The Pre-Made Podcast

When you think of Amherst football in the early ’90s, you probably remember linebacker Jordan Hayslip, a four-year starter and anchor of the defense. But Jordan was much more than a gifted athlete. An English and Fine Arts double major, today he describes himself as a teacher, coach, and maker. I call him a Renaissance man who has woven together art, athletics, and community in ways that feel deep...

My favorite podcast episodes of all-time tend to feature friends, family, teammates, classmates, and others who love each other. Their warmth comes through every time. Every episode I publish is precious to me, but I love this one in particular because of the deep affection and respect that emerges between a beloved teacher and one of his former students. Classmate Ben Batory sits down with Amhers...

Alisa Pincus is in the 22nd year of a five-year plan to live in Sydney, Australia. After starting her legal career in New York, a blind date changed her trajectory, leading her to Australia, a global role with Nielsen, and extensive travel across the Asia Pacific region. In this episode, Alisa reflects on the ways being an expat has shaped her perspective on America, Australia, and herself. She al...

Curiosity and challenge have propelled Abbie Raikes ever since she left the stage at Amherst College in 1994 with her diploma in hand and launched her career in public service just five days later. Abbie describes the moves she’s made, from Nebraska to Paris and back again, as a series of deliberate choices to get closer to big, tough, important problems. She’s now tackling early childhood develop...

Pete Lalor, a bariatric surgeon and medical director in Ohio, launched from Amherst College to Ireland to the hockey rinks of Holland—but today we find him leading a surgical weight loss program. A former student-athlete, Pete shares how his performance mentality evolved from athletics into medicine, and why he remains a student of psychology even decades after majoring in it at Amherst. Pete open...

Jane Rohde Bowers grew up both overseas and in the Pioneer Valley, with parents who graduated from Amherst College and Mount Holyoke. She also had a front-row seat to international public health via her father’s career. A self-described “beach gal” who dreamed of marine biology, she instead found herself pulled into anthropology at Amherst and later, public health herself. Today, Jane is a Health...

Adam Bonin’s voice, passion for politics, and Philadelphia sports devotion certainly will sound familiar to his Amherst classmates, but his post-college path has been anything but predictable. Adam takes us through his early certainty that law was his calling, the disillusionment he experienced practicing corporate law, and the path he carved into political law and election work. We hear how a car...

When I think of people who’ve allowed life’s serendipities to shape their course, Toby King comes immediately to mind. In this episode, he walks me through a zigzagging journey that began with a keg behind the geology building before his freshman year at Amherst College even started and took him to UNC Asheville, where he's Associate Professor and Chair of Music and, starting this fall, the chair...

Early on in this project, a close friend told me that he hoped I'd interview Ana-Claire Meyer. Now I know why. Take a listen, and you will, too. AC's professional and personal journeys are marked by curiosity, humility, and an eagerness to tackle big problems. After graduating from Amherst College, she held a variety of different jobs, but HIV test counseling piqued her interest enough to propel h...

Maki Uchiyama grew up as an only child in upstate New York, where her family’s Japanese restaurant functioned as both a business and a fourth member of the household. The experience left her with a certain set of skills—versatility, the ability to multitask, customer diplomacy, and, of course, how to cook. After graduating from Amherst College in 1994 with a degree in political science, Maki joine...

Sean Gibbon lives a dual life. He has one foot planted firmly on the squash court, where he teaches the game, and the other in the imaginative realm of fiction writing. In this episode, we explore Sean’s journey from Amherst to professional squash coach, or what he playfully refers to as a talking ball machine. By that, he means the way he coaches towards experiencing the game fully versus prepari...

It's time to catch up with Dr. Bob “Buck” Tashjian, a leading orthopedic surgeon and researcher specializing in shoulder and elbow surgery at the University of Utah. Buck’s journey to medicine was anything but linear. Despite achieving academic and athletic excellence at Amherst College, he faced a major setback when he was initially rejected from all the medical schools he applied to. What follow...

