Beyond The Venue with MG Hodge, Host & Future PhD
Hello! I'm MG, host of Beyond the Venue Podcast and a hospitality professional turned academic. I started this podcast in the Spring of 2021 to elevate stories from my friends in the hospitality and entertainment world whose careers and businesses were impacted by the pandemic. Season 2 features several of my colleagues from the hospitality and event industry, as well as teachers and professors from a variety of disciplines. I interview other podcast hosts, storytellers, bartenders, parents, and everything in between! After wrapping up the recording of Season 2, I returned to the classroom as an adjunct professor in the College of Education and Human Development at Temple University. This would help me create Season 3, for which I used clips from my students' podcast project (with their permission of course!). After completing my first year of my doctoral program this past year, I decided the summer of 2024 was the perfect time to wrap up this podcast with an inside look into life in higher education. Starting Friday, August 30th, 2024, we will be releasing episodes of our 4th and final season. Season 4 includes interviews with my fellow doctoral students, as well as a variety of other folks from the "academy". Qualitative research is all about sharing stories and lived experiences, and that's what I've tried to do over the last 3 years through this podcast. Thanks for listening!
Beyond The Venue with MG Hodge, Host & Future PhD
Welcome to Beyond The Venue Season 3!
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What better way to kick off Fall semester than with a brand new season of Beyond the Venue Podcast! Wait, did she just say kick off the semester? I sure did.
In the last few episodes of Season 2, I talk with my guests about what’s to come for me for 2022. I would be returning to Temple University to teach a few classes as an adjunct professor in the College of Education.
For those of you who are tuning in for the first time, I started a business in early 2019 called MG the Venue Specialist. Most of my clients are couples who are frustrated by their wedding planning process because they can’t find the right venue. I’m their solution they never knew existed. Taking their stress, doing the work for them, making the wedding planning process fun and enjoyable.
2019 was off to a great start and then Covid...
So in early 2021, I started this podcast, interviewing different guests each week, discussing how they have creatively navigated “Beyond the Venue”.
With both seasons, my goal was to entertain and educate my listeners, encouraging them to laugh while continuing to gain empathy and understanding for our fellow humans.
With my transition back into academia, I am focusing Season 3 of Beyond the Venue podcast on education, leadership and emotional intelligence. I’m switching up the format a bit and bringing in the perspectives of my students from this past semester.
As a project for my Leadership in Organizations class, I had the students pair up and record a 20-30 minute podcast about what they've enjoyed and learned in class so far, incorporating the overall theme of emotional intelligence. I received permission from 7 groups to use their recordings and we’ve broken each recording up into bite size clips.
Each week you’ll hear from a different group of students paired with a guest, some of whom you’ll recognize from previous episodes! This season is about not only giving a platform to these “mostly” gen Z’ers but also discussing with my peers and colleagues about what they have to say.
It has been a tough couple of years, but to make this pivot from hospitality into education has been a seamless transition because I’ve always been an educator in different capacities. These students have inspired me, and I am very excited to get to know my new students for the Fall semester. They give me hope for the future, which is something we all could use a lot of right now.
So while I’ll always be MG the Venue Specialist, I’m enjoying my role as Professor MG.
I want to thank all of you listeners who have supported both me and this podcast over the last two years. And I want to thank my producer Daniela Galdi of ByVesta Agency, without whom this podcast would have never happened.
Season 3 kicks off Friday, September 2nd, with new episodes airing every Friday. You can stream Beyond the Venue Podcast on all of your favorite podcast platforms. Follow us on Instagram @beyondthevenuepodcast. If you enjoy the show, leave us a kind review!
Thanks so much for listening, and make sure you’re not late to class!