With a Side of Knowledge

Episode TranscriptFrom the University of Notre Dame, this is With a Side of Knowledge. I'm your host, Ted Fox.I've been saying that for 4+ seasons and more than 65 episodes now, and that's not counting bonus episodes and some other fun stuff we've gotten to do. And because we've spent all that time together, I wanted to let you know some things are changing.I'm moving to a new position at Notre Dame, and while I initially thought it might make sense to try and move the show with me, I've come to realize that wouldn't quite work.Thank you to Cidni Sanders, the University's executive director of academic communications, for allowing me to think through this and being open to even considering it in the first place. Cidni and I haven't worked together long, but she has been beyond generous with me.The good news, at least if you've enjoyed listening over the years, is that the show isn't going away. All the episodes we've released will stay in our feed and on our website at withasideofpod.nd.edu while my colleagues in the Office of the Provost consider what the next chapter of this endeavor might look like.So, as we bring this era of With a Side of Knowledge to a close, I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge a few people.I want to thank Pat Gibbons, who gave me the freedom and support to create this podcast, as well as all my friends in the provost's office who have listened to me talk about it—and believe me, it's been ad nauseum—these last few years.I want to thank all of our guests, who have provided us with so many amazing conversations and thoughtful insights along with a healthy dose of laughter.And I especially want to thank all of you, the listeners, for hitting play. None of us has enough time in our days, and the fact that you've chosen to spend some of it here is something that I will always be grateful for.Making this podcast really has been a privilege—it's one of my favorite things I've done in over 17 years of working at this University—so I hope you'll stick around and see what comes next.Thanks again.

We started out as the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals to brunch for informal conversations about their work—but last season, we needed to record remotely. This year we're excited to be able to bring back in-person interviews while still taking advantage of the flexibility afforded by our remote setup.Patrick Parr is the author of two books of nonfiction, both with Chicago Review Press. His first, The Seminarian: Martin Luther King Jr. Comes of Age, was published in 2018 and described by The Wall Street Journal as “original, much-needed and even stirring.”Patrick joined host Ted Fox via Zoom to talk about book No. 2, which was released earlier this year. Titled One Week in America: The 1968 Notre Dame Literary Festival and a Changing Nation, its appeal to us, a podcast produced at the university, was immediate. But Patrick doesn't just chronicle what took place on the Notre Dame campus from Sunday, March 31, through Saturday, April 6, 1968, a story that features an almost unimaginably star-studded lineup of literary and political figures—brought to campus by a group of students, no less—and that included a red-carpet movie premiere in the most unlikely of venues.No, the book doesn't stop there because the festival didn't exist in a vacuum, and during this particular week in America, that truth became evident in ways prominent and painful.Patrick's own story of how he came to research the 1968 Notre Dame Literary Festival starts where a lot of good writing does: with a question that comes to you in the middle of the night.LINKSPatrick's Book: One Week in America: The 1968 Notre Dame Literary Festival and a Changing NationNotre Dame Magazine Story:  Echoes: Sophomore Literary FestivalEpisode Transcript

We started out as the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals to brunch for informal conversations about their work—but last season, we needed to record remotely. This year we're excited to be able to bring back in-person interviews while still taking advantage of the flexibility afforded by our remote setup.Elizabeth Shakman Hurd is a professor of political science and religious studies and the Crown Chair in Middle East Studies at Northwestern University, where she co-directs the Global Religion and Politics Research Group. The author or co-editor of six books, she specializes in religion in U.S. foreign and immigration policy, the global politics of secularism and religious freedom, religion and the American border, and relations between the U.S., Europe, Turkey, and Iran.Elizabeth visited campus as part of a series of policy discussions marking the 20th anniversary of September 11th presented by Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs and Ansari Institute for Global Engagement With Religion. Her keynote, the second event in the three-part series, focused on what she calls the “religion-heavy” foreign policy of the United States' War on Terror.With a patio outside Notre Dame's Morris Inn as our backdrop, Elizabeth talked with us about some of the issues she addressed in her presentation at the Keough School and why she believes the government should rethink the emphasis it places on religion when acting on the world stage. Her recommendations there draw from testimony she gave to the House Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this year and, it's worth noting, do not suggest that religion is unimportant, either.But before we got to where we are now, we started with a little bit of history.LINKSElizabeth's New Book: Theologies of American ExceptionalismEpisode Transcript

We started out as the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals to brunch for informal conversations about their work—but last season, we needed to record remotely. This year we're excited to be able to bring back in-person interviews while still taking advantage of the flexibility afforded by our remote setup.This episode is a little different from what we usually do, in that the focus isn't one person's work but rather a new tool designed to enhance knowledge access for everyone. It's called Marble, and it's a collaboration between Notre Dame's Hesburgh Libraries and Snite Museum of Art developed with a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Marble is an online portal that lets users all over the world view and learn about materials from the Snite Museum, Rare Books & Special Collections, and the University Archives in a way that is so cool it made us want to do a show literally about a website.And to cover everything that makes Marble special, we tried something else different: Not one but two interviews, with two people who have played distinct roles in its creation.First you'll hear from Mikala Narlock, digital collections librarian at the Hesburgh Libraries, who analyzed how content would be uploaded to Marble. Mikala and host Ted Fox talked on a windy day outside the library about the user experience—the types of artifacts available in the platform, what shows up on your screen when you run a search, why this is different than what existed before, and importantly, how anyone can use it, regardless of whether they have an affiliation with Notre Dame.After Mikala, it's Erika Hosselkus, a special collections curator and Latin American studies librarian at the Hesburgh Libraries who led the content team for the Marble project. Erika and Ted met up in Rare Books and Special Collections at the library, where they talked about how the materials Marble gives people access to can inform teaching, research, and just our collective consciousness, not to mention how digital discovery can actually serve as an important gateway to the physical collections themselves.LINKSMarble website: marble.nd.eduEpisode Transcript

We started out as the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals to brunch for informal conversations about their work—but last season, we needed to record remotely. This year we're excited to be able to bring back in-person interviews while still taking advantage of the flexibility afforded by our remote setup.Mike Collins graduated from Notre Dame in 1971 and spent several years working as a truck driver, cab driver, construction laborer, dockworker, and freelance journalist before pursuing medicine. After receiving his M.D. from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, he spent five years in residency at the Mayo Clinic, ultimately serving as chief resident in orthopedic surgery and embarking on a surgical career that has spanned several decades. Mike has written two memoirs about his journey as a physician: Hot Lights, Cold Steel, recounting his time as a surgical resident, and Blue Collar, Blue Scrubs, about his days as a laborer trying to get into medical school. Since the publication of Hot Lights, Cold Steel in 2005, he has lectured around the country, and the books are on the required or recommended reading list for many medical schools and pre-medical programs.We had the chance to talk to Mike about his latest book, a novel titled All Bleeding Stops. It's the story of Dr. Matthew Barrett, who is sent to Vietnam as a combat surgeon shortly after completing his residency. While fiction is a departure from Mike's previous books, he draws heavily on his experience in the operating room to unfold a story that he hopes will bring attention, both within the medical community and beyond, to the very real mental health issues encountered by physicians routinely asked to navigate the line between life and death.Setting the story amidst the impossible circumstances that faced those serving in Vietnam makes that point in a particularly affecting way.LINKSMike's Novel: All Bleeding StopsEpisode Transcript

