We were lucky to catch up with Sam & Garrett recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sam & Garrett, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Our most meaningful project so far has been this February’s Black History Month Series. The first few months of our show, we wanted to avoid too much narrative cohesion and invited on a really wide variety of guests from every walk of life. When February came along, we wanted to start crafting more in-depth stories about our community so we were looking for a theme for a series. Black History Month seemed perfect so we had some amazing conversations without some very cool, very accomplished people. We talked with historian, educator, and filmmaker Theo Moore. We heard from Marty Moore and Dr. Beatrice Allen about new programs with the Lee County NAACP, and the Black History Month Showcase coming up at Opelika Theatre Co. And we rounded things out with a conversation with lifelong educator and entrepreneur Ralph Foster, followed by a finale with former Opelika City Councilwoman Tiffany Pitts centering on the importance of servant leadership. The series was a hit with both listeners and sponsors and we’ve got more planned for the rest of the year. We’re currently finishing out our awesome Education Series.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

We’re Sam DiChiara and Garrett Martinez, hosts of the Lee County Listener, a local community podcast spotlighting the awesome people and stories of Lee County, Alabama. We believe ours is a community worth knowing, so we try to bring people from every walk of life together to tell us about themselves and about what makes this place we call home somewhere special. The Listener is a publication of The Observer, a respected local newspaper, and partners with local small businesses and nonprofits. We’re proud of how our community has poured into the podcast and helped make it a reality. Many of the friends we’ve made along the way have found some way, big or small, to help us highlight awesome people.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

People aren’t as plugged into their local communities as they used to be, and part of that’s because we don’t notice the amazing people and things going on around us. The mission of the Lee County Listener is to let people hear for themselves how awesome their local hot dog truck owners, preschool teachers, and game store owners are.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

We had a head start on being respected by the community because we’re a publication of The Observer. People in Lee County know that The Observer is a high quality, award-winning newspaper run with integrity. And it’s free because our owner, Michelle Key, believes money should never prevent someone from having access to local news. And we associate ourselves with other respected organizations in our community, like the chamber of commerce, the schools, and nonprofit organizations. Consistency has also been huge for us. We publish a new episode on every platform every Monday. People know what they’ll find on our show and tune in each week to get just that.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/leecountylistener?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087106544275&mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4RlE6LEhHOEOKCndYHrZd8?si=y77iLVQ4R0OTJfJgcoBD-Q Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lee-county-listener/id1648062191