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Matt Forbeck is all that and so much more. He grew up in Wisconsin as what he describes as a wimpy kid, too short and not overly healthy. He took to gaming at a pretty early age and has grown to be a game creator, author and award-winning storyteller.   Matt has been designing games now for over 35 years. He tells us how he believes that many of the most successful games today have stories to tell, and he loves to create some of the most successful ones. What I find most intriguing about Matt is that he clearly is absolutely totally happy in his work. For most of Matt's career he has worked for himself and continues today to be an independent freelancer.   Matt and his wife have five children, including a set of quadruplets. The quadruplets are 23 and Matt's oldest son is 28 and is following in his father's footsteps.   During our conversation we touch on interesting topics such as trust and work ethics. I know you will find this episode stimulating and worth listening to more than once.     About the Guest:   Matt Forbeck is an award-winning and New York Times-bestselling author and game designer of over thirty-five novels and countless other books and games. His projects have won a Peabody Award, a Scribe Award, and numerous ENnies and Origins Awards. He is also the president of the Diana Jones Award Foundation, which celebrates excellence in gaming.    Matt has made a living full-time on games and fiction since 1989, when he graduated from the Residential College at the University of Michigan with a degree in Creative Writing. With the exception of a four-year stint as the president of Pinnacle Entertainment Group and a year and a half as the director of the adventure games division of Human Head Studios, he has spent his career as an independent freelancer.   Matt has designed collectible card games, roleplaying games, miniatures games, board games, interactive fiction, interactive audiobooks, games for museum installations, and logic systems for toys. He has directed voiceover work and written short fiction, comic books, novels, screenplays, and video game scripts and stories. His work has been translated into at least 15 languages.   His latest work includes the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game Core Rulebook, the Spider-Verse Expansion, Monster Academy (novels and board game), the Shotguns & Sorcery 5E Sourcebook based on his novels, and the Minecraft: Roll for Adventure game books. He is the father of five, including a set of quadruplets. He lives in Beloit, Wisconsin, with his wife and a rotating cast of college-age children. For more about him and his work, visit Forbeck.com.   Ways to connect with Matt:   Twitter: https://twitter.com/mforbeck Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/forbeck Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/forbeck.com Threads: https://www.threads.net/@mforbeck Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mforbeck/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/forbeck/ Website: https://www.forbeck.com/     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/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       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 ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset today. We get to play games. Well, not really, but we'll try. Our guest is Matt Forbeck, who is an award winning author. He is a game designer and all sorts of other kinds of things that I'm sure he's going to tell us about, and we actually just before we started the the episode, we were talking about how one might explore making more games accessible for blind and persons with other disabilities. It's, it's a challenge, and there, there are a lot of tricks. But anyway, Matt, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. We're glad you're here.   Matt Forbeck ** 02:02 Well, thank you, Michael for inviting me and having me on. I appreciate it.   Speaker 1 ** 02:06 I think we're going to have a lot of fun, and I think it'll work out really well. I'm I am sure of that. So why don't we start just out of curiosity, why don't you tell us kind of about the early Matt, growing up?   Matt Forbeck ** 02:18 Uh, well, I grew up. I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I grew up in a little town called Beloit, Wisconsin, which actually live in now, despite having moved away for 13 years at one point, and I had terrible asthma, I was a sick and short kid, and with the advent of medication, I finally started to be healthy when I was around nine, and Part of that, I started getting into playing games, right? Because when you're sick, you do a lot of sitting around rather than running around. So I did a lot of reading and playing games and things like that. I happen to grow up in the part of the world where Dungeons and Dragons was invented, which is in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, about 30 miles from where I live. And because of that I was I started going to conventions and playing games and such, when I was about 12 or 13 years old. I started doing it when I was a little bit older. I started doing it professionally, and started doing it when I was in college. And amazingly enough, even to my own astonishment, I've made a career out of it.   