Indoor Voices

John Jay College of Criminal Justice colleagues, Dr. Nathan Lents (Biology) and Dr. Olivera Jokić (English and Gender Studies), discuss Dr. Lents's new book, The Sexual Evolution: How 500 million years of sex, gender and mating shape modern relationships. Visit IndoorVoicesPodcast.com for more info.

In collaboration with the John Jay College Office for the Advancement of Research, Kathleen moderates a conversation about the value of the humanities with colleagues David Munns (History), Allison Pease (Provost & Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs), Belinda Rincon (Latin American and Latinx Studies and English), and Dean Ringel (History). A bonus segment includes a conversation with Dr. Charissa Che, English department faculty at John Jay. Visit IndoorVoicesPodcast.com for more information.

Kathleen discusses her novel, Study in Hysteria (Vine Leaves Press, 2024), with Dr. April Burns, Associate Professor of Psychology at Guttman Community College. This CUNY Academy Book Talk was recorded live at the CUNY Graduate Center on March 5, 2025. Visit IndoorVoicesPodcast.com for more information.

Author and CUNY museum studies graduate student Elaina Battista-Parsons talks with Valerie Paley, senior vice president and the Sue Ann Weinberg Director of the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library at The New York Historical. Learn more at IndoorVoicesPodcast.com.

Jean Mills, Associate Professor and chairperson in the English Dept. at John Jay College, and Ria Banerjee, Professor of English and Honors Program Coordinator at Guttman Community College and the Graduate Center, discuss Dr. Banerjee's book Drafty Houses in Forster, Eliot, and Woolf: Spatiality and Cultural Politics and related topics. Visit IndoorVoicesPodcast.com for more.

Olivera Jokić (John Jay College) and Dijana Jelača (Brooklyn College) discuss Past: An Introduction to the Problem: Želimir Žilnik on Film, Communism, and Former Yugoslavia, translated from Serbo-Croatian to English by Dr. Jokic. For more information, visit IndoorVoicesPodcast.com. 

Borough of Manhattan Community College colleagues, Diana Rickard and Tracy Bealer, talk about the true crime genre and Dr. Rickard's book The New True Crime: How the Rise of Serialized Storytelling Is Transforming Innocence.  Visit IndoorVoicesPodcast.com to learn more.

Mary Frances Phillips, author of Black Panther Woman: The Political and Spiritual Life of Ericka Huggins (NYU Press 2025) talks with Olivia Moy, faculty member in the English Dept. at CUNY Lehman College, about the educator, poet, activist, former political prisoner and Black Panther Party veteran. Visit IndoorVoicesPodcast.com for more.

Kathleen talks with John Jay College English professor Adam Berlin about his new short story collection, All Around They're Taking Down the Lights (Livingston Press 2024). Visit IndoorVoicesPodcast.com for more.

Laura Katz Olson, Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Lehigh University, discusses her novel, Wrinkled Rebels, with Olivia Wood, English Department Lecturer at City College. Visit IndoorVoicesPodcast.com for more.

Mercedes Diez, Director of Communications and College Relations at Lehman College, and Professor Ulises Gonzales of the Journalism and Media Studies Department at Lehman discuss Professor Gonzales's new book, La Vida Papaya en Nueva York. For more, visit IndoorVoicesPodcast.com.

Rebecca Bratspies and Natalie Gomez-Velez, professors at CUNY School of Law, discuss Professor Bratspies' book, Naming Gotham: The Villains, Rogues and Heroes Behind New York's Place Names (Arcadia Publishing 2023).  

Dr. Mark Christian, Professor of Africana Studies at Lehman College and author of Booker T. Washington: A Life in American History and Transatlantic Liverpool: Shades of the Black Atlantic, talks with Dr. William Seraile, professor emeritus of African American history at Lehman College.

Jeffrey Heiman and Adam Berlin, John Jay college English professors and editors of J Journal: New Writing on Justice, talk with New York City College of Technology English professor George Guida whose latest novel is The Uniform (Guernica Editions, 2024).

Bryan Warde, professor in the social work program at Lehman College and in the social welfare doctoral program at the Graduate Center, discusses his most recent book, Colorblind: Indigenous and Black Disproportionality Across Criminal Justice Systems, with Lehman College's Assistant Vice President for Communications & Marketing at Lehman, Richard Relkin. Visit indoorvoicespocast.com for more information.