This is a trailer for season 5 of With a Side of Knowledge—which we're publishing a day after said season launched.That's how the pros do it, right?--FULL EPISODE TEXTHey, my name's Ted Fox, and I'm the host of With a Side of Knowledge, a podcast produced at the University of Notre Dame.We started out as the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals to brunch for 30-minute, informal conversations about their work—until season 4, when the pandemic prompted us to record everything remotely. Now, with season 5, we're excited to be able to bring back in-person interviews while still taking advantage of the flexibility afforded by our remote setup. Guests include members of the Notre Dame faculty, visitors who have come to campus to do anything from give a lecture or performance to participate in a fellowship program, and other interesting people we've plain cold-emailed and asked to come on the show.New episodes are released every other Thursday. Our website is withasideofpod.nd.edu, and you can find us on Twitter and Instagram. In both spots, we are @withasideofpod.Thank you for listening. Hopefully this will be the first of many times.

We started out as the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals to brunch for informal conversations about their work—but last season, we needed to record remotely. This year we're excited to be able to bring back in-person interviews while still taking advantage of the flexibility afforded by our remote setup.But whether we're literally sitting down with a guest or talking with them virtually from that trusty old walk-in closet, we hope you'll find that you're glad you stopped by.To start season 5, host Ted Fox grabbed a cup of coffee and headed to the courtyard outside Notre Dame's Hesburgh Library, right beneath the famous “Word of Life” mural on the building's south side. More popularly known as Touchdown Jesus, the mural is a fitting backdrop for a conversation about sports, which is what Katherine Walden and Ted met to talk about—albeit baseball rather than football.Katherine is an assistant teaching professor of American studies at Notre Dame and an affiliated faculty member of the Notre Dame Technology Ethics Center. Her research employs data analysis, visualization, and interactive digital mapping to illustrate the scale and scope of Minor League Baseball labor, as well as the historical forces and labor structures that shape Minor League players' working conditions.Why Minor League Baseball? After all, the vast majority of baseball fans' attention gets devoted to the likes of the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Red Sox, and the other 27 clubs that make up Major League Baseball.But as Katherine points out, 90 percent of professional baseball players are actually Minor Leaguers, who for the most part grind out their days in relative anonymity. Her work has grown out of asking: What happens if we put that 90 percent at the center?The answers give all of us who love our national pastime a lot to think about.LINKSSporting News Article: Even after overdue salary bump, baseball's minor leaguers still paid far below NBA, NHL counterpartsKatherine on The Uncertain Hour (podcast)Episode Transcript

Before the pandemic, we were the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for informal conversations about their work, and we look forward to being that show again one day. But for now, we’re recording remotely to maintain physical distancing.It’s still a pretty fantastic job.This is our season 4 finale, and we’re taking a look back—not at the history of this podcast, but at the history of fashion, and our guide is a great one.Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell is an award-winning fashion historian, curator, and journalist and a 2020–21 National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Politico, and The Wall Street Journal, and she is the author of three books, including Worn on This Day: The Clothes That Made History, which had its origins as a Twitter account and was published in 2019 by Running Press.While we had a lot of questions for her about Worn on This Day—how she found an article of clothing tied to every day of the year, what kind of history this approach allowed her to write, why she picked what she did for the September 11th entry—we also talked about the distinctive role fashion plays in the human story.We asked Kimberly about her NEH project, as well, and learned a little bit about American fashion designer Chester Weinberg, whom she’s hoping to reintroduce to a large audience. And then there was her most recent book, The Way We Wed: A Global History of Wedding Fashion, a sequel of sorts to Worn on This Day.Fun fact there: The white wedding dress? Not as traditional as you might think.LINKSKimberly’s Books: Worn on This Day: The Clothes That Made History and The Way We Wed:  A Global History of Wedding FashionWorn on This Day Twitter:  @WornOnThisDayEpisode Transcript

Before the pandemic, we were the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for informal conversations about their work, and we look forward to being that show again one day. But for now, we’re recording remotely to maintain physical distancing.It’s still a pretty fantastic job.Fred Higgs is John and Ann Doerr Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rice University, where he is also vice provost for academic affairs and director of the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership. A past winner of a National Science Foundation CAREER Young Investigator Award and a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Fred is the founder and director of the Particle Flow and Tribology Lab at Rice.We would try to define what tribology is, but Ted, our host, kind of got it wrong in the interview, and there’s no need to embarrass ourselves twice. The good news is Fred is awesome at explaining things in terms even a non-engineer can understand.Back in March, we had the opportunity to watch him give an Edison Lecture hosted by Notre Dame’s College of Engineering—and held virtually, of course—about some of the research they do in his lab in the area of additive manufacturing, or 3D printing. Here he and Ted talked about how 3D printing actually works, some real-world applications that illustrate why you’d do it in the first place, and whether we’ll ever be able to print three-dimensional objects as easily as we use a Xerox machine.Before that, though, they spent some time on the rise of intelligent machines and the ensuing paradigm shift for engineers looking to bring products to market. It’s a great example of why Fred and others see ethics as a core component of engineering education.LINKSFred’s Research: Particle Flow & Tribology Lab at Rice UniversityEpisode Transcript

Before the pandemic, we were the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for informal conversations about their work, and we look forward to being that show again one day. But for now, we’re recording remotely to maintain physical distancing.It’s still a pretty fantastic job.For the second episode in a row, we’re turning things over to a guest host for a conversation with Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of the Science family of journals.Talking with Holden this time is Suman Datta, who is Stinson Professor of Nanotechnology in Notre Dame’s Department of Electrical Engineering and the director of ASCENT, a microelectronics research center funded by the Semiconductor Research Corporation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Holden and Suman spoke as part of a recent online series at Notre Dame called The State of Science. This is a condensed version of their conversation, which was recorded on March 1 and focused on the future of scientific collaboration.Holden brings a distinct perspective to this topic. Even before taking on his current position as editor-in-chief of the six journals published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, including the magazine Science itself, he was an intellectual leader, having served as provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at Washington University in St. Louis and as the chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is currently Rita Levi-Montalcini Distinguished University Professor at WashU, holding appointments in both chemistry and medicine.Holden and Suman talked about everything from the need for academic collaboration that crosses disciplinary boundaries and the very real barriers to achieving it to the way geopolitical tensions hinder knowledge discovery. We started with Suman asking about the generational questions now facing the scientific community.LINKListen to Our First Episode with Holden: On “The State of Science” (Part 1)Episode Transcript