Speaker 1 ** 03:17 Where did you go to college? I went to the University   Matt Forbeck ** 03:21 of Michigan over in Ann Arbor. I had a great time there. There's a wonderful little college, Beloit College, in my hometown here, and most of my family has gone to UW Milwaukee over the years. My parents met at Marquette in Milwaukee, but I wanted to get the heck out of the area, so I went to Michigan, and then found myself coming back as soon as we started having   Speaker 1 ** 03:42 kids well, and of course, I would presume that when you were at the University of Michigan, you rooted for them and against Ohio State. That was   Matt Forbeck ** 03:50 kind of, you know, if you did it the other way around, they back out of town. So, yeah, I was always kind of astonished, though, because having grown up in Wisconsin, where every sports team was a losing team when I was growing up, including the Packers, for decades. You know, we were just happy to be playing. They were more excuse to have beers than they were to cheer on teams. And I went to Michigan where they were, they were angry if the team wasn't up by two touchdowns. You know, at any point, I'm like, You guys are silly. This is we're here for fun.   Speaker 1 ** 04:17 But it is amazing how seriously some people take sports. I remember being in New Zealand helping the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind. Well now 22 years ago, it's 2003 and the America's Cup had just finished before we got there, and in America beat New Zealand, and the people in New Zealand were just irate. They were complaining that the government didn't put enough money into the design of the boat and helping with the with the yacht and all that. It was just amazing how seriously people take it, yeah,   Matt Forbeck ** 04:58 once, I mean, it becomes a part of your. Identity in a lot of ways, right for many people, and I've never had to worry about that too much. I've got other things on my mind, but there you go.   Speaker 1 ** 05:08 Well, I do like it when the Dodgers win, and my wife did her graduate work at USC, and so I like it when the Trojans win, but it's not the end of the world, and you do need to keep it in perspective. I I do wish more people would I know once I delivered a speech in brether County, Kentucky, and I was told that when I started the speech had to end no later than preferably exactly at 6:30pm not a minute later, because it was the night of the NCAA Basketball Championship, and the Kentucky Wildcats were in the championship, and at 630 everyone was going to get up and leave and go home to watch the game. So I ended at 630 and literally, by 631 I timed it. The gym was empty and it was full to start with.   Matt Forbeck ** 06:02 People were probably, you know, counting down on their watches, just to make sure, right?   Speaker 1 ** 06:06 Oh, I'm sure they were. What do you do? It's, it is kind of fun. Well, so why did you decide to get started in games? What? What? What attracted to you, to it as a young person, much less later on?   Matt Forbeck ** 06:21 Well, I was, yeah, I was an awkward kid, kind of nerdy and, you know, glasses and asthma and all that kind of stuff. And games were the kind of thing where, if you didn't know how to interact with people, you could sit down at a table across them and you could practice. You can say, okay, we're all here. We've got this kind of a magic circle around us where we've agreed to take this one silly activity seriously for a short period of time, right? And it may be that you're having fun during that activity, but you know, there's, there's no reason that rolling dice or moving things around on a table should be taken seriously. It's all just for fun, right? But for that moment, you actually just like Las Vegas Exactly, right? When there's money on the line, it's different, but if you're just doing it for grins. You know, it was a good way for me to learn how to interact with people of all sorts and of different ages. And I really enjoyed playing the games, and I really wanted to be a writer, too. And a lot of these things interacted with story at a very basic level. So breaking in as a writer is tough, but it turned out breaking as a game designer, wasn't nearly his stuff, so I started out over there instead, because it was a very young field at the time, right? D and D is now 50 years old, so I've been doing this 35 years, which means I started around professionally and even doing it before that, I started in the period when the game and that industry were only like 10 or 15 years old, so yeah, weren't quite as much competition in those   Speaker 1 ** 07:43 days. I remember some of the early games that I did play, that I could play, were DOS based games, adventure. You're familiar with adventure? Yeah, oh, yeah. Then later, Zork and all that. And I still think those are fun games. And I the reason I like a lot of those kinds of games is they really make you think, which I think most games do, even though the video even the video games and so on, they they help your or can help your reactions, but they're designed by people who do try to make you think,   Matt Forbeck ** 08:15 yeah. I mean, we basically are designing puzzles for people to solve, even if they're story puzzles or graphic puzzles or sound puzzles or whatever, you know, even spatial puzzles. There the idea is to give somebody something fun that is intriguing to play with, then you end up coming with story and after that, because after a while, even the most most exciting mechanics get dull, right? I mean, you start out shooting spaceships, but you can only shoot spaceships for so long, or you start out playing Tetris, and you only put shapes together for so long before it doesn't mean anything that then you start adding in story to give people a reason to keep playing right and a reason to keep going through these things. And I've written a lot of video games over the years, basically with that kind of a philosophy, is give people nuggets of story, give them a plot to work their way through, and reward them for getting through different stages, and they will pretty much follow you through anything. It's amazing.   