Does time abroad teach you something about the world, or about yourself? Whether you are a student, staff, or have gone alt-ac, you’ve likely considered what travel might mean for your education and your career goals, and for your relationships. There are real challenges in keeping in touch when your family and friends are suddenly far away—but what if we revived the old-school tradition of sending travel letters? What would that look like in today’s world? In this episode, we explore the Duke D...
Jan 11, 2024•53 min•Ep. 196
Why did the New York Public Library ban a novel about women’s independence? What was the Human Potential Movement? And who was Claire Myers Owens? Today’s book is: Rivers of Light: The Life of Claire Myers Owens (Syracuse University Press,, 2019) by Miriam Kalman Friedman, which is a biography of Owens, who grew up in a conservative, middle-class family in Texas, but sought adventure and freedom. At twenty years old, she left home and quickly found a community of like-minded free spirits and int...
Jan 04, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 154
In this episode, Dr. Anthony Christian Ocampo takes us both inside and beyond his new book, Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons (NYU Press, 2022), to talk about the craft of writing nonfiction, the importance of writing communities and fellowships, and about putting your writing out into the world. Today’s book is: Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons, by Anthony Christian Ocampo. Growing up in the shadow of Hollywood, the gay sons of immigrants featured in Brown and Gay...
Dec 28, 2023•48 min•Ep. 194
Can the kindness of strangers help with the loneliness crisis? Whether you are a student, staff, or have gone alt-ac, you’ve likely had to move at least once recently for your education and career goals. It can get lonely when family and friends are far away or they just don’t understand what you are doing with your life, and you are left wondering who you can talk to, who has your back, and who will be your people. In this episode, a podcaster and a psychotherapist sit down to talk about how th...
Dec 21, 2023•59 min•Ep. 193
On this episode of the Academic Life, we dive into the book The Career Arts: Making the Most of College, Credentials, and Connections (Princeton UP, 2023) by Ben Wildavsky, which makes a persuasive case for building career success through broad education, targeted skills, and social capital. People today expect to hold many jobs over the course of their lives, which is why they need a range of essential skills. The Career Arts provides a corrective to the misleading notion that there is a direct...
Dec 14, 2023•51 min•Ep. 191
Who dresses the astronauts for flight? Why are the suits orange? And how are they cared for? Sharon Caples McDougle joins us to talk about her work as a modern day hidden figure, a space suit technician responsible for processing the orange launch and re-entry pressure suit assemblies worn by all NASA space shuttle astronauts. She explains how she became one of only two women CEE Suit Technicians, led the first and only all-female suit tech crew, and how she made history when she suited up Dr. M...
Dec 07, 2023•47 min•Ep. 192
Why are college programs offered in some prisons? How are the students selected? Where do the professors come from? What are the logistics of preparing to teach, and to learn, behind the wall? How does the digital divide affect these students? Today’s book is: Education Behind the Wall: Why and How We Teach College in Prison (Brandeis UP, 2022) edited by Mneesha Gellman, which is an edited volume reflecting on different aspects of teaching in prison and different points of view. This book seeks ...
Nov 30, 2023•54 min•Ep. 180
The majority of PhDs won’t secure a tenure-track job. So how can you pivot, and find a new opportunity? Dr. Rachel Neff joins us to share her experiences post-grad, and offers her wisdom on how to turn “This wasn’t the plan!” into “Why not?” Today’s book is: Chasing Chickens: When Life After Higher Education Doesn't Go the Way You Planned (UP of Kansas, 2019), by Dr. Rachel Neff, which retraces the steps that took her from her moment of reckoning—aka “failure”—to a new way of seeing and grasping...
Nov 16, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 178
Professor Ruchira Gupta joins us to share her young adult novel I Kick and I Fly (Scholastic, 2023), which was inspired by her experience making the Emmy-award winning documentary The Selling of Innocents. I Kick and I Fly is set on the outskirts of the Red Light District in Bihar, India, where fourteen year old Heera is living on borrowed time until her father sells her into the sex trade to help feed their family and repay his loans. It is, she’s been told, the fate of the women in her communi...
Nov 09, 2023•53 min•Ep. 190
Imposter syndrome. Intellectual fatigue. Feeling like you have nothing interesting to say. Not liking your topic or your research anymore. Wondering if anyone even cares if you write a book. Is a pile of emotional luggage getting in the way of your progress? On this episode of the Academic Life, Dr. Leslie Wang joins us to talk about emotional blocks that arise when turning a dissertation into a book, and what to do about them. Inside most scholars are the criticisms and judgments we’ve carried ...
