The Sarah Lawrence College Podcast

This week Tim is joined by two guests, Katherine and Jennifer, who work in Career Services. They share stories of students' success, discuss their particular focus, and what Career Services does for SLC students.

And much more!

This week Tim is joined by Rue Beckerman, Director of The Art of Teaching program. Rue's professional interests include literacy, identity and equity in early childhood education, observation and description of children and their work, emergent curriculum, and self-chosen, open-ended making and doing in the classroom. Tim and Rue discuss teaching children, the similarities between College students and toddlers, and much more.

This week Tim is joined by professor Jim Marshall, whose special interests include robotics, evolutionary computation, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science. Tim and Jim discuss the future of A.I., the danger of the "deep fake", and, should humans ever develop a human-like AI where the line between humanity and computers ends.

And much more!

This week Tim is joined by the head of Human Resources at SLC Danielle Coscia to discuss the scope of her work.

And much more!

This week Tim is joined by student Frank Spillane to discuss the benefits of not picking a major, the club scene in the '80s, mass transit in Chicago, and Goth online history. It's a robust, entertaining conversation we're sure you'll enjoy.

And much more!

This week Tim is joined by The Director of The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, Courtney Gillette. This was a delightful conversation and Courtney's enthusiasm is palpable.

Topics include:

• what the Director of the Writing Institute does.
• why Courtney decided to work with Sarah Lawrence.
• what's a book Courtney thinks everyone should read before they die.
• Her affinity for Romance Novels.
• Success stories from The Writing Institute.
• What courses The Writing Institute offers.
• Is her writing process tortured or breezy?
• Ways to support new community programming.
• Being available whilst protecting writing time.
• The location of The Writing Institute - Slonim second floor.
• Why should someone join The Writing Institute?

And much more!

This week's episode is a Faculty Spotlight featuring animal conservation behaviorist Liv Baker. Topics include:

• whether or not ancient civilizations lived more in harmony with animals.
• Mahout Culture and elephant-keeping.
• what a conservation behaviorist does.
• the difference between sentience, sapience, and sociality.
• Liv's writing process.
• the Red Eared Slider turtles in the library.
• what people can start doing today to improve the quality of life for animals.
• Liv's thoughts on aquariums and zoos.

And much more!

This week Tim Kail turns over hosting duties to freshmen Ruby Arthur and Naima Nelson-Davis for a unique episode all about writing. Ruby and Naima put out a call for submissions and student Fronia Kemper responded. Fronia, a senior, reads her story "Lemon Drops" before being asked a series of questions.

Topics include:

• what inspired Fronia's story.
• blurring the lines between fact and fiction.
• Fronia's writing process.
• Barb of Bates?

And much more!

This week host Tim Kail is joined by Vice President of Enrollment and Dean of Admissions & Financial aid, Kevin McKenna. Topics include:

• a detailed breakdown of Kevin's various responsibilities.
• what pleasure the job gives him.
• a description, for parents of potential SLC students, of what makes Sarah Lawrence special.
• Kevin's ability to make stats interesting.
• Whether or not there is a quintessential Sarah Lawrence student.
• what Kevin does to relax.
• the future being bright for Sarah Lawrence College.

This week, host Tim Kail is joined by Sean Jameson, Chief Technology Officer & Chief Information Security Officer for Sarah Lawrence College.

Topics include:

• imagining the internet as a highway.
• activities IT performs that go unseen.
• ensuring the college and its multi-faceted structure maintain quality access.
• the surprising ways IT gets involved in seemingly unrelated issues.

This Tim is joined by student Ishika Joshi who is studying primarily environmental science at SLC.

Topics include:

• finding support from professors and mentors.
• what is environmental science.
• the interaction between philosophy and environmental science.
• nature and the intricacies of the environment.
• why should a prospective student come to SLC.
• Center for The Urban River at Beczak (CURB).
• what Ishika has learned about herself during her time at SLC.
• Coping with anxiety and wanting to make an impact.
• A guideline/value Ishika holds dear.