Michael Hingson ** 09:09 Is that true Dungeons and Dragons too?   Matt Forbeck ** 09:13 It is. All of the stories are less structured there. If you're doing a video game, you know you the team has a lot of control over you. Give the player a limited amount of control to do things, but if you're playing around a table with people, it's more of a cooperative kind of experience, where we're all kind of coming up with a story, the narrator or the Game Master, the Dungeon Master, sets the stage for everything, but then the players have a lot of leeway doing that, and they will always screw things up for you, too. No matter what you think is going to happen, the players will do something different, because they're individuals, and they're all amazing people. That's actually to me, one of the fun things about doing tabletop games is that, you know, the computer can only react in a limited number of ways, whereas a human narrator and actually change things quite drastically and roll. With whatever people come up with, and that makes it tremendous fun.   Speaker 1 ** 10:04 Do you think AI is going to enter into all that and maybe improve some of the   Matt Forbeck ** 10:09 old stuff? It's going to add your end to it, whether it's an ad, it's going to approve it as a large question. Yeah. So I've been ranting about AI quite a bit lately with my friends and family. But, you know, I think the problem with AI, it can be very helpful a lot of ways, but I think it's being oversold. And I think it's especially when it's being oversold for thing, for ways for people to replace writers and creative thinking, Yeah, you know, you're taking the fun out of everything. I mean, the one thing I like to say is if, if you can't be bothered to write this thing that you want to communicate to me, I'm not sure why I should be bothered to read this thing well.   Speaker 1 ** 10:48 And I think that AI will will evolve in whatever way it does. But the fact of the matter is, So do people. And I think that, in fact, people are always going to be necessary to make the process really work? AI can only do and computers can only do so much. I mean, even Ray Kurzweil talks about the singularity when people and computer brains are married, but that still means that you're going to have the human element. So it's not all going to be the computer. And I'm not ready to totally buy into to what Ray says. And I used to work for Ray, so I mean, I know Ray Well, but, but the but the bottom line is, I think that, in fact, people are always going to be able to be kind of the, the mainstay of it, as long as we allow that, if we, if we give AI too much power, then over time, it'll take more power, and that's a problem, but that's up to us to deal with?   Matt Forbeck ** 11:41 No, I totally agree with that. I just think right now, there's a very large faction of people who it's in their economic interest to oversell these things. You know, people are making chips. They're building server farms. A lot of them are being transferred from people are doing blockchain just a few years ago, and they see it as the hot new thing. The difference is that AI actually has a lot of good uses. There's some amazing things will come out of llms and such. But I again, people are over the people are selling this to us. Are often over promising things, right?   Speaker 1 ** 12:11 Yeah, well, they're not only over promising but they're they're really misdirecting people. But the other side of it is that, that, in fact, AI as a concept and as a technology is here, and we have control over how we use it. I've said a couple times on this this podcast, and I've said to others, I remember when I first started hearing about AI, I heard about the the fact that teachers were bemoaning the pack, that kids were writing their papers just using AI and turning them in, and it wasn't always easy to tell whether it was something that was written by AI or was written by the student. And I come from a little bit different view than I think a lot of people do. And my view basically is, let the kids write it if with AI, if that's what they're going to do, but then what the teacher needs to do is to take one period, for example, and give every student in that class the opportunity to come up and defend whatever paper they have. And the real question is, can they defend the paper? Which means, have they really learned the subject, or are they just relying on AI,   Matt Forbeck ** 13:18 yeah, I agree with that. I think the trouble is, a lot of people, children, you know, who are developing their abilities and their morals about this stuff, they use it as just a way to complete the assignment, right? And many of them don't even read what they turn in, right, right? Just know that they've got something here that will so again, if you can't be bothered to read the thing that you manufactured, you're not learning anything about it,   Speaker 1 ** 13:39 which is why, if you are forced to defend it, it's going to become pretty obvious pretty fast, whether you really know it or not. Now, I've used AI on a number of occasions in various ways, but I use it to maybe give me ideas or prepare something that I then modify and shape. And I may even interact with AI a couple of times, but I'm definitely involved with the process all the way down the line, because it still has to be something that I'm responsible for.   