Martha Jackson’s son laughed as his mom jumped up and down in the kitchen, smiling. “Are you okay, Mom?” her son asked her. She told him the mayor of University Park had just called her to share that she’d been chosen as the area’s Citizen of the Year. “I was just so excited. I was so honored. It's just not something I would have ever thought would have happened,” Jackson remembers.
The host of hyperlocal podcast “Bubble Lounge” received the award early in 2025, recognizing her work to improve the quality of life in University Park. Jackson launched the podcast in 2018, as the stay-at-home mom’s kids were getting older. “I was itching to do something new, and I was just craving a deeper connection with the community, not just socially, but meaningful connections within the Park Cities,” she says.
With a previous career in public relations and having majored in television and radio at The University of Oklahoma, Jackson had the storytelling background to launch the podcast she conceptualized, and her husband Sean, an IT professional, had the audio editing expertise. “I just wanted to create a space in the community where people felt seen and valued and connected. The name the ‘Bubble Lounge’ reflects that idea,” she says. The podcast’s title refers to Jackson’s Park Cities “bubble,” or community.
Jackson says the podcast covers topics people might discuss over coffee or dinner with a friend—how to better tend to ageing parents, local sporting events, how to navigate teen relationships during Homecoming week, local writers’ books, and area entrepreneurs’ businesses. “There are so many neighbors who I don't even know about that people constantly tell me about,” she says. “Things like that are always popping up.”
Memorable episodes have included a talk about grief with Reverend Christopher Girata, the head rector of St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church, after the tragic flooding at Camp Mystic in Central Texas. “It was just such an awful tragedy to hit so many people from our little community,” Jackson says. She also says her educational content—such as episodes on how to navigate college recruitment or better care for aging parents—seems to resonate well with listeners. “We're always trying to educate ahead of time and make people feel like they have some knowledge before they get to a point in life where it's an emergency and you're emotional and not thinking straight,” Jackson explains.
The Bubble Lounge has grown to reach more than 180,000 listeners, a number more than double most population estimates for Park Cities. Jackson has recorded more than 330 weekly episodes, and rarely ever skips a week. “A lot of the content comes from just paying attention and listening or conversations that I hear at school events or on the sidelines of sports events, charity events— just being out and about in the neighborhood … seeing what the hot topics are and what people are concerned with at the time helps a lot,” Jackson explains.
Heading into the podcast’s eighth year, Jackson hopes to continue expanding the Bubble Lounge’s reach and platform. In the short-term, that means adding even more variety. “I want to mix up the content a little bit more,” she says. “We're exploring the format for the actual podcast, just adding some different segments in there to spice it up.” She also wants to incorporate more brand partnerships and video elements. “The podcast itself is not on video right now, but I’m definitely interested in moving it to that, because that's where most podcasts are going these days,” she says. Jackson describes the long-term vision for the podcast in a similar way to how she described its launch: Not having a master plan. “I don’t really have it all mapped out yet…but it’s really important to me to make sure that it stays authentic and relevant and rooted in the connection to the community.”
“I was craving a deeper connection with the community, not just socially, but meaningful connections within Park Cities.”