Highlights
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Faculty and students from the and worked together to produce a podcast called The Dead Speak, blending entertainment law and audio reporting knowledge to accurately 鈥渂ring the dead to life鈥� in a podcast format.
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Legal studies students provided the legal foundation and research, while journalism students captured audio and created historically accurate recordings in Nicholson鈥檚 state-of-the-art podcasting studio.
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The 12-episode podcast is available on .
What happens when students from an entertainment law class and a podcasting class walk into a graveyard together? 色花堂, they bring to life the most ambitious cross-college collaboration yet from an Emmy-winning faculty duo.
Legal studies senior lecturer was inspired one day when she came across a video of someone wandering through cemeteries, reading headstones and telling the stories of the people buried beneath them. The videos were pulling in millions of views. Pons, who teaches both entertainment law and funeral law at UCF, saw a learning opportunity for her legal studies students.
She reached out to , a senior instructor in UCF’s Nicholson School of Communication and Media (NSCM) and veteran broadcast journalist, as the first step to what would go on to become a student-produced podcast, The Dead Speak.
Pons鈥� entertainment law students paired with Brunson’s audio reporting and podcasting students during the Spring 2026 semester 鈥� creating a cross-disciplinary collaboration unlike anything either department had attempted before.
The two faculty members are repeat collaborators. Their prior work legal studies-related documentaries that have earned five regional Emmy awards.
But this project presented a whole new challenge. It required bringing together nearly 100 students of very different skill sets to deliver a finished product that would both accurately and legally 鈥渂ringing the dead back to life.鈥�
Bringing the Dead to Life in Sound
Each class took on a distinct role in the production. Pons’ legal studies students were the researchers. Using legal databases, death records, obituaries and cemetery records 鈥� while exercising the entertainment law and copyright skills they were developing in class 鈥� they identified deceased Floridians or people with strong Florida ties whose stories were compelling, historically verifiable and legally safe to tell.
A few students even ventured into cemeteries to find their subjects, while others utilized websites for virtual tours of burial grounds.
鈥淟aw comes into play because a lot of research goes into databases where death records are kept,鈥� Pons says. 鈥淭he entertainment law aspect comes in because we have ethical considerations, like copyright, public domain and how to verify the veracity of a record. 鈥楧id that person really die in 1867?鈥� Those are the kinds of questions that sharpened our legal research skills.鈥�
鈥淭he entertainment law aspect comes in because we have ethical considerations, like copyright, public domain and how to verify the veracity of a record.鈥� 鈥� Irene Pons 鈥�00, senior lecturer
Once initial research was completed, the classes met together in person, divided into groups, in NCSM鈥檚 state-of-the-art podcasting studio. They pitched their research and determined which subjects would make the strongest episodes.
鈥淢y students were coming at this from what I call 鈥榮eeing with your ears,鈥欌�� Brunson says. 鈥淒oes this subject and the time period they鈥檙e in present rich audio and sound opportunities? Does their story present rich opportunities to tell it in a sonic way?鈥�
From there, Brunson鈥檚 students took over, writing scripts that would be narrated in first person and finding voice actors to give an accurate voice to the deceased.
Some students reached out to professional voice-acting collectives, and several professionals were so intrigued that they volunteered their voices. Other students recruited friends, family members or peers who matched the voice characterization they needed.
They further enhanced the production by recording real-world ambient sounds like crickets chirping, musical instruments or an audience cheering to create the backtracks that bring each episode to life.
In total, the collaboration produced 12 publicly accessible episodes that can be streamed on .
Everlasting Benefits
The response from students on both sides was immediate and enthusiastic. Pons鈥� law students were so enamored by the experience that many asked if they could come into the studio themselves to see their research brought to life.
鈥淭hey were so invested in what they were doing,鈥� Pons says. 鈥淎t the end of class, they were like, 鈥楧o we have to leave?鈥� That was their favorite part of the whole semester.鈥�
For Brunson’s podcasting students, the project offered an avenue for creativity while still adhering to journalism鈥檚 standards of accuracy and reporting and will ultimately serve them well on their resumes.
鈥淭he benefits are two-way. You get smarter by working with really smart and creative people, and you push understanding of ourselves as humans and as a community forward.鈥� 鈥� Rick Brunson 鈥�84, senior instructor
鈥淲e have dead-set rules against making things up over here,鈥� Brunson says. 鈥淭hey really enjoyed this opportunity to go out, get sound, create a period of time and make it immersive in a listener’s mind. It stretched their muscles as audio storytellers. Students can say, 鈥楾his is something I built. This is something that went out and is public-facing.鈥� I think that is so much more valuable to students than just getting an A on a test.鈥�
He adds that the experience reaffirmed what he’s always believed about project-based learning.
鈥淚t’s cross-pollination,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he benefits are two-way. You get smarter by working with really smart and creative people, and you push understanding of ourselves as humans and as a community forward.鈥�
Pons hopes to continue The Dead Speak podcast and partnership with Brunson鈥檚 class with her Entertainment Law course in Spring 2027 and her Death, Dying and the Law course in Fall 2027.
鈥淲hen faculty have the opportunity, they should take advantage of collaborating like this,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t was so rewarding for the students and for us as professors just to see the smiles on their faces. That says it all.鈥�
