You Seem Exceptional

Ellen Zhang, a Sophomore at UW-Madison, was recently elected the next Alder of District 8, a seat on the City Council representing the UW-Madison campus area. In this episode of You Seem Exceptional she joins host Oliver Gerharz and guest co-host Kayla Dembiec for a discussion about her campaign, the way it was covered, and what she is looking forward to being able to do in the next two years as a...

Sean Michael Dargan is a musician and the advisor to the Wisconsin Union Directorate's Music Committee. In this episode of You Seem Exceptional, Oliver Gerharz and freshly graduated guest co-host Easton Parks talk to him about his music, life as a musician, his straight gig with the Union, baby's first bagpipe, balancing music and sports in the year he was a Division 3 College Baseball player, the...

Michael Pipkorn is the director and writer of "Fragile," one of two student films to come out of Com Arts 659 this semester. “Fragile” is about two college students who meet and fall in love, start dating, but when the girl dies, the boy begins to spiral, and believes that the girl lives on in her favorite porcelain doll. Join Oliver Gerharz and guest co-host Lydia Picotte for an interview with Pi...

Natalie Tocco is a veterinary pathologist with years of experience in autopsy of wild, pet, and zoo animals. Join host Oliver Gerharz and guest co-host Ian Hoffman in an interview discussing the grief of losing an animal, the mysteries of animal anatomy and evolution, panda diplomacy and two elephant autopsies. Check out or episodes with Dominique Brossard and Caitlin Looby if you'd like to hear m...

On this week's episode of You Seem Exceptional, Oliver and guest co-host Kayla Dembiec speak with Dominique Brossard, a science communicator at UW-Madison currently working with the Morgridge Research Institute. They discuss her research, time as the department chair of life science communication, bridging the divide, and expertise in the government. For interviews with similar topics, you can che...

Dane County's Shamrock Club named Steve Goldberg the "Irish Person of the Year" in 2026, despite Steve not being Irish by blood. For St. Patrick's Day, Steve joins Oliver and guest co-host Paige-Elizabeth Kearney in an interview focused on what it means to be Irish, what the Dane County Shamrock Club does, Irish books, Irish Film and Steve's work in student mental health.

Jean Oliveras worked at USAID for 15 years, but after Trump put a pause on foreign assistance, she got an email from DOGE (The Department of Government Efficiency) asking her to report any office, position, program, contract, or grant with any ties to "DEIA or similar ideologies." Within the year, she and her husband had lost their jobs. Join Jean, Oliver, and guest co-host Ted Hyngstrom in a disc...

On this episode of You Seem Exceptional, Oliver and guest co-host Allie Hoffert interview three fisherman on the ice of Lake Monona Bay. Tune in to hear about why these men are interested in ice fishing, what equipment helps, and about the time one of them fell in.

On this episode of You Seem Exceptional, Oliver and guest co-host Lydia Picotte interview Franciska Coleman, an Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law at UW-Madison's Law School. They talk about what free speech is, the dialogue around free speech in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination, an insightful political-divide crossing conversation Professor Coleman once had with a man who helped he...

On this episode of You Seem Exceptional, Oliver and Jeb have a dynamic conversation with Eric Wilcots, the Dean of UW-Madison's College of Letters & Sciences and its 25,000+ students. On one hand, they discuss where Wilcots' interest in astronomy originates, what he misses about teaching, and technical advancements in the field of Astronomy. To the point of discussing being the Dean, they disc...

Part of series of brief interviews with competitors in the 2025 Moth GrandSLAM, in this episode Oliver and Jeb talk to Alice Pauser, a prolific storyteller who was once the first guest on the show in early 2024. They discuss Alice's decades as a writer and humorist, her love of storytelling, and what has changed since she was featured on Episode 2 of You Seem Exceptional. The GrandSLAM will be at...

Part of series of brief interviews with competitors in the 2025 Moth GrandSLAM, in this episode Oliver talks to Eli Schmidt, a student who sits next to him in Professor Adam Schrager's Social Impact Storytelling class. Oliver realized that the upcoming GrandSLAM competitor was his classmate just an hour before they recorded this conversation about being young journalism majors. The GrandSLAM will...

Part of series of brief interviews with competitors in the 2025 Moth GrandSLAM, in this episode Oliver and Jeb talk to Danielle Hairston-Green, a storyteller and host at the Moth. They discuss how Danielle learned about storytelling from her mother and how she in turn passed that knowledge down to her children and grandchildren, and Danielle shares their stories. The GrandSLAM will be at the Barry...

