The Sound Bearier

The Sound Bearier is back! Northeast State welcomes you to the upcoming fall semester. Host Matthew Poole, Mackenzie Moore-Gent, and Tom Wilson talk fall events news you can use and what to expect from the podcast this year. Thank you to the Department of Communications and Marketing for their support. Let's get ready for a great semester. Get all the Northeast State news at  Northeast State Commu...

What are you afraid of? The news of the day creates anxiety for many. What is the nature of fear and how does it manifest in human thinking and actions? The Sound Bearier podcast proudly welcomes Professor Lisa Poole, alias The Psychology Goddess of Northeast State, to discuss the role fear plays in our lives and decisions. Managing fear helps people push their boundaries and achieve goals they ne...

Halloween season is here. As long shadows fall across the lands, The Sound Bearier presents our annual scary stories episode with haunted houses, ghostly travelers, and high-in-the-sky phenomena. What are your favorite stories? Are entities reaching out to us from parallel dimensions or beyond the grave? Give us a listen and subscribe on your favorite streaming services. Happy Halloween! Northeast...

Slaying with 'ris requires one to rock a certain drip. And that drip must go hard. All the real ones out there know what we are saying. We hope. In this episode, the Sound Bearier podcast team discusses a few choice slang words used to communicate today and from years past.  Northeast State English professors are encouraged to leave comments and emojis. You can grade us in the transcript! Enjoy a...

John McMeen could be something of an accidental renaissance man. As an assistant professor of computer science at Northeast State, John's day job involves teaching students technological systems and computer science. His interests and life experiences involve much, much more. An accomplished musician and performer, McMeen talks performing punk/hardcore music, using technology to track frogs in Ste...

Claiming financial aid. Navigating the Blountville campus road project. Cool campus events. Fall classes began this week and The Sound Bearier crew has a few tips and suggestions to help move through the semester.  A wealth of information is available at the shiny, updated Northeast State web site  https://www.northeaststate.edu  to help you on your way.

To wrap up our third season, The Sound Bearier proudly welcomes Northeast State President Dr. Jeff McCord to the podcast! Dr. McCord became president of Northeast State in 2022 after serving as commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.  He talks about his own journey attending college, first job and diverse career, and how he made his way to Tennessee. We also di...

Artificial intelligence (AI) programs everything from health care to education to vehicles. What does this mean to human thought and evolution?  The Sound Bearier welcomes Northeast State professor of history, Tabetha Garman, and professor of psychology, Kristin Lazarova, to the podcast. In this episode, they discuss the implications of AI in education systems and human cognitive development as th...

ChatGPT. That is Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer in formal company.  Perhaps you’ve heard of it. You may even be using it to write your academic papers or TPS reports. Northeast State instructor and computer science industry pro David Blair joins The Sound Bearier to talk technical about Big Tech’s most talked about marvel. Blair brings his extensive experience in the private sector and co...

Did you know Northeast State fields a host of esports gaming teams? Esports generated roughly $243 million in market revenue during 2021 while the global video game market value exceeded $178 billion, according to Statista data company. After a succesful first season last fall, the Northeast State Bears roared into the spring esports season in February. Gamers joined the melee in new games of Madd...

Why are you the way you are?  Does this question get directed at you from those in your personal or professional sphere?  The Sound Bearier team opted to take personality tests and read our results.  The gold standard Big Five test.  The beloved Myers-Briggs type indicator. And the popular Enneagram. There are scores of others, but we tried these three.   Fortunately, our Matt Poole is steeped in...

For this Halloween episode, The Sound Bearier solicited scary stories and experiences from students and faculty.  Thank you to students/staff who submitted their encounters.  If you have a scary story or experience to share, email tdwilson@northeaststate.edu .  Happy Halloween 2022!

The Sound Bearier welcomed student Rebekah Saulsbury to talk about her experiences as a dual enrollment and full-time college student at Northeast State. Saulsbury is one of nine children - many of whom are Northeast State alumni.  She has carved her own path as an English and Mass Communications major.  As the opportunities for dual enrolled students grows at Northeast State, Saulsbury represents...