Matt Forbeck ** 14:09 I agree. I mean, the whole point of doing these things is for people to connect with each other, right? I want to learn about the ideas you have in your head. I want to see how they jive with ones in my head. But if I'm just getting something that's being spit out by a machine and not you, and not being curated by you at any point, that doesn't seem very useful, right? So if you're the more involved people are in it, the more useful it is.   Speaker 1 ** 14:31 Well, I agree, and you know, I think again, it's a tool, and we have to decide how the tool is going to be used, which is always the way it ought to be. Right?   Matt Forbeck ** 14:42 Exactly, although sometimes it's large corporations deciding,   Speaker 1 ** 14:45 yeah, well, there's that too. Well, individuals,   Matt Forbeck ** 14:49 we get to make our own choices. Though you're right,   Speaker 1 ** 14:51 yes, and should Well, so, so when did you start bringing writing into what you. Did, and make that a really significant part of what you did?   Matt Forbeck ** 15:03 Well, pretty early on, I mean, I started doing one of the first things I did was a gaming zine, which was basically just a print magazine that was like, you know, 32 pages, black and white, about the different tabletop games. So we were writing those in the days, design and writing are very closely linked when it comes to tabletop games and even in video games. The trick of course is that designing a game and writing the rules are actually two separate sets of skills. So one of the first professional gig I ever had during writing was in games was some friends of mine had designed a game for a company called Mayfair games, which went on to do sellers of contain, which is a big, uh, entry level game, and but they needed somebody to write the rules, so they called me over, showed me how to play the game. I took notes and I I wrote it down in an easy to understand, clear way that people had just picked up the box. Could then pick it up and teach themselves how to play, right? So that was early on how I did it. But the neat thing about that is it also taught me to think about game design. I'm like, when I work on games, I think about, who is this game going to be for, and how are we going to teach it to them? Because if they can't learn the game, there's no point of the game at all, right?   Speaker 1 ** 16:18 And and so I'm right? I'm a firm believer that a lot of technical writers don't do a very good job of technical writing, and they write way over people's heads. I remember the first time I had to write, well, actually, I mentioned I worked for Kurzweil. I was involved with a project where Ray Kurzweil had developed his original omniprent optical character recognition system. And I and the National Federation of the Blind created with him a project to put machines around the country so that blind people could use them and give back to Ray by the time we were all done, recommendations as to what needed to go in the final first production model of the machine. So I had to write a training manual to teach people how to use it. And I wrote this manual, and I was always of the opinion that it had to be pretty readable and usable by people who didn't have a lot of technical knowledge. So I wrote the manual, gave it to somebody to read, and said, Follow the directions and and work with the machine and all that. And they did, and I was in another room, and they were playing with it for a couple of hours, and they came in and they said, I'm having a problem. I can't figure out how to turn off the machine. And it turns out that I had forgotten to put in the instruction to turn off the machine. And it wasn't totally trivial. There were steps you had to go through. It was a Data General Nova two computer, and you had to turn it off the right way and the whole system off the appropriate way, or you could, could mess everything up. So there was a process to doing it. So I wrote it in, and it was fine. But, you know, I've always been a believer that the textbooks are way too boring. Having a master's degree in physics, I am of the opinion that physics textbook writers, who are usually pretty famous and knowledgeable scientists, ought to include with all the text and the technical stuff they want to put in, they should put in stories about what they did in you bring people in, draw them into the whole thing, rather than just spewing out a bunch of technical facts.   