Last we spoke with Adam Medros, he had moved through a string of ever-more-interesting C-Suite roles. Not long after, he realized he needed to hit the pause button and embarked on a sabbatical of sorts. He filled the time with a number of pursuits, but none as sweet as his serious study of pastries—and not just as being a consumer of them but rather becoming quite the accomplished baker. (Amazingly, his telling of it made this our second episode featuring the word kouign-amann .) After a bit of ...
Oct 28, 2024•27 min•Season 10Ep. 164
Last we spoke with Jeneen DiBenedetto Graham , it was summer 2020 and as the head of the upper school at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School in Southern California, she was still in the thick of the complexities of covid and retooling just about everything in anticipation of bringing students back in the fall. In the more than four years since, her ability to handle the unexpected has continued to be tested as she has faced fears, uncertainty, and a changing future. In this episode, find out from Je...
Oct 21, 2024•23 min•Season 10Ep. 163
With only two more episodes in this season of Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley, we are soliciting suggestions for future seasons. Are there any former guests you'd like to see featured on a Roads Taken Revisited episode? Or a voice who hasn't yet been featured who should be persuaded to share their story? Drop us a line through the Contact Us link at RoadsTakenShow.com . Let us know what you might be interested in hearing in a future season. (And for those Dartmouth '96 alumni out there, ...
Oct 14, 2024•1 min
In college, Jesse Israel knew that his major didn't really matter so much because he wanted to pursue a life in entertainment and media and early experiences landed him on the path right away. An out-of-season internship at NBC Sports landed him in the president’s office, with access to top executives and the inner workings of things. And when graduation coincided with the Atlanta Olympics, he had a job waiting, albeit a few flights down from the head office. With a career that saw him in every ...
Oct 07, 2024•26 min•Season 10Ep. 162
Starting out as pre-med and a member of the development ski team, Dan Kashman changed courses a couple of times in college, first getting his ski time in as a ski instructor instead of on the team, then switching to economics. Right after graduation, he worked got an investment banking job but knew very soon he wanted to get his hands more dirty, or rather more snowy. He wrote to a number of consolidating ski resort companies and figured out how to use his Wall Street experience in a different w...
Sep 30, 2024•32 min•Season 10Ep. 161
As she began college, Annie Soutter Horton had a clear, singular identity: She was a swimmer. But something began feeling off and she had to make a change that left her in search of who she really was at core and how she could feel more whole. In following a path toward education, she saw others who might not be secure with who they were and what made them well. She continued to center the idea of wellness in her work. When an opportunity came to move her family across the world to New Zealand s...
Sep 23, 2024•28 min•Season 10Ep. 160
When we last spoke with Jonathon Stewart , known affectionately to us as Stew, he was in LA hitting his stride in the world of screenwriting and working on animated and live-action feature films. He has continued on this path with his long-time creative partner, depsite the ups and downs that have come in this period of redefinition for the entire film industry. In this Roads Taken Revisited, find out from Stew how now, with the perspective one gets in the middle stages of life, sometimes lookin...
Sep 09, 2024•21 min•Season 10Ep. 159
When last we spoke with Pace Duckenfield , he was on the cusp of retiring from a long and decorated military career and he was weighing how he might use his skills and experience in the private sector. He parlayed the cybersecurity skills he gained in the Army into a stable day job, but he’s most passionate at this point about the business he has started with his brother through the Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) program. Though he kept his roots in Georgia for continuity...
Aug 26, 2024•22 min•Season 10Ep. 158
Somehow, Michael Rigney always knew he wanted to work in the climate and energy space. So he studied engineering, but then wasn’t sure what the path would be. He figured the business side of that world would likely make the most sense for him, so he started out in consulting. But he was drawn to a life that would get him closer to the heart of things. In taking an early opportunity to start a business with his brother, the entrepreneurial bug bit him and after business school he worked in variou...
Aug 19, 2024•39 min•Season 10Ep. 157
When we last spoke with Kira Lawrence , more than two years ago, she was taking a sabbatical from her tenured faculty position to work within New Jersey's Division of Clean Energy at the state’s Board of Public Utilities to try to make more direct impact on the climate crisis. Her time there made her think at length about how to best leverage her time and expertise and realized that—right now—she needs to be outside academia to have a chance to making the immediate impact she seeks. What she lea...
