Oliver Dominguez-Holler and Daniel Fernandez.
By Gloria Greenfield
As teens continue to ponder what to do with the extra time placed in their hands due to the pandemic, many have turned to social media platforms like TikTok to become overnight internet viral sensations. This includes two Coral Springs teens from Coral Glades High School who have taken it upon themselves to start a podcast discussing “everything and anything that comes to mind.”
Late fall, co-founders Oliver Dominguez-Holler, a senior, and Daniel Fernandez, a junior, launched their online podcast on Spotify called TWOD, which stands for Talking With Oliver and Daniel.
“What encouraged me to start the podcast was Oliver and the initiative he took to press forward with the idea,” said Fernandez.
Dominguez-Holler added that people were missing out on entertainment during the shutdown and that with their dynamic, they could discuss ideas that people would want to hear by creating a safe space.
In their first episode, “Pandemic Perspective,” the two discuss what life was like before the COVID-19 pandemic and how it impacted their lives. They make light-hearted jokes going back to the toilet paper fiasco where shelves once would be stockpiled to becoming a scarce commodity.
The journey of the launch of their podcast led to guest stars, including clothing designer LFxDE Peck, rising local music artist 3weeksin, and entrepreneur Dsanglay discussing what it is like to be a part of those careers paths and words of encouragement to those wanting to achieve their goals.
Over the last few weeks of the podcast, a small community of listeners has grown for the teens, and they have received both positive feedback and constructive criticism.
“The first episode was amazing. We were shocked.” Dominguez-Holler said. “We had over 520 streams, and it shocked us that so many people wanted to hear us talk for more than ten minutes, but we are truly blessed with this opportunity.”
In their later episodes, they gave updates on what it is like to continue with online school, balancing their schedule, and accepting the fate of the school year by finding peace in the flexibility they now have. In several episodes, titled “Answering Relatable Questions” and “Q and A Gets Heated,” they answered questions sent in by the viewers and shared their most honest answers.
As the teens continue to focus on school and find ways to push out new content to viewers, branding and promoting, have been something they have thought long and hard to reach more of an audience.
“We are 16 and 17, so we know what we are doing to an extent. We are not experts at this.” Fernandez said. “However, this is a learning process, and branding and promoting is a learning process as well, and we can’t learn until we fail, which is helping us keep going with our podcast.”
Gloria Greenfield is an 18-year old student journalist from Coral Glades High School. She is the active president of the journalism program and editor-in-chief for the school newspaper “The Prowl.”
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