Nov 02, 2023•52 min•Ep. 189
Today’s book is Minorities in Shark Sciences: Diverse Voices in Shark Research (CRC Press, 2022), edited by Jasmin Graham, Camila Caceres and Deborah Santos de Azevedo Menna, which showcases the work done by Black, Indigenous and People of Color around the world in the fields of shark science and conservation. It highlights important research by people who were historically excluded from STEM, and the unique perspectives these scientists bring to their field. The contributors to this book hope t...
Oct 26, 2023•52 min•Ep. 188
Considering trying ungrading? Assigning the unessay? What helps, and what hinders student progress? Today’s guest shares her own interrupted journey to her degree, and considers how different assignments and assessment methods helped her connect in the classroom. Today’s article is: "The Benefits of Nontraditional Assessments for Historical Thinking ," by Haley Armogida, published in 2022 in Teaching History: A Journal of Methods (47)1. In it, Haley Armogida considers which types of assessments ...
Oct 19, 2023•54 min•Ep. 187
Today’s book is Indigenous DC: Native Peoples and the Nation’s First Capital (Georgetown UP, 2023), by Dr. Elizabeth Rule, which is the first and fullest account of the suppressed history and continuing presence of Native Americans in Washington, DC. Washington, DC, is Indian land, but Indigenous peoples are often left out of the national narrative of the United States and erased in the capital city. To redress this myth of invisibility, Indigenous DC shines a light upon the oft-overlooked contr...
Oct 12, 2023•53 min•Ep. 186
Which stories are left out of the history books? What’s in the documents omitted from the “official” record? And what happens when we go in search of people’s hidden lives? Today’s book is No Way, They Were Gay? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves (Zest Books, 2021), by Lee Wind, in which he reminds us that “history” was crafted by the people who recorded it. And sometimes, those historians were biased against, didn’t see, or couldn’t even imagine anyone different from themselves. That means that hist...
Oct 05, 2023•58 min•Ep. 185
Procrastination. Writer’s block. Feeling stuck. Are you struggling with the blank page? Today’s guest shares her methods that help writers move past these blocks by turning inward to discover their own writing process, and become the writer they already are. Today’s book is Becoming the Writer You Already Are (Sage, 2022), by Dr. Michelle R. Boyd, which helps scholars uncover their unique writing process and design a writing practice that fits how they work. In it, Dr. Boyd introduces the Writin...
Sep 28, 2023•44 min•Ep. 184
Today’s book is A Calm and Normal Heart: Stories (The Unnamed Press, 2022) by Chelsea T. Hicks. The heroes of A Calm and Normal Heart are modern-day adventurers—seeking out new places to call their own inside a nation to which they do not entirely belong. A member of the Osage tribe, Hicks’ stories are compelled by an overlooked diaspora happening inside America itself: that of young Native people. In stories like “Superdrunk,” “Tsexope,” and “Wets’a,” iPhone lifestyles co-mingle with ancestral ...
Sep 21, 2023•57 min•Ep. 183
How can writing for the general public help scholars to democratize education? Today, The Conversation editor Emily Costello takes us behind the scenes of a “typical” day at her editor’s desk, and shares how The Conversation partners with academics to help them communicate their expertise to a general audience. More about The Conversation: They publish articles written by academic experts for the general public, and edited by a team of journalists. These articles share researchers’ expertise in ...
Sep 14, 2023•58 min•Ep. 175
What does it feel like to hold that diary or broadside or sugar bowl you are writing about? In today’s episode, Dr. Christina Gessler is joined by Dr. Teresa Goddu to talk about research, archives, and the book Selling Antislavery: Abolition and Mass Media in Antebellum America. Today’s book is: Selling Antislavery: Abolition and Mass Media in Antebellum America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020), by Teresa A. Goddu, which is a richly illustrated history of the American Anti-Slavery Societ...
Sep 07, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 177
Why are academics encouraged to be rigorous and exhausted, instead of innovative and engaged? What learning outcomes are we sacrificing by being so serious? Dr. Alison James joins us to share insights from her research and practice of emphasizing play in higher education. This episode explores: How having fun can strengthen problem solving skills and learning outcomes. Why higher education doesn’t take play, creativity, and fun seriously enough. What led her to prioritize play when other educato...
Aug 31, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 172
Can your graduate school affect your mental health? Dr. Zoe Ayres joins us to discuss what she wishes she had known before starting graduate school, including: What happens when you can’t access the hidden curriculum. The myths we tell ourselves, and the systems that work against us. How the pressures of graduate school can affect our mental health. Why you need a to build a network of mentors outside your school. Today’s book is: Managing Your Mental Health During Your PhD: A Survival Guide, by...
