The Pre-Made Podcast

In this episode, I catch up with one of the smartest guys I knew at Amherst College, Professor Allen Hurlbert. Many of Allen's college classmates will remember him for his fondness for birds. While that interest has flowered into a successful and prolific teaching career, birds provide just one input into the focal point of his research today: building an understanding of the processes that shape...

When Michael Elliott attended Amherst College, he never imagined he'd one day become its president. But now that he has the job, he brings a perspective that the office hasn't seen since the last time an Amherst graduate held that office (in 1983). Like animals that can detect light in the infrared spectrum, President Elliott's student and alumni experience enables him to see things others may mis...

In 2018, Emad Sharghi, an American citizen, was wrongfully detained and given a 10 year prison term by Iran while he was visiting family. His crime? Simply being American. It took more than five hard years to win his release. Neda Sharghi, Emad's sister and my Amherst College classmate, has advocated tirelessly for Emad and all Americans wrongfully held abroad through high profile media appearance...

This episode's guest has come face to face with some of the darkest parts of the human condition. That's a result of her social work on behalf of those suffering from mental illness. In addition to providing relief and advocacy to some of the United Kingdom's most vulnerable, she has captured some of their stories in music that I find moving, lovingly crafted, and soothing. In this episode, you'll...

I interrupt my regularly scheduled programming to fulfill Amrita Sethi's request that I take a turn in the hot seat and sit for an interview on my own podcast. This episode is all about your humble host. In describing this episode's guest, I'm tempted to borrow a version of Mad magazine's self-effacing claim that it is suitable for wrapping fish. But that would be a disservice to the episode's gue...

Caroline Russell Smith is a sex therapist, and in this episode, she reassuringly shares the things that people can do to have the best sex of their lives. She offers so much more than just paths to a healthier, more fulfilling sex life, though. I see Caroline as a healer and someone who can help especially those in midlife upgrade their lives. In this conversation (which covers sex and includes so...

“No man is a failure who has friends.” These are the memorable last words the angel Clarence has for George Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life. Frank Capra's movie classic comes to my mind this time of year, but I also thought about the line during my conversation with Dr. Amrita Sethi, an award-winning and pioneering endoscopist, as well as an Amherst College classmate. Not only has she figured how...

Dr. Will Turner is an accomplished physician and leader at Columbia University's Vagelos School of Physicians and Surgeons, serving as an Advisory Dean. He’s also Vice Chief, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Division of General Medicine. He’s a team internist for the New York Yankees (and thankfully didn't end this interview prematurely knowing I'm a Boston Red Sox fan). Amherst College, his alma mat...

What is it about Jean-Luc Charles that keeps him looking so young, like he could hit the track and give the 21-year-old version of himself a decent race? I'm sure diet and exercise play a role, but he's also figured out what makes him happy. Jean-Luc is the Vice President of Human Resources, People and Culture, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at fashion brand Eileen Fisher. He's also the past...

Jay Dickerson, Amherst Class of 1994, could give the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man In The World a run for his money. With a career in the sciences that spans not one but two tenured faculty positions, the Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Consumer Reports as Chief Scientific Officer, Jay is as skilled at helping the rest of us understand science as he is at practicing it. Jay has a PhD in physi...

Listen to Ramya Swaminathan, CEO of energy storage company Malta, and you'll understand what it means to have learned how to think. With degrees in anthropology and economics from Amherst College, Ramya is the CEO of her second renewable energy company. Her superb logic, ability to understand and weigh options and tradeoffs, and ask the right questions at the right time all have not only earned he...

Andy Liu plans to live to be at least 100 years old and has no intention of easing into retirement. His 30+ year career in healthcare has him feeling confident that he'll not only live to see 100, but that he'll remain healthy and active in his elderly years. In fact, he's ditching the typical, first-world plan of working into his 60s and then spending the rest of his days living a life of leisure...

Justin Neely may be the most liberal arts-y person you'll ever know. A polyglot (I had to look it up, too; it means one who is fluent in speaking and/or writing many languages), Justin has achieved impressive things in both the world of business and in the arts. As with many guests on Pre-Made, Justin is navigating a significant life pivot, in this case from a career defined mostly but not entirel...

