Burn Your Draft

While Alyssa came to Reed planning to study economics and eventually go to law school, she ended up writing a psychology thesis on social anxiety, drinking motives, and alcohol use in gender-diverse communities. In this episode, Alyssa shares about her experience discovering clinical psychology at Reed and taking on a complex statistical analysis project that, despite her best efforts, didn’t alwa...

Ace sits down with Emilie Kelly '25 to discuss Berlin’s war memorial Neue Wache, or New Guardhouse, the centerpiece of Emilie’s anthropology thesis. Following a semester abroad in Berlin, Emilie became fascinated by the cultural rituals surrounding war memorials, and how these memorials––and the administrations that govern them––play an important role in constructing our collective memory. Tune in...

Ace chats with Lucas Forshee about his thesis on the molecule strychnine, which, despite being poisonous, was used as a stimulant for athletes in the 1904 Olympics. Lucas shares a bit about the chemical composition of strychnine, why it's such a complicated molecule, and why it's so fascinating to researchers. But Lucas's research didn't just take place in the chemistry lab: a big part of his proj...

In this episode, we hear from Caleb about the central theme of violence in McCarthy’s 1985 novel Blood Meridian and its relevance to modern times. Responding to the grimness of McCarthy’s book, set in the 19th-century American southwest, Caleb explores questions such as: What is the significance of violence in society, and how can we resist its inevitability? How can we make meaning, as readers, t...

In today's episode, we hear from Rhiannon about restorative justice, therapeutic horticulture, and how their intersection can present alternatives to the carceral justice system for young adults. Rhiannon shares about the experience of working in a gardening program at the juvenile justice complex in Northeast Portland and how this experience profoundly changed Rhiannon's life. Tune in to hear mor...

In this episode, Lucas joins our host and producer Ace to explore the history of student protests in 20th-century Lebanon. Together, they unpack why these movements can only be fully understood through the lens of class politics and the social forces that shaped them. Tune in for a wide-ranging conversation on the inseparability of class from broader struggles such as the Palestinian movement, Ara...

The idea for Liz Organ's thesis, "The Makings of a Good Birth," emerged from a moment of doubt about career paths and a deep frustration with how often women are ignored in the birthing process. What began as a casual discovery of the differences between doulas and midwives, and whether this could be a potential career path, turned into an interview-based anthropology project examining how birth i...

In this episode, we hear from Hannah, a sociology major whose thesis journey crossed disciplines but always circled back to climate change. Her project draws on eighteen interviews with oyster farmers working along Maine's coastline—one of the fastest-warming in the world. Starting with a question about gender divides between different fishing methods, Hannah found herself pulled toward climate ju...

In today’s episode, our producer Ace sits down with Claire, an English major with a creative writing concentration, to discuss weird fiction, the Reed library—and what may or may not lie beneath it—and the complexities of being a college student in the modern era. The elevator pitch of Claire’s creative writing thesis? Imagine a college that eats people, complete with a student reporter chasing th...

In this episode, we hear from Henry, an English major whose thesis journey took a few unexpected turns: from exploring Pacific Northwest regionalism to diving deep into the world of literary naturalism. Henry unpacks how authors Jack London and Frank Norris challenged historian Frederick Jackson Turner’s “frontier myth,” reimagining the American frontier not as a vanished landscape but as an evolv...

Arianna focused on the impacts of the closure of a Walmart in her hometown of Albuquerque for her thesis in the anthropology department. She also tells us about how Reed College's Anthropology Student Fund helped to support her research, and how her thesis adviser helped her re-work her initial thesis ideas using a concept from environmental anthropology. Reed community members can read Arianna's...

Amelie started out in the biology department at Reed because she wanted to study bacteria and living things, but then she got a chance to start learning from the biochemists on the faculty. They helped her build the bridge from chemistry to life, which led her to switch her major from biology to biochemistry and molecular biology. Amelie was also the second student producer for Burn Your Draft, wo...