This week host Tim Kail is joined by SLC Alum Brian Emery. Brian has been the Technical director of Sarah Lawrence College’s filmmaking and moving image arts program since 2008, where he became a guest professor in 2018 teaching post-production.

Topics include:

• how his title came to be.
• what is it about Sarah Lawrence that keeps him coming back.
• the value of a liberal arts education.
• the options in the film program available to students.
• The Bear and Good Will Hunting.
• What movie made Brian want to work in film.

This week Sarah Lawrence College podcast host Tim Kail is joined by Provost and Dean of Faculty, Kanwal Singh. Tim and Kanwal discuss her time at SLC including:

• what Kanwal loves about SLC.
• what a Provost does.
• balancing work and life.
• what Kanwal does to relax.
• baking without a sweet tooth.
• low temperature physics.
• what scientific discovery will we see in our lifetime.
• Bobbie Smallow's strengths.
• Mustafa Sakarya's strengths.
• growing up in Maryland.

The Sarah Lawrence Library Podcast has been rebranded and reborn as The Sarah Lawrence College Podcast. For the first episode of the season we are joined by Daria Sommers to discuss her childhood, her forthcoming novel Sawadika American girl, her time at the SLC Writing Institute, and her craft.

Tim is joined by author, SLC Alum, and SLC professor April Mosolino. April was a delight, answering Tim's questions with genuine interest. First April describes her time as a Sarah Lawrence student and how studying philosophy influenced her writing. She describes her teaching style. She explains what it is about the novel, as a medium, she loves so much. What's the most common mistake writers make? How she's navigated the world of publishing. Establishing a writing routine. When she's really in the flow of writing is it a transcendental experience? Does she believe in writer's block. What are some great novels everyone should read? Lastly, April offers some words of encouragement to the artists listening.

Next there are a few questions from the audience.

This week we're joined by author Kate Zambreno for an in-depth discussion of their book The Light Room.

Topics include:

• the eye-opening nature of her book, the way it explores the intimacy of family and nature.
• why reading is so important, especially for writers.
• whether or not there's an after life.
• contending with the climate crisis while raising children.
• finding beauty in mourning.
• the role of privacy in her work.

And much more!

This week Tim is joined by Dean of Graduate and Professional Studies, Kim Ferguson. The two have a delightful conversation about working and living at SLC, child psychology, and raising children.

Topics include:

• a cultural-ecological approach to infant and child development.
• what is Face Processing?
• why Kim's passion is working with children.
• Tim's first experience with depression as a child.
• If Kim could go back in time and tell her younger self one thing, what would that thing be?

And much more!

Rachelle Rumph returns to discuss procrastination with Tim, in addition to discussing whether it's possible to be both a dog and cat person.

Topics include:

• Rachelle's kids growing up, and reigning in self-imposed pressure in one's studies.
• the importance of balance.
• what is procrastination and what causes it?
• fixating on negative thoughts.
• scratching the service of procrastination to see it's not boredom or laziness...it's fear.
• what are some remedies for procrastination.

And much more!

This week we are joined by faculty member Daniel McCarthy to discuss gender studies, music, and more. They teach LGBT studies at SLC.

Topics include:

• finding one's calling.
• how Daniel arrived at gender/women studies in a diagonal fashion.
• the importance of archives and who controls what stories make it in.
• what is intersectionality exactly?
• what does it mean to not fall in the binary?
• are SLC students being activated as activists?
• is Queerness dying?
• optimism vs pessimism.

And much more!

This week on the Sarah Lawrence Library Podcast we're joined by Neuroscientist and professor at SLC Maia Pujara. Tim asks Maia an assortment of questions ranging from the concrete to the abstract. It is a lighthearted yet informative conversation about the science of the human brain.

Topics include:

• What is Neuroscience?
• How does emotion affect decision making.
• What is the brain?
• Passing judgment on certain parts of the body.
• Maia's interests in the brain's decision making ability.
• What drew Maia to neuroscience.
• What's happening to someone in the throws of a full-blown manic or depressive episode.
• What's something people just don't understand about science?

And much more!