The more you listen to Hector Caraballo M.D., Amherst College Class of ’94, the less you’ll believe in coincidences. In this episode, you’ll learn about: His extraordinary single mother and the heart-to-heart conversation she had with Hector that resulted in him applying to medical school The harrowing event that nearly prevented him from attending a med school admissions interview – and how he ea...

Howard Chung talks about his life as a main street entrepreneur, a streaming and digital video producer-promoter - and how Amherst College prepared him for his career. In the last 20 or so years, Howard has owned or co-owned restaurants, a construction company, and even a concert promotion outfit. These days, Howard runs a bike shop and a business built around famed maker, YouTube personality, and...

Tarleton Gillespie is a leading voice in how technology and culture shape each other. Like many guests on this pod, his journey features fascinating twists and turns: His near‑miss with the Amherst College application deadline. The honors thesis on Beavis and Butt‑Head and The Simpsons that the English department initially rejected. Tarleton shares how that early instinct to take pop culture serio...

Tarsha Echols has lived a life that refuses neat categories. She grew up, in her words, “a hood rat" from Memphis, graduated from Amherst College as a biology and French double major, and went on to build a 28‑year career as a flight attendant, where she has had a front‑row seat to humanity at 35,000 feet. But it’s what happened in 2021 that reshaped everything. What she thought was a bout of Covi...

From the forest pansy redbud she studies each morning to the students she teaches at Penn, Jo Park talks about the power of observation as both a discipline and a source of meaning. She reflects on how gardening during Covid sharpened her ability to see patterns and small transformations, and how that same attentiveness informs her scholarship on Asian American literature and the frameworks that s...

Edward Lees, like many Amherst College graduates, has generally gravitated toward breadth. That first manifested in his academic journey from physics to neuroscience to European studies, and later in a career that has taken him through biotech hedge funds and today into environmental investing from his home in London. To complement that arc, he’s carved out space for the outdoors and for poetry, t...

Matt “Rudy” Ronfeldt grew up possessing a deep curiosity and passion for physics and Buddhism, but graduating from Amherst College having majored in physics left him with a gnawing doubt: whether he wanted to pursue physics professionally. He then did something some of us may only daydream about: he stepped off the grid and into the Himalayas. Months of trekking, six weeks of silence in a Buddhist...

Dr. Peter Tothy (hematology/oncology) has spent nearly two decades guiding patients through some of life's hardest moments, including navigating terminal cancer diagnoses. In this episode, he reflects on the experiences that have shaped him and made him such a compassionate caregiver and advisor. From attending and working at a rustic Adirondack summer camp to being a student and resident counselo...

Bill Bares has lived a life that unfolded almost exactly as he planned it in his early twenties, when he completed a Tony Robbins-branded one‑year, five‑year, and 25‑year plan. That plan resulted in a career as a jazz pianist, scholar, and now Distinguished Professor of Humanities at UNC Asheville. These days, Bill finds his interests shifting to unlearning the habits that made him successful and...

Kate Lewis (nee Westerbeck) has willed every stage of her career into existence. In her childhood, she knew she wanted to work in media. Her very first job after Amherst College landed her at Conde Nast. She then joined Hearts and rose all the way to Chief Content Officer, overseeing some of the most iconic titles in American publishing. When she later set her sights on Apple, she made that happen...

Sara Keen has been a close friend of mine for more than three decades. She has a rare gift: she listens in a way that makes people feel fully seen, and even when she disagrees with them, she remains attentive, kind, and firm yet flexible in her own mind. Whether we’re talking sports, politics, or the messy realities of organizational life, she always brings curiosity, good humor, and a deep respec...

For most of his adult life, JJ Haines has called Tokyo home. He didn't imagine that outcome while at Amherst College, but in retrospect it almost feels inevitable given his long-standing appreciation for Japanese culture. JJ traces the winding path from studying Buddhism and Japanese cinema at Amherst to building a global banking career that took him through risk management, real estate, the Lehma...