NPR Pupil Podcast Problem Excessive Faculty Winner: NPR
Avani Yaltho, The 2025 Excessive Faculty Winner of Npr’s Pupil Podcast Problem, Poses for a portrait along with her recording setup in her room in Houston.
Joseph Bui/For NPR
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Joseph Bui/For NPR
AVANI YALTHO’s PODCAST, The issues we buriedBegins with the trill of a wood flute. The haunting sound propels the listing on a visit into the previous, set in movement by her first line:
“My Grandmother says Mango Timber used to belong to everybody.”
Her Narrative Takes listeners to the Villages of Kerala, a state on the Southern Tip of India, the place Avani’s Grandparents are grip up. Her story explores the issues which have been disappeared over many years of urbanization and globalization in India.
Our Judges Discovered It So Shifting That They Selected The issues we buriedfrom the almost 2,000 entries we obtain, as this yr’s grand prize winner for highschool in npr’s pupil podcast problem.
“It was a gorgeous exploration of what may be misplaced over time,” Mentioned Ba Parker, a number of npr’s Code Change and one among this yr’s Judges. “And She Neatly Shepherds Conversations with Her Household Whereas Holding the Hand of the Listener in a Cool Manner.”
Avani Describes Communities Filled with Colourful Homes With Doorways Vast Open to The World. Teams of Kids would run to the mango tree on the town and look forward to the wind to shake the fruit free.
“No Fences, No Possession – Simply Laughter, Sticky Fingers and the Easy Pleasure of Being Collectively,” She says in her Podcast. “That was kerala.”
Her descriptive course of at time really feel like one thing out of a storybook, and she or he makes use of household interviews to weave a cohesive narrative.
“(Now,) In the event you go to many of the cities or villages, you may discover an aged couple residing there alone,” Avani’s Grandfather, Jacob George, says within the podcast. “The Kids are nowhere to be discovered. The children are leaving. They do not need to keep in India.”
Saira George, Avani’s Mother, Jumps in so as to add: “It is extra like they had been go away for higher alternatives – their schooling, jobs overseas.”
Avani Yaltho (Middle) Poses for a Portrait with Her Grandfather, Jacob George, and Grandmother, Molly George, within the Yard of Their Dwelling in Houston.
Joseph Bui/For NPR
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A long time in the past, Avani’s GrandParents had been a few of these “Kids” who had been Leaving India for extra Alternative. They’re settled in Texas and raised their Daughter. Now, their granddaughter is a second-generation texan and a senior at St. Agnes Academy in Houston.
She stated getting older has made her take into consideration her childhood extra, and the distinction between her youth and that of her grandparents.
“It is simply sort of loopy to me that I haven’T has fruit that I decide up from a backyard,” Avani Instructed Npr Once we visited her at dwelling in Houston. “I’ve by no means had that … and part of me needs that I received to see what was earlier than.”
Avani has been to India As soon as, however all that’s left of her grandmother’s home and the mango tree is a few bricks and a stump. The Fields close to the place her grandfather is grew up at the moment are subdated into small plots full of homes.
When she began her podcast, she enlisted the assistance of a cousin in kerala to seek out sounds of youngsters taking part in outdoors. However, she tolls, when she received the recorded clips again, all you may hear was the sound of site visitors within the background. Equally, The Birds pose an enormous problem.
“It was discounted to get these fowl sounds, and particularly the Koel Chicken,” She Instructed Us. “No One May Discover It.”
Many issues issues are completely different, however generally an surprising consolation from dwelling will take root. For Avani’s Household, that Consolation Comes within the form of a curry leaf tree rising up the aspect of their home in Houston.
Years in the past, Her Grandmother Tossed Some Seeds Outdoors With out A lot Thought. Now, that tree is flourishing. So, who is aware of, Avani says. Possibly a Backyard is subsequent.
You possibly can take heed to The issues we buriedright here.
Hyperlink: https://www.npr.org/2025/09/24/nx-s1-5535588/npr-student-podcast-high-school-winner