Matt Forbeck ** 18:23 No, I agree. My my first calculus professor was a guy who actually explained how Newton and Leipzig actually came up with calculus, and then he would, you know, draw everything on the board and turn around say, and isn't that amazing? And you were, like, just absolutely enamored with the idea of how they had done these things, right? Yeah. And what you're doing there, when you, when you, when you give the instructions to somebody and say, try this out. That's a very big part of gaming, actually, because what we do this thing called play testing, where we take something before it's ready to be shown to the public, and we give it to other people and say, try this out. See how it works. Let me know when you're starting out of your first playing you play with like your family and friends and people will be brutal with you and give you hints about how you can improve things. But then, even when you get to the rules you're you send those out cold to people, or, you know, if you're a big company, you watch them through a two way mirror or one way mirror, and say, Hey, let's see how they react to everything. And then you take notes, and you try to make it better every time you go through. And when I'm teaching people to play games at conventions, for instance, I will often say to them, please ask questions if you don't understand anything, that doesn't mean you're dumb. Means I didn't explain it well enough, right? And my job as a person writing these rules is to explain it as well as I humanly can so it can't be misconstrued or misinterpreted. Now that doesn't mean you can correct everything. Somebody's always got like, Oh, I missed that sentence, you know, whatever. But you do that over and over so you can try to make it as clear and concise as possible, yeah.   Speaker 1 ** 19:52 Well, you have somewhat of a built in group of people to help if you let your kids get involved. Involved. So how old are your kids?   Matt Forbeck ** 20:03 My eldest is 26 he'll be 27 in January. Marty is a game designer, actually works with me on the marble tabletop role playing game, and we have a new book coming out, game book for Minecraft, called Minecraft role for adventure, that's coming out on July 7, I think, and the rest of the kids are 23 we have 423 year olds instead of quadruplets, one of whom is actually going into game design as well, and the other says two are still in college, and one has moved off to the work in the woods. He's a very woodsy boy. Likes to do environmental education with people.   Speaker 1 ** 20:39 Wow. Well, see, but you, but you still have a good group of potential game designers or game critics anyway.   Matt Forbeck ** 20:47 Oh, we all play games together. We have a great time. We do weekly game nights here. Sometimes they're movie nights, sometimes they're just pizza nights, but we shoot for game and pizza   Speaker 1 ** 20:56 if we get lucky and your wife goes along with all this too.   Matt Forbeck ** 21:00 She does. She doesn't go to the game conventions and stuff as much, and she's not as hardcore of a gamer, but she likes hanging out with the kids and doing everything with us. We have a great time.   Speaker 1 ** 21:10 That's that's pretty cool. Well, you, you've got, you've got to build an audience of some sorts, and that's neat that a couple of them are involved in it as well. So they really like what dad does, yeah,   Matt Forbeck ** 21:23 yeah. We, I started taking them each to conventions, which are, you know, large gatherings gamers in real life. The biggest one is Gen Con, which happens in Indianapolis in August. And last year, I think, we had 72,000 people show up. And I started taking the kids when they were 10 years old, and my wife would come up with them then. And, you know, 10 years old is a lot. 72,000 people is a lot for a 10 year old. So she can mention one day and then to a park the next day, you know, decompress a lot, and then come back on Saturday and then leave on Sunday or whatever, so that we didn't have them too over stimulated. But they really grown to love it. I mean, it's part of our annual family traditions in the summer, is to go do these conventions and play lots of games with each other and meet new people too well.   Speaker 1 ** 22:08 And I like the way you put it. The games are really puzzles, which they are, and it's and it's fun. If people would approach it that way, no matter what the game is, they're, they're aspects of puzzles involved in most everything that has to do with the game, and that's what makes it so fun.   Matt Forbeck ** 22:25 Exactly, no. The interesting thing is, when you're playing with other people, the other people are changing the puzzles from their end that you have to solve on your end. And sometimes the puzzle is, how do I beat this person, or how do I defeat their strategy, or how do I make an alliance with somebody else so we can win? And it's really always very intriguing. There's so many different types of games. There's nowadays, there's like something like 50 to 100 new board games that come out and tabletop games every month, right? It's just like a fire hose. It's almost like, when I was starting out as a novelist, I would go into Barnes and Noble or borders and go, Oh my gosh, look at all these books. And now I do the same thing about games. It's just, it's incredible. Nobody, no one person, could keep up with all of them.   Speaker 1 ** 23:06 Yeah, yeah, yeah, way too much. I would love to explore playing more video games, but I don't. I don't own a lot of the technology, although I'm sure that there are any number of them that can be played on a computer, but we'll have to really explore and see if we can find some. I know there are some that are accessible for like blind people with screen readers. I know that some people have written a few, which is kind of cool. Yeah.   