Podcasts about Alfred University

It is never too late to chase a dream, even one that has waited decades for its turn. My guest, Evan Katz, built a career in journalism, public finance, and local government before taking an unexpected path into professional baseball. After first playing organized baseball at age 45, Evan became a professional player at 61 and later coached professional baseball at 69. We talk about how fear can become motivation, why setbacks can be powerful learning opportunities, and how skills gained across a lifetime can prepare us for challenges we never expected to face. Evan also shares what he learned from calling himself the “least qualified coach in professional baseball,” and how listening, mentoring, and supporting others became some of his greatest strengths. His story is a wonderful reminder that personal growth, career change, and lifelong learning do not come with an expiration date. Highlights: 02:47 – How family work ethic shaped Evan's drive. 11:26 – How fear can become motivation. 13:08 – Why setbacks can become learning opportunities. 35:06 – What local government taught Evan about growth. 42:29 – Why he started playing baseball at 45. 53:37 – How he became a professional baseball coach at 69 About the Guest: Evan grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts two miles from Fenway Park in the 1960s and quickly learned the emotional highs and lows of being a Red Sox fan.  When the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, after an 86-year championship drought, he rang church bells to celebrate. After a long award-winning career in municipal and public school finance in Massachusetts, and raising a family of four with his wife Liz, Evan began his late-life baseball career in earnest at age 65.  He was an assistant high school coach for three years, and documented the team's Massachusetts state championship in the story “No Earbuds in the Outfield.” Evan Katz's pro baseball career began at age 61 when he pitched for the White Sands Pupfish of the independent Pecos League in 2017. When euphoria subsided and his infinity ERA began to sting, Evan returned to the Pecos League at age 67. With the Austin Weirdos he became one of the oldest pitchers ever to start a minor league game and lowered his ERA to 29.25 After an aborted stint as pitching coach with the Roswell Invaders in 2024, Evan returned to the Pecos League in 2025 as bullpen coach of the North Platte 80s. As the 80's scout he recruited players for the second-year Nebraska team.  As bullpen coach he supported the North Platte pitching staff which anchored the team's 27-21 record and helped the team reach the second round of the playoffs. And this despite just three years as a high school coach, and no college coaching experience. There were more than 2000 coaches among nearly 300 major, minor and independent pro baseball teams and Evan was the least qualified. To share his second career in baseball and other inspiring baseball stories, Evan manages his baseball website “Baseball by the Sea Media.” It includes exclusive feature stories plus biographies and game stories published by the Society for American Baseball Research. It also links to the 2024 award-winning two-season podcast he co-hosted with Bruce McClure, “Baseball's Last Frontier: Stories from the Pecos League.” Ways to connect with Evan**:** https://sites.google.com/view/baseballbythesea/home https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-katz-351554b/ About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson  00:04 What if the biggest thing holding you back isn't what's in front of you, but rather what you believe? Welcome to Unstoppable Mindset, where inclusion, diversity, and the unexpected meet. I'm your host, Michael Hingston, speaker, author, and advocate for inclusion and possibilities. This podcast explores how the beliefs we carry shape the way we live, lead, and connect with others. Each week, I talk with people who challenge assumptions, face adversity head-on, and show what's possible when we choose curiosity over fear. Together, we focus on mindset, resilience, and the small shifts that lead to meaningful change. Let's get started. Hi, everyone, and welcome to another Unstoppable Mindset podcast episode today. We get to chat with Evan Katz, and Evan's got an interesting life, especially since, if you will, he started the second part of his life, or maybe it's not the second, maybe it's later, of being a professional baseball coach at the age of 61. Well, we're going to hear about that. Evan lives in Massachusetts, in Swampscott, grew up in Brookline, which was very close to where the Red Sox play. I'm sure he's got lots of stories that we get to talk about with that. But anyway, Evan, I want to welcome you to Unstoppable Mindset. We're really glad you're here. Evan Katz  01:42 Thanks, Michael. I really appreciate the invitation. I I think that I'm excited to be part of a show with with with the theme that that you emphasize because I think that that when you reached out to me to ask if I was interested in in sharing some of my life experiences, I realize that there's a there's an unstoppable part of my mindset that has allowed me to achieve some things I didn't think were going to be possible. Michael Hingson  02:10 There you go. Well, you know, a lot of times we plan, and what we plan doesn't always necessarily go exactly the way we thought. But that's okay. It's it's a question what we do with it and what we learn from it. I suppose why don't we start by you telling us a little bit maybe about the early Evan growing up and and all that. And I know that you had mentioned that you think you actually got your kind of unstoppable mindset attitude from your parents and all that. So if you want to talk about that as as we go, you're welcome to. But anyway, why don't you start by telling us a little bit about the early Evan, if you will. Evan Katz  02:42 Sure. Well, you know, as you mentioned, I grew up outside of Boston in the town of Brookline, which is about two miles from Fenway Park. I'm a baby boomer. My my parents worked really hard, and they they worked hard to get their first house. They worked hard to fix it up. My mother was at home. My father worked in his parents' hardware store and was always fixing up the house. We ended up upgrading houses because of all the work that he did. And my mother, although she wasn't working, you know, she was involved in local politics, trying to improve the schools. And one of the stories I told when she passed away a number of years ago that she was so effective about mobilizing people to make changes in the school system. One of the school principals said to somebody else, "Get that Pawnee cats off the phone, Michael Hingson  03:34 because of course Evan Katz  03:35 at the time telephone was the only way to connect with people. But you know she had her unstoppable mindset in terms of making changes in public education in Brookline, my dad in terms of living the dream that he had for his family, and I really think that that in my own way I picked up that same hard worth it work ethic, and it's popped up along the way throughout my my life and my career. I Michael Hingson  04:00 I know what you mean. I know my parents were somewhat the same way. My dad worked at. Well, we moved to California when I was five, and before we moved, we were in Chicago. And he and my uncle owned a TV repair shop, and my dad left that to move to California. Wanted to do that anyway, but he began working at a government installation, was called Plant 42, and then later transferred to Edwards Air Force Base. My mom stayed home for a while. She actually helped sell real estate, helped sell some of the houses on the street where we moved because they were they were brand new, and the real estate people trusted her, so she she did some of that. Don't know what she earned or how all that worked, but but she did okay. But my dad worked, and I I feel very blessed. They they clearly taught me a lot, and I value very much their work ethic. I know what you're talking about. Evan Katz  05:01 Well, family is a great resource, whether it's your immediate family or extended family. And also, again, at the time that that I was growing up, most of our extended family lived right in the area, so there was a lot of connecting with cousins and uncles and grandparents. And I think that had its own way of shaping because we had a pretty hardworking, determined family, and I think that got passed on again, not just in my parents, but from my extended family as well. We Michael Hingson  05:28 had aunts and uncles and cousins. A lot of them were in Chicago. Then aunt and uncle and their two boys and our cousins moved out to California, but it was long after we moved. And then our next closest relative was actually up in the San Francisco area. Aunt Bella and Uncle Oscar owned a shoe store, and but and there were some other people who we called aunts. I'm not sure that they actually were, but aunts and uncles. But they they lived in the L.A. area. But most of our relatives were not very close by. Well, that's that's fine, but value the relationships nonetheless. So what was what was school like for you? Well, elementary school and high school and so on. Evan Katz  06:22 Well, I went to the local elementary school, and as I think, as I as I suggested, it was one of the schools that was being neglected by the town. My mother and her friends advocated for equal resources. It was also during the time where Christmas carols were being sung in school, and it was not something that my parents thought was appropriate. I was Jewish. There were other Jewish kids in school, not very many, and just didn't seem like this was the thing that should be happening, given where our country was at the time. And so I did well in elementary school. I mean, the interesting thing was I skipped kindergarten, so I was always the youngest and the slowest on the playground, and it actually contributed to my not participating in sports through my early years and into into high school, which we will we'll hear more about that later. But I got a good education. I loved numbers. I learned in high school after I had horrible year my sophomore year writing. I was determined to learn. I took a couple of English classes from mr. Carey at Newton South High School. Learned to become a good writer, and ultimately that led to my writing on college newspapers and becoming a newspaper reporter. My first job out of college. So, you know, the kind of thing when you go through school, you try to figure out, you know, what are the things that that that sing to you. And first, it was numbers for me, and I ended up going into a career in public finance, and then the writing, which I ended up becoming a newspaper reporter, put that on hold. And about 10 years ago, or eight years ago, I started a baseball social media website, and I ended up writing baseball stories. So, so here I am in my my my formative years in school, taming numbers, becoming a CFO in the public sector, and becoming a good writer-they got me through life. Michael Hingson  08:33 How did you end up being able to skip kindergarten? Evan Katz  08:37 That was back in the day. They didn't have minimum age requirements. If you pass the test, you you got to go right to first grade. Michael Hingson  08:44 Ah, well, I know I went to kindergarten in Chicago, and you started in Chicago at age four. Then we moved to California, and the problem is in California you couldn't start kindergarten till age five, but I had had a year of kindergarten already, but they wouldn't let me just go to first grade because I was only five, so I ended up with two years of kindergarten. And I'm not sure that second year was all that exciting for me, because kids were drawing and doing all sorts of stuff that I wouldn't do being blind. But we coped, and we got through it. I also did love numbers and so on, and my dad taught me how to do math in my head, so I was really doing well with math. And my my mother helped me with spelling tests and reading other material to me, and so on. So we got through it, and again, they took that on without any remorse at all, which, as I think back on it, was just part of their gutsiness and their unstoppability. Because the doctors told them that no blind child could ever amount to anything, and they were going to prove the doctors wrong. And I would like to think that they did, but we. We went through it, and I didn't actually. I learned Braille when I was in kindergarten in Chicago, but then didn't have access to Braille till the fourth grade out here in California. Yep. Yeah. Well, but my my parents read and kept me up with everything, but still it was a problem. But then I got Braille again, and so it all worked out, but I, but I, but I know what you're saying. It still gets back to the work ethic, and our parents were gonna do everything they could to make sure we all succeeded, didn't they? Evan Katz  10:32 Well, and I think also, Michael, you've touched on it, and I did as well. You know, there are things, there are areas we go into, whether it's school or work or relationships, we're blessed with certain talents and traits, but we also have areas that are not our strengths, and we're always having to work to figure out how to how to compensate for our areas of call it weakness or limitations, and also how to allow our strengths to to overcome those and and then to help generate success. Michael Hingson  11:05 Yeah, and and we do need to do that. And and the reality is that we're all generally better at some things than we are at other things, but we can make it work if we if we try. I wrote and published with a colleague, Carrie Wagg Kent, two years ago a book called *Live Like a Guide Dog* which is all about learning to control fear and its life lessons that that tell us that fear doesn't need to overwhelm us or, as I put it, blind us. That that we can use fear as a very powerful tool to help us, and I mention that because there are so many things that we fear in the world, and most of them we don't have any control over. I mean, I know that there are things that that I don't get to do right now that other people do because they can see different things. But at the same time, I have gifts that most of those people never either learn to use or choose to use or can use, and so we all have to work together to make the world successful. And I think that's the big issue. Evan Katz  12:11 Well, I think your point about fear is really important because we we all have fears, we all have worries, and fear can be paralyzing, and but it can also be motivating, and I think it's important that if you get into a situation that that you're concerned about or worried about, you should acknowledge that you're in something. Maybe you're over your head, and we'll talk about my coaching a professional team at age 69 without ever having coached college baseball, going right from high school coaching to professional coaching, that was the hardest job of my life, and that fear motivated me to figure out how am I going to come up with those compensating skills? How am I going to be able to succeed? Because I want this to succeed not just for me, but for the players around me. So, so fear. It's important to to recognize it, and so that you know that it's there, but also be able to take advantage of what fear can motivate you to do. Michael Hingson  13:13 Well, and fear doesn't need to paralyze you unless you let it. And that's the the big issue: is that we don't learn generally how to control fear and to use fear in a positive way. We worry about so many things over which we'll never have control because we just don't, and we let all of that worry us, and that that certainly adds so much to the fear levels that we face, and if we would only learn to just focus on what we can control, that doesn't mean you don't be aware of other things. But don't worry about the things over which you don't have control. It will help your life a whole lot. Evan Katz  13:53 And another aspect to that is, and I and I learned this, and as I mentioned, I worked in the public sector for for for almost 40 years, and I came up with the phrase at one point, and I I don't remember the circumstances. And somebody said, "I don't know if this is going to work. I don't know if we have the money. I don't know we have the people. This may not be a good solution, or the operation may not work. And I said, "Well, I think we have to see if it fails because if it fails, then we're going to learn something. Obviously, we didn't want anyone to lose a job or to get hurt. It wasn't failing in that regard, but but the you have to have enough courage so that if something isn't going to work, you can use that as as a learning opportunity as well, so you can't have fear of failure either. Because then we can all look back. You're old enough. I'm old enough to look back on our lives and see those learning moments. Many of them came from times that didn't work out so well, Michael Hingson  14:55 which doesn't mean that we failed. And I think that's the big issue. I think we have to deal with. Failure is is something that we have to really get over thinking about because failure isn't really it. What what it is is that things didn't work out the way we planned, but that doesn't mean that we failed, which means we just can't go on. We're we're stuck. It's it's a learning experience, and that is part of what dealing with fear is all about. Is rather than worrying about it. All right, so this didn't work. Don't fret. Don't worry. Don't panic. What did you learn from it? How do we get beyond that? And that's the thing that we generally tend not to do very much: is to do a lot of self-analysis in our own lives. Take time at night to step back and look at what worked during the day, what didn't work, and the what didn't works weren't failures, but they were learning opportunities if we take advantage of our own skills to develop our mind muscle to do that. Evan Katz  15:57 Absolutely, I Michael Hingson  15:58 think that's that's so important. Well, so for you, you you where did you go to college? Evan Katz  16:08 I graduated from Newton South High School. We went from Brookline to Newton in the 70s. I went to a small college in Western New York, Alfred University, for two years, and ultimately graduated from Colby College in Maine in 1977. As I mentioned, I wrote for both the newspapers at Alford and Colby, and that's where I got my my my journalistic experience back then. Writing for college newspapers was was a big deal back then, Michael Hingson  16:39 yeah, Evan Katz  16:39 and that worked out really well. I was going to go into teaching. That was my original plan. I did some internships in college. I even, when I was at Colby, I took a semester and helped out at a small fourth grade class in neighboring Oakland, Maine, helping out kids doing lessons in the in the corridor and in the back of the room to help them with their math, but when I left college, I had done enough writing, primarily sports, that I decided to to follow journalism. But the college years were really an eye opener for me. As I mentioned, I was a year young. You know, I was the drinking age was 18, and I was still only 17 and a half when I went to college, but somehow my IDs got me through into the pub. But it was a really eye-opening experience going to college in New York. I'd been in Massachusetts my whole life and was in a small town in Western New York, and it was just so eye-opening to see a part of the country and people that were very unlike where I lived in terms of Alfred. Most of the kids were from New York, and then going to Maine, they were more from New England. But it was just a real eye-opening experience. I think we all go through that in our late teens and early 20s, really beginning to discover, you know, who we are, what situations are we comfortable in? We test ourselves. We do crazy things, and it all turned out okay because I was able to get a job right out of college. Michael Hingson  18:11 So teaching was your plan, but it didn't go that way. Evan Katz  18:16 No, it didn't. And interestingly enough, I was looking back through my father's memorabilia when he died, and I think I knew this, but I was reminded that he wanted to teach originally, and he actually was a mentor to many people during his working career. And he took great pride and went to the Peace Corps actually for a number of years in his 60s, and so you know the whole teaching mentoring thing ran in our family, so I guess it's kind of ironic that I ended up coaching baseball at age 65 as a as a teacher and a mentor. But but the college experience, you know, I still think about it. I just sold my vinyl records. It was it was a little traumatic, but I did sell my vinyl records recently because I can listen to everything over the internet now, and but that was a water watershed moment selling my vinyl that I listened to in college for all those years. Michael Hingson  19:14 I still have mine from working at the campus radio station. I got a lot of records back here, and I I am somewhat of the opinion of the I don't know whether I would call them snobs, but I still think the best quality is still vinyl. Evan Katz  19:30 Well, as you know, Michael, one of the best attributes of vinyl records is when they were originally the songs were compiled and sequenced. It was they were designed to listen through the whole side of an album. Michael Hingson  19:44 Yeah, Evan Katz  19:44 and I mean obviously Pink Floyd was classic, and I'm sure that there were others that come to mind that I can't think of. And I was a big fan of the Doobie Brothers, and to this day I'll still turn off my radio in the car and put on a couple of Doobie Brothers albums and listen to them straight. Same with Chicago. It just the music was meant to be arranged, you know, for half an hour or 35 minutes, not just three and a half minutes. And I think a little bit of that has been has been lost with today's music. Michael Hingson  20:13 Yeah. Well, I think there's there's truth to that. And I even go back further. I've been a fan for many many years of big bands, primarily Swing, Benny Goodman, and and so on, but also doop and early rock. But I and I like some of the other rock. But I've never been a great heavy metal fan. But that's okay. Some people like it, and then that's fine too. But I really enjoy my records as well, which is a lot of fun. Yeah, I Evan Katz  20:42 did listen to Van Halen cassettes driving. Somehow, a Van Halen arrangement wasn't quite the same as Chicago. No, Michael Hingson  20:50 no, it is a little bit different. There's no doubt about that. So, what was your job that you ended up getting out of college? Evan Katz  20:57 I ended up worked as a stringer, which I don't even know if there are any anymore, but I think I got paid 10 cents an inch for covering soccer for the Newton graphic. I covered the Newton South soccer team, and also I I don't know how much an hour I got. I covered the Westin Wildcats. That's a small town west of Boston for the Westin Town Crier. That's how I got started in journalism, and I ultimately was hired as a part-time reporter by the Walpole Times, which is small town southwest of Boston. And I eventually became a full-time reporter there, covering town government, writing feature stories, learned how to use a 35 millimeter camera. We we had our own darkroom there, and I thought it was so much fun going out to meetings, interviewing people, compiling stories. It was just it wasn't like work. It was it was it was exciting, and it paid the bills, and I was living on my own for the first time. Michael Hingson  22:06 That didn't get you to graduate to things like going into television on WEEI and doing sports for them, huh? Evan Katz  22:13 No, the the the written word at the time, and even today still is is where I am. Although, as I joke with my friends, just put a microphone in front of me, and I'll start talking. Michael Hingson  22:26 So that's okay. Well, so how long did you write? And then what happened Evan Katz  22:32 was, so as I mentioned, my mother was very involved in local government, and I grew up in Brookline. And the interesting thing was, I was covering the planning board and the school committee in Walpole, and I'm I'm going to the meetings and I'm listening to them talking about the issues that they're dealing with, and I'm thinking to myself, so this is what 1979. I'm 23 years old, and I'm thinking, I mean, I can do better than this. I mean, listening to these these people talk about how they're going to solve problems, and I said, I think I can really help. So, the local legislator from Walpole, his name was Frank Woodward, had an opening in his office, and I started working as a legislative aide for him, working in the state house. It was very exciting. My mother was so proud. When some one morning in March, I don't know if it was 1979 or 1980, and I walked up the steps of the State House. Big blue sky in Boston. It was a big golden dome. I'll never forget. I walked up the front steps, looked up at the golden dome and the big blue sky in March of whatever year that was, so excited. My mother was so proud. My dad was too, obviously. And then I got involved in government, and that's where it all started. Working in the state house to really begin to understand the importance of issues. You know, it wasn't just local government, but how the state government intersected with the federal government, and how much how how important government is to making people's lives safe and protected. Michael Hingson  24:07 Yeah, and I think that is that is something that although there is certainly a lot going on today that is not necessarily the the model of what government ought to be, probably, but still, government and what the House of Representatives and the Senate do at the federal level, and what happens at the at the state house and in the state government is really important. And I wish more people would seriously get involved with it, and and do it from an ethical standpoint. But you know, we, I guess, we go through through different kinds of eras of how things work. Evan Katz  24:54 Well, it's interesting in the tumult that we're going through here. I recently had a chance. Last month to go to England with my wife. I hadn't been there for a while, and and I was really struck by how the history dates back centuries and centuries and centuries prior. You know, to 1066, I guess is one of the lines in the sand or the dirt in England. But when they started the more modern era, and what I was really struck by when you think about a country like England and all the difficulties, all the changes, all the times that they were under threat from external forces, internal forces, all the chaos, and somehow they've survived. And I think this is one of the real attributes of Great Britain. And I just began to think about what we're going through here, and I think I have to be hopeful in the same way. Michael Hingson  25:56 Yeah, I agree that Evan Katz  25:57 that that we've been here for 250 years. I know it's short compared to England. Supposedly, one author says that republics die after 250 years. I don't know if I buy that necessarily, but but the point is that that that I think somehow, some way, we're going to survive this because other countries have been through much more over much longer periods of time, and here they are. And 2026 is stable, viable countries. Michael Hingson  26:25 Yeah, and they're still there, and they're going to be there. And I agree with you. I think that we're we're going to continue, and maybe republics die after 250 years, but it doesn't mean they have to. And I think that's that's part of it. So what did you what did you do in terms of you you went to work in the state house or what did you do? Evan Katz  26:48 And I was a legislative aide, so we would get information on legislation, take a lot of constituent phone calls because at the time the only time only way you got a hold of your legislator was either make a phone call. Of course, I think from Walpole to Boston, it might have been a toll call at that time. So maybe we got more letters from Walpole. I don't know, but constituent constituent concerns, working with state agencies to resolve things, and and it just got me acquainted with with with how government works, and it just gave me an appreciation for what it takes to make government work for for the the residents of Walpole and a couple other nearby towns, and also you get to see the the leaders of the state at that time the the Senate President and the the Speaker of the House, and you get to understand a little bit more how they show leadership and what skills and attributes work well, and what ones in your mind don't work well. But the whole bottom line is, you know, how is it working for the constituents? And to me, that became more and more important. Is what's the bottom line here? It's not about power. It's not about success at the legislator. The bottom line is the impact on people. Michael Hingson  28:13 Well, I remember that when I lived in Winthrop, every year I would go with people from the National Federation of the Blind, we went to Washington every year. Five, 600 of us descended on Washington and visited all of our legislators. And I remember actually once having the opportunity to set up an appointment and meet with Tip O'Neill. What an amazing guy he was! Yeah. But then also there was a new congressman who had just joined, Ed Markey. Evan Katz  28:45 Oh sure. Michael Hingson  28:46 Now look where he is. He's but but it was it was so much fun seeing Congress in action and actually being a part of it, talking about different kinds of issues, and of course it got to meet Ted Kennedy and also Paul Songas along the way as well. And I and I also was involved in things in in Massachusetts because one of the problems we had in the early '80s in Massachusetts and around the country was that blind people couldn't buy life insurance because the life insurance companies said we're a higher risk, we'll have a higher mortality rate, and finally, to keep the story short, we discovered that unlike what insurance companies say they do, which is they make their determinations always based on actuarial statistics, evidentiary data, and they create mathematical models based on evidence. They had absolutely not one single solitary thing to show that blind people or other people with disabilities were a higher risk than anyone else. So I worked back in the late 70s, early 80s with I don't you may. I've known him, Al Evan Katz  30:02 Sagasi. I recognize the name. Michael Hingson  30:03 Yeah, and so he he helped us shepherd a bill through that eventually eliminated discrimination in dealing with life insurance in Massachusetts, and and actually was something that passed in every state that all all the states