The Pre-Made Podcast

Put down your phone. Pick up a real book, and give yourself time to think deeply. That's the message of this episode's guest, my Amherst College classmate Hector Garcia. Don't mistake his perspective for a desperate clinging to a fading past, though. This guy loves to teach young minds at Loyola University Chicago, and he never stops innovating through course design. Along the way, he reminds his...

Put down your phone. Pick up a real book, and give yourself time to think deeply. That's the message of this episode's guest, my Amherst College classmate Hector Garcia. Don't mistake his perspective for a desperate clinging to a fading past, though. This guy loves to teach young minds at Loyola University Chicago, and he never stops innovating through course design. Along the way, he reminds his...

Susan Antebi has built a career based on both the depth and breadth of her fascinating interests. In recording this episode, she taught me so much about things I had never considered. Susan is Professor of Latin American literature at the University of Toronto. Much of her award-winning writing and research focuses on ways the disabled or abnormal are depicted in Mexican culture. She traces some o...

Susan Antebi has built a career based on both the depth and breadth of her fascinating interests. In recording this episode, she taught me so much about things I had never considered. Susan is Professor of Latin American literature at the University of Toronto. Much of her award-winning writing and research focuses on ways the disabled or abnormal are depicted in Mexican culture. She traces some o...

Raised by a single dad in the Bronx, Anibal Martinez developed an eagerness to see the world at an early age. Anibal studied abroad not once but twice during his four years at Amherst College. He served in the Peace Corps in Papua New Guinea. Before enrolling in law school, he worked as a flight […]

Raised by a single dad in the Bronx, Anibal Martinez developed an eagerness to see the world at an early age. Anibal studied abroad not once but twice during his four years at Amherst College. He served in the Peace Corps in Papua New Guinea. Before enrolling in law school, he worked as a flight […]

In a Pre-Made Podcast first, I have not one but three guests. They were Amherst College classmates who became colleagues in the creation of a charter school, and they have a remarkable story to tell. Yutaka Tamura (Amherst Class of 1994) founded Excel Academy in 2003. He recruited classmates Owen Stearns and Seth Reynolds to join him on his board. Serving primarily lower-income households in East...

In a Pre-Made Podcast first, I have not one but three guests. They were Amherst College classmates who became colleagues in the creation of a charter school, and they have a remarkable story to tell. Yutaka Tamura (Amherst Class of 1994) founded Excel Academy in 2003. He recruited classmates Owen Stearns and Seth Reynolds to join him on his board. Serving primarily lower-income households in East...

If you were thinking of becoming a therapist, you'd be hard pressed to find a better instructor and mentor than Dr. Aki Hosoi. Now a senior staff psychologist and the director of training at Colorado State, where she oversees a graduate-level training program that provides clinical training master’s and doctoral level clinicians, her career path is winding and varied. After graduating from Amherst...

If you were thinking of becoming a therapist, you'd be hard pressed to find a better instructor and mentor than Dr. Aki Hosoi. Now a senior staff psychologist and the director of training at Colorado State, where she oversees a graduate-level training program that provides clinical training master’s and doctoral level clinicians, her career path is winding and varied. After graduating from Amherst...

For many people, devotion to both science and faith is impossible. That's not the case for my Amherst College classmate, Stephen Jackson. Stephen earned a PhD in cellular and molecular biology and immunology; these days, he consults pharmaceutical companies, medical schools, and nursing homes. He also is an ordained minister and a man of deep faith. But that's not all. He teaches dance, runs a vid...

For many people, devotion to both science and faith is impossible. That's not the case for my Amherst College classmate, Stephen Jackson. Stephen earned a PhD in cellular and molecular biology and immunology; these days, he consults pharmaceutical companies, medical schools, and nursing homes. He also is an ordained minister and a man of deep faith. But that's not all. He teaches dance, runs a vid...

In this episode, I talk to Zenzi Gadson. She's the co-founder of Maurice Gadson, an interior design firm based in Venice, CA. Interior design has become the subject of dining room conversations in my home ever since my eldest child entered the field, so it was such a treat to talk to someone who has been doing it so thoughtfully and at such a high level for more than 20 years. If you've ever wonde...

In this episode, I talk to Zenzi Gadson. She's the co-founder of Maurice Gadson, an interior design firm based in Venice, CA. Interior design has become the subject of dining room conversations in my home ever since my eldest child entered the field, so it was such a treat to talk to someone who has been doing it so thoughtfully and at such a high level for more than 20 years. If you've ever wonde...

Rob Bernstein, like many in the Amherst College Class of 1994, graduated just as the internet became a consumer-facing proposition. But unlike yours truly, Rob hitched his career to the internet. As a result, over the last 30 years he has managed to stay ahead of the curve, navigating a pivot from print media to digital, and from the WWE to agency work at the highest levels. As Chief Innovation Of...

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...