Dr. Sarah Hoiland (Hostos Community College) talks with Dr. Calvin J. Smiley (Hunter College) about dismantling the prison industrial complex and shifting away from vengeful systems of reentry. Visit indoorvoicespodcast.com for information about Drs. Smiley and Hoiland.

Rich Relkin, Assistant Vice President for Communications & Marketing at Lehman College, talks with Crissa-Jean Chappell, Adjunct Assistant Professor of English and author of the recently published YA novel, Sun Don't Shine (Fitzroy Books, January 2024). Visit indoorvoicespodcast.com for more.

Faculty from LaGuardia Community College discuss the Second Chance Act Improving Reentry Education and Employment Outcomes grant from the US Department of Justice to fund a comprehensive prison-to-college project at Queensboro Correctional Facility. Prof. Hugo Fernandez interviews Profs. John Chaney and Joni Schwartz-Chaney. For more information on the program and guests, visit Indoorvoicespodcast.com

Ann Matsuuchi (LaGuardia Community College), Caron Knauer (LaGuardia Community College), and Sherry Antoine (AfroCROWD), discuss Knauer's book American Slavery on Film. Visit indoorvoicespodcast.com for more.

Kathleen talks with Louis Bury, associate professor of English at Hostos Community College and author of The Way Things Go (punctum books, 2023). Visit indoorvoicespodcast.com for more.

Kathleen talks with Dara Byrne, Dean of Macaulay Honors College. Visit IndoorVoicesPodcast.com for more.

Kathleen talks with her CUNY librarian colleagues - Vikki Terrile, Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at Queens College and Stephanie Margolin, Associate Professor and librarian at Hunter College – about pop culture scholarship in the academy and in their library careers.

Returning guest host Beth Harpaz talks with Helaine Helmreich, wife of the late Professor William Helmreich (Graduate Center/City College, Sociology) about Prof. Helmreich's recently published book, The Bronx Nobody Knows: An Urban Walking Guide. Visit indoorvoicespodcast.com for more.

Jayashree Kamblé and Tara Hickman of LaGuardia Community College discuss Jayashree's book, Creating Identity: The Popular Romance Heroine's Journey to Selfhood and Self-Presentation] (Indiana University Press, 2023).

Lehman College professor Victoria Sanford talks with Richard Relkin, Assistant Director for Communications & Marketing at Lehman, about her recently published book Textures of Terror: The Murder of Claudina Isabel Velasquez & Her Father's Quest for Justice.

Julie Turley (Kingsborough Community College) and Joan Jocson-Singh (Lucas Museum of Narrative Art) discuss their book, Heavy Music Mothers: Extreme Identities, Narrative Disruptions, with Monica Berger (NYC College of Technology).

Kathleen talks with Samantha Majic, Professor of Political Science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, about her new book, Lights, Camera, Feminism: Celebrities and Anti-trafficking Politics. Visit indoorvoicespodcast.com for more.

  Kathleen talks with John Jay's Interim Dean of Academic Programs and Professor of Political Science Andrew Sidman about the college's strategic plan initiative focusing on quantitative literacy and reasoning. Visit indoorvoicespodcast.com for more.

Angie Beeman (Baruch College) talks with Soribel Genao (Queens College) about Angie's book, Liberal White Supremacy: How Progressives Silence Racial and Class Oppression, Visit indoorvoicespodcast.com for more.

Gloria J. Browne-Marshall is a writer, civil rights attorney, playwright, and Professor of Constitutional Law at John Jay College. Her most recent book, She Took Justice: The Black Woman, Law, and Power – 1619 to 1969, showcases the courage of a range of black women in the face of racial prejudice and gender oppression. Gloria talks with John Jay College Media Relations Director, Rich Relkin about the book and about her other creative works, including the play Shot: Caught a Soul and Dreams of Emmett Till. Visit IndoorVoicesPodcast.com for more.

John Jay College Associate Professor of History Edward Paulino discusses his book Refranes de mi Abuelita: Sayings of my Grandmother and “Eddie's Perejil,” his one-man performance about Dominican identity and the 1937 Haitian Massacre.

Rose Kim, faculty in Social Sciences, Human Services and Criminal Justice at BMCC, Wanett Clyde, library faculty at New York City Tech, and Cynthia Tobar, library faculty at Bronx Community College discuss Children of the People: Writings by and about CUNY students on race and social justice (DIO Press, 2022). For more information visit IndoorVoicesPodcast.com.

