Underage Drinking (and Kevin and I's HeyTalkTo.Me Podcast)

So, Kevin Loker and I have started up a new weekly podcast called HeyTalkTo.Me.

We had toiled with just goofing around on the radio before with this thing called "Our Perspective," but we wanted to try out something that, well, actually had a purpose.

What we're doing now with HeyTalkTo.Me is creating a dialogue about national trends and issues through the lens of local events. Our first show looked at the voter turnout at Mitchell's recent local election, and specifically, it looked at what motivates people in our town to come out to vote. We talked with Superintendent Joe Graves, got his opinion, and the part that I think is the most cool, we went out and talked to people on the street. As you may have guess from the name, our goal for HeyTalkTo.Me to be honest and casual.

For our next show, we want to focus on motives for and against underage drinking, specifically in Mitchell. As you may have read in The Daily Republic, Karen Allen recently helped out with a survey that gave statistics specifically on our community, and the numbers were pretty crazy. In addition, a recent study from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration ranks South Dakota high up on the list of binge and underage drinking (and neighboring North Dakota ranked first).

We want to get Karen Allen's opinion on the matter, but we'd also like to get the opinion of underage kids in the community. And of course, this will all be anonymous. We're not looking for names, and we're not looking to report anyone, we just want some opinions.

If you have a minute or two, please take the time to respond to one of the question sets below, one of which is aimed at those who do or have drank underage, and the other aimed at those who haven't.

The questions are pretty open, so feel free to say as much or as little as you want, and please speak honestly.

Underage Drinking Set
1. What motivates you to drink?
2. Do you feel pressured to do so?
3. Why do you think some people choose not to drink?

Non-drinking Set
1. What motivates you not to drink?
2. Do you feel pressured not to?
3. Why do you think some people choose to drink?

Again, I stress that everything we'll be anonymous. We plan to read a few answers on the podcast, but no names or personal information will be given away.

Please send any responses to mail@heytalkto.me, and if you're interested, look for the podcast up on the website (www.heytalkto.me) towards the end of the week!

Thanks :)
Devon