Kathryn Crawford’s Podcast Poster

The goals of the Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health (GPCAH) are to improve awareness of health and safety risks faced by agricultural workers throughout the region and to disseminate impactful prevention tools to farm workers, based on NIOSH AgFF program research findings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when interactions with farmers were restricted, the GPCAH developed and launched a new podcast, FarmSafe, to stay connected with the agricultural community while meeting these goals. This podcast creates a space to connect with farmers and their advocates to discuss agricultural safety and health topics while highlighting research across the region. Developing the podcast involved a review of existing podcasts, meeting with podcast developers, establishing measurable goals, developing the core structure, and incorporating feedback from regional advisors and community members. From this feedback the format was established: 15-minute episodes, with farmer-told stories, evidence-based recommendations, and resources for implementation. Sharing stories of incidents and close calls were selected to shed light on farm risks, leading to discussions about preventing injuries and illnesses. Evaluation is ongoing and involves tracking metrics available on the host platform (i.e., number of downloads, listener locations, most popular episodes) and audience engagement (e.g., willingness to share stories, podcast reviews).