Dancer. Choreographer. Activist. Educator. Muslim. American. Amirah Sackett embodies both tradition and innovation.  Her dance and performance art garnered international recognition, most notably with her performance group We’re Muslim, Don’t Panic. Our International Education Committee via Conscious Campus arranged her visit to Northeast State in October to share her experiences with students. Am...

TRiO Student Support Services at Northeast State provides a pathway, and lifeline, to qualifying students pursuing a technical certificate or college degree. Federally-funded, TRiO serves first-generation college students facing financial or disability challenges to graduate from college. Wes Greear joined Northeast State at TRiO director in 2021.  He joins The Sound Bearier to talk options, quali...

The Northeast State Foundation administers more than 200 scholarships to help students reach their goals and earn an associate degree or certificate.  The Sound Bearier sat down with Foundation Chair, Mr. Peter Raber, to talk about making smart financial decisions while earning a college degree. He talks about the Foundation’s drive to help students, minimizing dreaded student debt, and why cultiv...

Hazelnut or mocha? Team TSB wraps up the second season of Northeast State’s The Sound Bearier podcast with a roundtable coffee talk discussion. In this episode, your hosts April, Matt, and Tom talk coffee we like, previous jobs we didn’t, and business ideas ready – or not – for investment by the Shark Tank judges.  The Sound Bearier goes on hiatus this summer. We return for our third season this f...

Live theatre is back on stage where it belongs! The Sound Bearier welcomes Jillian Cox and SarahGrace Triplett to the podcast to talk about the Northeast State Theatre Department's upcoming production of Alice in Wonderland .   Jillian and SarahGrace talk about the camaraderie of theatre students, the hard work of creating a production, and why you should run toward fear. Alice in Wonderland opens...

Technology needs you. A wealth of opportunities awaits students-to-tech-professionals training to keep our civilization running on all microchips. The Sound Bearier welcomes our friend Dr. Donna Farrell, dean of Technologies division at Northeast State. Farrell talks about how a new generation of savvy thinkers can shape our technological future, how to understand the “Internet of Things” field, a...

The Sound Bearier is delighted to welcome peer recovery coach Kenneth Knight to share his story of addiction and recovery. He works in Northeast State’s Counseling Services to help those battling addictions. Kenneth talks about personal responsibility, the complexity of addiction, and our culture’s waning fear of dangerous things. If you need help, please contact Counseling Services via their webs...

Ducks and Pomeranians the size of elephants? Elon Musk and Joan of Arc breaking bread in the Courtyard? In a light-hearted episode depending on your point of view, The Sound Bearier’s Tom Wilson and Matt Poole riff on giant animals (not tarantulas), overrated super heroes, and the random questions we put to our guests in our seasonal wrap-up episode. The Sound Bearier team says thank you to all ou...

The Sound Bearier is honored to welcome United States Air Force veteran Jesse Carter and United States Army veteran Joni Hughes to our Veterans Day week podcast.  These two Northeast State alumni who stepped forward to serve their country talk about creativity, coming full circle in career paths, and navigating the civilian world. Thank you to all veterans who served from The Sound Bearier team. L...

A two-headed hitchhiker in Carter County. A vengeful Pig Man lurking near an abandoned ordnance site. Unexplained lights and a creepy farmhouse. Tis’ the spooky season. The Sound Bearier offers up a few scary stories and legend for our Halloween episode. Enjoy the tales and stay out of the woods! www.northeaststate.edu

Northeast State alumna and higher ed pro Dawn Carter keeps students on track to graduate as director of Student Success at Kingsport.  Get to know our friend Dawn as she and April talk about finding a path to passion, the three people she would most like to have dinner with, and parasailing as a treatment for acrophobia (That means fear of heights. We looked it up).  Subscribe to The Sound Bearier...

Hola, friends! We are delighted to welcome Northeast State Spanish instructor Norma Sanchez-Webb to this episode of La Barrera del Sonido.  Norma talks about learning English in school as a non-English speaking child, the nuances of ALL languages, and how Spanish-speaking students navigate college life.  TSB celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month. Why not take a foreign language? You will be glad you...