Ed Castillo’s post-Amherst path might be one of the most uniquely purposeful stories you’ll hear from our classmates. In this episode, we follow his journey from a philosophy major at Amherst to advertising Chief Strategy Officer - and registering and acting as a foreign agent. He may not drive an Aston Martin and pack a Walther PPK, but the man loves words and has a very spicey take on reading th...

Nate Smith's post-Amherst journey literally reads like an epic. At the age of 26, he got in his car after work one day at the school where he had been teaching and kept on driving, never to return to the job. Instead, he embarked on a life-changing, sometimes harrowing road trip all the way from Maryland to Central America, living out of his car and taking odd jobs to survive. His journey reached...

Brian Schactman in many ways has become the voice of Connecticut. As a co-host of a morning radio talk show, he travels the state to meet residents of interest and explore the topics that animate the 169 towns and cities that call Connecticut home. Having listened to his stuff, I can tell you that he's awfully good at what he does. Thankfully, streaming makes it possible for anyone to listen to hi...

Luke Ryan is a fifth-generation Northampton resident and defense attorney. In his line of work, he often finds himself shepherding clients through their lowest moments. But it also has required that he pursue people in positions of authority who have committed wrongs and attempted to cover them up. Nowhere is this dynamic more apparent than in his work to expose crime lab misconduct in Western Mas...

Josh Hamermesh asked, and boy, did Andy Ward deliver. In this episode, Andy, the Executive Vice President and Publisher of Random House, takes us deep into how he edits books written by some of our finest authors. In this episode, you'll learn: How Andy's father shaped his writing and editing skills. His intricate process of editing, emphasizing both detailed line edits and broader feedback. (Plus...

Ben Batory, an Amherst College classmate of mine who played professional basketball in Costa Rica, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Malta, Switzerland, and Mauritius, has taken an unconventional path to Wall Street. Today, Ben is SVP and Head of Trading at Franklin Equity Group, but in this conversation, he talks mostly about his role as Boys Basketball Program Director and Varsity Head...

Lee Macon has worked in advertising through arguably its greatest transformations. He began at the dawn of the consumer internet, navigated the shift to social media, and now is helping clients figure out AI. As the Chief Strategy Officer at the Community, a global creative agency, Lee oversees strategic efforts for major clients like Verizon, Netflix, and Porsche. When he's not helping his client...

Jim Confalone's journey from fine arts to founding a successful B2B marketing firm is marked by tragedy and a timely eye for opportunity. Jim, the founder of B2B marketing agency Modicum, shares the evolution of his career, from his initial passion for painting to servicing blue chip clients like Google and Qualcomm. Modicum specializes in creating powerful visual designs that help businesses make...

Vicky Levy’s story is so compelling that one episode of this podcast can't contain it all. In Part 1 of her extraordinary story, she touches on her journey into life sciences and her current role as Global Life Sciences and Healthcare Industry Leader at Deloitte. But her reason for staying in life sciences and healthcare is even more profound than her reasons for pursuing the industry in the first...

The Amherst Class of 1994 diaspora has expanded all over the world, including to Norway. That's where we find Inger-Lise Schwab representing the Purple and White. In this episode, she shares thoughts on how to combat sunlight deprivation, the distinctions between the elite colleges and universities in the United States and the more egalitarian Norwegian system of higher education, and lots and lot...

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I want to spend the next 20 years of my life. How should I dedicate my time, which is more precious to me than it ever has been? My Amherst College classmate Josh Hamermesh has asked and answered this big question for himself, and the results he has achieved have me feeling more optimistic about my own future. After graduating from Amherst in 1994, Josh pl...

As you prepare to ring in the New Year, you might be asking, in 2025, how can I achieve a better alignment with my family, career, and especially myself? This episode just might help you answer that question. Join me as I chat with my Amherst College classmate Fernanda Bressan (nee Soicher), a business coach who is an expert in helping clients get unstuck in any aspect of their lives. In this epis...

Rob Bernstein, like many in the Amherst College Class of 1994, graduated just as the internet became a consumer-facing proposition. But unlike yours truly, Rob hitched his career to the internet. As a result, over the last 30 years he has managed to stay ahead of the curve, navigating a pivot from print media to digital, and from the WWE to agency work at the highest levels. As Chief Innovation Of...