Princeton Alumni Weekly Podcasts

On this episode, PAW Memorials editor Nicholas DeVito sat down with Jim Kempf ’67 to discuss Karl Hummel ’67, who died July 23, 2023.

On this month’s Memorials PAWcast, we remember Isabella de la Houssaye from the class of 1986. Isabella was a lawyer, mother, art curator, and endurance athlete. She died December 2nd, 2023.

On this episode of the PAW Book Club podcast, we talk with Katie Kitamura ’99, author of our latest read, “Intimacies.” The much-lauded novel follows a woman who comes to The Hague as an interpreter for the international court and begins to interpret for a former president who’s facing war crime charges. Kitamura answered our questions about the book, discussing why she gives so little backstory t...

When Cameron Hume ’68 graduated from Princeton, he joined the Peace Corps and was sent to Libya, where his two-year stint was cut short by a coup d’etat. The experience launched him on a diplomacy career that has taken him to some of the world’s most dangerous — and interesting — places. On the PAWcast, he spoke about two hot topics where he has expertise: prisoner exchanges and humanitarian aid....

On this episode of PAW’s Memorials PAWcast, we remember Ernie Pascarella ’65. Ernie played on the 1964 undefeated football team and was All-Ivy two years.

On this first episode of PAW’s new Memorials PAWcast, we remember Joe Schein ’37, the longest-living member of the Class of ’37 and the oldest undergraduate alum in Princeton’s history. Joe carried the Class of 1923 Cane — an honor given to the oldest returning alum — at Princeton Reunions eight times.

Princeton’s Office of Religious Life recently saw a transition in leadership, and we thought it would be an ideal time to speak on the PAWcast with the two people passing that figurative baton: The Rev. Alison Boden, who recently retired after 17 years as dean of religious life and the chapel, and the Rev. Theresa Thames, the new dean of religious life and the chapel, who has been associate dean s...

This episode was recorded at Princeton University’s 2024 Reunions Weekend, when PAW sponsored a panel discussion featuring five alumni experts who addressed two questions: Is student mental health in crisis, and what can be done about it? The conversation begins with moderator Lucy McBride ’95 and continues with Jeremy Nobel ’77, Joshua Blum ’02, Chioma Ugwonali ’24, and Jess Deutsch ’91.

On this episode of the PAW Book Club Podcast — where Princeton alumni read a book together — Bianca Bosker ’08 talks about her latest book, “Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See,” for which she ventured into the secretive and exclusive world of fine art. She was trying to answer what you’d think would be an easy two-pa...

Princeton’s newest valedictorian, Genrietta Churbanova ’24, is an anthropology major who spent much of her time here researching Russia-China relations in both the Russian and Chinese languages. On this episode of the PAWcast, she talks about her research, about growing up in both Moscow and Little Rock, Arkansas, and about her extracurriculars — including serving as president of the Student Socie...

John Marshall ’87 and Jessica Lu ’17 say climate change has a public relations problem. It’s the biggest crisis of our time, but too often the people with solutions don’t communicate them in a way that resonates with the public. The solution, they say, lies in what just happens to be the field where Marshall built his career and expertise: marketing. About seven years ago, he founded the Potential...

PAW’s Book Club returns with author Michael Lewis, Class of ’82, answering alumni questions about “Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon,” his recent book about Sam Bankman-Fried, a deeply peculiar financial mogul who very quickly built a cryptocurrency empire only to have it implode far faster just a few years later. When we spoke with Lewis earlier this week, Bankman-Fried was awaiti...

The 2024 Ivy League Basketball Tournament tips off March 15 at Columbia’s Levien Gymnasium, and Princeton is seeded No. 1 on the men’s and women’s sides after both Tiger teams won regular-season championships. In advance of the big weekend in New York, PAW spoke with head coaches Carla Berube and Mitch Henderson ’98 about their paths in coaching, their goals for a player’s four-year experience, an...

