What's the Dealio?

What's the Dealio? is a podcast made by students at ASIJ, the American School in Japan, and it takes its material from the school around them. Elections, cafeteria habits, sports and worries about the future all turn up. One thread runs across three episodes: a series in which Kentaro sits down one-on-one with each candidate for student council president. The format is plain and even-handed. Each candidate opens with the same questions about who they are and which clubs and activities fill their time. After that the answers spread out. Brenna James, an 11th grader, describes how communication between students and the administration always passes through student council instead of happening directly. Jake Chan, whose activities range from the business club and a composting project to tennis, swimming and baseball, argues that games mixing upperclassmen and underclassmen help a small student body feel like one community. Shaan wants to change a culture where joining in school spirit feels 'cringy', and he points to crowds at sports games as a big part of the fix. He also admits that his slogan, 'Put the S in StuCo', is still a work in progress. Kentaro listens closely, and at one point he breaks in with a note of context explaining the new advisory system for class comps. Each candidate episode closes with the same practical reminder about who votes and when results are announced. 'Forked Up!' works differently. It opens with a blunt exchange about cafeteria manners, in which one voice calls leaving a mess for staff to clean up a failure of the bare minimum of civilized behavior. Then come interviews with classmates, including some who avoid the question and one who cleans up simply because it seems like a kind thing to do. The narration has a dry streak, noting that the students most reluctant to talk were often the ones leaving the most behind. Its final point is about ownership: when students feel responsible for shared spaces, the habit can spread. 'Be Future Ready!' begins with a worry that Mayu, Hiyori and Miu state plainly, that many students are anxious about their futures, so they ask teachers, including Mr. Torshon and Ms. Ortwein, how they came to teaching. One answer speaks directly to that anxiety: knowing what to study by 18 and not knowing are both valid. 'Varsity Soccer' puts Kentaro in conversation with two senior center backs, Henri Kim Godbu and Stefan Marino, beginning with whether the sport is soccer or football and later turning to an unofficial scrimmage against an older amateur side. The appeal is how close the interviewers are to their subjects: students questioning their own classmates and teachers, so the podcast sounds like a school talking to itself.