Aug 12, 2024•34 min•Season 10Ep. 156
A chance trip to the Soviet Union just before the fall had a huge impact on Erika Monahan and she entered college knowing that she wanted to learn the Russian language and travel back there. Configuring her studies around travel, she became a history major and decided to focus on the present and let the future stay out there until she was ready for it. A web of connections allowed her to revisit after college some of the places she’d gone previously. But her own desire to go deeper into the hist...
Aug 05, 2024•34 min•Season 10Ep. 155
When Brandon del Pozo first thought about the life of an academic, it seemed way too slow-paced. Like Jack Kerouak, he needed to go experience what people were doing across America. But once he'd walked that road, he realized he could spread innovation by getting beyond the local beat. After concluding his long policing career, he did go back for his PhD and had just completed it when he first spoke with Roads Taken, somewhat in academic limbo as a postdoctoral researcher. In this episode, find ...
Jul 29, 2024•26 min•Season 10Ep. 154
Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley will be returning for an all new season this summer— but don’t expect frothy beach-read material. We’re getting into the heavy stuff of the current moment—the opioid epidemic, higher education, the climate crisis and scariest of all, online dating. As in all our previous seasons, we will talk with new guests—all a quarter-century-plus after college—about who they were as they graduated, who they thought they’d become, and how they’ve traveled down various ...
Jul 22, 2024•1 min
Welcome back to Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley. We are thrilled to be bringing you another great season of stories that remind us that you don’t have to know exactly where you’re going, you just need to be open to the adventure that awaits. As in all our previous seasons, in each episode we will talk to our guests—all a quarter-century-plus after college—about who they were as they graduated, who they thought they’d become, and how they’ve traveled down various roads to get where they a...
Jul 22, 2024•1 min
When we last spoke with Doug Asano , he talked about how our notions of success were a little skewed in the early days and it took a little time—and the help of friends—to figure out what a good life really looks like. In this Roads Taken Revisited, Doug reflects—as his daughters fledge and leave him with an empty nest—on words of wisdom dispensed as he was making his own full leap into the world. Realizing how special his friendships were and taking the time to nurture them has been a lifelong ...
Feb 19, 2024•28 min•Season 9Ep. 153
When Mario Barge got to college, he was thinking medicine but eventually realized his love since childhood for the outdoors was leading him to environmental law. Once at law school around others with deeper environmental roots, he found another way to serve and advocate through labor law. Initial stumbles in the law firm track pointed him to the legal and compliance side of corporate human resources. He served in a variety of HR capacities within Nationwide and had other corporate experiences be...
Feb 12, 2024•33 min•Season 9Ep. 152
When Mal Wrenn Corbin got to college, the bucolic, peaceful campus seemed not only like a haven but a world away from the turbulence of her life in post-industrial Worcester, Massachusettes. As she set out to find success in the professional world, there was always a feeling that perhaps she hadn't tucked that history far back enough and she would be found out as who she'd been. Once she decided to face the trauma in her past, she was able to recognize that her full story was worth telling. In t...
Feb 05, 2024•26 min•Season 9Ep. 151
When we last spoke with Michelle Villalobos , in our very first month of producing this podcast, she talked about how sometimes you need to quiet the noise and listen more carefully inside to figure out who you are and where you're going. Recently, that voice from inside woke her up to a new message she couldn't shake. In this Roads Taken Revisited, Michelle talk about how that has manifested into a book that is growing its own wings but not precisely on her imagined timetable. In this episode, ...
Jan 29, 2024•26 min•Season 9Ep. 150
Last we spoke with Joey Hood , he was between assignments with the State Department, waiting for word on where he and his family would go next. It seemed everything from his language study to early career experiences were setting him up for the ultimate big league position. In this Roads Taken Revisited, Joey talks about being nominated as U.S. Ambassador to Tunisia, the confirmation process, and what he sees as the potential in growing our bilateral relationship. In this episode, find out from ...
Jan 22, 2024•30 min•Season 9Ep. 149
When we last spoke with Keshav Puttaswamy , he told us about spending 20 years at Microsoft, finally making the break for a new venture in Australia and ultimately coming back home again. In this Roads Taken Revisited, Keshav talks about the five years that passed at Microsoft since his return from Australia and how the coincidence of 25 years at one company and his daughter’s prep for her college career jumpstarted a new venture for him. In this episode, find out from Keshav how being open and ...