John Jay College's Richard Relkin, director of Media Relations, and Evan Mandery, professor in criminal justice, discuss Evan's new book, Poison Ivy: How Elite Colleges Divide Us. Visit indoorvoicespodcast.com for more.

David J. Puglia talks with Mira Johnson about his edited collection, North American Monsters: A Contemporary Legend Casebook (University Press of Colorado, 2022). For more info, visit indoorvoicespodcast.com

In September 2022, Chancellor Matos Rodriguez announced the recipients of the newly established Black, Race and Ethnic Studies Initiative (or BRESI) awards. 126 projects across CUNY will be funded from a $10 million gift from the Mellon Foundation with the goal of reimagining and expanding the study of race and ethnicity. In this episode, you'll hear a number of awardees describing their projects, providing a cross section of the innovative and vital work being carried about by our colleagues around the university. Visit indoorvoicespodcast.com for more information.  

Kathleen talks with Kate Brandt, Professional Development Coordinator in CUNY's Adult Literacy/ HSE/ESL Programs. Visit indoorvoicespodcast.com to learn more.

A visit to the Safe Haven Farm Sanctuary and conversations with its co-founder, Bill Crain (CCNY Psychology), and animal advocate Daisy Dominguez (CCNY Library). 

A conversation with the producer and director and two playwrights of John Jay College's 2022 production of Seeing Rape.

Nicole Treska (CCNY alum and adjunct professor) talks with Michelle Valladares (CCNY MFA Creative Writing director) about her forthcoming memoir, Wonderland (Simon & Schuster, Fall 2023).

John Jay College Associate Professor of History David Munns talks about his co-authored book, Far Beyond the Moon ; A History of Life Support Systems in the Space Age, with Richard Relkin, John Jay's Director of Media Relations. Visit us at IndoorVoicesPodcast.com 

Dr. Rebecca Shapiro is an Associate Professor of English and Linguistics in the English Department at New York City College of Technology and the author of Fixing Babel: An Historical Anthology of Applied English Lexicography. She talks with former student Estephanie Montero about language learning. Visit us at indoorvoicespodcast.com.

Cynthia Tobar, faculty librarian and head of archives at Bronx Community College, talks with Gregory Sholette and Chloë Bass about Social Practice CUNY (SPCUNY), a unique pedagogical initiative that supports the integration of art with interdisciplinary research, community collaboration, environmental justice and urban studies.

Kathleen talks with Molly Rosner, Director of Education Programs at the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives at LaGuardia Community College, about her book, Playing with History: American Identities and Children's Consumer Culture.

Claire Stewart, Associate Professor in the Hospitality Management Program at CUNY's New York City College of Technology, talks with former student and CUNY BA program alumnus, Daniel Vater, about his multi-faceted culinary career.

Hannah Kavanagh, a Hunter@Macaulay senior, talks with Kathleen about producing and hosting the first student-run podcast at CUNY, CUNY Uncut. Visit indoorvoicespodcast.com for more.

Khánh Lê (Queens College and the Graduate Center) talks with adjunct professor Julian Costa (NYC College of Technology) and Gabriel Da Silva (Pace University) about the book they've recently completed, What They Know: Reflections of Vietnam, a project originally started by Dr. Rebecca Dean in the 1980s. To learn more, visit Indoorvoicespodcast.com.

Michelle Valladares, Director of the MFA in Creative Program and Lecturer in English at City College, talks with Kathleen about the program, its providential Harlem location, and why it's seeing an unprecedented number of enrollments.

Erin Thompson, Associate Professor of Fraud, Forensics, Art Law & Crime in the Department of Art and Music at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Todd Fine, CUNY Graduate Center PhD candidate and president of the Washington Street Advocacy Group, talk about Erin's forthcoming book, Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America's Public Monuments. 

Yarimar Bonilla, Professor in the Department of Africana & Puerto Rican/Latino Studies at Hunter College and in the PhD Program in Anthropology at the Graduate Center, assumes the role of Acting Director of El Centro, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, on July 1. In this episode, she talks with Vanessa Valdés, Director of the Black Studies Program and Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at City College. Visit indoorvoicespodcast.com

Jeremy Caplan, director of teaching and learning at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, talks with Michael Rain, alumnus and founder of research and media company Enodi, about the J school's new online intensive Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators program.

John Jay College librarian and professor Jeffrey Kroessler and architect Laura Heim discuss their book, Sunnyside Gardens: Planning and Preservation in a Historic Garden Suburb, with Owen Gutfreund, Associate Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College. Visit indoorvoicespodcast.com for more information.