with topics and guests. “We are overwhelmed with ideas and people,” she says. But she notes the ones that get the most listens are those about everyday people who find ways to make a difference. Episode 41, for example, with Quentoria Jones telling her story about overcoming fear and intimidation about getting involved in her children’s school and becoming - in Smith’s words - “a rock star.”

A lot of episodes have focused on conversations with elected officials or candidates. In this spring’s primary season, they got all but one of Greenville County candidates in contested races to be on the podcast (outgoing County Council Chair Willis Meadows declined). Now as we approach the general election, they’ve signed up all of the school board and County Council candidates. The high number of candidates and officials willing to participate is a bit surprising in our extremely divided climate. 

Smith believes it’s because “our goal is to be fair and completely nonpartisan. We aren’t journalists and we don’t have any gotcha questions.” At times, she admits, that can be challenging when she believes the guest is sharing something with which she disagrees. But it also lets everyone know ”they’re going to be fairly dealt with.”

Upcoming episodes include conversations with County Council candidates on September 13 and 20; and episodes with the school board candidates September 27 through November 1.