Before the pandemic, we were the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for informal conversations about their work, and we look forward to being that show again one day. But for now, we’re recording remotely to maintain physical distancing.It’s still a pretty fantastic job.This is a special episode of the show because for the first time ever, Ted, our normal host, isn’t hosting.He’d ask that you keep your applause to yourself.It’s a conversation between Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of the Science family of journals, and Marie Lynn Miranda, a professor of applied and computational mathematics and statistics at Notre Dame, the University’s Charles and Jill Fischer Provost—and as we’re sure she tells people all the time, a former guest on this podcast. Holden and Marie Lynn spoke as part of a recent online series at Notre Dame called The State of Science. This is a condensed version of that conversation, which was recorded on Feb. 22 and focused on “Building the COVID-19 Knowledge Base in Real Time.”Holden is a great person to talk with about this. Serving as the editor-in-chief of the “Science family of journals” means he leads the six journals published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, including the magazine Science, the premier global science weekly. In addition to his role at the journals, he is Rita Levi-Montalcini Distinguished University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, holding appointments in both chemistry and medicine. He previously served as Washington University’s provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs and as the chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, his alma mater.Holden is also a big jazz fan. And even with a topic as big as the pandemic and the scientific community’s response to discuss, Marie Lynn still managed to sneak in a question about jazz records.If you enjoy their conversation—and we’re confident you will—you can watch even more at provost.nd.edu/state-of-science.LINKSScience Editorial: “The moment to see the poor”Holden’s Intro to Jazz: Spotify PlaylistEpisode Transcript

Before the pandemic, we were the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for informal conversations about their work, and we look forward to being that show again one day. But for now, we’re recording remotely to maintain physical distancing.It’s still a pretty fantastic job.Trish Culligan is Matthew H. McCloskey Dean of the College of Engineering at Notre Dame and a professor in the University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences. Before joining the Notre Dame faculty this past August, she was chair and Carleton Professor of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University.Internationally recognized for her expertise in water resources and environmental engineering, Trish is currently co-directing a research network sponsored by the National Science Foundation that is developing new models for urban infrastructure to make cities cleaner, healthier, and more enjoyable places to live.She talked with us about that work and the potential of decentralized infrastructure to make a difference in both the developed and developing worlds, albeit for very different reasons. We also covered where the term “civil engineering” comes from, the importance of engineers being able to play a role in informing public policy, and how successful engineering practice isn’t all concrete, steel, and technical detail—no matter how much she may love talking about those things.We started by asking Trish for her thoughts on a random engineering quote we found on the Internet. Her willingness to engage with our attempt at a creative interview opening let us know right away we were in for a good conversation.LINKEpisode Transcript

Before the pandemic, we were the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for informal conversations about their work, and we look forward to being that show again one day. But for now, we’re recording remotely to maintain physical distancing.It’s still a pretty fantastic job.Sinaí Vespie is executive pastry chef for Campus Dining at Notre Dame—although dessert fans around the country know her as the winner of season 6 of the Halloween Baking Championship, which aired this past fall on Food Network.And if you’re thinking it’s pretty cool for a university to have the winner of a reality cooking competition on its culinary team, then you have a lot in common with the makers of this podcast.Sinaí began her career as a junior sous chef at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort. She then moved to the Sweet Treats Cakery in Tampa before serving as pastry chef at the Tampa Marriott Waterside. She joined us from just outside her kitchen at Notre Dame, which is the closest we’ve gotten to brunch in a long, long time.We used this opportunity to ask her about both the particulars of the Halloween Baking Championship—from the cursed croquembouche to the spooky challenge themes, including when she had to figure out how to depict a prank on a floating cake—as well as the demands of competing on a TV cooking show more generally. As you’d suspect, that took on some entirely new dimensions during the pandemic.Finally, if you check the episode notes, you’ll see why Sinaí warned us of the perils of letting your son manage your Instagram.LINKSFrom Sinaí’s Instagram: The Faces of Chef SiEpisode Transcript

Before the pandemic, we were the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for informal conversations about their work, and we look forward to being that show again one day. But for now, we’re recording remotely to maintain physical distancing.It’s still a pretty fantastic job.Timothy Caulfield is a faculty member at the University of Alberta, where he is a Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy, a professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Public Health, and research director of the university’s Health Law Institute.Timothy has published more than 350 academic articles on topics such as research ethics, public representations of science, and public health policy. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, he is also the host and co-producer of the award-winning documentary TV series A User's Guide to Cheating Death and the author of two bestselling books, including Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?: When Celebrity Culture and Science Clash.Timothy joined host Ted Fox and Notre Dame student Lynnette Wukie, our intern during the University’s Winter Session, to talk about his latest book, Your Day, Your Way: The Fact and Fiction Behind Your Daily Decisions. It takes on questions like: Is there a scientific reason not to drink so much coffee? And: Is the coworker proselytizing about the benefits of their standing desk going a little overboard?Related: This episode may or may not have been produced entirely at a standing desk.The conversation also covered what Timothy describes as three social paradoxes complicating what would otherwise be routine decisions; implications of our chaotic information environment, particularly during the pandemic; and the natural uncertainty that comes with doing good science.LINKS:Timothy’s New Book: Your Day, Your Way: The Fact and Fiction Behind Your Daily DecisionsEpisode Transcript

Before the pandemic, we were the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for informal conversations about their work, and we look forward to being that show again one day. But for now, we’re recording remotely to maintain physical distancing.It’s still a pretty fantastic job.Nicole Achee is a research professor of biological sciences at Notre Dame with a joint appointment in the University’s Eck Institute for Global Health. A medical entomologist, she works in the area of infectious and vector-borne diseases. Much of her research focuses on mosquitoes, various species of which are vectors, or transmitters, of illnesses like malaria, dengue, and Zika. In 2014, a project led by Nicole and Neil Lobo, also a biologist at Notre Dame, received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to test the efficacy of what are known as spatial repellents. While the idea underlying spatial repellents is an old one, they could represent an exciting new product class for mosquito control in public health, as they operate in a different manner than existing interventions like spraying and bed nets.Supported by the Gates Foundation grant—at the time, the second-largest research award in Notre Dame history—and industry partner SC Johnson, Nicole and Neil’s team conducted two large-scale, multiyear clinical trials evaluating spatial repellents, including one in Peru that she says is the first to conclusively show a spatial repellent can protect humans against the types of mosquitoes that transmit dengue and Zika.Nicole and host Ted Fox started their conversation with some basics about mosquitoes and the impact of mosquito-borne diseases worldwide. She then explained what exactly spatial repellents are and what they do, the specifics of the clinical trials, and next steps on the path toward earning a World Health Organization recommendation for the use of spatial repellents for mosquito-borne disease control—a goal that is one step closer after the recent results in Peru.

