Just like every artist, designer and engineer has their own unique sense of style, podcast authors individualize their productions. And as with all things intended for public consumption, some are more successful than others. I listened to a professionally produced podcast by The Memory Palace as well as two student produced podcasts by Kelsey Brown and Xinyi Zhang. All three of these episodes offered some historical example of cryptography. The first and second aforementioned told a story, and I actually found the amateur podcast to be more successful than the professional one. The Memory Palace had one speaker dictating the entire episode; Brown did most of the talking as well, but she also integrated a number of audio clips from real news coverage that really enhanced her story. I also found Brown’s podcast to be more relevant. In a production primarily about a Confederate spy, almost half of the episode was spent talking about her daughter. And although I cannot criticize the producers for their choice in content, the topic was addressed by a series of questions that admittedly don’t have answers, leaving me as the listener with no concrete takeaway information. Brown was far more successful in staying on topic and providing her audience with concrete, interesting information that helped enhance her story. The third production varied in format from the other two. While Zhang did tell a story about cryptography, she focused more on the kinetics of the code than the history of the cipher. Including an interactive segment in which the listener could follow along and create a cipher of their own was an excellent stylistic choice. Her episode — although containing some minor faults — was easy to follow and comprehend. Overall, I was very impressed by the work put out by the students, especially in comparison with the professional podcasts we have encountered thus far.