dealt with that because the insurance companies were just playing games, which was so unfortunate. So when I was growing up, my parents couldn't insure me. When I was in college, I couldn't buy life insurance, and and eventually it got addressed. But it was, and it still is fascinating to think back and be a part of making a difference and really working to help constituents and help the legislature. Evan Katz  30:48 Well, there's a great example of numbers not being in action. You know, they're hiding behind perceived numbers, and then you do do a little bit of digging, and you find out that it's not quite as fact-based as they made it sound, Michael Hingson  31:02 yeah, and in fact there was no fact, and but still we worked through it, but the process was, I think, and still is for me one of the most fascinating things to to be able to go and be a part of dealing with things and and hopefully getting legislators to deal with issues and I'm not sure that there's as much of that that's happening today with everything going on but it'll come back. Evan Katz  31:34 Not not in Washington anyway. I think you've got to look to the states more than Washington. Washington's an anomaly right now. Michael Hingson  31:42 Yeah, Washington is really a big problem, and and but it'll it'll it'll switch at some point. I hope. I think it's going to have to, but but we'll see how it goes. If Speaker 1  31:55 you enjoy Unstoppable Mindset and would like to help us continue bringing these conversations to you each week, we've created a way for you to support the show. Your contribution helps us cover production costs and continue sharing stories, insights, and ideas that inspire people to live with purpose and possibility. If supporting the podcast feels right for you, you'll find the link in the show notes, thank you for being part of the Unstoppable Mindset Community. Michael Hingson  32:27 So you you went to work and you were legislative aide. How long did you do that? Evan Katz  32:32 Actually, not not. I think it was a little over a year because I ended up working on a referendum campaign. There's a thing in Massachusetts to limit property taxes, that's called Prop Two and a Half, that passed in 1980. I ended up working for Representative Woodward and a couple of other reps. There was an alternative on the tried to get on the ballot as an alternative to Two and a Half that wouldn't be quite as dramatic. Although I think, looking back as someone in the public sector, I think it's a good thing that Prop two and a half passed, but I got involved in working on a referendum campaign as an alternative to Prop two and a half. It didn't pass, and then at that point, I decided needed to get some professional training, and I went to get my graduate degree in public administration from the Kennedy School at Harvard, so I would have more credentials and I could really get into local government, and that really opened the door. Once I got my master's degree, I ended up working for the state. I think I mentioned my mother and family were from were from Brookline. We were acquainted with Governor Dukakis, and my mother worked actually very close with Govern was very close with Governor Dukakis, and he really encouraged me to go to graduate school, and I ended up going to the Kennedy School. And from there, I went and worked for his administration. The Massachusetts Department of Revenue started a division to support local government finance. It was really very innovative at the time in the early '80s. You know, cities and towns were separate. The state was just a regulatory reagency, and Governor Dukakis wanted to create an agency that could be a resource to local government to help them make better decisions. We created a municipal data bank to try to gather information to get to gather statistical information and ultimately help guide cities and towns to budget better, to plan their capital budgets better. And I was involved in the formation of that bureau in the Mass Department of Revenue. It was called the Division of Local Services, and I ended up working there in the early '80s, to really get a feel for how state government worked, state aid, and all that sort of thing, and then I learned enough there and decided to go out and see what it was like myself to work in a city or town, and that that's was around 1980. So I got my training at is in graduate school, learned more in state government, and then in the mid '80s went out to work in town halls and and city halls, and that that talk about fear, that that was frightening. Michael Hingson  35:18 It was a new experience. Evan Katz  35:20 Absolutely, you know, you you you you're in the state house, and there's there's 240 state reps and 40 senators, I think, all kinds of legislative aides. You're working in a state agency, and it's a whole bunch of 20 something and 30 something colleagues and bosses and this and that. There's always someone you can ask, always someone that can support you. You go to a town hall, and there's there's three clerks and a bunch of select board members. In Massachusetts, there are boards of selectmen in the small towns, or the select board now. Back then, it was select men, but you're on your own out there, and it's very, very different. You know, having a bunch of colleagues to support you in the big city when you're out in the small town of Groton, 40 miles from Boston, with 7000 people, and you're the resource in town hall. It's a lot different. Michael Hingson  36:18 I was just going to say that you you became the resource that people look to. Evan Katz  36:24 Yeah, and and so you take your professional training and you begin to develop some of those personal skills. And how do you relate to people? How do you gather information? How do you recover from from your mistakes? How do you make sure you have enough successes so that you got a good success to mistake ratio? But it's it it is very scary. I mean, I was what how old in 1986? So I was 30 years old, and it never. And I wanted to work in a small town, and I did, but it was a real, real eye-opening experience. But by the same token, you know, one of our biggest fears-you're the only person. One of the greatest attributes to the situation was you're immersed in everything. You learn everything. You learn about the police department, the fire department, which was a call department at that time. You know, if there was a fire, all the firemen, there might have been a couple of women as well, went to some went to the station to get the truck, and some drove in their cars to the scene of the fire, and and and you get a small town with one police officer on duty, you know, from from 11 to seven, you got a water department with two employees. You really get a feel for what's important and what isn't, and how do you make the system go, and what do you do in an emergency, and how do you plan for the future? And so it was it was it was frightening at one level because you're on your own and you're learning a brand new thing, but at the same time you're immersing yourself so deeply, and you're learning so much that that that that you're growing, you know, professionally and personally at a very very fast rate. Michael Hingson  38:16 And although you may or may not realize it at the time, those fears that that you started with slowly would be dissolving away because you were learning how to deal with things, and you were discovering that you had the ability to deal with things, and so you became less afraid in a positive way. Evan Katz  38:37 Right. Well, you know, you all know that the cycles in in businesses and cities and towns, and it's all in an annual cycle, the budget cycle, and you know you get through the first year and you start doing it again, and you're doing it again, and you really then you begin to expand your knowledge base. You're willing to to to experiment a little bit more, and and you're growing again at a very fast rate because you're able to do more and more that you weren't able to do when you first got there. Michael Hingson  39:10 Did you ever run for any office? Evan Katz  39:13 Actually, I did. When I left Groton, I finance was my area of interest, as as I mentioned earlier. I was hired by the city of Medford, which is just north of Boston, up Route 93, probably I don't maybe 810 miles north. And when I was working there, I was the city's finance director. You talk about culture shock, so I go from the small town of Groton with seven people to a to a 50,000 the city of 50,000 with a with a palatial city hall right off Route 93 and but I was chosen for because of my background in finance. And when I was working there, I decided that the town of Groton might benefit from my experience as an elected official. So I was working in Medford as finance director, and I ran for assessor in Groton to get started. Elected assessors to value properties and administered the taxes, and then ultimately I ran for select board a couple years after that. Michael Hingson  40:27 Were you elected? Evan Katz  40:29 I did. Yeah, I won. Okay. And here's another thing that I learned. You know, I haven't always seen elected boards, whether it was the select board or city councils or legislators, you see elected officials in action at meetings and talking about problems and making phone calls, but you forget there's a lot of other work that goes on behind the scenes when you're at home at night and when you run into somebody on the street. And so I was I was very prepared for the for the technical aspects of it, the problem solving, but I forgot about the time that it takes when people call you or have a have a have a problem with a nearby dog, or someone put up a fence, or the traffic on my street is going too fast. You have to call people. You got to follow up. You got to again. Back in the old days, it's all by telephone. So the amount of time that it took to resolve problems and have meetings, I forgot about the the the extra time that it takes when you're an elected official to do that behind the scenes stuff. But but I enjoy doing that as well. Michael Hingson  41:41 Yeah, I'll bet. And you know, it it is just it it you figure out that that's part of what you have to do. And again, I think the big issue is in figuring all that out is learning to recognize that's part of what you have to do, and accepting that that's definitely part of the job, and not trying to blow it off, not trying to get angry at people, which all too often happens today, I think more than it than it needs to. But it is part of the job. It's all part of the job, and no matter what, that hasn't really changed. Evan Katz  42:19 And I think it's I think it's in any job, and I think people have perceptions about certain types of jobs, whether it's you're you're you're a plumber, a truck driver, a lawyer. You know, people understand the responsibilities at the surface level and the visible level, but they're they're not as aware of what goes on behind the scenes, what it takes to to get things going, and and I think that's probably not and maybe underappreciated in some situations about what it takes to to to do things behind the scenes that are not as exciting, where there's more drudgery, and and and the amount of time that it takes to get you into the seat of the truck, to get you to have a meeting with clients, if you're some kind of professional, if you're a doctor, there's there's there's a lot more to any job, and I think that that that it's important to recognize it for ourselves. You know, it's not just the let's call it the glamorous part of the job. Michael Hingson  43:29 Yeah, Evan Katz  43:30 there's the behind the scenes part of the job, and the same goes for all jobs. And I think it's important to remember that. Michael Hingson  43:36 I agree. Well, you did all this work, and you kept doing it for quite a while. So, what got you into baseball, other than being a fan? But you know, Evan Katz  43:46 well, loyal Red Sox fan, been to Fenway hundreds of times, as I mentioned earlier. Was started school a year early, so I never played sports, and my kids in my 40s had finished little league, and they were all done with their sports careers at that point. And I decided I wanted to play baseball at age 45. Michael Hingson  44:14 There you go. I had Evan Katz  44:15 never played. I had never played little league. I never played high school. Never played college. And at age 45, a friend of mine who I grew up with in Brookline, he encouraged me to go to a baseball camp in Florida in 2002, and at that point, my my interest in baseball and my fandom in baseball expanded to becoming a a player and having to learn about the game as a player, not just as someone watching the game. Michael Hingson  44:47 And what did your wife think of that? Evan Katz  44:49 Well, my my wife will mention that my my wife Liz, our first date was on march 30, 2002, and that was the date. Of my first baseball practice in Massachusetts, so she has been there from the beginning of my baseball career. And if it wasn't for her one acceptance of it and her support of it, I never would have been able to achieve and enjoy all that all that I have, but she she is is is my biggest fan and supporter. Michael Hingson  45:29 That's great. She's a Red Sox fan, I would presume. Evan Katz  45:33 Yeah, Red Sox fan. Yep, and you know we watched them clinch it in 2004. We've been to Fenway together, and you know she, you know, like I played adult baseball, and and you know the when guys join, their spouses or girlfriends come the first for a bunch of games in the beginning, but then they just lose interest. Understandably, it's you know it's old man baseball. It's not like it is on TV. She she comes from time to time, but but she she's got her own life to live now. So that's okay. Michael Hingson  46:05 Well, so so tell me how baseball progressed for you. So you you started working at playing. Evan Katz  46:15 Yeah. So I went to this baseball camp in Florida, which I actually just came back from. It's called the Ponstellion Baseball Camp, and it's from a league in Washington, and they started going down for a week of what they call spring training. Well, for Washington, baseball starts a little earlier, Washington D.C. So we go down the end of January, and you know, getting on the field isn't too far away as long as there's no snow on the ground in the DC metro area. But I started going to that camp in 2002, and there was a group of professional coaches at this camp who were major league and minor league affiliated, and they have been coming to this camp since the beginning. This is now 2026. They've been going to the camp as long as as the longtime players, and so what happened was, you know, I was playing adult baseball, and there was a year where it rained a lot, and we had games postponed, and I'm driving around Fort Myers, and I think I was 60 years old at the time, so this would be 2016. And I said to myself, you know, what would be the chances that I could find a minor league team that would let me play, so I could live my dream of being a professional baseball player? And I grew up around in Brookline. I collected baseball cards. I played imaginary baseball games in my yard. Played wiffle ball with my friends. Watched the Red Sox on TV. You know, it's been in my blood since I was a little kid. And of course, many little kids want to be professional basketball players, hockey players, football players. Well, for me, it was baseball. So here I am, 60 years old, and I asked a couple of people at the camp. One of them was Stan Clyburn, played for the Angels in the 80s, and he's managed in the minor leagues for 1000s of games. He's still managing to this day. And Steve Little, who was a coach at the time with the Twins, I asked them, "Do you think I could find a minor league team that would allow me to play for them, so I could live my dream, play professional baseball? And they said, "Sure. Oh yeah, you you should give it a shot. And they gave me a couple names. Ultimately, it took me a year and a half, and I found the Pecos League, which is a low level of independent baseball. I got a hold of the commissioner. His name is Andrew Dunn, and I called him up in March. It turned out this would be March of 2017. I went out to my car at a lunch break from school. I had his phone number, and he answers the phone, "Hello, baseball. And I explain the situation, and he said, "You want to get in a game? We'll get you in a game. And that was that was in 2017. Michael Hingson  49:15 Wow! Evan Katz  49:16 And way it the way it turned out, he invited me out to play for the White Sands Pupfish the last weekend of the season, it had to be with teams that it wouldn't affect the playoffs. And I went out to White Sands, New Mexico, White Sands National Park is there. Alamogordo and the the White Sands Pupfish. I I pitched to two batters, walked one and hit one. I had one plate appearance and was called out on strikes. Didn't lift the bat off my shoulder. Too much fear, as I look back on it. But I became a professional baseball player at age 61. Michael Hingson  49:57 Well, so you got to live your dream. Evan Katz  50:00 Yep, Michael Hingson  50:00 and so after you pitched, what did you do? Evan Katz  50:04 Well, it was all very exciting, and I I actually was interviewed by Bill Littlefield on the NPR radio show Only a Game, talking about playing baseball at age 61, and my friends thought it was really neat and cool, and I had some pictures made, and I gave a lot of graph pictures to Stan Clyburn and Steve Little to thank them for inspiration, and it was all fun. But you know, in baseball, if you're a pitcher and you give up a run without getting anybody anybody out, you have an ERA, which is an earned run average. How many runs you give up in nine innings? Michael Hingson  50:43 Right. Evan Katz  50:43 I had an ERA of infinity. I'm in baseball reference with all these big known baseball players. I'm there with my my my stat line with an ERA of INF infinity, and I'm 65 years old, and I'm saying, man, I don't want to have an ERA of infinity. I don't want to retire with an ERA of infinity, so I got a hold of of Andrew Dunn again, and I said, Andrew, can I come out and pitch again? I want to get my ERA below infinity. I want to get somebody out. So it turns out in 2023, he assigned me to pitch for the Austin weirdos keep Austin weird, right? Keep Portland weird. Keep Burlington weird. You know, keep but whatever weird city you know they have their slogans of keeping the city weird. So Austin weirdos. And the interesting thing was that the weirdos that year in 2023, they had a home field in Austin, but it got burned out. They didn't they didn't have enough water, so they lost their home field. They turned into an all road team, and no player likes to drive through the Pecos League through the desert Southwest from Texas to Arizona, Michael Hingson  52:00 right Evan Katz  52:01 up to Kansas and Colorado for weeks on end. I get to the end of the season, the last weekend of the season in Alpine, Texas, to play the Alpine Cowboys, of course, in Texas, and the Austin Weirdos only have 11 players, and I can pitch. It's a Friday night, and there's a doubleheader on Saturday, and the manager decides, well, we got a guy here who hasn't pitched recently. He should start the game on Friday night. I get a text from the manager in the middle of the day. Evan, you're starting tonight, Derek Dominguez. Talk about no fear. Yeah, starting a 67-year-old pitcher against a lineup of 20-year, 25-year-olds, and I I started against the Alpine Cowboys, and talk about managing your fear. They have it's an old baseball stadium was built in the 1940s. It's got a grandstand behind home plate. You know, a couple things happen there. First of all, I get to the park early because the team was driving. They had to drive. This is the amazing thing. 1111, players. They had to drive 700 miles from the night before from Blackwell, Oklahoma, to Alpine. Michael Hingson  53:20 Wow. Evan Katz  53:22 The catcher comes in the dugout. Wonderful young man. You know, pitchers always worry who is going to catch them. Who's my catcher? And I'm in the dugout waiting, and a young man comes up to me, and he knows who I am, and he says, "I'm Marcus Bracy, and I'm catching you tonight. And the way he said that to me made me feel like he was going to take care of me, and we warmed up. I didn't have any fear. And one thing I did though, when I went out to the mound in the bottom of the first inning, and every inning after that, I made it to the fifth. By the way, I never looked up into the stands. I never wanted to see the crowd. I wanted to keep my eyes focused on this catcher, and that is what helped me get through. And I gave up two runs an inning into the fifth inning. And the interesting thing was that that that was about the team's average. The earned run average for the Austin Weirdos that year was 18 because they had lost so many players, they didn't have many pitchers, and I ended up for that game with an ERA of about 18. So I pitched the same as all the 25-year-old pitchers that pitched for Austin that year. Michael Hingson  54:39 There you go. That certainly is. That certainly is pretty cool. So, what year was that? Evan Katz  54:48 That was 2023. Michael Hingson  54:49 Okay. So, what's happened since? Evan Katz  54:52 Well, I was so taken by the Pecos League and some of the players there, and I had been coaching high school for three years. You know, I had. I had coached at Manchester Essex High School, just north of Boston. I had coached the pitchers and the catchers there. We won the state championship in 2022, and yeah, I saw I'd done a little bit of coaching. And I knew the Pecos League didn't have a lot of money. It didn't pay the players anything hardly. Players make less than $1,000 for most of the teams, and many of the coaches are volunteer coaches. And I asked one of the players; his name was Alex Westman, really nice, nice fellow. I met him for breakfast actually in the fall after the season. I was out visiting my my son in Arkansas. Met him in Missouri for breakfast, and I said, think, think the Pecos League could use a coach like me, and Alex is always an upbeat guy. And unfortunately, Alex was passed away a couple years ago in a tragic motorcycle accident. But I'll always be thankful for Alex for him saying to me, "Oh yeah, you should coach. So I got a hold of the commissioner. I I did coach for a few games for Roswell in 2024, but my mother-in-law took ill, and I had to come home. So last season I ended up teaming up with Todd Everleth, the manager of the North Platte '80s, who I had connected with during 2024 and introduced him to the league. He managed in North Platte, and I asked Todd if he could use a coach, and Todd invited me out to North Platte, Nebraska. And last summer, I was the bullpen coach. One of the hardest things I've ever done, if not the hardest, going from high school coaching to professional coaching at age 69, but somehow it was successful. I helped the pitchers. We ended up going to the the second round of the playoffs. We had a couple of guys called up to higher level leagues, and and it was a success. But but it was again one of the hardest things I've ever done, but at the same time, one of the most rewarding. Michael Hingson  57:04 That's pretty cool. You you did you did so much of that. So you also you've been coaching. So you've been coaching a fair amount over the last few years. You said I think at one point, you were the worst coach in 2025. Evan Katz  57:23 Oh right, not not the worst, close, the least qualified. Oh, the Michael Hingson  57:28 least qualified. Okay, right. Yeah, this is a good story. Evan Katz  57:31 So, so, so Todd and I, you know, Todd Everleth, we're driving his truck around the Midwest. I don't know, it's probably the second second or third road trip, but I'm I'm sitting there, and I'm really beginning to understand the credentials, my new Todd's credentials, and the credentials of the other coaches in in in the Pecos League, which, as I mentioned, is the lowest level of independent baseball. It's not connected to Major League Baseball, and I'm thinking to myself, there's got to be 1000s and 1000s of coaches in professional baseball, major leagues, minor leagues, other independent leagues. Here I am. I'm a coach in the Pecos League. I I have three years of high school coaching experience. I have got to be the least qualified coach in professional baseball. So I said, Todd, I think I'm the least qualified coach in professional baseball, and he he got a real kick out of that. Michael Hingson  58:30 Well, so the real question is, what's going to happen this year? What are you doing now? Evan Katz  58:35 Well, this year, you know, I I am definitely retiring from coaching, as I mentioned, you know, at my age, 69, coaching in professional baseball, you know, your your days start early. They go till late at night. You're traveling a lot in the Pecos League. We drove our own cars, so we drove over 7000 miles last summer. Michael Hingson  58:57 Wow! Evan Katz  58:57 And that that was on top of driving out to Nebraska and coming home, so over 10,000 miles over the course of the summer, way way too demanding. So, but what I'm what I'm doing, Michael, is I think that that I really have some some lessons to share and some experiences to share. And as I as I joked with Todd and some of the other players, the the pitchers out in the bullpen. We were sitting out in the bullpen one night, and the pitchers knew that I wasn't didn't have a lot of experience. And once we all got used to each other, we had a really good time out there. And I'd said to them, I said, I think I'm going to write a book, and the book is going to be the least qualified coach in professional baseball, a survival guide, basically telling the story of how somebody with the least credentials of all the professional coaches was able to figure out how to cope with the challenges and ultimately support the pitching staff. And contribute to the teams going 27 wins and 21 losses, making it the second round of the playoffs, and having players called up to higher level leagues. I think there's some lessons there to share to inspire other people, and so that that's my plan. I'm hoping to do a little bit of motivational speaking. I'm planning to write a book and tell the story of the least qualified coach in professional baseball. Michael Hingson  1:00:28 But you brought a lot of life experience to coaching. Evan Katz  1:00:31 Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, this is one of the things I had to figure out. I knew my technical background was limited, so I had to figure out how can I support these players, how can I be available, and I figured out where to where to sit in the bullpen, so I could listen to their conversations and chime in when needed, and still see what's going on in the game, where to where to be in the outfield during batting practice to have casual conversations, and then I also-I don't think I mentioned this earlier-I had a podcast that I did, and so the podcast, which had a weekly episode and a guest from the Pecos League, I was always looking for stories from the team to interject into the podcast, and that was a great conversation starter. I also took a lot of pictures of the players, candid shots that they would never have been able to take on their own, and then also provide some baseball lessons along the way. You know, there was one pitcher who was very dissatisfied with his outing one night. He said, "I didn't, I don't, I didn't strike out as many guys as I wanted, or I gave up too many runs. And I said, "You left the game when we were ahead here in the Pecos League, where the team score a lot of runs. It's not the absolute results; it's the relative results. Yeah, you did your job. You left the game with the '80s in the lead, and you did great. So I figured out ways to support these guys because they had their own challenges, being away from college, being away from home. Try to figure out how I could support them to bring out their best. Michael Hingson  1:02:12 What a great story, and what a a great insightful thing you said to that pitcher. Well, if people want to reach out to you, how can they do that? Evan Katz  1:02:21 Well, I have a website called Baseball by the Sea Media, where I have some of my writing that I talked about. I've done some baseball biographies and some baseball game stories and some exclusive stories. Baseball by the Sea Media. I'm also on LinkedIn. Those are probably the two easiest ways to find me. Michael Hingson  1:02:44 How do they find you on LinkedIn? Evan Katz  1:02:46 Evan Katz, just I don't think least qualified as a search parameter on LinkedIn. No, it's probably blocked. So, Michael Hingson  1:02:55 so Evan Katz is spelled Evan Katz  1:02:57 E V A N K A T Z. Michael Hingson  1:03:00 So there you go. Well, I want to tell you that when that book comes out, we have to to do another one of these because I want to really have a chance to feature the book and all that. So keep us posted. Evan Katz  1:03:13 Absolutely, I'm I'm I'm looking forward to to working on it, Michael. And I appreciate you having me on today. Michael Hingson  1:03:18 Well, I want to thank you, and I want to thank all of you for watching and listening, and I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to email me at speaker at michaelhinkson m i c h a e l h i n g s o n.com. Love it if you'd give us a five star rating, but more important than a rating, please give us a great review. Review the podcast and say nice things about Evan. That's a that's a beautiful thing to do. If anyone knows anyone who ought to be a guest on our podcast, Evan, including you, feel free to introduce us. We're always looking for people to come on and tell their stories. But for now, I want to thank you for being here, and I want to thank you for spending an hour with us and and making it a very enjoyable and an unstoppable day. Evan Katz  1:04:03 Absolutely, Michael, it's my pleasure. Michael Hingson  1:04:08 Thank you for being here with me on Unstoppable Mindset. I hope today's conversation left you with a fresh perspective, a new insight, or at least something worth thinking about. If you're ready to go deeper into the ideas that shape how we see ourselves and others, I have a free gift for you. Head over to michaelhingson.com and download my free ebook, Blinded by Fear. It explores the invisible beliefs that hold us back and shows you how to reframe them so you can move forward with clarity and confidence. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast, leave a review, and share this show with someone who can use a reminder that growth starts with mindset. When people think differently, we all move forward. Together, thanks again for listening. Keep learning, keep questioning, and keep choosing to live with an unstoppable mindset.