Aug 24, 2023•53 min•Ep. 165
What is a Whisper Network? What can you gain from being in one, and what is expected of the network members? Not everybody is invited is into a Whisper Network—which is part of how they keep members safe. But it’s also how many of the vulnerable are further left out. Today, Dr. Carrie Ann Johnson joins us to share her research on Whisper Networks, and their role in bridging the safety gap for vulnerable people. This episode explores: Why formal reporting systems fail. How whisper networks can of...
Aug 17, 2023•57 min•Ep. 173
You’ve probably heard by now that there’s a hidden curriculum in academia. But it’s called hidden for a reason—only some [privileged] people are in the know about what it contains. And when you can’t find the answers you need, earning your degree is much harder than it should be. Today, higher education podcast host Dr. Ethel Tungohan of the Academic Aunties joins Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer and host of the Academic Life, to talk about why they are so passionate about bridging this knowl...
Aug 10, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 124
What defines the complicated relationship between brothers and sisters—is it lineage? Love? Obligation? Friendship? Need? And why did so many parents expect their offspring to share and share alike? Historian Amy Harris joins us to talk about: What led to her interest in researching sibling relationships. Why her book project seemed to find her in an archive in England. How the early stresses on sibling relationships plagued them in later life. Why parents’ behavior affects how sibling relations...
Aug 03, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 167
Does listening to an audio book count as reading? Can audio books help democratize education? Will more academic presses be creating audio versions of their books? Princeton University Press audio books editor Danielle D’Orlando joins us to share about the exciting future of audio books for academia. More about PUP Audio: In 2018, the Princeton University Press team launched the first university press audiobook program, Princeton Audio. Four years and almost a thousand hours of published audiobo...
Jul 27, 2023•54 min•Ep. 176
Today’s book is: Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult, published by Algonquin Books, and written by Michelle Dowd. Forager is a memoir which showcases Michelle’s life growing up on an isolated mountain in California as part of an apocalyptic cult, and how she found her way out of poverty and illness by drawing on the gifts of the wilderness. Our guest is: Michelle Dowd, who is a journalism professor and contributor to The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The LA Book Review, TIM...
Jul 26, 2023•53 min•Ep. 179
Why are students encouraged to move far from home and family, to attend “the best school”? Why aren’t the emotional and physical costs of this disclosed to students and their families? Dr. Jorge Juan Rodríguez joins us to talk about his article, “Lessons From My Working Class Parents,” and the graduate school sacrifices he wouldn’t make. This episode explores: The personal costs first gen students make when they leave family behind. How lived experience can influence your field of study. Why sto...
Jul 20, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 174
What happens when you come of age in mid-life? Why is so challenging to figure out your own past? Can you find the permission to be weird? (And can you be happy if you don’t?) Memoirist and English professor Hannah Pittard joins us to explore: If the personal is ever too personal. What is a collective memory. The imperfect way we perceive our own experiences. Taking risks in writing and in life. The memoir We Are Too Many. Today’s book is: We Are Too Many, a memoir about a marriage-ending affair...
Jul 14, 2023•55 min•Ep. 162
From Dr. Painter restoring the words of Sojourner Truth’s original speech, to VP-candidate Kamala Harris enduring through repeated interruptions at her debate, to Katie Porter silently reading The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck at the Speaker of the House election—American women persist in speaking over their censors. While this takes courage, it is neither new or modern. American women have spoken in public spaces for hundreds of years, on myriad subjects, in venues of varying size, through a ...
Jul 13, 2023•49 min•Ep. 168
When we teach about how women go into politics, how are we looking for the places and ways that women get involved? Are we giving enough consideration to small towns, and to grassroots work? Heather Lende joins us to share what it was like to run for office in her Alaskan town. This episode considers: How she ended up in Alaska. What led her to run for office. Why she was subjected to a recall. How she rebuilt relationships with neighbors who voted against her, and what happened when she couldn’...
Jul 06, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 167
Like wolves, orcas have been loved and loathed throughout history. What created this complicated relationship between humans and whales? And have we changed our attitudes toward them and their habitat needs in time to save them? Science writer and biologist Hanne Strager joins us to share: How a conversation in a cafeteria led her to remote corners of the world. Why her sister helped her be in two places at once. How she learned about whale dialects. Why the loss of a pod member matters so much....
Jun 29, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 166
