Smart Girl

Send us Fan Mail Think you know Remember the Titans? Think again. In this episode, Sam and LT unpack the real TC Williams story, the cheer squad’s role, and the hero Hollywood sidelined. Hear the music, rivalry, and truth that was missed in the 2000 movie. Listen now and tell us: what shocked you most? Special thanks to our guest, Ms. Linda Lewis-Pickett. This episode was supported by the Virginia...

Send us Fan Mail We rewatch Remember The Titans with Dr. Andrew Sargent (West Chester University) and confront how a feel good sports movie can still center white sacrifice, flatten Black interiority, and sell a seductive colorblind story about integration. We also reconnect through grad school memories and talk about teaching film, African American literature, and cultural analysis when students...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when you can't afford to eat in college? Sam and La'Tonya speak with Lenita Seals, LT’s cousin and the unforgettable voice behind the “Basic Needs” chapter of Smart Girl . Lenita takes us back to Williamston, North Carolina, where class shaped everything and Black women were expected to stay small.  Then the story turns to what too many first-generation coll...

Send us Fan Mail Sam and LT talk with Boston Celtics and WNBA reporter Noa Dalzell about turning lifelong basketball obsession into a real job after being told the dream was unrealistic. They dig into why off-court community reporting creates better access, better questions, and a more honest picture of sports culture. Recommended links: https://www.youtube.com/@WNBAonCLNS https://www.youtube.com/...

Send us Fan Mail Season two starts with a pivot. We’re still here for first-generation college and grad school life, but now we’re applying that lived experience to the stories we all watch, quote, and argue about. As two English PhDs, Sam and LT bring a sharp cultural analysis style without losing the warmth, humor, and honesty that made this show feel like a real conversation in the first place....

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, LT and Sam go behind the scenes of First Gen & Juice , a practitioner-driven anthology that turns pop culture, such as  Barbie , Oppenheimer , K-pop, comics, Tupac, even The Godfather,  into ready-to-use lessons for classrooms, advising, and staff development. Born from a standing-room-only conference session, the book responds to a simple but urgent request f...

Send us Fan Mail Don't call it a comeback. Sam and LT look back on a year of school visits, book chats, and pop-up events that turned a memoir into a community project, where first-gen stories, fandoms, and everyday art met in classrooms, clinics, and even a 24 Hour Fitness. We also get tactical about what worked, i.e., adding visuals—childhood photos, book inspirations, family snapshots—pull...

Send us Fan Mail What if campus events felt less like ceremonies and more like sanctuary? We sit down with Doctora Alexia Fernanda Pineda Soto to rethink how universities design gatherings for first-generation students—from the invitation to the furniture to the final song. Our conversation moves past turnout metrics and prestige speakers to something deeper: events as living archives that teach b...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, LT and Sam are joined by two students from the fall Smart Girl roadshow: Liz Hardy (UCSF) and Maliah Siyoum (SMC). Together, they unpack what happens when Smart Girl moves from the page into real college and grad school spaces. Liz and Maliah share what the book unlocked for them, including recognition, discomfort, joy, ambition, and that unmistakable moment when...

Send us Fan Mail It's a Bruin reunion!  This week we welcome fellow Smart Girl and self-published author, Melanie Ho , as we discuss the hidden curriculum of self-publishing.   We get into the nuts and bolts: hiring a developmental editor who protects your voice, finding seasoned designers and copy editors on Reedsy, and using IngramSpark’s print-on-demand to skip boxes-in-the-garage risk whi...

Send us Fan Mail We trace how Black feminist networks form, sustain, and transform lives, from a painful academic slight to a thriving community rooted in mentorship, writing, and everyday care. Prof. Sharon Harley (University of Maryland) joins us to unpack bias, honor invisible labor, and share a living philosophy of mentoring across generations. • black feminist networks as infrastructure for s...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, LT reconnects with longtime friend and colleague Professor Jim Lee (Asian American Studies, UC Irvine), who played a pivotal role in her transition from undergrad to graduate school. Together they reflect on their shared journey through UCLA in the 1990s—navigating the promises and limits of multiculturalism, coalition-building between Black and Asian students, an...

Send us Fan Mail It all started with a routine self-exam. In this episode, LT and Sam get specific in all the ways search results rarely do. We talk costs in plain numbers, coordination with surgeons and oncologists, and the difference it makes when a Black nurse names what darker skin may experience and pushes a prescription through before travel. Along the way, a small community forms in the cli...

Send us Fan Mail In What is a Graduate Student: Learning the Higher Ed Hidden Curriculum on the Fly , LT and Sam welcome special guest Dr. Tracy Buenavista—professor of Asian American Studies at Cal State Northridge and the very person who first named LT’s first-gen identity—to unpack what it really means to navigate grad school as a first-gen student. From late-night “mentoring on the run” to und...

Send us Fan Mail In Episode Four—aka The English Major Episode —LT and Sam welcome self-proclaimed “Honorary Smart Girl,” Phuc Tran , author of Sigh, Gone and Cranky , for a pop culture deep dive Gen X style. Together, LT and Phuc compare notes on how sneakers, Doc Martens, punk, hip hop, Prince, Star Wars, and more shaped their very different coming-of-age journeys as first-gen kids: Phuc as an i...

Send us Fan Mail What does it mean to be Black and first-gen? In this heartfelt and freewheeling episode, LT is joined by her former student—and now lifelong friend—Hon. George A. Turner, Jr. for a deeply personal conversation on style, selfhood, and staying grounded. From their UCLA days to their current careers in leadership, Sam asks LT and George to reflect on how their Black first-gen identit...

Send us Fan Mail In Episode Two, LT and Sam sit down with Dr. Claire Brady—President of Glass Half Full Consulting, former Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, and proud first-gen grad—to flip the script on how we talk about school choice and student success. Drawing inspiration from Smart Girl , this conversation tackles how to move beyond deficit framing and spotlight the moments when students be...

Send us Fan Mail In the debut episode of the Smart Girl podcast, hosts La'Tonya “LT” Rease Miles—pioneering founder of first-gen college studies and tireless changemaker—and her best friend Sam Pinto, professor at UT Austin, go behind the scenes of LT’s memoir Smart Girl . With signature humor, humility, and nerdiness, they unpack why LT wrote the book, what it means to be labeled “the smart...