Investigating interpersonal themes and the notion of community, Jen Elek is a studio artist and educator based in Seattle, Washington. She creates objects and installations of colorful glass and neon light employed as a form of non-verbal communication. Her most recent glass series titled Doliums is inspired by large Roman clay storage containers.  Elek received her BFA from Alfred University in Metal and Hot Glass sculpture in 1994, after training as a welder in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She was a student of Michael Scheiner, Dante Marioni, and Ann Wahlstrom at Pilchuck Glass School, and studied with Maestro Lino Tagliapietra at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. In addition to creating her own work, Elek has assisted glass artists such as Dale Chihuly, Kiki Smith, Preston Singletary, and Tagliapietra, on whose team she worked as a key member for 15 years. A vibrant contemporary glass artist, she exhibits alongside artists of other mediums, breaking some of the barriers that have kept glass in the realm of craft and offering it as a worthy medium of contemporary art. A member of the Northwest artist community, Elek's involvement in art organizations includes: Pilchuck Glass School, the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Hilltop Artists, and as a guest lecturer at the University of Washington in Seattle. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Tacoma Art Museum, Pittsburgh Glass Center, and Traver Gallery in Seattle. Elek maintains a studio in south Seattle with husband Jeremy Bert, a Pacific Northwest neon artist with whom she collaborated on their project Illuminated Forest as well as a permanent public installation titled The Illuminated Palouse for the Port of Seattle, located near the D gates at SeaTac International Airport. Utilizing blown furnace glass, Elek creates sculptural objects that display the material's ability to reflect, magnify and represent bold color. Traditional and innovative processes combine in her work to create colorful landscapes of glass. In the spring of 2017, she was awarded the Pilchuck Artist at Work Residency where she developed a new body of work titled Visual Fun, which highlighted the infallibility and vibrant colors of glass.  Elek has traveled to Canada, Japan, Australia, and throughout the United States teaching glassblowing workshops. In 2026 she will be an instructor at Tulsa Glassblowing School, Tulsa, Oklahoma, May 14 – 19, residency May 20 – 23; at UrbanGlass, Brooklyn, New York, June 23 – 27; and at the Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York, August 31 – September 5. She will be a gaffer at Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington, July 9 – 26.  