We like to try and do something special around the holidays.In 2019, we counted down our Top 5 most-played episodes of the year. But we thought we’d try something a little different for 2020.If you’re a regular listener of the show, you’ve probably figured out we like to read. A lot. So this time, we’re revisiting five of our favorite interviews we’ve done with authors in the three-and-a-half seasons of making this podcast. We call it “Happy Author Days.”This one is our conversation with Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, aka The Fug Girls, titled “On Royal Novels and Writing Partners” and first published September 24th, 2020.We hope you enjoy it and have the chance to make time for some great reading this holiday season.LINKSHeather and Jessica’s Two Royal Novels: The Royal We and The Heir AffairOriginal Episode Transcript

We like to try and do something special around the holidays.In 2019, we counted down our Top 5 most-played episodes of the year. But we thought we’d try something a little different for 2020.If you’re a regular listener of the show, you’ve probably figured out we like to read. A lot. So this time, we’re revisiting five of our favorite interviews we’ve done with authors in the three-and-a-half seasons of making this podcast. We call it “Happy Author Days.”This one is our conversation with PEN/Faulkner winner Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, titled “On Exile, Literature, and Feeling Small Before the Page” and first published on August 1st, 2019.We hope you enjoy the episode and come back for the final installment in the series tomorrow.LINKSAzareen’s PEN/Faulkner-Winning Novel: Call Me ZebraOriginal Episode Transcript

We like to try and do something special around the holidays.In 2019, we counted down our Top 5 most-played episodes of the year. But we thought we’d try something a little different for 2020.If you’re a regular listener of the show, you’ve probably figured out we like to read. A lot. So this time, we’re revisiting five of our favorite interviews we’ve done with authors in the three-and-a-half seasons of making this podcast. We call it “Happy Author Days.”This one is our conversation with Pulitzer winner Marilynne Robinson, titled “On Writing and Saying Something True” and first published on October 18, 2018.We hope you enjoy the episode and come back for the next installment in the series tomorrow.LINKMarilynne's Pulitzer-Winning Novel: GileadOriginal Episode Transcript

We like to try and do something special around the holidays.In 2019, we counted down our Top 5 most-played episodes of the year. But we thought we’d try something a little different for 2020.If you’re a regular listener of the show, you’ve probably figured out we like to read. A lot. So this time, we’re revisiting five of our favorite interviews we’ve done with authors in the three-and-a-half seasons of making this podcast. We call it “Happy Author Days.”This one is our conversation with spy novelist Lauren Wilkinson, titled “On ‘American Spy’ and Finding It on the Page” and first published on October 8th, 2020.We hope you enjoy the episode and come back for the next installment in the series tomorrow.LINKSLauren’s Novel: American SpyOriginal Episode Transcript

We like to try and do something special around the holidays.In 2019, we counted down our Top 5 most-played episodes of the year. But we thought we’d try something a little different for 2020.If you’re a regular listener of the show, you’ve probably figured out we like to read. A lot. So this time, we’re revisiting five of our favorite interviews we’ve done with authors in the three-and-a-half seasons of making this podcast. We call it “Happy Author Days.”This one is our conversation with Muhammad Ali biographer Jonathan Eig, titled “On Muhammad Ali and a Knockout Biography” and first published on March, 19, 2020.We hope you enjoy the episode and come back for the next installment in the series tomorrow.LINKJonathan’s Biography of Muhammad Ali: Ali: A LifeOriginal Episode Transcript

We typically host scholars, makers, and professionals for informal conversations about their work—formerly over brunch, currently over Zoom.But for these bonus mini-episodes, we change things up a bit, asking Notre Dame researchers and staff to talk about something that both makes them happy and has no direct connection to what they do at the university.In other words, if you thought a podcast with a waffle for a logo couldn’t get even more casual, you’d be wrong.Here, Liz Harter, Notre Dame’s social media manager, shares the genesis of her enduring love for *NSYNC and other early 2000s pop music, and how, in a quirky twist of fate, that proved to be an asset professionally. And as a bonus on top of a bonus, Liz has curated a Spotify playlist of eight of her must-have pop hits just for us. It includes four *NSYNC tracks for reasons you’ll understand shortly.LINKSpotify Playlist: Liz’s Pop PicksEpisode Transcript

Before the pandemic, we were the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for informal conversations about their work, and we look forward to being that show again one day. But for now, we’re recording remotely to maintain physical distancing.It’s still a pretty fantastic job.Jennifer Dasal is curator of modern and contemporary art at the North Carolina Museum of Art. After graduating from the University of California, Davis, she earned an M.A. in art history from Notre Dame and worked as assistant to the curator of Western art at Notre Dame’s Snite Museum. So this episode was something of a homecoming—just without the actual coming back to campus.Jennifer is the author of the book ArtCurious: Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History, published earlier this year by Penguin Books. ArtCurious the book was inspired by ArtCurious the podcast, a show she launched more than four years ago and has written, produced, and hosted ever since.In this podcast, Jennifer introduced us to several of the fascinating stories she unwinds in the book, ranging from the CIA’s connection to Abstract Expressionism and everything you thought you knew about Norman Rockwell to the mystery of the Mona Lisa’s twin sister. There was also the matter of whether we know who actually created what some in the art world consider the most influential piece of the 20th century—which, oh by the way, happens to be an upside-down urinal.And as descriptive as that last sentence sounds, talking about visual art in an audio medium isn’t usually so simple. That makes what Jennifer does on episodes of ArtCurious all the more impressive, and why we made sure to ask her about the podcast, as well.LINKSJennifer’s Book: ArtCurious: Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art HistoryJennifer’s Podcast: ArtCuriousEpisode Transcript

Before the pandemic, we were the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for informal conversations about their work, and we look forward to being that show again one day. But for now, we’re recording remotely to maintain physical distancing.It’s still a pretty fantastic job.Kirsten Martin is a faculty member in Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business and a faculty affiliate of the Notre Dame Technology Ethics Center. Recognized nationally for her expertise in privacy, technology, and corporate responsibility, she joined the University this fall and holds the William P. and Hazel B. White Center Chair of Technology Ethics.Kirsten’s research, including studies of online privacy and the ethics of data aggregation, has been funded by the National Science Foundation, and she serves as the technology and business ethics editor for the Journal of Business Ethics. Earlier this year, Columbia University Press published her co-authored book The Power of AND: Responsible Business Without Trade-Offs.Kirsten and host Ted Fox started their conversation with what does and does not tend to bother people about their data being gathered through websites and apps—and how most of us don’t realize the extent to which that’s happening. They spent some time on her research on location data in particular.From there, they talked about things we, as consumers, can do to at least mitigate the spread of our personal data, and why she’s skeptical of any argument from industry that contends governmental regulation would be too costly. They wrapped up with a question inspired by her new book—namely:When it comes to business, who is a business in business for?LINKSKirsten’s TEDx Talk: “It’s Not Their Story to Tell: Why Companies Should Respect Privacy Online”Kirsten’s Coauthored Book: The Power of AND: Responsible Business Without Trade-OffsEpisode Transcript

We’re going to go out on a limb and assume that you’ve heard Election Day is next week. It’s kind of hard to miss.And while we don’t have a new election-themed episode for you, we did release two interviews earlier this year that we thought would be worth combining into one supersized pod now—not only because they’re still timely, but also because the guests have an interesting connection to one another.So here, we’re starting out with the episode “On Reporting and Politics,” which came out on June 11th and features Robert Costa of The Washington Post and Washington Week. In the course of listening to it, you’ll get a preview of sorts of episode two with author and retired Notre Dame professor Bob Schmuhl, Robert’s mentor, who talked to us “On the Presidency and Possibility” for an episode that was released January 30th.Whether you’re listening to these conversations for the first time or checking them out again, we think you’ll enjoy them just as much as we do.Robert Costa Episode Notes and TranscriptBob Schmuhl Episode Notes and Transcript

