Formative

Takaira from MS 375X brings her natural interviewing chops to this episode of Formative as guest Debra OConnell lets us in on her incredible career trajectory. Now, president of Networks for Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution, she has her fingers in a little bit of everything that we see and love from their studios. From Marvel, to impressive scripted shows on FX, Debra and her team are...

Rico Joseph Brogna almost had a professional career in football, but ended up as a pro baseball player, coach and scout instead. His love for sports is infectious in this episode of Formative. Rico walks us through his career path, and talks with 8th grade athlete and episode co-host Kaadel about managing a body and mind that sometimes want to quit. Sleep on it. Then take the next step.

Chef Nini Nguyen got so much hands-on experience working in restaurants, she left culinary school after only one semester. In this episode of Formative, 13-year-old Dalani asks this Top Chef contestant if being a woman in a male-dominant career is tough, learns if banh bao is a dumpling — or not — and hears how tomatoes are a key ingredient differentiating cajun and creole cuisine.

14-year-old Ronesha from MS356Q asks, “How would you like to make an impact in the world?” Some of us know right away what we want to be when we grow up. And, this was the case for Dr. Lisa Moreno! In this episode, we learn one path to becoming a doctor with multiple specialties — and how to find balance with an important career, close-knit-family, and two dogs to top it all off.

3rd-generation Girl Scout Meridith Maskara came from a career in merchandising and promotion for Broadway theaters to become the CEO of Girl Scouts of Greater New York. In this episode, 11-year-old Tabitha connects with Meredith on the best parts of the scout experience — and being a chicken nuggets girl. We also hear why self-care is important when you have a crazy busy job and a troupe of your o...

In this episode, 12-year-old Madison dives deep with Steve Gross — founder and chief playmaker of Life is Good Kids Foundation. As Steve’s father told him, “the one thing we have control over is making somebody else's journey from birth to death better because we were there to help along the way.” Madison investigates why Steve’s desire to help his community actually has some selfish roots, and ho...

Longtime NYC Council Member, James Vacca, tells 11-year-old Tabitha how a missing bus in middle school sparked his drive for making change in his community. Since that day, Mr. Vacca has worked on problems from transportation legislation, to algorithm transparency, to protecting older residents and organizing City Island around ladder accessibility, and has been everywhere — even handing out advic...

“You may have a plan, but you have to be nimble because life will take you on a different journey.” That’s just one piece of advice Marilu Galvez, an Emmy-award-winning journalist and President & General Manager of WABC-TV, gives Kureem, a basketball-loving middle schooler from the Bronx. In this episode we talk about the importance of communication, diversity, persistence, and ending up somew...

In this season 2 premiere, engineer-turned-television-host Emily Calandrelli sits down with 6th grader Chelsea to dish about the joys of being a woman in STEM with a scientific mind and creative heart. We also go a bit astral and take a ride on the Vomit Comet!

Most of us will spend our whole lives in pursuit of ourselves: our passions, our identities, our voices. How is that experience changed by economic hardship, by physical displacement, by the languages we hear and speak? In this episode of Formative, celebrated Haitian-American novelist Edwidge Danticat talks with young artist Alyson about resilience through community, story, and documenting our in...

Over his long career as an artist and writer, Pops Peterson has explored many forms of self-expression—but his most impactful effort has been the re-expression of another artist’s work. His series “Rockwell Revisited,” in which Peterson reimagines Norman Rockwell’s work for the modern age, is the longest-running solo exhibition in the history of the Norman Rockwell Mu...

If all the world’s a stage, what would it be like to be the understudy in your own life? To watch the play unfold from the wings? Award-winning playwright Emily Mann has no idea—when she was told women couldn’t write or direct theater, she boldly took back the narrative, shining a spotlight on the stories of women and people of color. On this episode of Formative, young Kevin&mda...

It’s tough to be a physician, and tougher still to be a physician for people who make a career out of testing their bodies: athletes. So how tough is it to be the physician to nearly half a million student athletes? Ambitious young student co-host Jake talks to Dr. Brain Hainline, Chief Medical Officer of the NCAA, about writing books, work-life balance, understanding traumatic injury, and h...

Before he joined the Jamaican bobsled team whose 1988 Winter Olympics bid inspired the Disney film “Cool Runnings,” Devon Harris was a track and field runner and an officer in the Jamaican army. In his conversation with Josh, a fellow Jamaican, Devon shares some lessons from a dynamic lifetime as an athlete, a soldier, a public speaker, a dad, and a guy who had a movie made about him o...

At first blush, commercial real estate might not be the easiest or most compelling concept for an 11-year-old. But precocious sixth-grader Lili has plenty of questions for Matt Petrula, Senior Group Manager at M&T Bank, who explains why his job lets him draw on their shared interests in math, science, and—most importantly—community.

Being a children’s book author may not be quite as exciting as being a Ninja Turtle, but it still lets you have as many adventures as you can imagine! And the more experiences you have, the better you get at thinking up adventures. Writer Jesse Byrd collaborated with a group of New York Edge students to write and publish their very own book, and now he has advice for young Orlando about the...

There’s perspective, and then there’s *perspective*. Future game developer Jake gets the 220-mile view from Dr. Charles Camarda, a retired NASA astronaut who flew the first Space Shuttle mission after the Columbia explosion. Dr. Camarda offers some valuable advice about failure, perseverance, and finding the slope of a line. 

Seventh-grader Josh has a lot of questions for Tom Cornish, the Chief Operating Officer for BankUnited: how did dropping out of school affect his career path? As a kid, what hobbies kept him happy in tough times? And, perhaps most importantly: what is Tom’s position on playing Monopoly?

On the premiere episode of Formative, seventh-grader Kevin interviews Kaitlin McGaw, a musician, civil rights activist, and co-founder of the hip-hop children’s music collective Alphabet Rockers, who just received their third Grammy nomination! Kevin and Kaitlin have a candid, joyful conversation about music, Harvard, justice, and the power of the human voice.

Formative is coming soon to a podcast player near you! Subsctibe now at NewYorkEdge.org/formative or wherever you get your podcasts.