Highlighting the people of Warwick and their stories has become a passion for Scott Nerney- one that he finds particularly enjoyable.

Nerney, who was born in Warwick, went to Warwick Veterans High School, and has lived most of his life in Warwick, is one of the hosts of Warwick Life, a podcast set up by the Warwick Public Library to help promote businesses and activities within the city.

“We talk about what’s great about our city for visitors and for people who live here and forget about some of the great things,” Nerney said. “To me, that’s really what Warwick’s about.”

As the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, community services librarian Wil Gregersen was involved with Rhody Radio, a podcast program set up by himself and other librarians throughout the state to help make up for events that could no longer be held. Eventually, Gregersen decided to localize his podcast even further.

“As I worked on that project, I realized that it was a really good place for sharing information about what’s going on in the state,” Gregersen said. “At which point, I thought that it would be good for the community that I work in, because I’m not responsible for the state I’m responsible for this city.”

Nerney was in large part inspired by a friend in Ohio who had created a podcast covering his local community, which gave Nerney a “home away from home” feeling. As he was wrapping up a 24-year career with MetLife, Nerney decided he wanted to give podcasting a shot- and that shot has continued onto this day.

The first episode of the podcast aired on Sept. 7, 2021. As of this writing, they have released 142 episodes, with the 150th set to be released in October. Overall, 13 different hosts have contributed episodes to Warwick Radio, including Nerney and Gregersen.

Nerney said that positivity is crucial to the environment of the podcast and helps drive the podcast’s message about the Warwick community.

“If you want to talk about how to make the city of Warwick great, great things that are happening, ideas for the future, I love it. That’s what the show’s about,” Nerney said.

Throughout the two years that he’s been doing the podcast, Nerney has had guests ranging from Warwick Mayor Frank Picozzi to local business owners to local historians telling stories about the Warwick of the past. Nerney tries to keep a blend of older and more recent stories about Warwick in his podcast episodes.

His goal with guests is to make sure they are comfortable on air telling their stories.

“A lot of guests, they sit down, they’re nervous as heck,” Nerney said. “And I say, ‘you know your story better than anyone else- let’s get that out there.’”

Nerney said the show’s most popular feature has been Rocky Point, and he is looking at possibly rereleasing the episodes in the winter.

Gregersen said that while the impact of the podcast has been hard to measure, he has seen more engagement with library events recently.

As the podcast prepares to enter its third year, Nerney and Gregersen want to grow its audience even more. They’re also considering an internship-esque program for local high school and college students who want to learn more about podcasting.

“I think it would really help,” Nerney said. “And the students would get to see the other side [of the business] and be able to put on their job history that they produced this.”