Before the pandemic, we were the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for informal conversations about their work, and we look forward to being that show again one day. But for now, we’re recording remotely to maintain physical distancing.It’s still a pretty fantastic job.Lisa Fazio is an assistant professor of psychology and human development at Vanderbilt University. She and her team in the Building Knowledge Lab study how children and adults learn new information, true and false, and how to correct errors in people’s knowledge.Lisa’s research has applications in both the educational environment of the classroom and out in the world, including when it comes to how our brains process the inexhaustible stream of headlines, stories, videos, memes, likes, shares, and whatever else the Internet serves up to us at all hours of the day and night.Lisa and host Ted Fox framed their conversation around a study she and one of her colleagues at Vanderbilt published in the September 2020 issue of the journal Psychological Science. It’s a paper that builds on previous work by her and many others related to how the number of times we hear a statement repeated impacts whether we think it’s true … even if it’s not.In addition to implications for how we consume information on social media and elsewhere, this illusory truth effect has a through line to Lisa’s research in education. And as she explains, all of us—no matter our age or our beliefs—must navigate the same internal mechanism that associates repetition with truth.Whether this inclination serves us well or causes problems depends on the circumstances. But when it is problematic, such as in the case of misinformation, Lisa suggests a counter strategy that befits this, a podcast founded on the idea of brunch. It’s called:The truth sandwich.LINKSPreprint Version of Psychological Science Paper: “The Effect of Repetition on Truth Judgments Across Development” Episode Transcript

Before the pandemic, we were the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for informal conversations about their work, and we look forward to being that show again one day. But for now, we’re recording remotely to maintain physical distancing.It’s still a pretty fantastic job.Lauren Wilkinson is the author of the novel American Spy, which was published by Random House in 2019 and subsequently named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review, Time, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, and BuzzFeed, among others. Including it on his summer reading list, former President Barack Obama described it as “a whole lot more than just a spy thriller, wrapping together the ties of family, of love, and of country.”In addition to penning a critically acclaimed novel, Lauren has taught writing at Columbia University and the Fashion Institute of Technology and was a 2013 Center for Fiction Emerging Writers Fellow. Her writing has appeared in publications like Granta, The Believer, New York magazine, and The New York Times, and she also writes for television.During this conversation, Lauren and host Ted Fox talked about some of the big themes in American Spy, including how we understand the term “American,” as well as the seven-year process she went through to write the book. That story involves a surprising connection between her novel and one of those by one of our past guests, Pulitzer-winner Marilynne Robinson. Lastly, and on a completely unrelated note, at the very end of the interview, you might catch Lauren’s subtle nod to the New York City diner of Seinfeld fame that is Ted’s go-to background on Zoom.We guess you could say we believe that, if you can’t go to coffee, you bring the iconic TV sitcom coffee shop to you.LINKSLauren’s novel: American SpyEpisode transcriptWith a Side of Knowledge episode 2.1 with Marilynne Robinson: “On Writing and Saying Something True”

Before the pandemic, we were the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for informal conversations about their work, and we look forward to being that show again one day. But for now, we’re recording remotely to maintain physical distancing.It’s still a pretty fantastic job.Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan are the authors of four novels, most recently The Heir Affair, which was published this summer by Grand Central and is the sequel to their bestseller, The Royal We. Much like the two of them, the books are witty and hilarious, following the lives of a fictitious, modern-day British royal family from the perspective of a young American woman who falls in love with the heir to the throne while both are studying at Oxford.And it’s fitting that Heather—a 1999 Notre Dame grad, by the way—and Jessica should write about royals because they are something akin to internet royalty themselves. They are the creators of Go Fug Yourself, the iconic website that bears witness to “fantastically ugly” celebrity fashion. Their work has also appeared in publications ranging from New York magazine to Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, W magazine, and Glamour.Heather and Jessica talked to host Ted Fox about their new book and how they work together as a writing team as well as what makes for successful characters and the challenges of writing a sequel. The three made some time at the end to discuss the do’s and don’ts of covering celebrity fashion, too.As for where they started, Ted had the opportunity to see just how well Heather and Jessica know each other’s writing.LINKSHeather and Jessica’s two royal novels: The Royal We and The Heir AffairHeather and Jessica’s website: gofugyourself.comEpisode Transcript

Before the pandemic, we were the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for informal conversations about their work, and we look forward to being that show again one day. But for now, we’re recording remotely to maintain physical distancing.It’s still a pretty fantastic job.Alyssa Bereznak is a staff writer for theringer.com. She covers tech and culture, with a focus on media, celebrity, and how the internet is changing our lives. All these interests came together in a podcast she recently hosted and reported for The Ringer about a trivia app for your smartphone that aimed to do nothing less than change the future of television.As you’d probably guess, it didn’t quite get there. Alyssa’s podcast, “Boom/Bust: The Rise and Fall of HQ Trivia,” tells that story while delving into the workings of our attention economy across eight compelling and insightful episodes.She and host Ted Fox started their conversation with HQ Trivia, its meteoric rise to daily must-watch status for millions of people, and what was on the other side of that peak. That then led to them discussing the experience of making a podcast during the pandemic and other elements of our current media and internet landscape, including what happens at The Ringer when one of the biggest musicians in the world announces out of nowhere she has a new album coming that day at midnight.And we promise you, Alyssa’s tweet-length review of Taylor Swift’s folklore is not one to be missed.LINKSAlyssa’s Podcast: “Boom/Bust: The Rise and Fall of HQ Trivia”Alyssa’s Writing for The RingerEpisode Transcript

Before the pandemic, we were the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for informal conversations about their work, and we look forward to being that show again one day. But for now, we’re recording remotely to maintain physical distancing.It’s still a pretty fantastic job.Deb Amlen is the head writer and senior editor of “Wordplay,” the crossword column of The New York Times, where she’ll teach you how to be a better solver while also making you laugh. She’s particularly well-suited to this work.The author of the humor book It's Not PMS, It's You!, Deb got her start in crosswords making puzzles for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other newspapers. She’s also been a senior columnist for Yahoo! Tech, where she wrote the humor column “Buzzology,” and was on the original constructing team that made crosswords for The Onion’s A.V. Club.We connected for this episode because Deb was gracious enough to take some time for host Ted Fox, one of those ill-fated souls who loves solving—or more accurately, attempting to solve—The New York Times crossword puzzle most days of the week. Their conversation wound its way from puzzles as a form of creative expression and even a metaphor for handling the challenges of life to more practical matters like how crosswords are constructed and strategies for getting better at them. And on that getting better note, let us just say:Beware the rebus.LINKSThe New York Times “Wordplay” SectionCrossword Puzzle Collaboration Directory (Facebook Group)Episode Transcript