In this episode, Adam D'Agostino, MBA, director of the equestrian program at Alfred University, in New York, shares his top tips for effective client communication. He explains how he sets boundaries with clients, works through problems without confrontation, and how he handles social media within his business.GUESTS AND LINKS - EPISODE 45:Host: Hailey Pfeffer (Kerstetter)Guest: Adam D'Agostino, MBA, Director of the Equestrian Program at Alfred University, in New YorkPlease visit our sponsors, who makes all this possible: Ask TheHorse Live, USRider Equestrian

Recently, Nadine Saylor has been creating a series of gas and oil cans featuring imagery of her local surroundings. These more "masculine" objects remind her of the things her grandfather had in his shed. In thinking about gender and how it relates to the objects with which we surround ourselves, she investigates what role gender plays in our world writ large. Assistant Professor of Glass and Sculpture at University of Nebraska, Kearney, Saylor is originally from Hershey, Pennsylvania. She received her BFA in Photography from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and her MFA in Glass from Alfred University in upstate New York. Since then, she has taught at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, Harrisburg Area Community College in Pennsylvania, and at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. In addition to teaching at the collegiate level, she has taught many workshops internationally including The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass and Penland School of Craft in North Carolina. She has also given demonstrations nationally and lectured internationally. Saylor has exhibited in many exhibitions across the country including the Cafesjian Art Trust, in Shoreview, MN, Toyama's International Glass Exhibition 2024 in Japan and has shown at SOFA Chicago. She recently completed a commission of two works Carrie Oilcan and Copper Kettle Nebraska for the Federal Reserve Board Gallery to be on display in Washington, DC, and to compliment her works commemorating American industry that were purchased in 2024. Derivative of her childhood, Saylor's works are instilled with love of Americana and history along with an interest in the stories behind the objects, the places, and the lives they have touched.  For example, Saylor's series of pincushions began with the familiar Tomato and Strawberry forms. In researching the history of these objects, the artist learned the pincushion was placed on the mantle to ward off evil spirits. When tomatoes were out of season, women made them out of fabric and used them as voodoo dolls. "I enjoy these kinds of historical narratives and use them as a vantage point in my work," she says. Imagery tells a story on the surface of many Saylor works. For example, Foggy Morning in the Black Swamp is a replica of an antique coffee pot she found in an antique store. The imagery on the surface is inspired by the artist's bike rides on the old railroad trail bike path through the Black Swamp.  She states: "My surroundings continue to affect the imagery on my glass as I lived on a farm in Southern Illinois with an array of chickens, goats and horses. This nostalgic life took me back to traveling to my grandmother's house in the countryside of rural Pennsylvania. Not only does my current rural life in Nebraska play a part in my glasswork, but I am also interested in the memories sparked by certain objects and what roles they play in our lives."   

Wayne Higby and Benjamin Evans co-curated the retrospective History: A Legacy in Motion, which showcases twenty-six artists that have taught ceramics at Alfred University since its founding in 1900. In our interview we talk about Charles Binns and the early days of Alfred ceramics, as well as the contributions the school and its faculty have made to the development of studio ceramics in America. Higby taught ceramics at Alfred for more than five decades and was the Director and Principal Curator of the Alfred Ceramic Art Museum that was completed in 2014. Evans now directs the museum, which fulfills its mission through rotating exhibitions and stewardship of a vast ceramic collection. ceramicsmuseum.alfred.edu   I'm happy to be serving as juror for the 16th Annual Workhouse Clay International Exhibition. The exhibition highlights functional and sculptural ceramic artwork being created throughout the US and abroad. To be considered submit your entry by January 11th.   Today's episode is brought to you by the following sponsors: Monkey Stuff www.monkeystuff.com The Rosenfield Collection of Functional Ceramic Art www.Rosenfieldcollection.com Cornell Studio Supply www.cornellstudiosupply.com  

Ethan Stern's work is rooted in traditional craftsmanship, contemporary design, and a deep connection to the natural environment. As a glass artist, he draws inspiration from historic craft traditions such as cut crystal and classical ceramic design, while reinterpreting these forms through a modern lens. His practice seeks to explore the interplay between utility, beauty, and narrative, bridging the realms of functional objects and sculptural expression. Stern states: "Central to my approach is the concept of light as a dynamic medium. Glass, with its inherent ability to refract, reflect, and transmit light, becomes a canvas through which I explore optical phenomena and color. I am particularly drawn to the ways in which light interacts with texture, pattern, and form, creating ever-changing visual experiences that invite viewers to engage with my work in a multisensory manner. This exploration pushes the boundaries of materiality, transforming functional objects and sculptural forms into vessels of light."  Pushing form beyond the expected anatomy of the vessel, Stern uses glass to investigate the emotive potential of objects. Each piece begins with the creation of a blown, geometric form composed of multiple layers of color and pattern. After the piece has cooled, he carves into the surface, creating patterns and textures through engraving. This process, while reductive, allows him to shift the glass's inherent reflective qualities, creating a richer, more luminous effect. The engraved marks, like the stroke of a paintbrush on canvas, leave evidence of the artist's hand and create a sense of motion, rhythm, weight, and depth. The act of carving—removing material—demands careful consideration, and each choice shapes the relationship between the surface and form, adding an emotional resonance to the work. Stern began examining the effects he could achieve through engraving in 1999 while at the Pilchuck Glass School. Carving the surface of the glass allowed him to pull together elements of color, form, pattern and texture to express his unique voice through the material. In 2010, he received the Best Emerging Artist award from the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA. His work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions across the United States and is featured in the collections of The Eboltoft Glass Museum in Denmark, The Corning Museum, and The Lowe Museum of Art. He has taught at The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass, Pilchuck Glass School, Pratt Fine Arts Center, Penland School of Craft, The Pittsburgh Glass Center, and The Appalachian Center for Craft. In January 2026, Stern will teach Beyond Battuto – Advanced Coldworking Techniques at the Corning Museum of Glass Studio, Corning, New York.  Says Stern: "In addition to creating art, I am committed to sharing the craft of glassblowing through teaching and community engagement. Ultimately, my work is an ongoing exploration of the intersections between design, craft, and the natural world. It is a dialogue between tradition and innovation, utility and beauty, light and form. By creating pieces that resonate both functionally and emotionally, I hope to inspire reflection, curiosity, and connection to the larger world around us." Born in Ithaca, New York, Stern resides in the Frogtown neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, where he runs a glass studio alongside his wife and creative partner, Amanda McDonald Stern. Their studio specializes in sculpture, design, education and glass fabrication fostering a sense of community around glass. Ethan obtained his Associates degree in Ceramics from TAFE College in Brisbane, Australia, and his BFA in Sculpture and Glass from Alfred University. Of his work, Stern states: "The natural environment offers rich inspiration, from the organic forms and colors of coastlines to the shifting hues of the sky. Through glass, I aim to evoke a sense of interconnectedness, using the material's elemental relationship to earth and fire to bridge the natural and the man-made. While my work draws from history and nature, it is forward-looking, blending traditional techniques with contemporary approaches."     

JD Raenbeau (b. 1985, Stony Brook, NY) currently lives and works in Rocky Point, New York. He received his MFA from The School of Visual Arts where he received the Paula Rhodes Memorial Award for Exceptional Achievement in Art Practice. He holds a BFA from Alfred University. Raenbeau has exhibited his work in New York, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, New Mexico, and the UK. His work has been featured in New American Paintings, Artsin Square Magazine, and Sensitive Content Magazine. He was recently an Artist in Residence at the Vermont Studio Center, The Golden Foundation for The Arts, and most recently was Artist in Residence at the Hafnarborg Museum in Hafnarfjordur, Iceland. © JD Raenbeau, “Canopy,” 2025, Oil on panel, 24 x 30 inches, Courtesy of CLAMP, New York © JD Raenbeau, “Full Moon,” 2024, Oil on panel, 12 x 16 inches, Courtesy of CLAMP, New York © JD Raenbeau, “X,” 2024, Oil on panel, 16 x 16 inches, Courtesy of CLAMP, New York

Grant was born in 1982 in Worthing, and is a London based artist who completed a MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in 2012. In 2019 Grant was International Randall Chair at Alfred University, New York, and in 2016 was Fellow in Contemporary Art with The British School at Rome.In 2007 he was a Prizewinner in John Moores 25, and is currently a mentor on The Turps Banana painting program and founding member of audio/visual recording project in a skull. 

An American born artist dedicated to developing new techniques of glass working, Joshua Hershman combines optical physics with the fluidity of glass to make his contemporary sculpture. By harnessing light though hand-polished lenses, he employs unique methods of casting, coldworking, and photography in his boundary pushing work.  Hershman states: “My work offers meditations on the complexities within the concept of photography and the repercussions of the camera's impact on culture. The incredibly creative and destructive nature of photography is both inspiring and alarming to me. It has helped bring our global society closer together but also driven us desperately apart. It can teach us or deceive us, show us the furthest reaches of space, or the closest representations of matter itself. It is these contrasting realities that exist within photography, which inspire my works of contemporary art.” Being born with no peripheral vision or depth perception, decades of vision therapy led Hershman to his lifelong fascination with the complex nature of the visual system and the science of light and optics. By using cameras themselves as frames for his experimental photographic processes, he asks us to look more closely into the simple act of taking a photograph. His work focuses on the significance that film and photography have played on the development of contemporary global culture.  More recently Hershman's work has focused on the torus — the most common shape found in galaxy formations and human cellular biology. His series, Messier Objects, was named after the French astronomer Charles Messier, who famously catalogued anomalous objects that confused his search for comets in the night sky. Originally from Colorado, Hershman was born in 1981 and first began working with glass at the age of 17. In 2004, he graduated from the Craft and Design Program at Sheridan College in Ontario, Canada. In 2008, he went on to earn a BFA with Distinction from the California College of the Arts in Oakland, California. Most recently, he completed the Master's program at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in Sculptural/Dimensional Studies.  In 2009, Hershman had his first solo exhibition at Pismo Glass in Denver and went on to participate in many group exhibitions and art fairs including Sofa Chicago, the Armory Show, Art Hamptons, SF Art Market, the Habatat Invitational, and many others. He loves to teach and has led workshops and lectures at California College of the Arts, Public Glass in San Francisco, Pittsburgh Glass Center, and at D&L Glass Supply in Denver. Hershman has received numerous awards, was included in the Bullseye Emerge international glass competition, Young Glass 2017, and can be found in numerous private collections. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Ebeltoft Museum in Denmark, The National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia, and Museum of Glass, Tacoma (MOG). In fact, MOG exhibited Hershman's sculpture in the nation's first LGBTQ+ glass exhibition titled Transparency. He has been invited to participate in several artist-in-residence programs including North Lands Creative Glass in Scotland, D&L Art Glass in Colorado, the Appalachian Center for Craft in Tennessee, and most recently completed a semester-long residency at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. The artist worked for Berengo studio in Murano, Italy, where he made work for the world's leading contemporary artists. Living and operating a private studio in Los Angeles, California, Hershman makes his personal work and also operates the Glass Foundry, which provides casting and coldworking services to other artists. Additionally, he is employed at Judson Studios, where he's currently working on a large-scale architectural glass project for James Jean. “Casting glass was something I could do in isolation in my studio which was a huge advantage during the pandemic. Without the need for a furnace or lots of facilities, this process allowed me to make a highly challenging sculpture without the need for a team of assistants or expensive equipment. I think what draws me most to lost wax casting is the constant challenge and problem solving that is required to get a high-quality casting.”

Glass is a solution to many modern challenges, and there remains ample opportunities for further improvements. William LaCourse, Emeritus Professor of glass science in the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, shares how several serendipitous encounters with giants in the glass field led to his employment at Alfred, highlights some of the untapped markets for ion-exchanged glass products, and gives some fun anecdotes from his time as the Alfred sports announcer for football and basketball.View the transcript for this episode here.About the guestWilliam LaCourse is Emeritus Professor of glass science in the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. He has conducted extensive research in the field of glass strengthening, with a current focus on ion-exchange processing of commercial soda-lime-silica glasses, as described in the May 2025 ACerS Bulletin.About ACerSFounded in 1898, The American Ceramic Society is the leading professional membership organization for scientists, engineers, researchers, manufacturers, plant personnel, educators, and students working with ceramics and related materials.

works for EQ Media and is an IHSA Alumni of Alfred University where she graduated in 2014 with her BFA in Photography and Graphic Design with a minor in Equine Studies. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, she continues to ride and compete in the jumper divisions with her horse Terry, when she is not hiking and camping with her husband and dogs. 

