U-M Public Engagement & Impact has launched the Michigan Minds podcast and video series, giving the university’s faculty members a forum to easily share their work and expertise with a wide audience.

Michigan Minds is a new media opportunity in line with President Mark Schlissel’s public engagement goals: to increase the impact of the university’s faculty on society through works outside the academy, and to increase the public’s appreciation of the value of a great research university.

The short-form podcast, with new episodes featured weekly throughout the academic year, makes accessible the breadth and depth of U-M’s faculty and research expertise. The concise, thorough analysis provides unique perspectives on issues of public interest and gives U-M’s leading researchers more visibility.

The first Michigan Minds episode features timely thoughts by Edie Goldenberg, professor of political science, and public policy, who discusses how to motivate young voters, and talks about the origins of the Big Ten Voting Challenge, which seeks to spur civic engagement and encourage more students across the nation to vote.

“We generate such great knowledge on a broad array of topics and I’m excited to have the opportunity to speak on my own area of expertise to a broad audience,” said Cliff Lampe, professor of information, who is featured in the second episode. “Making university knowledge accessible needs to employ multiple channels, and podcasting is a strong one because people can come to it at their convenience.

“We have lots of great dissemination channels as academics, including classes and published research, but those venues are limited in their reach. We have an obligation as a public university to think of ways that we can bring our knowledge to the public.”

Michigan Minds will leverage U-M’s primary social media properties — Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram — and will be hosted on the Public Engagement & Impact website. People can also download it from the major podcast publishers — iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, and Spotify.