Before the pandemic, we were the show that invited scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for informal conversations about their work, and we look forward to being that show again one day. But for now, we’re recording remotely to maintain physical distancing. It's still a pretty fantastic job.If you’ve listened to any of our first 50 or so episodes, you may have heard host Ted Fox say at the end that “With a Side of Knowledge is a production of the Office of the Provost” here at Notre Dame. You also may have wondered:What exactly is a provost? If so, it’s your lucky day.The provost is the University’s chief academic officer. And we’ve chosen this episode, our season four premiere, to tell you that because you’re about to hear from Notre Dame’s new provost, Marie Lynn Miranda.Marie Lynn succeeded Tom Burish on July 1, but she spent the several months before her official start date getting to know her new university and helping Notre Dame navigate the myriad challenges presented by the coronavirus.Like so many here and elsewhere, a lot of Marie Lynn’s time these days continues to be devoted to how to best meet these challenges. But as she noted in the course of our conversation, she doesn’t want the demands of the moment to keep Notre Dame from also attending to its broader mission as a university.We thought about this interview in much the same way, wanting to give you a chance to get to know Marie Lynn Miranda the award-winning teacher, the founder of the Children’s Environmental Health Initiative, and most definitely the person, in addition to the chief academic officer at Notre Dame.That meant talking to her about not only what she could take from being provost at Rice University during Hurricane Harvey and apply to leading during a pandemic, but also about why she loves her dogs so much. We covered her ongoing and active research in public health—including an Indiana COVID-19 registry you can find linked below—as well as the time she quoted A League of Their Own to her son’s Little League team. We also discussed institutional diversity and inclusion … and how she still trades emails with Coach K at Duke.As for her Notre Dame story, that actually started some 60 years ago.LINKSResearch Study: Indiana COVID-19 RegistryEpisode Transcript

We typically invite scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for an informal conversation about their work, and then we turn those brunches into a podcast.But for these bonus mini-episodes, we change things up a bit, asking Notre Dame researchers to talk about something that both makes them happy and has no direct connection to their academic pursuits.In other words, if you thought a podcast recorded over brunch couldn’t get even more casual, you’d be wrong.Here, Richard Jones, Walter H. Annenberg-Edmund P. Joyce Director of Notre Dame’s Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics, and Democracy, and Victoria St. Martin, distinguished visiting journalist with the Gallivan Program and the print publications coordinator with Notre Dame Student Media, join host Ted Fox via Zoom to discuss a musician whose art dared us to love each other for exactly who we are:Prince.LINK:Richard and Victoria’s previous appearance on the podcast: “On Real News and Purple Rain” (ep. 1.4)

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: We invite scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for an informal conversation about their work, and then we turn those brunches into a podcast.It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.For this, our season 3 finale, we’re turning the virtual interview chair around on Notre Dame alum Robert Costa, national political reporter for The Washington Post and the moderator and managing editor of Washington Week on PBS.While Robert’s work is the news, he and host Ted Fox talked more about the craft of journalism generally—and political journalism specifically—than everything going on in our country and our world in 2020. We figure you have much better outlets for content like that, such as Robert’s own reporting and that of the journalists from diverse organizations and backgrounds he talks to on Washington Week.That said, the health disparities magnified by the coronavirus and the recent examples of police brutality are just the latest reminders of how much we need the work and perspectives of African-American journalists in particular. So while it’s not directly related to this episode, we wanted to use this spot to recommend you follow Richard Jones and Victoria St. Martin, formerly of The New York Times and The Washington Post, respectively, and currently shaping the next generation of journalists through their work with students at Notre Dame. We’ve put links to both of their Twitters in the notes below.And speaking of episode notes, there’s also a video of the late Tim Russert there that you’re going to hear Robert talk about. It’s one of many great stories he shared on pursuing a career as a reporter in the nation’s capital during a time of rapid change in the news industry, a journey that for him has included succeeding the legendary Gwen Ifill at PBS. He also used the provost office at Notre Dame to illustrate how anonymous sourcing works. You know, in case we ever really need to get anything off our chests.Take good care, and we’ll be talking to you again soon. Because sources close to the podcast tell us there might be some bonus episodes on the way this summer.LINKSRichard Jones’ Twitter: @richard_g_jonesVictoria St. Martin’s Twitter: @VStMartinRobert Costa’s Twitter: @costareportsVideo Excerpts of Tim Russert’s Red Smith Lecture: “When Politicians Meet the Press”Full Transcript of Russert Lecture

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: We invite scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for an informal conversation about their work, and then we turn those brunches into a podcast.It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.An expert on race and technology, Mutale Nkonde is the founding CEO of AI for the People, a nonprofit creative agency. She is currently a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and at Stanford University’s Digital Civil Society Lab. She has also been a fellow at the research institute Data & Society, and her work has been covered by MIT Technology Review, WIRED, and PBS NewsHour, among others.Mutale and host Ted Fox were supposed to get brunch back in mid-March, when she was scheduled to be a panelist at a conference hosted by the Notre Dame Technology Ethics Center, a new center at the University that supports multi- and interdisciplinary research on questions related to the impact of technology on humanity.However, like pretty much everything else these last couple of months, that event had to be cancelled. Fortunately, Mutale was still up for doing the podcast remotely, so she and Ted traded waffles for Zoom and had a conversation about artificial intelligence that started out by digging into what AI, machine learning, and deep learning even are. They then talked about the ways this seemingly dispassionate tech can exhibit very real bias—not to mention its implications for privacy and the future of work in the age of COVID-19—as well as her work on Capitol Hill and at Harvard.As for the three minutes they spent on Netflix’s Tiger King? Even that wound its way back to algorithms.

We typically invite scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for an informal conversation about their work, and then we turn those brunches into a podcast.But for these bonus mini-episodes, we change things up a bit, asking Notre Dame researchers to talk about something that both makes them happy and has no direct connection to their academic pursuits.In other words, if you thought a podcast recorded over brunch couldn’t get even more casual, you’d be wrong.Here, Meghan Sullivan, professor of philosophy and director of the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study, joins host Ted Fox via Zoom to discuss a passion she’s had since childhood, one that played a memorable role as she earned tenure:Building with LEGO.

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: We invite scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for an informal conversation about their work, and then we turn those brunches into a podcast.It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.Last year, Jon Goh earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford. While completing a doctoral degree is a monumental accomplishment by any standard, one requiring an awe-inspiring amount of dedication and hard work, it’s not the kind of thing a podcast at a university more than 2,000 miles away would typically hear about.But then we saw the video.In it, a DeLorean—the ’80s car made iconic by the movie Back to the Future—accelerated, turned, drifted, and literally burned rubber through a highly complicated race course … and it did it all by itself.Right away, we knew we had to try to talk to Jon, the guy who had shared the video and whose research at the Stanford Dynamic Design Lab was integral to building this incredible car, particularly the piece that programmed it to expertly wind its way through the course that only the most advanced drift racers would dare tackle.Several Twitter direct messages later, there he and host Ted Fox were chatting over Zoom about everything that went into turning a standard DeLorean into this DeLorean as well as the future of autonomous vehicles and why on Earth you’d do all of this in the first place.You know, beyond the fact that it’s just super cool.LINKSee the DeLorean in Action: Story and Video From Stanford

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: We invite scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for an informal conversation about their work, and then we turn those brunches into a podcast.It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.Jenni Heissel is an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Defense Management at the Naval Postgraduate School. Her research at the intersection of economics, public policy, and psychology has been covered by The Atlantic, The New York Times, NPR, the Brookings Evidence Speaks series, and a number of other outlets. She just received a large grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study the Department of Defense’s parental support policies.A 2007 graduate of Notre Dame, Jenni holds a master of public policy degree from Duke and a Ph.D. in human development and social policy from Northwestern. Her interdisciplinary expertise has driven her to pursue some really interesting and highly applicable research not only in the area of parenting but also education, including on in-person versus online instruction and what impact, if any, school start times have on students’ academic performance.In addition, she and host Ted Fox discussed a paper she has forthcoming in The Journal of Human Resources focused on how the siblings of teen moms are affected by the arrival of the baby, a dynamic that hasn’t been closely studied to this point.As you would expect these days, the conversation was a virtual one, and that was thanks to Jenni’s husband seeing a tweet we sent looking for guests, and then her taking the time to reach out.We’re thrilled that she did.