A History of USOs: Unidentified Submerged Objects (Volume 1: From the Beginning to 1969) by Richard M. Dolan is the first installment in a groundbreaking three-volume series that explores the fascinating and often unexplained phenomenon of USOs—Unidentified Submerged Objects. This meticulously researched book delves into the earliest reported sightings of mysterious objects observed in oceans, lakes, and rivers, spanning centuries and covering 178 carefully documented cases up to 1969.Dolan's work is both a historical and scientific inquiry, examining accounts that have often been overlooked or forgotten. With a keen eye for detail, he places these encounters within a broader historical and technological context, raising questions about the nature of these enigmatic objects. Are they advanced technology from unknown civilizations, natural phenomena, or something else entirely? This volume sets the stage for understanding the long history of USO encounters, laying the foundation for the rest of the series.The book is enriched with maps by the author and illustrations by Allan Lavigne, providing a visual dimension to the narratives. Dolan's research draws from a wide range of sources, including military reports, eyewitness accounts, and historical records, all analyzed through a detailed system that evaluates factors such as time, location, shape, color, and witness credibility. This methodical approach allows readers to identify patterns and themes that emerge across decades and continents.Volume 1 is not just a collection of stories; it is a thought-provoking exploration of the unknown, challenging readers to reconsider their understanding of the oceans and the universe. Whether you are a skeptic, a believer, or simply curious, this book offers a compelling journey into the uncharted depths of our planet—and beyond.BioRichard Dolan is a leading researcher, historian, and writer on the subject of UFOs.He is the author of two volumes of history, UFOs and the National Security State, both ground-breaking works which together provide the most factually complete and accessible narrative of the UFO subject available anywhere. He also co-authored a speculative book about the future, A.D. After Disclosure, the first-ever analysis not only of how UFO secrecy might end, but of the all-important question: what happens next? Richard is also the author of UFOs for the 21st Century Mind, a fresh treatment of the entire subject. In it, he discusses the important sightings, the encounters, the politics, the cover-up, ancient aliens, the bizarre science, disclosure, and offers advice on being both critical and open-minded in today's world. More recently, Richard has written a series of booklets developed from select lectures on such topics as the idea of a secret space program and UFO secrecy and disclosure in the Trump era.In addition to his UFO work, Richard wrote and hosted a series on the phenomenon of false flags for Gaia Television. This ten-episode series is groundbreaking as the first historical perspective of false flags through the ages, events in which governments or other agencies committed horrible and traumatic acts which were then blamed on other parties in order to justify and pursue certain objectives. Richard is currently researching and writing the first-ever history of false flags, with a strong focus on the 20th and 21t centuries.Since 2012, Richard has hosted a weekly radio show, The Richard Dolan Show, on KGRA radio, and currently offers audio podcasts for members of richarddolanmembers.com. He has been featured on numerous television series and documentaries, including Ancient Aliens, Hangar One: The UFO Files, Close Encounters, and many others. He is also a frequent guest on Coast-to-Coast AM with George Noory.Prior to his interest in UFOs, Richard completed his graduate work at the University of Rochester, where he studied U.S. Cold War strategy, European history, and international diplomacy. Before that, he studied at Alfred University and Oxford University, was a finalist for a Rhodes scholarship.But for the past two decades, Richard has been a dedicated student of all things related to UFOs, steadily expanding his interests within that topic from his initial focus on government documents and the cover-up. Now his interests include it all, from the deepest aspects of the coverup, to contact and abduction, the science behind the phenomenon, how the phenomenon has affected world culture, his theory of a breakaway civilization, the possible relationship of artificial intelligence and biotechnology to the UFO phenomenon, and the implications of the end of secrecy, that is, the world After Disclosure.Today, there is no aspect of the phenomenon Richard won't study. He continues to look forward to exploring this topic in all its depth, a topic he believes opens our doors of perception, challenging us to see the world differently and more clearly.In addition to his research, Richard's company, Richard Dolan Press, actively publishes innovative books by authors from around the world, which can be visited at richarddolanpress.com.https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DWYHCSHW/https://richarddolanmembers.comRichard Dolan online: https://bit.ly/DolanLinks  https://www.pastliveshypnosis.co.uk/https://www.patreon.com/alienufopodcastMy book 'Verified Near Death Exeriences' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXKRGDFP

In this episode of Platemark, Myles Calvert, a printmaker and professor, shares his extensive journey from growing up in Ontario, Canada, to studying and working in the UK, and eventually returning to Alfred University in New York, to become director of the Institute of Electronic Arts. Myles discusses his experiences working at prestigious galleries in London, giving up a tenure-track position, and the pivotal moments that shaped his career. He delves into his role as the Director of IEA at Alfred, including the intricacies of managing residencies, the use of technology in printmaking, and the importance of community engagement. Myles also reflects on the challenges of academia, the value of traditional and new media in art, and his approach to student critiques. The conversation highlights Myles' passion for printmaking, his commitment to education, and his vision for the future of the IEA. https://blog.alfred.edu/iea/ https://blog.alfred.edu/iea/2024/07/01/new-director-appointed-myles-calvert/ https://www.instagram.com/alfred_iea/ https://www.instagram.com/squirrelpigeonfish/   Myles Calvert at the China Exhibition AIPA, Xi'an Academy of Art. Myles Calvert with IEA interns Veronica, Gigi, and Mary. Institute of Electronic Arts, Alfred University. Jessica Reisch and Tyson Houseman check out Sandin new media equipment. Institute of Electronic Arts, Alfred University. Visiting artist Kathryn Polk with students. Institute of Electronic Arts, Alfred University. Rita MacDonald at the offset press with a laser-cut woodblock. Institute of Electronic Arts, Alfred University.  

A History of USOs: Unidentified Submerged Objects (Volume 1: From the Beginning to 1969) by Richard M. Dolan is the first installment in a groundbreaking three-volume series that explores the fascinating and often unexplained phenomenon of USOs—Unidentified Submerged Objects. This meticulously researched book delves into the earliest reported sightings of mysterious objects observed in oceans, lakes, and rivers, spanning centuries and covering 178 carefully documented cases up to 1969.Dolan's work is both a historical and scientific inquiry, examining accounts that have often been overlooked or forgotten. With a keen eye for detail, he places these encounters within a broader historical and technological context, raising questions about the nature of these enigmatic objects. Are they advanced technology from unknown civilizations, natural phenomena, or something else entirely? This volume sets the stage for understanding the long history of USO encounters, laying the foundation for the rest of the series.The book is enriched with maps by the author and illustrations by Allan Lavigne, providing a visual dimension to the narratives. Dolan's research draws from a wide range of sources, including military reports, eyewitness accounts, and historical records, all analyzed through a detailed system that evaluates factors such as time, location, shape, color, and witness credibility. This methodical approach allows readers to identify patterns and themes that emerge across decades and continents.Volume 1 is not just a collection of stories; it is a thought-provoking exploration of the unknown, challenging readers to reconsider their understanding of the oceans and the universe. Whether you are a skeptic, a believer, or simply curious, this book offers a compelling journey into the uncharted depths of our planet—and beyond.BioRichard Dolan is a leading researcher, historian, and writer on the subject of UFOs.He is the author of two volumes of history, UFOs and the National Security State, both ground-breaking works which together provide the most factually complete and accessible narrative of the UFO subject available anywhere. He also co-authored a speculative book about the future, A.D. After Disclosure, the first-ever analysis not only of how UFO secrecy might end, but of the all-important question: what happens next? Richard is also the author of UFOs for the 21st Century Mind, a fresh treatment of the entire subject. In it, he discusses the important sightings, the encounters, the politics, the cover-up, ancient aliens, the bizarre science, disclosure, and offers advice on being both critical and open-minded in today's world. More recently, Richard has written a series of booklets developed from select lectures on such topics as the idea of a secret space program and UFO secrecy and disclosure in the Trump era.In addition to his UFO work, Richard wrote and hosted a series on the phenomenon of false flags for Gaia Television. This ten-episode series is groundbreaking as the first historical perspective of false flags through the ages, events in which governments or other agencies committed horrible and traumatic acts which were then blamed on other parties in order to justify and pursue certain objectives. Richard is currently researching and writing the first-ever history of false flags, with a strong focus on the 20th and 21t centuries.Since 2012, Richard has hosted a weekly radio show, The Richard Dolan Show, on KGRA radio, and currently offers audio podcasts for members of richarddolanmembers.com. He has been featured on numerous television series and documentaries, including Ancient Aliens, Hangar One: The UFO Files, Close Encounters, and many others. He is also a frequent guest on Coast-to-Coast AM with George Noory.Prior to his interest in UFOs, Richard completed his graduate work at the University of Rochester, where he studied U.S. Cold War strategy, European history, and international diplomacy. Before that, he studied at Alfred University and Oxford University, was a finalist for a Rhodes scholarship.But for the past two decades, Richard has been a dedicated student of all things related to UFOs, steadily expanding his interests within that topic from his initial focus on government documents and the cover-up. Now his interests include it all, from the deepest aspects of the coverup, to contact and abduction, the science behind the phenomenon, how the phenomenon has affected world culture, his theory of a breakaway civilization, the possible relationship of artificial intelligence and biotechnology to the UFO phenomenon, and the implications of the end of secrecy, that is, the world After Disclosure.Today, there is no aspect of the phenomenon Richard won't study. He continues to look forward to exploring this topic in all its depth, a topic he believes opens our doors of perception, challenging us to see the world differently and more clearly.In addition to his research, Richard's company, Richard Dolan Press, actively publishes innovative books by authors from around the world, which can be visited at richarddolanpress.com.https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DWYHCSHW/https://richarddolanmembers.comRichard Dolan online: https://bit.ly/DolanLinks  https://www.pastliveshypnosis.co.uk/https://www.patreon.com/alienufopodcast

Dixon Handshaw is the Chairman of the Board at Mooresville Arts, an important nonprofit located in the heart of downtown Mooresville, NC.Mooresville Arts is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching the Lake Norman region's cultural landscape by promoting the visual arts. Celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2025, the organization serves as a vibrant community for artists and art enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels. It offers high-quality art education and provides venues for artists to sell their workMooresville Arts103 W Center AveMooresville, NC 28115(704) 663-6661Upcoming EventsAbout Dixon:Dixon Handshaw is a photographic educator based in Mooresville, NC. He spent 35 years of his career as a learning and performance consultant as president of his own company, Handshaw, Inc. Before that he earned his living as a professional photographer. Now he is combining those two experiences to teach fine art photography in both digital and film formats. His favorite aspect of teaching is inspiring students to find personal expression through the lens of a camera.Dixon currently serves as an adjunct instructor in photography at Catawba Valley Community College. He serves as the chair of the Education Committee at Mooresville Arts where he also teaches photography. He has a BFA in photography from Alfred University and a MS in Instructional Systems Technology from Indiana University. He served on the Board of Directors for The Light Factory in Charlotte, NC and chaired their Education Committee where he also served as an instructor and designer of courses. He served on the Board of Directors at the Carolina Raptor Center in Charlotte, NC, where he designed and taught a course in Bird and Wildlife Photography. He is currently Chair of the Board of Directors at Mooresville Arts. He has been passionate about photography since he was 14.You can see samples of his work at: www.handshawphotography.com---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Best of LKNhttps://thebestoflkn.com/Hosted by:Jeff HammAllen Tate Realtors®Charlotte & Lake Norman (NC)www.LKNreal.comSupport the show

As we prepare for a future traveling the stars, energy-efficient processing technologies will be a necessity for both those in space and those remaining as Earth's stewards. Holly Shulman, research professor at Alfred University, shares how she became interested in microwave sintering, describes its benefits compared to conventional sintering processes, and explains how it could support the development of future lunar colonies.View the transcript for this episode here.About the guestHolly Shulman is research professor at Alfred University and founder, president, and chief technology officer of Bluestar Advanced Manufacturing. She specializes in developing microwave processing technologies, and she was recently named director of the new Space Materials Institute at Alfred University in part due to the potential applications of her research on the moon. She will be giving a talk on microwave processing for lunar construction at the 59th Annual Microwave Power Symposium in June 2025, and she plans to teach an ACerS short course in the near future.About ACerSFounded in 1898, The American Ceramic Society is the leading professional membership organization for scientists, engineers, researchers, manufacturers, plant personnel, educators, and students working with ceramics and related materials.

self-described loner, Joel Philip Myers developed his skills in relative isolation from the Studio Glass movement. With works inspired by a vast array of topics ranging from his deep love of the Danish countryside to Dr. Zharkov, the artist avoided elaborate sculpture in favor of substantial vessels that are simple yet powerful. States Myers: “In 1964, on the occasion of an exhibition titled Designed for Production: The Craftsman's Approach, I wrote in an essay in Craft Horizons magazine: ‘My approach to glass, as it is to clay, is to allow the material an expression of its own. Press the material to the utmost, and it will suggest ideas and creative avenues to the responsive artist.' The statement was sincere and enthusiastic, but decidedly naïf. I never thought when I wrote it that it would be the one statement of mine that would continue to be repeatedly quoted, throughout my 46- year-long career, as my defining philosophy. I have no defining philosophy. I am a visual artist, not a philosopher. Thoughts and ideas and opinions do not constitute a philosophy, and my thoughts and ideas and opinions have evolved and matured and changed in the time that has passed since 1964.” He continues: “As an artist I like to think of myself as a visitor in a maze, trying to find a solution to a dizzying puzzle. As in a maze, I have, through blunders and exploration, arrived at solutions, and embraced the manifold possibilities that the material offers: plasticity, transparency, opacity, translucency. I am sensitive to the wonders of the visual world and inspired by the forms and colors of the natural world. My training as a designer has enabled me to understand and exploit organization and structure, adding a rational perspective to my intuitive, emotional self.” Myers earned his degree in advertising design from Parsons School of Design in 1954. He studied in Copenhagen, Denmark, before earning a B.F.A. and M.F.A. in ceramics from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in the early 1960s. In 1963, he was hired as design director at Blenko Glass Company in Milton, West Virginia. Captivated by the drama of this thriving glass factory, he learned glassblowing through observation and practice.  In 1970, Myers established the nascent glass department at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois, where he served as Distinguished Professor of Art for 30 years until he retired from teaching in 1997. He is an Honorary Lifetime Member, 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner and past President of the Glass Art Society, a Fellow of the American Crafts Council, and the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. His work is represented in prominent museum collections around the world, including The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C; The Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague; Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Japan; Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Palais du Louvre, Paris, France; and Musee de Design et d'Arts Appliques Contemporains, Lausanne, Switzerland, amongst others. Of his sculpture, Myers states: “My work is concerned with drawing, painting, playing with color and imagery on glass. I work with simple forms and concentrate on the surface enrichment. I prefer the spherical, three-dimensional surface to a flat one, because as I paint and draw on the glass, the glass form receives the drawing, adapts to its shape, distorts and expands it as it clothes and envelops itself in my drawing. I feel a communication with the material, and a reciprocation from my subconscious, as I continually search for new insights into my unknown self.” Enjoy this enlightening conversation with Myers, who at 91 has a near photographic memory of the events and developments that spurred the Studio Glass movement forward in its early days, as well as the ideas and processes of his personal work in glass – some of the most successful and collected of its day.  

is the Director of Equestrian/Head Western Coach at Alfred University. Prior to that he was at Albion College where he was the Head Coach of the western team. He has his Master of Business Administration in Marketing and Organizational Leadership and two Bachelor of Science degrees in Western Equine Studies and Equine Business Management from the University of Findlay (OH). He also owns Empire Performance Horses in Alfred, NY.

About the Guest(s):Heather Meehan is an experienced Resource Coordinator with the New York Unified Court System, working primarily in Steuben County. Heather's professional journey in the substance use disorder field began in 2006, shortly after obtaining her bachelor's degree in psychology from Alfred University. She is a licensed CASAC with years of experience stemming from working as a counselor in different levels of treatment settings, and most recently, has taken that experience to work in the court setting.Episode Summary:In this engaging episode of Money Roots, host Amy Irvine welcomes Heather Meehan, her sister-in-law and a dedicated Resource Coordinator, to explore career paths within the realm of substance use disorder. This episode delves into the rewarding yet challenging aspects of working in addiction therapy, while offering listeners an insightful look into what it means to be a Resource Coordinator in the court setting. Heather shares her career trajectory, personal motivations, and the impact that her work has had on individuals and society.As the conversation unfolds, Heather discusses the steps involved in becoming a credentialed alcohol and substance abuse counselor (CASAC) and the continuous learning required to maintain this credential. The dialogue further explores the transformative power of addiction therapy not only on the individuals who receive treatment but also on their families and communities. Throughout the episode, the financial implications of addiction and recovery are highlighted, along with the significant advantages that recovery brings in terms of personal and societal health. Heather's experiences make a compelling case for those interested in pursuing a career in this vital field.Key Takeaways:Addiction therapy is a challenging yet rewarding profession that requires empathy, dedication, and continuous education.Heather emphasizes the importance of a non-judgmental approach to counseling, focusing on helping clients recognize their positive qualities and potential for change.Becoming a credentialed substance abuse counselor (CASAC) involves rigorous training hours, supervision, and testing.The financial implications of addiction are significant, and successful recovery can lead to improved personal and societal productivity.The episode encourages those interested in career transitions to explore addiction therapy and provides resources for getting started in the SUD (substance use disorder) field.Notable Quotes:"Just because they have an addiction or a substance use problem, it doesn't mean they're not good people and they're not worth a better life." – Heather Meehan"Nobody would ever want to choose to be an addict or an alcoholic or a person with a substance use disorder." – Heather Meehan"Anytime you're working with people that are considered a vulnerable population, you need to be on your best game." – Heather MeehanResources:OASAS.NY.gov – New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports website for accessing addiction treatment resources and credentialing information.Samhsa.gov - Informational website for SUD and mental health treatment.Listeners are encouraged to delve into this enlightening episode to gain a deeper understanding of the field of addiction therapy and the transformative impact it can have. Be sure to subscribe to Money Roots for more insightful discussions and resources aimed at helping you thrive financially and personally.