Jan 15, 2024•25 min•Season 9Ep. 148
A very early interest in the business world, planted by his father’s explanations of his own work and nurtured by mentors in the investment industry, gave Jamie Keenan a vision for what his future might hold. He decided to seek out breadth through his history major, foreign study in France, club water polo and his fraternity. When he started to think venture capital would be his direction, he learned there is no straight path to get there. He took the advice to pursue investment banking to get b...
Jan 08, 2024•30 min•Season 9Ep. 147
Last we spoke with Karen M. Smith Debolt she was continuing her campaign to Make Karen Great Again and yet didn’t know what might be the next chapter. The conversation actually proved to be a bit of a kickstart to get her involved in something new. In this Roads Taken Revisited, Karen talks about Humble Design, the organization that she found that gave her a new perspective on the talents and passions she has and how they can go to work for the benefit of others.//In this episode, find out from ...
Jan 01, 2024•21 min•Season 9Ep. 146
Welcome to Roads Taken and another great season of stories that remind us that you don’t have to know exactly where you’re going, you just need to be open to the adventure that awaits. As in all our previous seasons, we will greet new guests—all a quarter-century-plus after college—and ask them about who they were as they graduated, who they thought they’d become, and how they’ve traveled down various roads to get where they are today. (From what we've hearned thus far, where we end up is rarely...
Dec 30, 2023•1 min
Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley will be returning for an all new season soon—this time with a bit of a twist. As in all our previous seasons, we will talk with new guests—all a quarter-century-plus after college—about who they were as they graduated, who they thought they’d become, and how they’ve traveled down various roads to get where they are today. But this time, interspersed with those new voices, we will be sitting down anew with some previous guests to get an update on the paths ...
Dec 19, 2023•1 min
Sunni Chauhan and Sheryl Jacobson became friends freshman year of college, living in the same distant dorm near the river. Across the years, never living in the same city, they have maintained a close friendship that has sustained them. In this conversation, they discuss their friendship's origin story, how they have kept the relationship going over the years and what it has meant to each of them. You can hear each one of their stories on a previous Roads Taken Episode. Sunni was featured in Epi...
Oct 02, 2023•20 min•Season 8Ep. 145
Coming from a family of accountants and engineers, Sheryl Jacobson didn't have any real models of what to do with a liberal arts degree. But with a love of history, culture, and story she knew she wanted an international experience after graduation. She landed a job with the boutique Monitor Group, working first in marketing and market research, just beyond her comfort zone. Her consulting life bounced her all over the world and presented her with opportunities she never could have imagined from...
Sep 25, 2023•25 min•Season 8Ep. 144
Although Sunni Chauhan had embraced the idea of becoming a doctor, as she knew she loved both problem solving and helping people, she thought if she was going to in medicine the rest of her life she’d take pre-med classes alongside something else that interested her. She became an economics major. At graduation, she decided to take a two-year break before jumping into med school and figured she’d be a management consultant. But if it really was going to be only two years, she realized she'd see ...
Sep 18, 2023•24 min•Season 8Ep. 143
As a young person, Louis Chang would make lists. Lists of long term, mid-term, and short-term goals as well as the daily tasks that he needed to do to achieve them. When he didn’t finish his daily list, he would push it to another day. One major goal was medical school right after college. But after a less than stellar grade in his intro chem class, he felt his chances at med school were over. A momentary detour afforded him the opportunity to take a range of other classes from government to Ger...
Sep 11, 2023•35 min•Season 8Ep. 142
A chance selection of a freshman seminar on environmental health made Derek Shendell recognize there were entirely new ways of using his interest in science and medicine. A subsequent international experience showed him first-hand how geography and other social factors were involved. Public health had been an unknown career path to him, but rather quickly he realized it was exactly how he wanted to make an impact in the world. Getting a little bogged down by joint MD/MPH programs, he stumbled a ...
Sep 04, 2023•29 min•Season 8Ep. 141
In his younger days, when many of his contemporaries didn't really know what they wanted, David Reynolds was pretty clear on where he’d end up. And things ultimately came to pass just as he had imagined in both professional and recreational pursuits. He parlayed his engineering degrees into roles in technology and manufacturing and honed his leadership skills in business school. Spending twenty years in the same company afforded him the opportunity to flex those skills and build a broad toolkit....
Aug 28, 2023•24 min•Season 8Ep. 140