We typically invite scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for an informal conversation about their work, and then we turn those brunches into a podcast.But for these bonus mini-episodes, we change things up a bit, asking Notre Dame researchers to talk about something that both makes them happy and has no direct connection to their academic pursuits.In other words, if you thought a podcast recorded over brunch couldn’t get even more casual, you’d be wrong.Here, Kasey Buckles, Brian and Jeannelle Brady Associate Professor of Economics at Notre Dame, joins host Ted Fox via Zoom to discuss the greatest baseball team in the history of the universe:The Boston Red Sox.

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: We invite scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for an informal conversation about their work, and then we turn those brunches into a podcast.It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.Cara Ocobock is an assistant professor of anthropology at Notre Dame. A biological anthropologist, she is the director of the Human Energetics Laboratory and explores the physiological and behavioral mechanisms necessary to cope with and adapt to extreme climate and physical activity. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Foundation, and the American-Scandinavian Foundation.Last fall was Cara’s first semester at Notre Dame, and we didn’t wait long before asking her to do one of our Research Uncorked live shows at Ironhand Wine Bar in South Bend. She and host Ted Fox got together again in March to record this episode, starting with the work that’s taken her to the Arctic Circle to study the characteristics of a population whose experience in the extreme cold could hold valuable lessons for all of us.It also may involve Santa Claus’s hometown.From there, Cara and Ted talked about potential insights into the adaptations of a past cold-climate population, the Neanderthals, before changing gears to discuss her research at the intersection of anthropology and sports, which has grown out of a challenging personal journey as a powerlifter.Yes, she really is as cool as she sounds.

We typically invite scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for an informal conversation about their work, and then we turn those brunches into a podcast.But for these bonus mini-episodes, we’re changing things up a bit, asking Notre Dame researchers to talk about something that both makes them happy and has no direct connection to their academic pursuits.In other words, if you thought a podcast recorded over brunch couldn’t get even more casual, you’d be wrong.Here, Katie O’Reilly, a sixth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Stream and Wetland Ecology Lab at Notre Dame, joins host Ted Fox to discuss a subject near and dear to both of them:Midwest pizza.

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: We invite scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for an informal conversation about their work, and then we turn those brunches into a podcast.It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.Lizzie Peabody and Justin O’Neill are the host and producer, respectively, of Sidedoor, a podcast from the Smithsonian Institution. Justin also happens to be a Notre Dame alum. But that’s not the reason we invited them to come on this show. In fact, we didn’t even know about Justin’s ND connection when we asked.No, we reached out to them because we listened to and loved their episode titled “The Worst Video Game Ever?” and immediately decided these were podcasters we had to talk to if we could. Lizzie and Justin were kind enough to take us up on the offer, and thanks to the magic of Zoom, host Ted Fox got to ask them himself why Atari’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was such an epic fail of a video game.They also talked about Sidedoor’s field trip episode—which offers a great reminder that when we say “the Smithsonian,” we’re not just talking about one museum—as well as the surprising history of the spacesuits that allowed Neil Armstrong to take that “one giant leap for mankind.”Lizzie and Justin even turned the questions on Ted at one point. Here’s to hoping he did our anteater friend at the Potawatomi Zoo proud.

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: We invite scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for an informal conversation about their work, and then we turn those brunches into a podcast.It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.Jonathan Eig is the author of five books, including biographies of Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, and most recently, Muhammad Ali. All three of them were New York Times bestsellers, and Ken Burns—yes, that Ken Burns—has described Jonathan as a “master storyteller.”He and host Ted Fox met up at a diner called Stella’s, one of Jonathan’s favorite spots in Chicago, to talk about Ali: A Life, which Jonathan published with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2017. In addition to winning the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing, the book was named biography of the year by the British newspaper The Times, one of the 10 best non-fiction books of the year by The Wall Street Journal, and one of The New York Times’ notable books of the year. It was also a finalist for an NAACP Image Award and received a whole host of other honors too numerous to list. If nothing else, just know that Joyce Carol Oates—yes, that Joyce Carol Oates—called it “an epic of a biography.”Jonathan and Ted covered both Ali the boxer and Ali the icon, discussing everything from his trash-talking and what made him such a great fighter to his relationship with the Nation of Islam and what he’s meant in and to the broader culture since bursting onto the scene in the 1960s. They also spent some time on the process of researching and writing the book, including the painful parts, as well as what Jonathan asked Muhammad Ali when he finally got the chance.LINK:Jonathan’s Biography of Muhammad Ali: Ali: A Life

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: We invite scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for an informal conversation about their work, and then we turn those brunches into a podcast.It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.Kerry Hannon is a leading authority and strategist on career transitions, entrepreneurship, personal finance, and retirement. The author of 13 books—and soon to be 14—she is currently an expert columnist and regular contributor to The New York Times, MarketWatch, and Forbes.Kerry visited campus earlier this month as a guest of Notre Dame’s Inspired Leadership Initiative, a program that offers accomplished individuals who have completed traditional careers a one-year experience designed to further their impact on society and the world.Here, she and host Ted Fox discussed how to think about work at different ages and stages of a career, from people who are just starting out to those 50 and over. The latter were the focus of her 13th book, Never Too Old to Get Rich: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Starting a Business Mid-Life, which was published by Wiley in 2019 and was a No. 1 bestseller on Amazon.They also talked about both the rising success of female entrepreneurs and the particular challenges women in the workforce still encounter as well as what a lot of us get wrong when it comes to money and loved ones.One takeaway there: Don’t cheat in those family games of Monopoly.LINK:Kerry’s latest book: Never Too Old to Get Rich: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Starting a Business Mid-Life

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: We invite scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for an informal conversation about their work, and then we turn those brunches into a podcast.It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.This past November, Prathm Juneja was named to the American Rhodes Scholar Class of 2020, becoming the 20th Rhodes Scholar in Notre Dame history. He talked with host Ted Fox in December—a few weeks after the Rhodes announcement and a week or so before he graduated. Graduating in December isn’t especially common at Notre Dame, and in Prathm’s case, it was because he completed the five-year Reilly Dual Degree Program in Arts and Letters and Engineering in four-and-a-half years. A political science and computer science major, he was also a member of the University’s Glynn Family Honors Program and a College of Arts and Letters Dean’s Fellow.Shreya Kumar, a faculty member in Notre Dame’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering who wrote one of Prathm’s Rhodes recommendation letters, described him this way:“I have worked with many students who build impressive solutions to common problems, but I have hardly met anyone more dedicated than Prathm to fairness, accessibility and transparency in democracy. He will do great things for this world.”With an introduction like that, Prathm has every reason to be proud. Yet the way he talks about himself is self-effacing and humble, whether he’s recounting the moment he found out he was a Rhodes Scholar, the research behind his senior thesis on voter registration, or the lesson he learned from his parents.As you’ll hear, we couldn’t even get him to brag about receiving a congratulatory phone call from a candidate for president.LINKSNotre Dame News Story: Notre Dame’s Prathm Juneja named Rhodes ScholarSome Fun With Probability (listen to the episode first): Math Guy: The Birthday Problem