There is also a slide projector demonstration for the live audience, as well as questions from the audience.

This week's episode is another in our Faculty Spotlight Series. For today, we're spotlighting artist, sculptor, and SLC Faculty Jean Shin.

There is also a slide projector demonstration for the live audience, as well as questions from the audience. To see those slides, and learn more about Jean's work, click on the following link:

This week Christina Kasman takes over interviewing duties for an in-depth chat with retired Faculty member Joe Forte.

Topics include:

• Joe's upbringing.
• Leaving college for Europe.
• Returning to Brooklyn College during the student revolutions.
• Being a miserable Graduate Student.
• Coming to Sarah Lawrence College.
• Writing The Faculty Show.

And much more!

This week Tim is joined by Desmond Luck, the Library's Evening Access Services Assistant.

Topics include:

• the ups and downs of being headstrong.
• what Desmond's supervisors should know about them.
• Desmond's time as a student at Sarah Lawrence College.
• What brought them back to Sarah Lawrence College.
• Desmond's love of video games.
• Desmond's mentors and people who inspired them.

And much more!

The Library is pleased to welcome Jamee Moudud for the latest faculty spotlight. We kick off this semester with an in-depth look at economy and the world, how socioeconomic forces work and who/what shapes our economic fate.

Other topics include:

• debunking laissez-fair.
• being an economic historian.
• the far right in America.
• constitutions as related to the economy.
• money being a legal institution.

And much more!

The next Faculty Spotlight takes place 10/10/23 at 4:00 pm with artist and SLC Faculty Jean Shin. To attend, visit the Library Rainbow Reading Room.

Host Tim is joined by Library Director Mustafa Sakarya to discuss a variety of library-related matters. Topics include:

• Activating "The Plaza" near the library entrance.
• Creating a junk dumping spot for student artists working in sculpture.
• Preparing for Halloween.
• Skeletons back in the library.
• Establishing a process for public art.
• The importance of student art.
• Resource renewal.

And much more!

SLC student Gabriella Martinez returns from studying abroad in London to share her adventure. She opens up about the intensity of her acting exercises, how her professors seemed clairvoyant, and how she tapped into Juliet (of Romeo & Juliet). She also talks about creating space in her life just for herself, along with the guilt of being away from family.

Finally she goes into detail about how this studying abroad process works, and how it might enrich someone's life.

You can follow Gabriella on Instagram @GabsLaurAlexMartinez.

It's the season 3 premiere episode of the Sarah Lawrence College Library podcast, Fall 2023 semester! We are joined by none other than The President of SLC, Cristle Colins Judd.

Topics include:

• A detailed explanation of what a college President does.
• What's uniquely true about SLC students, faculty, and staff?
• Who is Cristle when she's not being President Judd?
• The most pressing concern Sarah Lawrence College faces.
• A fun fact about Cristle that will surprise listeners.
• A discussion on "Sarah Lawrenceing" - what it is and how to combat it.
• The all staff and faculty meetings during the height of the Covid crisis.
• Does artificial intelligence frighten or interest Cristle, or something else altogether.

And much more!

The podcast is back! Tomorrow 9/8 there will be a new episode. And in that premier Tim will interview Sarah Lawrence College President Cristle Collins Judd!

In this quick bonus episode host Tim Kail talks a little bit about what's in store for this Fall season, as well as what he's been doing over the summer.

If you'd like to be a guest on the podcast email Tim at fkail@sarahlawrence.edu.

Host and Library Creative Resources Coordinator, Tim Kail, is joined by Library Director Mustafa Sakarya to reflect upon the library staff's accomplishments from the past two semesters.

Topics include:

• The origin of The Faculty Spotlight.
• Creating art with LED lights.
• Staff shake ups.
• Tim's affinity for professional wrestling.
• How to work collaboratively.
• Good constructive criticism.

And much more!

This week marks the final Faculty Spotlight of the semester where we honor a SLC faculty member's latest work.

