​Bob Jones University Alumni Relations released the first season of its new podcast called “Roommates, Dates & Offering Plates” on Valentine’s Day last week, offering a peek into the love stories of couples whose relationships were sparked at BJU.

​Jeremiah Dew, a 2007 BJU graduate and professional entertainer, cohosted the podcast with a 1982 graduate and public speaker, Holly Stratton. The two interviewed numerous couples, asking them to tell their stories of how they met, dated, got engaged and were married during and after their years at Bob Jones University.

New episodes will be released every other Monday through late July.

Dew said he appreciates the chance to hear fellow alumni’s love stories. “I have enjoyed the stories of the near misses and the flubs, mostly from the guys, on how they approached their now-wives back when they were 18 years old. … One of the couples got engaged over a bucket of KFC!” Dew said.

“[The podcast] is not focused on the campus,” he said. “It is focused on the graduate, and a lot of the genesis of their love story is going to be here [at BJU].”

​The idea for the podcast started when the Alumni Relations office reached out to Dew for ideas on how to get alumni more engaged with the University.  He suggested the idea of the podcast. With his local connections, Dew was able to start reaching out to couples he knew had met at BJU, but he needed a wider outreach.

​“I needed a cohost who [was] going to help me pull in the recognition that [the podcast] needs,” Dew said. While searching for someone with a noticeable name and alumni connections, he thought of Stratton.

Through some personal connections, but mostly through social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, the cohosts found BJU couples to interview. Name changes after marriage presented the main challenge since the podcast centered on married couples, a problem social media helped them overcome.

​Dew, who lives in Greenville, and Stratton, who lives in Detroit but visits her mother in Greenville frequently, found overlapping times that worked for both their schedules. They recorded all 12 episodes using one of the journalism and mass communication department’s recording studios in the Fine Arts Building.

​The first episode, called “DC Burritos, Chapel Buddies, and English 102,” explored the stories of married couples who met and started talking in very interesting ways. One couple met while eating dinner with parents who knew each other. Another met after the man finally found the courage to talk to the woman after chapel.

Alumni Relations is already planning for a second season because of the positive reception from BJU alumni.

​Anyone can listen to the first episode as well as future episodes by searching Spotify, Google Play and iTunes for “BJU Alumni Relations.”