Childhood experiences of life on a sailboat in the Bahamas and Caribbean left a profound mark on Kait Rhoads. The experience of growing up on the water has provided great inspiration for her artwork. The artist's Sea Stones series hints at its watery origins. Each sculpture is a small world in itself, an intimate object you can hold in your hand. A talisman, the work looks almost molecular, like plankton carapaces as observed under a microscope. Rhoads states: “My work is inspired by nature and informed by memory. And, three oceans—the Caribbean, the Indian and the Pacific – delineate the imaginative boundaries of my practice. I grew up on the water of the Caribbean in a ship with my family where my deep affinity for biological systems began. I lived surrounded by nature; the liquid light and aquatic life imprinted upon my senses. The sculptures I create emanate from my early experiences within and curiosity about the natural world. While exploring the waters around Bali, I experienced the extraordinary biodiversity and extensive architecture of coral colonies there. This has been a deep influence on my sculptural forms and process of making.” Best-known for her innovative use of Venetian techniques such as murrine and filigrana, she applies these decorative processes to sculptural forms as well as to vessels. She was influenced early on by Lino Tagliapietra's work with cane and Richard Marquis' use of murrine as a structural material. Rhoads' unique process involves weaving pieces of blown and cut glass tubes with copper wire to create flexible looking “soft sculptures.”  States Rhoads: “My method of construction mirrors how my life has formed me, with individual elements woven together to create a strong whole. I consider the individual units, conical hexagonal forms known as hollow murrine, as architectural elements that fit together to create a fluid or floating object. The concept of the work develops slowly, and the production of a complicated piece can take months to years to complete.” Rhoads is also well known for her public art installations including Bloom, commissioned in 2018 for the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art's two-story tall window space. In 2022, Bloom was chosen to be permanently installed inside of the biology department at Highline College, Des Moines, Washington. She also created Salish Nettles, her largest work to date, for the Pacific Seas Aquarium, Tacoma, Washington, and Proto Kelp, which was on view through October of 2024 at Method Gallery, Seattle, Washington. In 2025, the artist will apply for residencies and funding to expand the project sustainably. In all of these public projects Rhoads hopes to inspire in the viewer empathy, curiosity and interest in ocean ecology.  Receiving her BFA in glass from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1993, Rhoads earned her MFA in glass from Alfred University, New York in 2001. She has been an Artist in Residence at the Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle, Washington, and the recipient of numerous awards, including the Doug and Dale Anderson Scholarship, The Anne Gould Hauberg Award, and a Fulbright Scholarship for the study of sculpture in Venice, Italy. She has exhibited throughout the United States and abroad. Her work can be found in many collections, including the Seattle Art Museum; the Toyama Institute of Glass in Toyama, Japan; the Glasmuseum in Ebeltoft, Denmark; Shanghai Museum of Glass, China; and The Corning Museum of Glass. She maintains a studio in Seattle, Washington. “The cold, deep green waters of Puget Sound are a more recent source of inspiration in my work.  Since moving to the Northwest over two decades ago, my fascination extended from coral colonies to kelp forests. Seaweed's pliable forms continually inspire me—they stretch up from the depths, undulate in the shallows, and lie on tidal surfaces. Aquatic life infuses my sculptures with animated forms, sparkling surfaces and faceted exoskeletons.” In 2025, Rhoads will continue to work on a community generated art project called Fused Together (2021-2025), for which she is the lead artist. She shepards stained glass windows made by the public that are donated to Tacoma libraries. She will also participate in group shows including Habatat's Glass Coast show at Ringling School of the Arts in Sarasota, Florida, and Women Who Make Glass at the Vashon Center for the Arts, Vashon, Washington, in March 2025.   Of her work Rhoads states: “I desire my work to be emotionally affective—that it evoke for audiences a similar sense of wonder in our blue planet that continues to inspire me. And even, perhaps, to instill a desire to conserve our fragile aquatic ecosystems.”  

Blog: www.taminglightning.net Instagram @taminglightning Support on Patreon.com/taminglightning Guest Instagram: @willcox.studio Hello Lightning Tamers, Percy here, and this is episode number 62. In today's podcast, I'll be joined by Jacob Willcox a young and experienced neon bender, artist, and educator from Tacoma, Washington. Jacob's journey with glass and light began in 2012 through the Hilltop Artists program. He went on to earn his BFA with concentrations in glass and neon from Alfred University in 2021. Currently, Jacob works in sales at a sign shop, where he continues to blend his artistic insights with his professional role.   So, get ready to dive into an illuminating conversation as we explore Jacob's artistic journey, the balance between creativity and business, and his unique perspective on the future of neon in the modern world of signage. Welcome to the podcast Jacob Willcox!   Time Stamps [0:54] Introduction to Neon and Jacob's Journey [2:17] Class Reflections and Experiences [6:46] Transition to Professional Neon Bending [10:36] The Allure of Neon [13:31] Balancing Multiple Roles [20:47] Bridging Art and Signage [23:29] Perspectives on LED vs. Neon [27:53] Future Visions for Neon Art [29:54] The Importance of Community Accessibility [32:31] Conclusion and Gratitude Music credits Preview - Retro by ONE  The opening theme -Taming Lightning by Trav B. Ryan    Credits - Walking by Ras-Hop

Energy conversion technologies such as fuel cells and photocatalysts have great potential in the future of zero-carbon transportation. Scott Misture, Inamori Professor of materials science and engineering at Alfred University in New York, discusses the benefits and challenges of adopting this technology, describes how he uses diffraction techniques to study materials for energy conversion applications, and shares his thoughts on the personal and broader benefits of being involved in the materials science community.View the transcript for this episode here.About the guestScott Misture is an Inamori Professor of materials science and engineering at Alfred University in New York. His research involves using diffraction techniques to study the dynamic behavior of ceramics and glasses related to energy conversion devices. He is currently chair of the International Center for Diffraction Data, a nonprofit scientific organization dedicated to collecting, editing, publishing, and distributing powder diffraction data for the identification of materials.About ACerSFounded in 1898, The American Ceramic Society is the leading professional membership organization for scientists, engineers, researchers, manufacturers, plant personnel, educators, and students working with ceramics and related materials.

What's wrong with donating to charity for the tax write-off? Should we think less of people who do volunteer work to pad their resumes? And why is Angela stopping women in public parks to compliment them? SOURCES:Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.Geoffrey Goodwin, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.Jon Huntsman, politician, diplomat, and businessman.Immanuel Kant, 18th-century German philosopher.Emrys Westacott, professor of philosophy at Alfred University. RESOURCES:"How Inferred Motives Shape Moral Judgements," by Ryan W. Carlson, Yochanan E. Bigman, Kurt Gray, Melissa J. Ferguson, and M. J. Crockett (Nature Reviews Psychology, 2022)."Just 2 Minutes of Walking After a Meal Is Surprisingly Good for You," by Rachel Fairbank (The New York Times, 2022)."Psychological Egoism," by Emrys Westacott (ThoughtCo, 2020)."A Meta-Analytic Review of Moral Licensing," by Irene Blanken, Niels van de Ven, and Marcel Zeelenberg (Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2015)."Selfish or Selfless? On the Signal Value of Emotion in Altruistic Behavior," by Alixandra Barasch, Emma E. Levine, Jonathan Z. Berman, and Deborah A. Small (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2014)."Greenwashing — the Deceptive Tactics Behind Environmental Claims," by the United Nations. EXTRAS:"Giving It Away," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2022)."How Can We Get More Virtue and Less ‘Virtue Signaling'?" by No Stupid Questions (2020)."Does Doing Good Give You License to Be Bad?" by Freakonomics Radio (2018).

In this episode, Ryan and Becca welcome Jackie Head, a ceramic artist based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Jackie shares insights from her journey through her BFA at Indiana University Bloomington and her MFA at Alfred University, as well as her experiences in ceramics residencies. Now a working artist, Jackie discusses her large-scale installation projects, including those involving over 600 identical tiles. They dive into the challenges of pricing such jobs, managing time, maintaining communication with clients throughout the process, and working through challenges of the mold making and slip casting process. Jackie also reflects on balancing work and life during these intense, months-long projects. Stick around until the end to hear about her massive (nearly 20,000 square feet) project at the Indianapolis Airport!-----Find more about Jackie's business below-----Instagram - @jpheadWebsite - https://www.jackiehead.com/Listener QuestionsSend us questions so we can answer anything you've been thinking about on a future episode. Send those through Instagram @wheeltalkpodcast or email us at wheeltalkpodcast@gmail.com.SponsorsL&L Kilns - The durable kiln that potters trust to fire evenly & consistently. Find your L&L kiln at hotkilns.comSupport the show on Patreon for as little as $3 per month: https://patreon.com/WheeltalkpodcastFollow us on Instagram:@wheeltalkpodcast@rdceramics@5linespotteryVisit our website:www.wheeltalkpotcast.comWheel Talk YouTube ChannelSupport the show

Panelists will offer a wide array of perspectives on acting, scenic design, playwriting, diversity in theatre, theatrical institutions, and possibilities for a more equitable and inclusive theatre world. Sharon Marie Carnicke, author of Dynamic Acting through Active Analysis and Stanislavsky in Focus, is an internationally acclaimed expert on acting for stage and screen. Her award-winning translations of Chekhov’s plays have been produced nationally. Her other books include Checking out Chekhov and Reframing Screen Performance. She is a professor of Dramatic Arts and Slavic Languages and Literatures at USC and founder of the Stanislavsky Institute for the 21st Century. Snehal Desai is the artistic director of Center Theatre Group, one of the largest theatre companies in the nation. Previously, he was producing artistic director of East West Players. A Soros Fellow and the recipient of a Tanne Award, Snehal was the Inaugural Recipient of the Drama League’s Classical Directing Fellowship. He has served on the boards of the Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists, Theatre Communications Group, and currently serves on the board of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre. Snehal was on the faculty of USC’s graduate program in Arts Leadership and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. Rena Heinrich is an associate professor of Theatre Practice at USC. Her book, Race and Role: The Mixed-Race Asian Experience in American Drama, traces the shifting identities of multiracial Asian figures in theater from the late-nineteenth century to the present day and exposes the absurd tenacity with which society clings to a tenuous racial scaffolding. She is a contributor to Shape Shifters: Journeys Across Terrains of Race and Identity and The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives about Being Mixed Race in the 21st Century. Maureen Weiss is a performance designer and scenic investigator who has worked in all aspects of theatre, design, and art for the past 25 years. Her work has been seen internationally, and was honored at the Prague Quadrennial in 2023. As a designer, her work has been seen nationally, as well as locally in Los Angeles at The Getty Villa, The Latino Theater Company, The International City Theatre, and 18th Street Arts Center. Maureen is the co-author of Scene Shift: U.S. Set Designers in Conversation, with Sibyl Wickersheimer, which inspired an exhibition at the USC Fisher Museum of Art. She was an associate professor of Performance Design at Alfred University before coming to Los Angeles City College in Fall 2023.  Moderator: Luis Alfaro is a Chicano playwright born and raised in downtown Los Angeles and an associate professor of Dramatic Writing and director of the MFA Dramatic Writing Program at USC. His fellowships include the MacArthur Foundation; United States Artists; Ford Foundation; Joyce Foundation; Mellon Foundation & the PEN America Award for a Master Dramatist. His plays, including The Travelers, Electricidad, Oedipus El Rey, and Mojada, have been seen throughout the United States, Latin America, Canada, and Europe. 

Photo credit: Joe Lacey (@joexlacey) Guests: Kevin Adams, Information Literacy Librarian at Herrick Memorial Library, Alfred University and Edward Gloor, Teaching & Learning Librarian at University of Houston Libraries. First broadcast August 23 2024. Playlist here "What's the most punk rock thing you've ever done?"

Improving glass recycling rates in the United States is an important but complicated task. Collin Wilkinson, assistant professor of glass science at Alfred University, shares how he became interested in this topic, describes how he uses both modeling and experimentation to develop sustainable solutions, and discusses the importance of involving undergraduate students in the research process.View the transcript for this episode here.About the guestCollin Wilkinson is assistant professor of glass science and director of the Center for Glass Innovation at Alfred University in New York. He uses both modeling and experimentation to address sustainability challenges in the glass industry, with a focus on glass recycling. He is also involved in building up the Summer Research Institute at Alfred University, which offers unique learning opportunities and research experiences for undergraduate students.About ACerSFounded in 1898, The American Ceramic Society is the leading professional membership organization for scientists, engineers, researchers, manufacturers, plant personnel, educators, and students working with ceramics and related materials.

Lisa Orr is a professional potter and has been a student of ceramics for more than 40 years. After completing her MFA in 1992 at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, she received a Fulbright and an MAAA/NEA grant to continue her studies. Her work is shown in numerous public and private collections including the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, and the permanent collection of WOCEF in Korea. A full-time studio potter, she also teaches, lectures, and shows nationally and internationally. http://ThePottersCast.com/1046

Tony Marsh is an artist and educator who earned his BFA in Ceramic Art at California State University Long Beach in 1978. After graduating he spent three years in Mashiko, Japan at the workshop of Tatsuzo Shimaoka. Marsh completed his MFA at Alfred University in 1988. He teaches in the Ceramic Arts Program at California State University Long Beach where he was the Program Chair for over 20 years. He is currently the first Director of the Center for Contemporary Ceramics at CSULB. He was named a United States Artists Fellow in 2018, an honor awarded to outstanding contributors in American Arts and Letters. His work is the collections of museums across the globe including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Museum of Art and Design, NY; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Oakland Museum of Art; Gardiner Museum of Art, Toronto; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; San Jose Museum of Art; ASU Art Museum Tempe; the Foshan Museum of Contemporary Art, Foshan, China; and the Orange County Museum of Art.He and Zuckerman discuss being a teacher, making art, making a real impact, doing things with your whole heart, the influence of his mom, living and training in Japan, things that are encoded with success, how simple things are hard to make, marriage vessels, fertility vessels, and appropriate shapes, suspending time, magic, failure, craft, notions of taste, and taking no out of your vocabulary!

In this episode of Shaping Your Pottery, Mike Griffin shares his journey and insights in the pottery world. He emphasizes the importance of continuous learning, experimenting with new techniques, and seeking inspiration from fellow potters. From his initial discovery of pottery at Alfred University to his innovative approach to hand-building and his recognition in Ceramics Monthly, Mike's story is filled with lessons on overcoming fear, making mistakes, and having fun. He also provides practical advice on leveraging community studios and entering pottery shows to grow as an artist. Listeners are encouraged to explore Mike's work on Instagram and join his upcoming workshops. You can learn more about Mike by checking out his instagram https://www.instagram.com/mike_griffin_ceramics/Get your 53 themes by clicking this link shapingyourpottery.com/53themesJoin the Clay Games Community to connect with like minded potters and compete in monthly pottery competitions Join Here00:00 Introduction and Free Pottery Themes00:48 The Importance of Continuous Learning in Pottery01:34 Mike's Journey into Pottery03:17 Encouragement and Growth as an Artist05:14 Community Studios and Learning Opportunities06:24 Developing a Unique Pottery Style11:36 Switching from Wheel Throwing to Hand Building18:53 Finding Your Voice in Pottery21:55 Opportunities and Recognition25:51 Final Thoughts and Advice 26:22 Outro and Additional Resources

Listen to the final part of our conversation with the fantastic Freddy Fredrickson, former kiln master at Alfred University and founder of Fredrickson kilns. This episode will have you thinking beyond temperature when trying to get the most out of your kiln during your firings. Is cone 6 truly more energy-efficient than cone 10? Can your thermocouple be the silent hero of your firings?  Freddy has answers to all your burning questions (pun intended!) and more!   Glaze got you in a daze? Mystery clay malfunction? Fire up your phone and send the For Flux Sake crew a voice memo or a message with your ceramic crisis at forfluxsakepodcast@gmail.com - your problem could be solved on-air!   Today's episode is brought to you by: Bray Poxy archiebrayclay.com   This week's episode features the following topics: Electric Kiln, Cone 6, Cone 10, Cone 6 vs. Cone 10, Energy Efficiency, Energy Efficient Firing, Kiln Troubleshooting, Cones, Kiln Calibration, Kiln Design, Kiln Building, Kiln Efficiency 

Join Matt as he dives deep into kilns with Freddy Frederickson, the legendary founder of Fredrickson Kiln Company. For over 30 years, Freddy wasn't just building kilns at The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, he was perfecting the craft as their master kiln builder. In this first episode of our two-part interview, Freddy shares his remarkable journey. From the evolution of electric kiln technology to filling and firing an even kiln, listen in as he answers some of your burning questions about using your electric kiln.   Today's episode is brought to you by: Bray Poxy archiebrayclay.com   This week's episode features the following topics: Electric Kiln, Firing, Kiln, Kiln Troubleshooting, Kiln load, kiln firing

Ruth Easterbrook, studio artist and instructor, creates pottery with complex glazed surfaces. After her BFA at Syracuse University (2007), Ruth gained experience as a production potter, studio assistant, intern, and resident artist. In 2019, Ruth earned an MFA from Alfred University. Currently, Ruth is an Artist in Residence at The Clay Studio Philadelphia. Ruth has received accolades, including NCECA Emerging Artist 2020 and Ceramics. Ruth's work graces private and museum collections across the USA and internationally. http://ThePottersCast.com/1011

@AlfredUniversity If you want to support the channel, I've set up a Patreon - patreon.com/AllThingsDivisionIIISoccer DiscoverCollegeSoccer.com Study Table - https://discovercollegesoccer.mykajabi.com/a/2147532196/7WKTpfoL Use the Discount Code - SIMPLE for 20% off. ✔ If you enjoyed the video, please like & subscribe! And don't forget to hit the bell button to get notifications of our video uploads!