This week Gillian Adler joins us, "author of two books, as well as essays published in the Journal of Medieval Religious Culture, Arthuriana, Medieval Feminist Forum, Carte Italiane, and Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Her recent co-authored book, ‘Alle Thyng Hath Tyme’: Time and Medieval Life (Reaktion Books, 2023), recreates medieval people’s experience of time: as continuous and discontinuous, linear and cyclical, embracing Creation and Judgment, shrinking to “atoms” or “droplets,” and extending to the silent spaces of eternity. Her first book, Chaucer and the Ethics of Time (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2022), examines Chaucer's philosophical ideas of time and strategies of narrative time" (https://www.sarahlawrence.edu/faculty/adler-gillian.html).

Topics include:

• How writing the book affected Gillian's perception of time.
• The writing process.
• Two authors writing in the same voice.
• What's the medieval equivalent of a Faculty Spotlight?
• Medieval women being "reborn" later in their lives.
• Questions from Demi and Aiden.

And much more!

This week we're joined by Mia Bruner who is Librarian 3, Instruction and Outreach, in the General Research Division of the New York Public Library.

Topics include:

• what she learned working at the Sarah Lawrence College Library.
• the onboarding process at NYPL.
• "Picking your battles" when it comes to criticizing the work of others.
• how she unwinds with strategy video games.
• the personal reasons she's an abolitionist.
• what it was like navigating Covid and difficult Zoom Meetings.
• what she's optimistic about.

And much more!

This week on the podcast sees the return of Senior Associate Dean of Studies & Director of the Learning Commons, Rachelle Rumph. But this time Rachelle is here to talk about time! Host Tim Kail is in need of some time management tips and Rachelle shares her philosophy and approach to time management.

Topics include:

• using a to-do-list vs a calendar.
• time's relationship with anxiety.
• the importance of scheduled breaks like lunch.
• mental health complications related to time.
• Outlook vs Google Calendar.
• our modern relationship with time and what it means for our perspective on it.
• how Rachelle's kids are doing.
• how Tim is doing.

And much more!

This week we're joined by philosophy faculty Roy Ben-Shai to discuss his book Critique of Critique.

Topics include:

• why is it important to critique, critique?
• what's Roy's writing process?
• what are the three critical orientations and how do they affect our analytical mechanism?
• do we not experience pleasure from critique?
• is there an objective reality, or are there multiple realities happening simultaneously.
• can reality ever "sit straight" or will it always be askew?

And much more!

This week Tim is joined by SLC Senior Emma Paterson.

Topics include:

• Emma's illuminated manuscript.
• How she fell in love with History.
• Historical crafts vs Historical values.
• Fun facts about the difference between cemeteries and graveyards.
• Not needing to be remembered.
• Living a modest life.

And much more!

This week Angelica Freitas returns to the podcast.

Topics include:

• working at SLC for 21+ years.
• what's always been true about SLC staff.
• what it's like raising a six-year-old.
• potentially picking up writing again.
• what about her would surprise Angelica's co-workers.
• what worries her about the future, and what she's hopeful for.
• being a sensitive person.
• what she would tell her daughter in the future.
• what she'd tell herself in the past.

This week Tim is joined by Library Director Mustafa Sakarya for a discussion about the projects they've undergone and are underway in his first year as Director.

Topics include:

• The positivity of the SLC environment.
• Not bringing work home.
• SLC students now having access to Yonkers Library by way of shuttle service.
• Using plants for the next lobby exhibit.
• Being a "hands off" manager.
• Ghosts. Yes...ghosts.
• Developing The Learning Commons.
• Developing The Reading Room.
• The success of The Faculty Spotlight.
• How a job becomes a career.
• Mustafa's imagined legacy.

This week's guest is none other than Mo Gallagher, The Assistant Vice President of Facilities and Operations here at Sarah Lawrence College. Mo and Tim discuss what it's like to work at SLC for twenty-five years. Mo shares stories about some of the strangest things she's seen in all that time. Mo describes her reliable staff, why there's no such thing as a "typical day" in Facilities & Operations, how her crew does a lot of the unseen work, and how the SLC community is so grateful for the work of her department.