Emma's economics department thesis explored the effect that Tony awards have on the consumer demand for Broadway shows. Reed community members can read Emma's thesis, “'It's All About the Green': The Tony Award's Effect on Broadway Show Demand” online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/2ec90330-430a-417d-ad4b-b724611a5c60 Explore more interviews with Reed College alumni on ou...

We're back for the 2025–26 school year after taking a hiatus last spring. Today, Ocean shares his thesis experience with us which was focused on studying writers from the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean, especially Édouard Glissant, and tells us why he thinks poetry and art is important. Ace Lackey '27, our new student producer, produced this episode for us. Welcome to the podcast Ace! Reed commu...

Juno Kerelis '24 was the third student podcast producer on Burn Your Draft, and we're so happy to get to speak to them on the other side of their time at Reed. If you've been listening since Juno hosted the podcast, you may have noticed little musical interludes during some of the episodes. Most of those were composed by Juno! Thank you for your work on the podcast, and for coming to talk to us ab...

Josie wrote a pharmaceutical development thesis about looking for a new way to develop antibiotics. She also tells us about her interest in biology and chemistry and looking for bridges between the disciplines, and how chemistry can be used to do things like examine snake poop to learn about snake evolution. Reed community members can read Josie's thesis, “A Codrug for Resistant Coinfection: The F...

Jordan spent a year writing an analytical thesis on Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, which Jordan calls a "psychosexual gothic romance novel" in the introduction of her thesis. She also talks to Avis about the surprising amount of time she spent learning about British estate taxes while studying this novel. Reed community members can read Jordan's thesis, “Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca: The Poetics, Pla...

Aroon tells us a bit about airline economics under potential carbon taxes, wanting to become an entrepreneur, and deciding to come to Reed because it seemed mysterious. Reed community members can read Aroon's thesis, “Airline Profitability & Fleet Strategies in a Carbon-Tax Environment” online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/3f32060b-6505-44c2-ab48-97984933931c Explore mor...

Courtland talks about her thesis work on the federal law called the National American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the controversies surrounding it, and the new regulatory changes to the law that just went into effect in 2024. She also tells us how a high school teacher helped her find Reed. Reed community members can read Courtland's thesis, "Returning to Repatriation: An Examination o...

He Bai '24 tells us about how she chose math and statistics as her fields at Reed, what drew her to Reed in the first place, and how the Squidward Constant came to be in her thesis. Reed community members can read He's thesis, "Extending Targeted Function Balancing to Models without Linear Representations," online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/1cbbc623-aafc-4804-a88f-508...

Burn Your Draft is back from summer break! Check out this interview with Nina Gopaldas '24, whose thesis involved translating poetry by a Russian refugee named Olga Skopichenko who lived in a refugee camp in the Philippines for a short time after World War II. Nina also tells Avis about her journey to Reed as a transfer student and about how she started college as an applied math major specializin...

We've got one last interview for summer and then we take a break until school starts back up in the fall. Check in with Tina about corporate ESG (environmental, social, and governance) and unwinding with rock climbing. Reed community members can read Tina's thesis, “ESG Beyond Investing: Spillover Effects in Sustainability Signaling,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i...

Do you want to listen to this episode? Or do you want to want to listen to this episode? Ashley tells us a bit about first and second order desires in her thesis studying moral responsibility. She also shares with us how she selected her major and shares some of her own struggles with mental illness in her time at Reed. Reed community members can read Ashley's thesis, “How Mental Illness Impacts M...

Joray tells us about the joy of digging into academic papers in their fall semester, and the fun of using the software in the linguistics lab to analyze the trove of interviews they were working with. There was also a kitten. We'd also like to welcome Avis Corea '27 to the team. Avis is our new student producer on the podcast, and this is the first episode she's produced for us. Welcome, Avis! Ree...

Producer and current senior, Juno Kerelis, talks about organization, and how being responsible for writing a year-long thesis differs from more structured, assignment-driven courses. Juno talks to other thesising seniors about how they're dealing with organization as well. Explore more interviews on our website: reed.edu/burnyourdraft Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/burnyourdraft/