On this episode of You Seem Exceptional, Oliver and Jeb talk to  Men's Rowing Coach Beau Hoopman, who tells the story of how he walked on to the men's Rowing Team in 1999 having never rowed before, won two Olympic medals over the next decade, and then came back to UW-Madison as an assistant coach before being promoted to Head Coach recently. We talk about the struggles of being an Olympic athlete,...

On this episode of You Seem Exceptional, Oliver and Jeb talk to Oliver's Roommate Ranvir. They discuss in-depth where Ranvir is from, going through what it means to say you are from India, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and San Diego. They also talk about immigration, green cards, citizenship and being a Boy Scout in all of those places. Ranvir also ends the episode by telling the listeners to do what they lov...

On this episode of You Seem Exceptional, Oliver and Jeb talk to Brent Plisch, the Chief of UW-Madison's Police Department. Chief Plisch talks about UWPD policy on underage drinking and smoking on campus, the change in public perception of his job over 20 years at UWPD  and the struggle to connect UWPD to the campus community. However, they also discuss about the path he has taken from a child maul...

This week our guest is Mariel Barnes, an Assistant Professor of Public Affairs at UW-Madison. We dive into her research into the highly online group of hypermasculine sexists called the Manosphere and look at her work in housing policy for victims of domestic abuse.

This week our guest is Shawn Steen, a family friend of Oliver's who has had a long career in the nonprofit sector. We discuss the culture shock of growing up in rural Wisconsin before coming to UW-Madison in the 90s, some stories about Shawn Steen and Matt Gerharz in College, the digital divide Shawn encounters in nonprofit work, and open mic nights.

In this week's episode Oliver and Jeb talk to Dr. Dipesh Navsaria of the nonprofit organization Reach out and Read about his medical work, the benefits of early childhood literacy, the program he is a part of, his bowties, and flags. You can listen to the Reach out and Read podcast here: https://reachoutandread.org/podcast/ You can listen to You Seem Exceptional live on WSUM 91.7 FM Madison every...

In this week's episode Oliver spoke to Nick Doermann and Hayden Woodard, the hosts of the Haunted Horror Hour, a horror movie review show at WSUM. We talk about Inside Out 2, other Horror Movies, a character named "jokey" with a magnetic hat who is not a clown, what Hayden is hiding under his tongue, how the Haunted Horror Hour gets its sponsors, the month, the bald story and the Moth story hour....

In this week's episode we spoke to Noelle Mariano, the assistant producer at the Moth StorySLAM, a monthly storytelling event at the High Noon Saloon in Madison. We discuss how Oliver was once a student in Noelle's class, the tricks that Noelle uses when telling stories at the High Noon, some of the stories that Noelle has told and Noelle's ideas about teaching. You can listen to You Seem Exceptio...

In this week's episode we spoke to Jacob Thebault-Spieker, a professor in UW-Madison's Information School. We discuss fountain pens, Wikipedia, the village of Black Earth in Wisconsin, the rural/urban divide, Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, and all the other exceptional work that Jacob is doing. You can learn about the microscopic bees in your computer here: https://www.hivesystems.com/blog/th...

In this week's episode we spoke to Emeritus Professor Tom Eggert about the intersection between business and finance. We discussed his teaching the University's first sustainability class, what sustainable businesses look like, and Wisconsin Microfinance's role in Haiti. You can learn more about Wisconsin Microfinance here: https://wisconsinmicrofinance.com/ You can listen to You Seem Exceptional...

In this week's episode we spoke to Jeanne Gomoll, the winner of February's Moth StorySLAM and a significant figure in the feminist science fiction fandom. We discussed her story for the theme of "Love Hurts," her work on the fanzine Janus when she was a student at UW-Madison, and the fascinating intersection between feminism and science fiction. You can listen to You Seem Exceptional live on WSUM...

In this episode of You Seem Exceptional, EMMIE Magazine's Fun Director Oliver Gerharz and non-member Jeb Blossom talk to Editor-in-Chief Easton Parks about EMMIE Magazine. They discuss UW-Madison's Supply Chain Management Major, Easton's Passion for Music, Kenosha, Easton's year at UW-Parkside, and EMMIE Magazine's history. Access the EMMIE Podcast at https://feeds.transistor.fm/emmie-podcast.