History Faculty, Matthew Ellis, stops by this week to talk borders, his time in Egypt, his study of the Middle East, his favorite TV shows, being a workaholic, why he views historical research as an "elaborate exercise in empathy", and more! To learn more about Matthew visit his faculty page here: https://www.sarahlawrence.edu/faculty/ellis-matthew.html

Poet Victoria Redel stops by the podcast for the Library's second Faculty Spotlight event to discuss her latest book of poems, Paradise. Victoria reads several of her poems and answers questions about structure, sonic devices, family, her hobbies, and more. Subjects range from the joys of hiking and the natural world to the desolation and migration caused by war.

Visit https://www.victoriaredel.com/ to purchase your copy of Paradise.

Visit https://slcstudentlifeproject.omeka.net/ to submit to the Student Life Preservation Project.

This week Tim is joined by our College Archivist, Christina Kasman. Tim and Christina discuss this change in her career, what she learned from her previous job as Head of Access, what it's like to be an introvert while needing to be social, how she unwinds, her advice for incoming library staff, how and why kindness is one of her values, what movie embodies life at the library, and what's worth preserving in an archive.

This week's guest is Sarah Lawrence College Alum, Leda Canino, graduate of the class of 1952. Leda shares her history with us, starting from her days as a child admiring Sarah Lawrence College from afar through her days as a student studying dance. She also tells us about her romance with her husband, the love and companionship they had contained in her recollections. Her stories are filled with notable artists, poets, dancers, and philosophers. She also tells stories about her time as a teacher, helping to popularize dance in various education programs. Leda, at 91 and 1/2 years old, is an invaluable voice and we're grateful to have recorded her story.

Host Tim Kail is joined by recent SLC Alum and new Library hire, Salem Hunter. Salem discusses their fascination with the natural world, their response to climate change, their values, and what it's been like settling into their new job. Salem also shares their advice for SLC students and parents of SLC students.

Host Tim Kail is joined by current SLC student Gabriella Martinez. They discuss her favorite films, and the demise of The Romantic Comedy genre. They talk about how it's been working in the library, the enjoyable history of her name, what she'd like ideally from a director, the emotions she's experiencing as she nears studying abroad, and how she stays grounded and in the moment, and much more.

Host Tim Kail is joined by SLC student, Junior Gabriella Martinez. They discuss why Gabriella came to Sarah Lawrence College, her love of theatre and film, studying abroad, her favorite actors, the importance of a Gap Year, her relationship with her parents, and much more.

Sarah Lawrence Library Podcast host Tim Kail has an announcement! Give this mini-episode a listen to find out what's in store for the podcast.

Tim Kail hands over hosting duties to Mustafa Sakarya who asks Tim questions about podcasting, 2022, and where he'd like to see the podcast go in the future. This is the season finale of the podcast for Fall '22, and we appreciate all those who've downloaded or streamed an episode.

Tim Kail offers a basic training course for podcasting. He discusses:

• How to develop and refine an idea for a podcast
• Equipment - Shure SM58 microphones, Zoom H4N Handy Recorder, XLR cables
• Webhosts (anchor.fm)
• How to build a podcasting schedule that works with your life
• Developing your own style
• Hooking an audience member within the first few seconds of your podcast
• Recording in a good environment for sound
• And finally, the most important thing to know about podcasting (you have to listen to find out!)

If you have any questions email Tim at fkail@sarahlawrence.edu

This week host Tim Kail is joined by Margarita Fajardo to discuss her book The World That Latin America Created: The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America in the Development Era, published in early 2022 by Harvard University Press. Tim and Margarita discuss the process of writing the book before Tim turns hosting duties over to one of Margarita's former students, Kristoph Sayavedra representing, the Legal, Political, Economy Society to discuss the politics, policy, and economics in the book.

Buy Margarita's book: https://amzn.to/3VHkeiq

This week Tim is joined by Library Director Mustafa Sakarya to discuss the library's 3D Printer. Tim describes building the printer, Mustafa shares his prior experiences with 3D printers, and they discuss the potential for students to use the printer.