The ThinkND Podcast

Episode Topic: The 1980’s with Lisa Boykin, Kevin Hawkins, Margret LaChapelle Sonnier, and Phyllis Stone   Welcome to episode four of Black Domers: African-American Students at Notre Dame in Their Own Words. David Krashna '71 and Don Wycliff '69 discuss the 70's with Lisa Boykin '88, Kevin Hawkins '81, Margret LaChapelle Sonnier '84, and Phyllis Stone '80. Follow...

Episode Topic: The 1970's with Bonita Bradshaw, Joya de Foor, Manny Grace, and Richard Ryans   Welcome to episode three of Black Domers: African-American Students at Notre Dame in Their Own Words. This week, Don Wycliff '69 and David Krashna '71 discuss the 1970's with Bonita Bradshaw '77, Joya de Foor '77, Manny Grace '79, and Richard Ryans '79. Follow alon...

Episode Topic:  Contemporary Relevance of "The Idea of a University" “ The view taken of a University in these Discourses is the following:—That it is a place of teaching universal knowledge. This implies that its object is, on the one hand, intellectual, not moral; and, on the other, that it is the diffusion and extension of knowledge rather than the advancement. If its object were scie...

Episode Topic:  The Value in a University This week we will be discussing "The Value in a University," exploring the values of universities and the value in a university education.  Featured Speakers:  Rev. Gary Chamberland, C.S.C., Director of the Notre Dame  Newman Centre for Faith and Reason Kevin Whelan, Michael Smurfit Director of the Notre Dame Dublin Global Gateway Rev. Dave Tyson...

Episode Topic:  Realizing the University Today In our final session, our conversation will focus on turning the philosophical and ethereal elements of Newman’s "The Idea of a University" to the practical challenges of implementing his vision in the context of the modern world. Issues such as rising tuition costs, calls for an increased percentage of online classes, pressure from governme...

Episode Topic: An Introduction to Communicating Across Cultures In this section of the course, you’ll meet the faculty who teach and conduct research in this discipline. And you’ll have a look at what it means to live and work in an increasingly diverse and multicultural world. Featured Speakers: James S. O’Rourke, American rhetorician and Professor of Management at the University of Notre Dame. ...

Episode Topic: Understanding Culture To understand culture is really to understand ourselves. We have commonly used this term to describe all that people have, think, and do as members of their society. While a number of principles and functions apply to this broad, general discipline, we still think primarily about material objects; ideas, values, and attitudes; and expected patterns of behavior...

Episode Topic: How Culture Functions and Why It Changes Culture wouldn’t exist if it didn’t provide some value to those who adopt and live it. The fractious nature of individual and group preferences, however, along with the rate of change in every aspect of our lives makes this issue among the most difficult for humans to confront and manage. Featured Speakers: Linda Rutherford, SVP & Chief C...

Episode Topic: Applying What We Know About Culture Every culture we are a part of, whether national, trans-national or, perhaps organizational, has values and beliefs that drive expectations and set boundaries for its members. Researchers in this area have identified a small range of important skills essential to success in a global business environment. These require discipline and persistence bu...

Episode Topic: The 1960’s with Bill Hurd, Ben Finley, and Percy Pierre Welcome to episode two of Black Domers: African-American Students at Notre Dame in Their Own Words. Don Wycliff '69 and David Krashna '71 discuss the 60's with Bill Hurd '69, Ben Finley '60, and Percy Pierre '61, '63 MS, '77 Hon D.Eng. Follow along with chapter 2 of the book. Featured Spe...

Episode Topic: The 40's & 50's with Booker Rice, Clyde Jupiter, and James Riley Welcome to episode one of Black Domers: African-American Students at Notre Dame in Their Own Words . David Krashna '71 discusses the 40's & 50's with Don Wycliff '69 , Booker Rice '59 BS , Clyde Jupiter '51 MS , and James Riley '94 BA, EMNA '27 . Follow along wi...

Episode Topic:  Campus Viewpoint At a time when the lives of many have been dramatically disrupted and work, education, and society’s functions are in a state of constant transition, this new series from ThinkND will explore this point in history and how the work happening on Notre Dame’s campus and beyond relates to and impacts the United States and the world at large.  Featured Speakers:  Scott...

Episode Topic:   National Viewpoint At a time when the lives of many have been dramatically disrupted and work, education, and society’s functions are in a state of constant transition, this new series from ThinkND will explore this point in history and how the work happening on Notre Dame’s campus and beyond relates to and impacts the United States and the world at large.  Featured Speakers:  Tar...

Episode Topic:  Global Viewpoint At a time when the lives of many have been dramatically disrupted and work, education, and society’s functions are in a state of constant transition, this new series from ThinkND will explore this point in history and how the work happening on Notre Dame’s campus and beyond relates to and impacts the United States and the world at large.  Featured Speakers:  Brian...

Episode Topic: The Film of "The Lodger"   In week 2 of our book club, we will discuss Alfred Hitchcock’s film adaptation of Marie Belloc Lowndes’ novel "The Lodger." "The Lodger" was the first film Hitchcock directed in London after completing two films in Germany in 1925. It stars Ivor Novello, a matinee idol of his time, and is notable for its expressive use of ligh...

Episode Topic: "The Lodger" We begin by reading Marie Belloc Lowndes’ novel "The Lodger," which was published in 1913 and became an immediate, worldwide hit, selling more than one million copies in the next twenty years. The novel focuses on the Buntings, a married couple on the verge of desperation who are rescued by a mysterious man who rents a room in their house. The novel...

Episode Topic: Joseph Conrad’s "The Secret Agent" Joseph Conrad’s novel "The Secret Agent" follows a group of anarchists in London near the end of the 19th century as they plot to destroy symbols of Victorian England. Conrad’s depiction of the group was influenced by the political experiences of his youth and his years working on ships that traveled the world. The novel takes a...

Episode Topic: Alfred Hitchcock’s "Sabotage" In the last week of our Hitchcock in London book club, we examine "Sabotage," (1936) the film he adapted from Joseph Conrad’s novel "The Secret Agent" (1907). The film makes some noticeable changes from the novel, in its setting, representation of the police, and in the role of Winnie. It also includes two famous sequences...

Episode Topic: Introduction, Literature and Plague This week Professor Barry McCrea introduces the topic of the course by taking a long historical perspective on pandemics in society. Mass outbreaks of contagious illness have been common in human history, and over the millennia, thinkers and writers have left us their responses to the experience. In this introduction, taking examples from the trac...

Episode Topic: Boccaccio, "The Decameron" (Introduction & First Story) The bubonic plague (“Black Death”), which arrived in Italy from China in 1347, killed between a third and half of the Eurasian population. In Boccaccio’s "The Decameron" (1353) ten young people seek refuge from the monotony and misery of the plague as it ravages their city of Florence, by gathering toget...

Episode Topic:  Hitchcock, "Rear Window" (film) Although Alfred Hitchcock’s "Rear Window" (1954) does not take place in the context of a plague, it is a film about being in lockdown. Its preoccupations may be subtly shaped by the context of the early 1950s which saw Americans return to ordinary domestic life after the upheavals and mobilizations of the war. The premise of the f...

Episode Topic: Camus, "The Plague" Albert Camus’s novel "The Plague" (La peste), published in 1947, tells the story of a group of characters living through an outbreak of contagious disease in the 1940s, in the Algerian city of Oran, then part of France. There was no such outbreak, Camus never lived through a plague, and the novel has usually been understood as an allegory for...