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: We invite scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for an informal conversation about their work, and then we turn those brunches into a podcast. It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.Bob Schmuhl, now a professor emeritus at Notre Dame, joined the university’s faculty in 1980. He was the founding director of Notre Dame’s Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics, and Democracy and was later named the inaugural Walter H. Annenberg-Edmund P. Joyce Professor of American Studies and Journalism. His areas of expertise include the modern American presidency and the relationship between American politics and the media.Bob is the author or editor of some 15 books, the most recent of which prompted the conversation here. In The Glory and the Burden: The American Presidency from FDR to Trump, published in 2019 by the University of Notre Dame Press, he examines the institution that is the presidency rather than focusing on the individual occupants of the White House.He and host Ted Fox discussed potential reforms to how Americans elect the president, including the idea of regional primaries, as well as the path to the present state of our politics and the sense of possibility Bob believes the presidency should represent.LINKBob’s latest book: The Glory and the Burden: The American Presidency from FDR to Trump

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: We invite scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for an informal conversation about their work, and then we turn those brunches into a podcast.It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.Janne Matláry is a professor of international politics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Oslo and the Norwegian Defence University College. A specialist in European foreign and defense policy as well as international security, she was Norway’s deputy foreign minister from 1997–2000, the first Catholic woman to hold a high government post in Norway since the Protestant Reformation. She has also served on the board of trustees of the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights and is a life member of the Pontifical Academy of Science.Janne was in residence at Notre Dame’s Institute for Advanced Study as a director’s fellow for several weeks this past fall. She and host Ted Fox began their conversation drawing on one of her most recent books—Hard Power in Hard Times: Can Europe Act Strategically?, published in 2018 by Palgrave Macmillan—with Janne providing a general sense of the model on which the European Union has been built.From there, they talked about the differences between modern and postmodern states, the external and internal challenges facing European democracies today, and the U.S.-EU relationship, particularly with respect to NATO.

It’s the end of the year, and we’re counting down our Top 5 most-played episodes of 2019, which spanned parts of our second and (in-progress) third seasons.Starting Monday, Dec. 16, and continuing each day through Friday, we’ll be putting one of our most popular episodes of the past 12 months back into your feed for your listening pleasure.Maybe you missed it the first time around. Maybe you just want to hear it again and don’t feel like searching through your app. Or maybe you’re reading this and thinking, “Nah, I’m good” before clicking delete.You too, dad?Anyway, this is it: No. 1, “On Cryptocurrency, Facebook’s Libra, and Data Security,” featuring Mike Chapple of Notre Dame and originally released August 29th.Enjoy.

It’s the end of the year, and we’re counting down our Top 5 most-played episodes of 2019, which spanned parts of our second and (in-progress) third seasons.Starting Monday, Dec. 16, and continuing each day through Friday, we’ll be putting one of our most popular episodes of the past 12 months back into your feed for your listening pleasure.Maybe you missed it the first time around. Maybe you just want to hear it again and don’t feel like searching through your app. Or maybe you’re reading this and thinking, “Nah, I’m good” before clicking delete.Whatever, mom. Dad’s still listening.Anyway, this is No. 2, “On Math, Origami, and How No Discipline is an Island,” featuring Clare Kim and originally released May 16th. At the time we recorded, Clare was a doctoral candidate at MIT; she is now a postdoctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis.Enjoy.

It’s the end of the year, and we’re counting down our Top 5 most-played episodes of 2019, which spanned parts of our second and (in-progress) third seasons.Starting Monday, Dec. 16, and continuing each day through Friday, we’ll be putting one of our most popular episodes of the past 12 months back into your feed for your listening pleasure.Maybe you missed it the first time around. Maybe you just want to hear it again and don’t feel like searching through your app. Or maybe you’re reading this and thinking, “Nah, I’m good” before clicking delete.Mom, seriously. That hurts our feelings.Anyway, this is No. 3, “On Enron, Business, and Cover Stories,” featuring Bethany McLean of Vanity Fair and originally released April 18th.Enjoy.LINKSBethany’s Book on Enron: The Smartest Guys in the RoomBethany’s Podcast: Making a Killing

It’s the end of the year, and we’re counting down our Top 5 most-played episodes of 2019, which spanned parts of our second and (in-progress) third seasons.Starting Monday, Dec. 16, and continuing each day through Friday, we’ll be putting one of our most popular episodes of the past 12 months back into your feed for your listening pleasure.Maybe you missed it the first time around. Maybe you just want to hear it again and don’t feel like searching through your app. Or maybe you’re reading this and thinking, “Nah, I’m good” before clicking delete.We’re looking at you, mom.Anyway, this is No. 4, “On American Jesuits, Catholicism, and Higher Education” featuring John McGreevy of Notre Dame and originally released September 26th.Enjoy.LINKJohn’s Book: American Jesuits and the World: How an Embattled Religious Order Made Modern Catholicism Global

It’s the end of the year, and we’re counting down our Top 5 most-played episodes of 2019, which spanned parts of our second and (in-progress) third seasons.Starting Monday, Dec. 16, and continuing each day through Friday, we’ll be putting one of our most popular episodes of the past 12 months back into your feed for your listening pleasure.Maybe you missed it the first time around. Maybe you just want to hear it again and don’t feel like searching through your app. Or maybe you’re reading this and thinking, “Nah, I’m good” before clicking delete.Whatever. Our moms are still listening.Anyway, this is No. 5, “On ‘How Charts Lie’ and Increasing Graphicacy,” featuring Alberto Cairo of the University of Miami and originally released October 10th.Enjoy.LINKSAlberto’s Book: How Charts LieAlberto’s Piece from Scientific American: Graphics That Seem Clear Can Easily Be Misread

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: We invite scholars, makers, and professionals out to brunch for an informal conversation about their work, and then we turn those brunches into a podcast.It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.For our last episode of 2019, we had the chance to welcome a Notre Dame alum back to campus. His name is Chris Beem, and he is the managing director of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State University.Chris is the author or co-editor of five books, most recently Democratic Humility: Reinhold Niebuhr, Neuroscience, and America's Political Crisis, which was published by Lexington Books. Currently at work on a book about democratic virtues, he is also a co-host of the McCourtney Institute’s Democracy Works podcast.His conversation with host Ted Fox did eventually find its way to podcasting, but on the way there they talked about things like the nature of democracy—not to mention human beings themselves—as well as the role of ethics in a democratic society. They also discussed the one thing everyone listening to this episode could do to help make our democracy better.Chris’ answer to that question provided some good food for thought heading into 2020.Finally, to close out the episode (and the year), we said a special thank you to our Twitter peeps.LINKS:Chris’ Book: Democratic HumilityMcCourtney Institute's Podcast: Democracy Works