Burn Your Draft

Alyse entered Reed with an interest in microfinance and connections in Mexico, so spending a year examining microloans and their outcomes for people in Mexico made sense for her. Listen to Alyse as she talks about the thesis she wrote as part of her bachelor's degree in Economics. Reed community members can read Alyse's thesis online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/3a1e582...

Lewis had a secular upbringing, but was fascinated by Fundamentalist Christianity in the U.S. from a young age. His political science department thesis gave him the opportunity to research Fundamentalism by examining the politics of Pat Robertson. Lewis spent a year and a half visiting churches and interviewing Fundamentalists, and also took an unplanned dive into social theory to find a working d...

Learn a bit about genomic sequencing and annotation of Daphnia magna (water fleas) with Nick as he talks about finding his thesis topic and advisor, and how he switched directions after the pandemic shutdown interrupted his lab work. Reed community members can read Nick's thesis online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/bec39bda-5872-4539-9307-9b6b45ed4f07

Ella Fisher '20 talks about the relationships between trauma and stand-up comedy in a thesis that discusses both Hannah Gadsby and Richard Pryor. Reed community members can read Ella’s thesis online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/73344e7d-043a-472c-8ede-95489c1329ba

A spontaneous thesis sounds like an oxymoron, but to Rosie Tabachnick it sounded like a challenge. Today we will hear about the use of spontaneity as a method of rehearsal and direction in her senior thesis production.

While photons are not considered matter, measuring, predicting and controlling photons matters a lot for the field of quantum optics. Today we will hear from Ely on his photon research, and how he dealt with the interruptions to lab work posed by the pandemic. Reed community members can read Ely's thesis online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/5f85fa42-5566-41e7-945c-debbd7...

In this special episode we hear from Seth Paskin '90, Reed alumnus and co-founder of Burn Your Draft, on the motivation behind the podcast. We’ll also hear about his own experience as a co-founder and co-host of the podcast, The Partially Examined Life, and his time thesising at Reed as a philosophy major. This live interview was recorded during the 2020 Paideia week on January 25th in the living...

You don’t have to look beyond Portland to see the topic of this thesis. Today we will be hearing from Economics/Mathematics Reed graduate, Ryan Kobler '20, about her thesis on land pricing in Portland. Reed community members can read Ryan's thesis online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/5cf0fb28-87b4-42e6-86dc-0493bbae04d5

I’m sure you've read joke books, but have you read ancient joke books? Let’s go back to our comedic roots with Jake Buck and his translation of one of the oldest Chinese joke books.

Make sure to grab your tin foil hats for this episode of Burn Your Draft and get ready to hear from Molly Johnson on the sociological aspects of UFO subculture. Seth Paskin '90 hosts this episode.

Is history repeating itself? Today we will hear from Soha on China’s Belt and Road Initiative (which is often described as the 21st century silk road), and its effect on foreign investment in sub-saharan Africa. Reed community members can read Soha's thesis online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/c/etheses/s/r?_pp=20&query=soha%20ahmed&s=cba1d9f104c81a09b4c2739df6299fa52165a0...

Quarantine has created an atmosphere for a lot of difficult conversations with friends and especially families. Today we will hear from Jade about her research study on gender and pronouns amongst Reed students. Reed community members can read Jade's thesis online in the Electronic Theses Archive: https://rdc.reed.edu/i/d704b617-47e4-4300-bb0b-cf209765f3b3

Welcome to Burn Your Draft, a new podcast about the Reed College senior thesis experience. Each episode features an interview with a student or alum about their thesis experience. The first episodes launch on August 31st, 2020, and new episodes will release every other Monday.