Matt Forbeck ** 23:36 And Xbox has got a new controller out that's meant to be accessible to large amount of people. I'm not sure, all the different aspects of it, but that's done pretty well, too   Speaker 1 ** 23:44 well. And again, it comes down to making it a priority to put all of that stuff in. It's not like it's magic to do. It's just that people don't know how to do it. But I also think something else, which is, if you really make the products more usable, let's say by blind people with screen readers. You may be especially if it's well promoted, surprised. I'm not you necessarily, but people might well be surprised as to how many others might take advantage of it so that they don't necessarily have to look at the screen, or that you're forced to listen as well as look in order to figure out what's going on or take actions.   Matt Forbeck ** 24:29 No, definitely true. It's, you know, people audio books are a massive thing nowadays. Games tend to fall further behind that way, but it's become this incredible thing that obviously, blind people get a great use out of but my wife is addicted to audio books now. She actually does more of those than she does reading. I mean, I technically think they're both reading. It's just one's done with yours and one's done with your eyes.   Speaker 1 ** 24:51 Yeah, there's but there's some stuff, whether you're using your eyes or your fingers and reading braille, there's something about reading a book that way that's. Even so a little bit different than listening to it. Yeah, and there's you're drawn in in some ways, in terms of actually reading that you're not necessarily as drawn into when you're when you're listening to it, but still, really good audio book readers can help draw you in, which is important, too,   Matt Forbeck ** 25:19 very much. So yeah, I think the main difference for reading, whether it's, you know, again, through Braille or through traditional print, is that you can stop. You can do it at your own pace. You can go back and look at things very easily, or read or check things, read things very easily. That you know, if you're reading, if you're doing an audio book, it just goes on and it's straight on, boom, boom, boom, pace. You can say, Wait, I'm going to put this down here. What was that thing? I remember back there? It was like three pages back, but it's really important, let me go check that right.   Speaker 1 ** 25:50 There are some technologies that allow blind people and low vision people and others, like people with dyslexia to use an audio book and actually be able to navigate two different sections of it. But it's not something that is generally available to the whole world, at least to the level that it is for blind people. But I can, I can use readers that are made to be able to accept the different formats and go back and look at pages, go back and look at headings, and even create bookmarks to bookmark things like you would normally by using a pen or a pencil or something like that. So there are ways to do some of that. So again, the technology is making strides.   Matt Forbeck ** 26:37 That's fantastic. Actually, it's wonderful. Just, yeah, it's great. I actually, you know, I lost half the vision of my right eye during back through an autoimmune disease about 13 years ago, and I've always had poor vision. So I'm a big fan of any kind of way to make things easier,   Speaker 1 ** 26:54 like that. Well, there, there are things that that are available. It's pretty amazing. A guy named George curser. Curser created a lot of it years ago, and it's called the DAISY format. And the whole idea behind it is that you can actually create a book. In addition to the audio tracks, there are XML files that literally give you the ability to move and navigate around the book, depending on how it's created, as final level as you choose.   Matt Forbeck ** 27:25 Oh, that's That's amazing. That's fantastic. I'm actually really glad to hear that.   Speaker 1 ** 27:28 So, yeah, it is kind of fun. So there's a lot of technology that's that's doing a lot of different sorts of things and and it helps. But um, so for you, in terms of dealing with, with the games, you've, you've written games, but you've, you've actually written some novels as well, right?   Matt Forbeck ** 27:50 Yeah, I've got like 30, it depends on how you count a novel, right? Okay, like some of my books are to pick a path books, right? Choose Your Own Adventure type stuff. So, but I've got 35 traditional novels written or more, I guess, now, I lost track a while ago, and probably another dozen of these interactive fiction books as well. So, and I like doing those. I've also written things like Marvel encyclopedias and Avengers encyclopedias and all sorts of different pop culture books. And, you know, I like playing in different worlds. I like writing science fiction, fantasy, even modern stuff. And most of it, for me comes down to telling stories, right? If you like to tell stories, you can tell stories through a game or book or audio play or a TV show or a comic, or I've done, you know, interactive museum, games and displays, things like that. The main thing is really a story. I mean, if you're comfortable sitting down at a bar and having a drink with somebody, doesn't have to be alcohol, just sitting down and telling stories with each other for fun. That's where the core of it all is really   Speaker 1 ** 28:58 right. Tell me about interactive fiction book.   