Nate sits down with Unadilla Valley Girls Basketball Coach, Brandi (Backus) Whitbeck. She has been at the helm for the Storm for 19 years. They discuss her UV memories, her playing days in college at Alfred University, and her time in high school at G-MU. 

This week, Wes and Todd talk with Kristen Egan. Kristen discusses sourcing gourds, carving masks, New Contemporary Folk Art, the area where she lives in Pennsylvania, sense of place, other materials she incorporates into her masks and sculptures, totems, the catalyst to carve gourds, air drying paper clay, repetition & referencing past work, birds, research, process, art show titles, Alfred University, being open to new experiences, foundation, Goggleworks, Arch Enemy Arts, Instagram, the compulsion to create selling art, commissions, production, pricing, perfectionism, evolution & experimentation, work/life balance, bagpipes, weird bagpipe experiences, procrastination, being a life long learner, and collectors previews. Join us for a lovely and fun conversation with Kristen Egan!  Check out Kristen's exquisite work at her website www.kristenegan.com Follow Kristen on social media: Instagram - www.instagram.com/kristeneganart/@kristeneganart Facebook - www.facebook.com/kristeneganart

Guests: Kevin Adams and Maria Planansky of Alfred University. First broadcast January 26 2024. Playlist here "I knew it was going to be a bummer."

Vince Palacios has been working in the field of ceramic art since 1988. Vince received his Masters of Ceramic Art from Alfred University. Vince now serves as Professor of the Ceramics Department at El Camino College in Torrance California. Vince has developed a unique approach to the use of raw glass and ceramic materials as a means of crafting narratives addressing geological process, pyroclastic interaction, and heat/chemical reactions. http://ThePottersCast.com/986

Alfred women's basketball coach, Mike Moskowitz, joins "Not Even D2" for this weeks episode. Coach Moskowitz has changed the narrative surrounding Alfred women's basketball. Hear about what led him to coach women's basketball, how he "sells" Alfred University to recruits, and the current state of the Alfred team. Enjoy the episode!

Lindsay is joined by historian and author Dr. Paul Kahan to discuss the history of Eastern State Penitentiary. Dr. Paul Kahan is a leading expert on U.S. political, economic, and diplomatic history, with a particular interest in the half-century between Andrew Jackson's election to the presidency in 1828 and the so-called end of Reconstruction in 1877. He earned his Ph.D. in U.S. history from Temple University, an M.A. in Modern American History & Literature from Drew University, and B.A. degrees in history and English from Alfred University. Dr. Kahan has published several books, including Eastern State Penitentiary: A History. Become a member on Buy Me A Coffee for as little as $1/month to support the show.  You can write to us at: Ye Olde Crime Podcast, PO Box 341, Wyoming, MN 55092. Join the conversation over at the Cultiv8 Discord and join the Olde Crimers Cubby to chat with us and other listeners of the show. Leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, Spotify, Podcast Addict, Audible, or Goodpods! Don't forget to follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Threads, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Casey Curran joins "Not Even D2" to discuss what it's like playing for Alfred University, battling in the Empire 8, and being a D1 coaches son. Enjoy the episode!

Real Talk podcast is joined by Hank Nuwer, a renowned anti-hazing journalist, author, and scholar with over four decades of experience. He is known for his unwavering dedication to eradicating hazing culture and has authored many influential books on the subject. Hank maintains a comprehensive database of hazing deaths and continues to be a leading voice in raising awareness and advocating for prevention efforts in colleges and beyond. He is a respected authority on hazing and has conducted extensive research and interviews to shed light on this issue.   Show Notes: ●     Sharing personal experiences with hazing (01:20) ●     Analyzing the role of institutions in hazing prevention (05:10) ●     Highlighting the importance of education and awareness (08:15) ●     Should schools abolish Greek life or fraternity sororities? (10:25) ●     Discussion about different types of hazing (13:00) ●     How to define hazing (13.40) ●     How hazing manifests in different organizations (15:00) ●     Hank discusses his books and plays (19:00) ●     Hank discusses future projects (20:30) ●     Positive turn around stories from institutions (21:52) ●     Experiences at other universities (23:50) ●     How can we get coaches involved (25:00) ●     How lonliness factors into hazing (26:30) ●     Conclusion (28:00) Transcript:   Kristina Supler: Welcome back to Real Talk with Susan Stone and Christina Supler. We are full-time moms and attorneys bringing our student defense legal practice to life with real, candid conversations. Susan Stone: Today's podcast is going to tackle the issue of hazing and what a lot of you out there may not know is that Christina and I have looked at hazing from many different perspectives in our career. We have defended accused of hazing. We've actually been asked to help a Greek organization against accusations of hazing. And we have represented victims of hazing. So we have a real 360, don't Christina? Kristina Supler: We do and we're, as our listeners may know, we're located in Ohio, but we handle cases across the country. And what's interesting is that Ohio has been a real hotbed of this activity, though, of course, it happens in students across the country are dealing with these sorts of issues. So we're excited to jump into this topic today. Susan Stone: I really am too. And I am super excited about the guest we have. I feel very fortunate. I want all our listeners know before we give our name out that we reach out to him or her. And we just kept at it because I really wanted this guest on the podcast. So with that, why don't you do the intro? Kristina Supler: Sure. We are joined today by Hank Newer, who is a renowned anti-hazing journalist, author and scholar, known for his unwavering dedication to eradicating hazing culture. With over four decades of experience, he's authored many influential books. He maintains a comprehensive database of hazing deaths. And he continues to be a leading voice in raising awareness and advocating for prevention efforts in colleges and beyond. Welcome, Hank. We're so happy to have you with us today. Hank Newer: Thank you. I'm very pleased to be here. Susan Stone: And I got to add. We just learned Hank lives in Alaska. So we got a little northern exposure going on here. So I love it. But with Hank, let's kick it off. How did hazing become your career focus? Hank Newer: Not because I was hazed, but because I was at the University of Nevada, Reno. And we had a hazing death that was just off campus. But I had seen the initiation. At that time, hazing was rampant, not against the law in a lot of places. I had seen the initiation on campus. And then at a campus bar, I saw someone passed out at a pool table. He was foaming at the mouth. The organization was called the Sun Downers. And their alumni are some of the leading citizens in Nevada. The initiation consisted of making people drink ever clear. And they would throw a match at their lips. So a lot of people were-- Susan Stone: Oh my gosh. Hank Newer: Yeah, that was supposed to be funny. Kristina Supler: That's shocking. Hank Newer: It was. So the person that was foaming I got them to take him and walk him. But I think if I had called the police or so, they wouldn't have done it another time. And John Davies might still be alive. So they did it one more time. And they did this one, not in public. They went to an Indian reservation. And John Davies died, and another pledge was without oxygen for a while. And so I've done database reporting since the 70s. So I made a database of all the hazing deaths that were out there. And editor friend of mine put me in touch with Human Behavior Magazine. And so in the mid 70s, that first article came out. And I kept the database going ever since. Susan Stone: Wow. I can't even respond. Kristina Supler: I think your database is really an important resource. And tell us more about how you receive information and reports that you put into your database. And how do you verify the accuracy of this information? Hank Newer: It's actually time consuming. I also on the page have a long list of deaths that are not considered hazing deaths, but appeared in the press as deaths. Some of these, in particularly around 1900, were with sensational reporting. And I had to track them to find out if these really did occur. So mostly it's from media reports. But people get in touch all the time. If there's a death, the chances of me talking to the parents within two or three days are very good. They're going to be calling for information. And now I would say it's the most difficult part of doing this job. But it was a lot of time. And it was very expensive in the 70s. I had a pay for Lexus Nexus myself. I paid the New York Times for their database. And I started a list serve in the 80s. And people were sending in information on that list serve, which you still could find some places online. So I just kept that over and over. And the good thing about being so public, if people disagree or want to talk about it, it's all out there with full disclosure, where the information comes from. Kristina Supler: That's the purpose of the database. Hank Newer: Because in the set, as I said before, there were a lot of deaths that did not occur that were listed. People were taking any alcohol related death at all and calling it hazing. And so I was trying to break down the details as much as anything else. The next database I'll do will be all these sexual haze and cases involving athletes. And I hope to have that done next year. Susan Stone I'm sure you're thinking about that because of the Yates versus Northwestern case, am I correct? Hank Newer: You have a lot of phone calls about that. Kristina Supler: And we're seeing a real rise in those sorts of cases in our practice that we handle the issue from all different angles. So I think that's really important work you're doing. Susan Stone: I applaud you. What I want to know in your work because we address this, so I'm going to ask you a very selfish question, because I want to know the answer. But I'm sure Christina does too. So much of hazing is shrouded in secrecy and the members of hazing protect each other. What's the best way for a person who's a victim of hazing to gather the evidence to expose what's going on, especially in a culture of silence? Hank Newer: The way I try to do things is I go to the alums, people who've graduated a year or two earlier. And that's very, very quickly after a death when I'm doing a story. Talking to the alums, yes, some of them will close, you know, shut the phone on you, but others will talk about it. And it's a good way of getting into the middle. I try to talk to the advisors and get information from them. And if you just talk to people on campus, hazing isn't as shrouded in secrecy as you think. People are going to be talking to their significant others. So it's not the secret that fraternity members would like to think that it is. Susan Stone: For sports organizations, correct? Hank Newer: Yeah, for sport, well, one of the big problems is they don't consider it as hazing Kristina Supler: No, we know. We got it. We got it. I just wanted to comment that I think it's also important to point out, and I'd like to hear more of your thoughts. I think often hazing is sort of conceptually conceived of as just happening among young men in fraternities. And in fact, it spans across all student organizations, entities, athletic teams, military groups. And it's also not exclusively a male issue. I mean, Susan and I have plenty of case experiences involving female athletes in hazing. Can you talk a little bit more about what you're seeing in the breakdown? And is there any rise in female hazing in your research? Susan Stone: Generally, what are the trends? Hank Newer: Yeah, I don't really see a rise. I think it's consistent. We've not had a death this year or last year, but we've had so many close calls. So people would like to think that we have a trend of deaths ending. We don't. The people were lucky. Maybe what's happening is they're quicker to call 911 and not to just drop somebody off at the hospital where a few deaths have happened. Susan Stone: Or leave them at the foot of the stairs like at Penn State? Hank Newer: Yeah. Well, that-- he was just left alone there. But several times, members have gotten frightened and taken somebody to the hospital and just dropped them off at the emergency. And it's too late at that particular point. From what I saw in the one case, people went from standing up to being dead drunk and just short amount of time. So they're talking, talking, talking, and then suddenly, it hits them. That case of foaming at the mouth was the most dramatic that I've ever seen. Kristina Supler: I can't imagine. I just can't imagine what that must have been like and how that experience has obviously stayed with you. Hank, I'm curious. I'd like to hear your thoughts on whether you think schools should abolish Greek life fraternity sororities? Or do you think that there's value in these organizations? Hank Newer: With certainty, abolish pledging. Not abolish Greek life. I taught 18 years of Franklin College. We didn't have any incidents. I was the advisor to the honor society there, which is male and female. And we had positive initiations that could not in any way shape or form be considered hazing. And the students brought their parents or grandparents to the ceremony. But for me, it's like a mathematical equation, pledging, becomes hazing as pledging becomes hazing. In terms of sports, get rid of the word rookie and stop this dominant subordinate culture that we have out there. And the other is a lot of the coaches will either turn their heads or say, don't take it too far. And that is very, very common. Now, it's very, very dangerous for coaches to do that. If you say, don't take it too far, and you're allowing it. And if alcohol is involved, it is going to go too far. Susan Stone: Hank, just to kind of turn the question and turn the dial a little differently, there are the extreme cases of alcohol. The one you described you witness is horrific. And we've also worked on some pretty scary cases. But I have to say, we've also worked on cases where activities were labeled as hazing and taken as this serious infraction. I don't know. I didn't think it was so serious. I want to give you an example and get your response. We worked on a case where there was a pledging and when the pledges went active, there was a champagne shower. Like they do after car racing. Kristina Supler:  Yeah, it celebrates. Susan Stone: That was investigated for being hazing. I don't think that's hazing. What do you think? Hank Newer: I broke it out out into criminal hazing and non-criminal hazing. Certainly, with something that you're describing, I would have never gotten into this kind of thing. The hazing that I had as a fraternity member was being dropped off in the country. We knew about it ahead of time and had money to call friends. So when you look at it that way, you don't think it's so bad. But then you look at Grove City College in Pennsylvania. Four pledges were killed and aligned as they were walking. And actually, alcohol wasn't involved for them when they were in the middle of nowhere. So the problem is that what would look like innocent fun, sometimes things go wrong. In that case, it's a hard line between what's hazing and what's an accident. And in talking to fraternity advisors, you can't punish the same way. You can't punish somebody for having a pledge pen, the same way that you would for having them drink a handle of alcohol. But in some cases, hazing is hazing, and it's punished that way. It doesn't make any sense at all. Susan Stone: So how do you define hazing? Hank Newer: And hazing to me would be any activity that's silly, dangerous, or repulsive, that's done to newcomers by veterans in order to bring them into the organization. Susan Stone: Why silly? Kristina Supler:  Is it because you think it's humiliating and embarrassing? Hank Newer: We're talking about the things that you said were not so bad. Like for me, I think it says something about male attitudes toward women when baseball players make each other dress up and go on to play in women's clothing or so on. But what about singing a song? Singing your fight song?  That was in the movie, Paper Lion. Alex Karris was in that particular movie. George Plympton, who I interviewed about it, was pretending to be a player, a quarterback on the Detroit Lions, and he brought out a lot of that. So that kind of culture is still there. The only problem is, and there's no real study on it, our people going to take it farther if you have this kind of dominance. Somehow it got into from singing to tying people up to a goal post. And these are big, burly guys fighting back in people have been injured. Or hockey, it's gotten sexualized as you probably have seen in your research. Susan Stone: We have. Hank Newer: Band is very physical. Look at the death of Robert Champion. And when you were talking about different kinds, so when I'm talking to parents in 2018 in South Carolina, the parents were of a band member, their fraternity members. Interestingly enough, no sorority moms have gotten involved. I don't know exactly why it is, but the activists are the parents of fraternity members. And Kathleen Wyatt, for example, in Ohio is a big actress.  Yeah, yeah, a lot. And before I took Robert Fairbanks, by the way, I was the editor of the Solana paper. Kristina Supler:  Many of our listeners are parents of high school and college students. And so based on your experience and knowledge with this subject, what are some of the warning signs that parents, but also students should be aware of and look out for regarding hazing within organizations? Hank Newer: Well, there's like a personality change, a good way that a young woman put it, who was hazed at DuPau with having cigarettes put between our legs and burnt. Susan Stone: That's torture. Hank Newer: That one was interesting. It was Kappa Kappa Gamma. They were members of a family within the organization. And this happened at Chico State too, where the family has their choice of alcohol. One death, Adrian Hydeman at Chico State, it was brandy. These young women, I can't remember what their alcohol was, but they had to drink that particular liquor. And so with that particular case, the warning signs were that she lost her bubbliness, and that's the best description I could give. That she, the young woman, had been dancing. She grew up with ballet. When I interviewed her, she was working in a pizza parlour. And she had put on a bit of weight with stress. And that was one interview. Another young woman who fought back and later got her PhD in family studies fought back. So people have just different kinds of reactions. Mine with the case of having to go out, I didn't really think that much about it. Because we had somebody pick us up right away. But if somebody had gotten killed on one of those marches, I'd be looking at it differently. If the death hadn't occurred at Nevada Reno, I certainly never would have written about hazing. Susan Stone: You have written four books, is that correct? Hank Newer: Yeah, four books. And then I have a novel which has a hazing of Basques and Chinese in the early United States. Susan Stone: And you've also written a play, correct the broken pludge? Hank Newer: Yes, it was a winner of an Anne Frank Award at Buffalo State University. It used to be Buffalo State College. And I got to put my one man play on. And I put that play on for athletes. And I call it Death Of A Rookie. And then there's the Broken Pledge, which is about fraternity members. But it's pretty much the same. A grandfather, buries his grandson that day, and this overcome with grief, hatred, asking where God was when this occurred, losing his faith, and then turning it around with quotations that were in his son's diary from Martin Luther King. So I hope it's as powerful as I think. Susan Stone: Well, I have to tell you, I watched a lot of it. And I thought it was incredibly poignant. How is it that you keep able to turn out content on this one issue and see so many angles and sides of it? It's impressive. Hank Newer: Yeah, I think part of it is by talking to the parents and experts and people that are in the Greek world, they have the insights too. So I had interviewed Louis Lamore one time and he said, it's not that we're so clever, we're a sponge, we're a filter, and we take all of this in. So I think I have to give credit to other people for their perspective and how they see things, but I do have a good memory. Kristina Supler:  What's next for you, Hank, on the horizon of this project? Hank Newer: Okay, so we'll be doing that database that I told you about with sexual hazing. I have a chapter coming out for the University of Toronto, Cress out in 2024 with my own experiences which will be on athletic hazing. I am putting together in the garage about all these files, putting together all the hazing incidents I can find and to do those as a database as well. It's a little more difficult when you're working as an editor than when you're teaching. The amount of free time is not quite as much. And now it's politics coming up elections. You know, Ohio and Alaska, I won't have as much time at all this weekend, I'll be in that office constantly. Kristina Supler: This is, we've talked a lot, a lot of heavy things and we always like to give our listeners something a little positive as well when, you know, contemplating our various topics. So can you share with us in your experience any success stories of schools, institutions, and specific organizations that have really tackled this issue of hazing and essentially turned a really negative situation into a positive to recreate culture surrounding this issue? Hank Newer: Yes, Alfred University did that. They had the death of Chuck Stenzel, which was the subject of my book Broken Pledges, came out in 1989. But they got rid of the Greek system also. And there were a lot of lawsuits with that.Dr. Norm Pollard and a colleague of his, we were the ones that did the first high school hazing surveys. They also did surveys of fraternity members. I got to help write the questions for that, but they did most of the work. That was a big, big turnaround. And the impetus was not only the death of Chuck Stenzel, they had a bad football hazing. And I don't think they lost the season, but they did suspend the team for a game or two. So yes, that was a turnaround. My personal story is I spoke at Penn State, and not two weeks later at Penn State, I got a phone call from the advisor at that particular time to say that the sorority, not hazing, had a woman take way too much alcohol, near point four BAC. Kristina Supler:  Oh my gosh, wow. Hank Newer: The young women did not want to make the call. And one person who heard the, they all heard the talk, one person insisted, and they saved this young woman's life. Kristina Supler:  And it only takes one person. It only takes one student to reach out for help that by standard intervention to stop something horrific. Hank Newer: And it only takes one idiot in the room, sometimes, who's, especially if that person is physically powerful to cause all these bad things as well. You hear that over and over again. So when there was a death of a lacrosse player at Western Illinois University, the punishment for the players, which was interesting, they were all fraternity members too, was to have a writer come in and go through the hazing with them, not the alcohol related part, which was 15 bottles put on stands, but to go into the river, to go marching through, to go to the house, so I'd be able to write about that. In a way, I felt like I was punished as well, because I did that at my own expense. And then it went into a book. But over and over, what's the point? The point is they kept pointing to the student coach who not only did this, but instigated so that they would get the team credit card and put gas into their own vehicles. And each one had the same story. I thought somebody else would step up. Over and over, I kept hearing that same thing. And guess what? The instigator would not talk to me. He never went to jail, either. The judge did not follow through. But yeah, there was one perpetrator who was the prime mover. Susan Stone: How can we get coaches to get on board? Kristina Supler:  Great question. Hank Newer: Really difficult. So I talked at a Quaker school in Delaware, athletic director, a female, really against all kind of hazing, really working football coach. The veteran comes up to me later and said, yeah, this is all fine, but we're not going to take it too far. I thought, geez, you just heard this whole talk. You saw the pictures of the kids on the screen and you're going to tell me this. And so then also when I was at Regis in Denver, I was talking, the athletic director was very much against it, talking to the different coaches. And I asked the coach, after what would happen if you heard there was hazing on your team, would you punish them? And he said, starter or reserve? Kristina Supler:  I was just going to say, I mean, obviously, in particularly collegiate athletics and big schools, coaches are often evaluated based on their winning record. And so it's decision for them to make when a hazing perpetrator is also a star athlete. We just hope that the coach makes the right choice in terms of promoting student safety versus thinking about wins and losses over truly in the long run, what's best for the team from a cultural perspective and student safety perspective. Susan Stone: I think that especially as kids just went back to school, everybody wants to feel a sense of belonging. People can be a very lonely place, both high school and college. And we have to train people that abuse is not the way to bond. Hank Newer: And here in Fairbanks, there was a case I never heard about until I came here where the football coach called it team bonding to have the players jump into the swimming pool and take off all their clothes to switch it to everything, put them back on while in the pool and there were three near deaths. And he forbid his assistants to jump into the water until it was almost too late. And yes, he lost his job, but I never heard about it because our paper in covering it called it what he called it, a team building or team bonding. Susan Stone: Right. Hank Newer: I've written about that since and called it hazing exactly what it is. Kristina Supler:  It's been a pleasure speaking with you today, Hank. And I think that you're obviously a wealth of knowledge on this topic. So we really appreciate your knowledge and insights and encourage our listeners to check out your wealth of material on the topic as well, your books and your database. You are worth the weight. Susan Stone: You are worth the wait. Really. Thank you so much. Kristina Supler:  Thanks for listening to Real Talk with Susan and Christina. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our show so you never miss an episode. And leave us a review so other people can find the content we share here. You can follow us on Instagram, just search our handle @StoneSoupler. And for more resources, visit us online at studentdefense.kjk.com. Thank you so much for being a part of our Realtalk community. We'll see you next time. —----------------------------------------------------------------------- Pull Quotes (Try to find a minimum of 4): ·         “I think often hazing is sort of conceptually conceived of as just happening among young men in fraternities. And in fact, it spans across all student organizations, entities, athletic teams, military groups. And it's also not exclusively a male issue. I mean, Susan and I have plenty of case experiences involving female athletes in hazing. Can you talk a little bit more about what you're seeing in the breakdown?” (08:25) ·         “I can't imagine. I just can't imagine what that must have been like and how that experience has obviously stayed with you. Hank, I'm curious. I'd like to hear your thoughts on whether you think schools should abolish Greek life fraternity sororities? Or do you think that there's value in these organizations?” (10:00) ·         “I broke it out out into criminal hazing and non-criminal hazing. Certainly, with something that you're describing, I would have never gotten into this kind of thing. The hazing that I had as a fraternity member was being dropped off in the country. We knew about it ahead of time and had money to call friends.” (12:20) ·         “I think that especially as kids just went back to school, everybody wants to feel a sense of belonging. People can be a very lonely place, both high school and college. And we have to train people that abuse is not the way to bond.” (26:41)  