After speaking on the PAWcast with three students about mental health at Princeton, PAW invited columnist Jess Deutsch ’91 and director of Counseling and Psychological Services Calvin Chin to add their perspective on the issue. Addressing points the students raised, they discussed the pressure Princeton students feel to achieve, what services the University offers and what messages it tries to pro...

Welcome to the first podcast from PAW’s new Book Club, where Princeton alumni read a book together and send PAW their questions for the author. We received some terrific questions for our very first author, Jennifer Weiner, Class of ’91, about her latest novel, “The Breakaway.” Jennifer is a prolific writer and frequent topper of bestseller lists. “The Breakaway” hit shelves this summer, and it im...

Concerns have been rising about student mental health on college campuses over the past few years — including at Princeton. To examine this issue, PAW asked three students who have been leaders and mentors in this area to discuss what’s going on: Chioma Ugwonali ’24, Isaac Lunar ’24, and Issa Mudashiru ’25. In a wide-ranging conversation, they discussed why Princeton students feel intense pressure...

Jeff Burt ’66, Jim Hitch ’71, and Peter Pettibone ’61 might know a bit more about Russia than the average Princetonian. All three headed up the Soviet and Russian practices of the international law firms where they were partners: Arnold & Porter, Baker & McKenzie, and Hogan Lovells, respectively. On Sept. 20, the same day that Ukraine President Volodymr Zelensky addressed the United Nations, they...

Today I am very pleased to tell you: I have good news. Morality is not actually declining in our country or anywhere else. The widespread belief that morality is declining is an illusion. That’s the conclusion Adam Mastroianni ’14 reached in a study recently published in the journal Nature. With Harvard psychology professor Daniel Gilbert *85, Mastroianni found it just isn’t true that people overa...

Bob Surace ’90 is heading into his 13th season as Princeton’s head football coach, but his history with the Tigers goes back much further. On the PAWcast, he spoke about his time as an All-Ivy center for Princeton and what experiences like coaching in the NFL taught him about the game and the players. He also gave his thoughts on two hot-button issues in college football today — the transfer porta...

In 1960, the lives of three men born to immigrant families during the Great Depression collided. A doctor helped a prisoner get paroled, and then that prisoner shot and killed a police officer. Many years later, journalist Lisa Belkin, Princeton Class of 1982, heard this story from the doctor, who had recently become her stepfather, and she had a question: How? How did one of these men become the...

Princeton University’s valedictorian for the Class of 2023 is Aleksa Milojević, a mathematics major from Belgrade, Serbia, who has focused on combinatorics while at Princeton and has already written three papers. In addition to earning 16 A pluses at Princeton, he has been a recipient of the Freshman First Honor Prize, the Class of 1939 Scholar Prize, and the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence...

For years, Bill Eville ’87 has been writing down his life in bits and pieces, publishing essays about parenthood, childhood memories, and yes, being a Princeton alum. Now he’s gone further and written a book, a memoir called Washed Ashore that’s filled with his thoughts about high school wrestling matches, marrying a minister who fought breast cancer, moving from New York City to Martha’s Vineyard...

Princeton University is positioning itself at the forefront of research that could help to throw the brakes on climate change, from its zero-carbon goals to the way it’s using the campus as a living laboratory. One person with a front row seat to all this is Forrest Meggers, a jointly appointed professor in Princeton’s architecture and engineering schools. He also directs Princeton’s C.H.A.O.S lab...

Majka Burhardt, Princeton Class of ’98, has always wanted more. More challenges, more achievement. It’s what pushed her to become one of the world’s top professional rock and ice climbers, chasing adventure around the world and eventually beginning to build her own conservation organization at a mountain in Africa. Then in 2015, she discovered she was pregnant with twins. That seismic change led h...

While he was a history student at Princeton, and editor of The Daily Princetonian, Jonathan Ort, Class of 2021, began researching the Firestone company. Yes, that Firestone; the one that once dominated the rubber and tire industry and the one that donated the $1 million to build Princeton’s world-class library in 1944. What he found was recently published in the Princeton & Slavery Project, which...