Matt Forbeck ** 29:01 Sure, a lot of these are basically just done, like flow charts, kind of like the original Zork and adventure that you were talking about where you I actually, I was just last year, I brought rose Estes, who's the inventor of the endless quest books, which were a cross between Dungeons and Dragons, and choose your own adventure books. She would write the whole thing out page by page on a typewriter, and then, in order to shuffle the pages around so that people wouldn't just read straight through them, she'd throw them all up in the air and then just put them back in whatever order they happen to be. But essentially, you read a section of a book, you get to the end, and it gives you a choice. Would you like to go this way or that way? Would you like to go beat up this goblin? Or would you like to make friends with this warrior over here? If you want to do one of these things, go do page xx, right? Got it. So then you turn to that page and you go, boom, some, actually, some of the endless quest books I know were turned into audio books, right? And I actually, I. Um, oddly, have written a couple Dungeons and Dragons, interactive books, audio books that have only been released in French, right? Because there's a company called Looney l, u n, i, i that has this little handheld device that's for children, that has an A and a B button and a volume button. And you, you know, you get to the point that says, if you want to do this, push a, if you want to do that, push B, and the kids can go through these interactive stories and and, you know, there's ones for clue and Dungeons and Dragons and all sorts of other licenses, and some original stories too. But that way there's usually, like, you know, it depends on the story, but sometimes there's, like, 10 to 20 different endings. A lot of them are like, Oh no, you've been killed. Go back to where you started, right? And if you're lucky, the longer ones are, the more fun ones. And you get to, you know, save the kingdom and rescue the people and make good friends and all that good stuff,   Michael Hingson ** 30:59 yeah, and maybe fall in love with the princess or Prince.   Matt Forbeck ** 31:02 Yeah, exactly right. It all depends on the genre and what you're working in. But the idea is to give people some some choices over how they want the story to go. You're like, Well, do you want to investigate this dark, cold closet over here, or would you rather go running outside and playing around? And some of them can seem like very innocent choices, and other ones are like, well, uh, 10 ton weight just fell on. You go back to the last thing.   Speaker 1 ** 31:23 So that dark hole closet can be a good thing or a bad thing,   Matt Forbeck ** 31:28 exactly. And the trick is to make the deaths the bad endings, actually just as entertaining as anything else, right? And then people go, Well, I got beat, and I gotta go back and try that again. So yeah, if they just get the good ending all the way through, they often won't go back and look at all the terrible ones. So it's fun to trick them sometimes and have them go into terrible spots. And I like to put this one page in books too that sometimes says, How did you get here? You've been cheating there. This book, this page, is actually not led to from any other part of the book. You're just flipping   Speaker 1 ** 31:59 through. Cheater, cheater book, do what you   Matt Forbeck ** 32:04 want, but if you want to play it the right way, go back.   Speaker 1 ** 32:07 Kid, if you want to play the game. Yeah, exactly. On the other hand, some people are nosy.   Matt Forbeck ** 32:15 You know, I was always a kid who would poke around and wanted to see how things were, so I'm sure I would have found that myself but absolutely related, you know,   Speaker 1 ** 32:23 yeah, I had a general science teacher who brought in a test one day, and he gave it to everyone. And so he came over to me because it was, it was a printed test. He said, Well, I'm not going to give you the test, because the first thing it says is, read all the instructions, read, read the test through before you pass it, before you take it. And he said, most people won't do that. And he said, I know you would. And the last question on the test is answer, only question one.   Matt Forbeck ** 32:55 That's great. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah,   Speaker 1 ** 32:57 that was cute. And he said, I know that. I that there's no way you would, would would fall for that, because you would say, Okay, let's read the instructions and then read the whole test. That's what it said. And the instruction were, just read the whole test before you start. And people won't do that.   Matt Forbeck ** 33:13 No, they'll go through, take the whole thing. They get there and go, oh, did I get there? Was a, there's a game publisher. I think it was Steve Jackson Games, when they were looking for people, write for them, or design stuff for them, or submit stuff to them, would have something toward the end of the instructions that would say, put like a the letter seven, or put seven a on page one right, and that way they would know if you had read the instructions, if you hadn't bothered to Read the instructions, they wouldn't bother reading anything else.   Speaker 1 ** 33:42 Yeah, which is fair, because the a little harsh, well, but, but, you know, we often don't learn enough to pay attention to details. I know that when I was taking physics in college, that was stressed so often it isn't enough to get the numbers right. If you don't get the units right as well. Then you're, you're not really paying attention to the details. And paying attention to the details is so important.   