The Lead Podcast Welcomes New Graduate Assistant as Host for Fall 2021

The Cox Institute named a new graduate student as the host of The Lead podcast for the 2021-2022 academic year. 

Kyra Posey, a student in the Double Dawgs program earning a master’s degree in journalism, brings a background in news writing and audio storytelling to her new position. 

Posey hosted The Front Page podcast at The Red & Black, the university’s independent student newspaper, worked as a marketing intern with CNN Audio last spring and interned with Georgia Public Broadcasting this summer. 

 “I like to support audio storytelling in any way that I can, and I know this opportunity continues that,” Posey said. “I hope it will lead to more audio storytelling opportunities in the future.” 

Posey finished bachelor’s degrees in journalism and political science along with a minor in Spanish last spring.  

 “We’re thrilled to have Kyra step into the hosting duties this fall as part of her graduate assistantship,” said Dr. Keith Herndon, executive director of the Cox Institute. “She brings a significant amount of experience from her time working on the student newspaper’s podcast and her internships, so it’s great to have someone with that background take over the microphone for The Lead.” 

The Lead podcast explores the intersection of journalism and leadership by interviewing news media leaders. Previous seasons have featured veteran and emerging professionals, including Pulitzer Prize and Peabody Award winners, best-selling authors and other prominent journalists across all platforms. 

“This podcast is important to me because, as students, it is easy to get bogged down with our day-to-day assignments, papers and extracurriculars to the point where we lose track of the larger picture of what our careers will look like,” Posey said. “Talking to journalists that are 5, 10 or 15 years into their careers allows our audience of students to get a bigger picture of what their journalism education and aspirations can lead to.”   

Posey succeeds Caroline Odom, who was the show’s host during its past two seasons. Daniel Funke launched The Lead in Fall 2016 and hosted seasons one and two. Seasons three and four were co-hosted by Nate Bramel and Noelle Lashley. Charlotte Norsworthy then hosted the podcast for four seasons.