224: 5 Truths for Transformational Nonprofit Leaders (Ed Mishrell)SUMMARYDo you want to elevate your nonprofit leadership to the next level? What are the five key principles of mission-driven leadership? In episode #224 of Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership, former Chief Strategy Officer for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and author of The Five Truths for Transformational Leaders: How Nonprofit Organizations Thrive, Grow and Make a Profound Difference, Ed Mishrell, delivers an insightful and practical discussion of how to achieve extraordinary results when leading nonprofit organizations. Ed shares how to use your organization's mission as your north star and build an exciting, thriving nonprofit. He highlights hurdles nonprofit leaders typically face and how you can navigate them for optimal results. Understand the vital importance of leadership growth and how you can ensure you're consistently growing and adapting.   ABOUT EDFor over four decades, Ed Mishrell worked to provide opportunities for America's youth. Ed began a nearly 40-year career in the Boys & Girls Clubs Movement beginning at the Crime Prevention Association, a Boys & Girls Club organization in Philadelphia, PA. In 1987, Ed joined the staff of Boys & Girls Clubs of America as the Director of the Targeted Outreach Delinquency Intervention Program. He has held many positions at BGCA, including the Director of Staff Development and Senior Director of Training and Development, among others. He has led the development of numerous national program and strategic initiatives including executive leadership, deepening impact and assuring public trust. In 2009, Ed became the Chief Strategy Officer at Boys & Girls Clubs of America, responsible for organizational strategy, strategic planning, operational planning, organizational data and outcome measurement systems. After retiring from Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Ed became an adjunct professor at Georgia State University. Ed holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Alfred University, a Master of Education from Elmira College, and a Master of Social Work Administration from Temple University.EPISODE TOPICS & RESOURCES Learn more about Ed hereWhat Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshal Goldsmith and Mark ReiterReady for a Mastermind?  Learn more here!Check out Patton's book Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership: Seven Keys to Advancing Your Career in the Philanthropic Sector

This week Miranda speaks with Mike Schultz. Mike is an artist and printmaker currently getting his MFA at Alfred University. They talk about how his early passion for art fell off as addiction began to take over more of his life, getting sober and going on the journey to reconnect with making, teaching art on the Thai/Burmese border, and what brings him back to art school now years after his BFA. Mike's Website https://mikeschultzstudio.squarespace.com/ Mike's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mike_schultz_studio/ YOUTUBE www.youtube.com/channel/UCOMIT3guY5PjHj1M7GApouw MERCH www.teepublic.com/user/helloprintfriend WEBSITE www.helloprintfriend.com Instagram www.instagram.com/helloprintfriend ✨patreon✨ www.patreon.com/helloprintfriend Our sponsor, Speedball www.speedballart.com

Today on the show we have part two of an interview with renowned ceramic artist and educator Linda Sikora. We talk about the philosophy of education at Alfred University, helping students progress through their own expectations, and being in a family of creatives. The view her recent exhibition Darkening Ground at Ferrin Contemporary visit www.ferrincontemporary.com. To find out more visit www.lindasikora.com.   Today's episode is brought to you by the following sponsors:   For the past 100 years, AMACO Brent has been creating ceramic supplies for our community ranging from underglazes to electric kilns, and they have no plans of slowing down. www.amaco.com   The Bray is actively committed to promoting, celebrating, and sustaining the ceramic arts through its residency program, education center, and gallery. www.archiebray.org   The Rosenfield Collection of Functional Ceramic Art is an on-line source for research and inspiration, featuring images of thousands of objects made by over 900 artists. www.Rosenfieldcollection.com.

Today on the show we have the first in a two-part interview with renowned ceramic artist and educator Linda Sikora. We talk about growing up in Canada, her path to being a potter, and how the concepts of service, storage, and display shaped her recent exhibition Darkening Ground at Ferrin Contemporary. Linda has been teaching at Alfred University since 1997 and has been an integral part of educating a generation of artists at the institution. To find out more visit www.lindasikora.com.   Today's episode is brought to you by the following sponsors:   For the past 100 years, AMACO Brent has been creating ceramic supplies for our community ranging from underglazes to electric kilns, and they have no plans of slowing down. www.amaco.com   The Bray is actively committed to promoting, celebrating, and sustaining the ceramic arts through its residency program, education center, and gallery. www.archiebray.org   The Rosenfield Collection of Functional Ceramic Art is an on-line source for research and inspiration, featuring images of thousands of objects made by over 900 artists. www.Rosenfieldcollection.com.

Welcome to a fresh episode of The Truth in This Art! In this episode, our host, Rob Lee, engages in a stimulating conversation with Victoria Walton, an emerging visual artist and 2023 Ceramics MFA Candidate at Alfred University.Victoria's artwork brings forth the profound intricacies of Black identity through her captivating life-size figurative works. This conversation delves into: Victoria's early experiences and influential figures that shaped her artistic journey. The pivotal "ah-ha" moment that directed her towards art as a lifelong career. Her exploration of ceramics as a primary medium, and the additional techniques she employs in her artwork. The impact of her work on individuals, the broader Black community, and its cultural significance. Join us for a thought-provoking discussion as Victoria opens up about her favorite aspects of being a ceramic artist and imparts valuable advice for those embarking on their own artistic journey.

Dale Wellman completed his ninth season as the head men's basketball coach at Nebraska Wesleyan University in the 2022-23 season. He was named the HoopDirt.Com NCAA Division III Coach of the Year in 2019 and received NABC/NCAA Division III National Coach of the Year recognition in 2018 Wellman has led the Prairie Wolves to four conference championships, four national tournament appearances and the program's first National Championship during his tenure. Overall, Wellman has a career coaching record of 205-128 in 13 seasons as a head coach. Wellman came to NWU after spending six seasons as the head coach at Alfred University, a NCAA III Institution located in Alfred, N.Y. Before his stint at Alfred, Dale spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Williams College in Massachusetts. His collegiate coaching career began in 2002 when he was an assistant coach at Kenyon (Ohio) College. A year later he was appointed assistant coach at Union College in New York. He then spent two seasons as an assistant coach at NCAA Division I Eastern Kentucky University where he helped EKU set a school record for wins and earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Wellman is a 1999 graduate of The University of The South in Sewanee, Tennessee. He played four seasons for the Tigers, participating twice in the NCAA Division III National Tournament (1997, 1998) and earning SCAC All-Academic honors.If you're looking to improve your coaching please consider joining the Hoop Heads Mentorship Program. We believe that having a mentor is the best way to maximize your potential and become a transformational coach. By matching you up with one of our experienced mentors you'll develop a one on one relationship that will help your coaching, your team, your program, and your mindset. The Hoop Heads Mentorship Program delivers mentoring services to basketball coaches at all levels through our team of experienced Head Coaches. Find out more at hoopheadspod.com or shoot me an email directly mike@hoopheadspod.comFollow us on social media @hoopheadspod on Twitter and Instagram.Take down some notes as you listen to this episode with Dale Wellman, head men's basketball coach at Nebraska Wesleyan University.Website - https://nwusports.com/sports/mens-basketballEmail - dwellman@nebrwesleyan.eduTwitter - @Wellmand21Visit our Sponsors!Dr. Dish BasketballMention the Hoop Heads Podcast when you place your order and get $300 off a brand new state of the art Dr. Dish Shooting Machine! Fast Model SportsFastModel Sports has the most compelling and intuitive basketball software out there! In addition to a great product, they also provide basketball coaching content and resources through their blog and playbank, which features over 8,000 free plays and drills from their online coaching community. For access to these plays and more information, visit fastmodelsports.com or follow them on Twitter @FastModel. Use Promo code HHP15 to save 15%The Coaching PortfolioYour first impression is everything when applying for a new coaching job. A professional coaching portfolio is the tool...

Adero Wllard is originally from New York City and currently lives in Chicopee, MA. Adero received a BFA at Alfred University an MFA at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and was a Salad Days artist in resident at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Maine. Adero has over twenty-five years as a ceramics artist and has been featured in a number of discussion panels, publications, books on ceramics, and has exhibited work nationally and internationally. Adero is committed to equity and inclusion work, and while a visiting assistant professor in ceramics has been a faculty co-facilitator for IDEA lab an anti-racism and anti-bias program at Alfred university. Adero is a co-founder of the non-profit outreach organization POW! Pots on Wheels since 2014 and is committed to diversity and anti-hierarchical approaches to teaching in the field of ceramics. For Adero it is all about a love for clay, nature, community, history and learning and sharing knowledge of the handmade with others. http://ThePottersCast.com/917