Matt Forbeck ** 34:07 That's how they crash from those Mars rovers, wasn't it? They somebody messed up the units, but going back and forth between metric and, yeah, and Imperial and, well, you know, it cost somebody a lot of money at one point. Yeah. Yeah. What do you   Speaker 1 ** 34:21 this is kind of the way it goes. Well, tell me, yeah. Well, they do matter, no matter what people think, sometimes they do matter. Well, tell me about the Diana Jones award. First of all, of course, the logical question for many people is, who is Diana Jones? Yeah, Diana Jones doesn't exist, right? That's There you go. She's part game somewhere? No, no, it doesn't be in a game somewhere.   Matt Forbeck ** 34:43 Then now there's actually an author named Diana Wynne Jones, who's written some amazing fantasy stories, including Howell's Moving Castle, which has turned into a wonderful anime movie, but it has nothing to do with her or any other person. Because originally, the Diana Jones award came about. Because a friend of mine, James Wallace, had somehow stumbled across a trophy that fell into his hands, and it was a pub trivia trophy that used to be used between two different gaming companies in the UK, and one of those was TSR, UK, the United Kingdom department. And at one point, the company had laid off everybody in that division just say, Okay, we're closing it all down. So the guys went and burned a lot of the stuff that they had, including a copy of the Indiana Jones role playing game, and the only part of the logo that was left said Diana Jones. And for some reason, they put this in a in a fiberglass or Plexiglas pyramid, put it on a base, a wooden base, and it said the Diana Jones award trophy, right? And this was the trophy that they used they passed back and forth as a joke for their pub trivia contest. Fell into James's hands, and he decided, You know what, we're going to give this out for the most excellent thing in gaming every year. And we've now done this. This will be 25 years this summer. We do it at the Wednesday night before Gen Con, which starts on Thursday, usually at the end of July or early August. And as part of that, actually, about five years ago, we started, one of the guys suggested we should do something called the emerging designers program. So we actually became a 501, c3, so we could take donations. And now we take four designers every year, fly them in from wherever they happen to be in the world, and put them up in a hotel, give them a badge the show, introduce them to everybody, give them an honorarium so they can afford to skip work for a week and try to help launch their careers. I mean, these are people that are in the first three years of their design careers, and we try to work mostly with marginalized or et cetera, people who need a little bit more representation in the industry too. Although we can select anybody, and it's been really well received, it's been amazing. And there's a group called the bundle of holding which sells tabletop role playing game PDFs, and they've donated 10s of 1000s of dollars every year for us to be able to do this. And it's kind of funny, because I never thought I'd be end up running a nonprofit, but here I'm just the guy who writes checks to the different to the emerging designer program. Folks are much more tied into that community that I am. But one of the real reasons I wanted to do something like that or be involved with it, because if you wander around with these conventions and you notice that it starts getting very gray after a while, right? It's you're like, oh, there's no new people coming in. It's all older people. I we didn't I didn't want us to all end up as like the Grandpa, grandpa doing the HO model railroad stuff in the basement, right? This dying hobby that only people in their 60s and 70s care about. So bringing in fresh people, fresh voices, I think, is very important, and hopefully we're doing some good with that. It's been a lot of fun either way.   Speaker 1 ** 37:59 Well, I have you had some success with it? Yeah, we've   Matt Forbeck ** 38:02 had, well, let's see. I think we've got like 14 people. We've brought in some have already gone on to do some amazing things. I mean, it's only been a few years, so it's hard to tell if they're gonna be legends in their time, but again, having them as models for other people to look at and say, Oh, maybe I could do that. That's been a great thing. The other well, coincidentally, Dungeons and Dragons is having its best 10 year streak in its history right now, and probably is the best selling it's ever been. So coinciding with that, we've seen a lot more diversity and a lot more people showing up to these wonderful conventions and playing these kinds of games. There's also been an advent of this thing called actual play, which is the biggest one, is a group called Critical Role, which is a whole bunch of voice actors who do different cartoons and video games and such, and they play D and D with each other, and then they record the games, and they produce them on YouTube and for podcasts. And these guys are amazing. There's a couple of other ones too, like dimension 20 and glass cannon, the critical role guys actually sold out a live performance at Wembley Arena last summer. Wow. And dimension. Dimension 20 sold out Madison Square Garden. I'm like, if you'd have told me 20 years ago that you know you could sell out an entire rock stadium to have people watch you play Dungeons and Dragons, I would have laughed. I mean, there's no way it would have been possible. But now, you know, people are very much interested in this. It's kind of wild, and it's, it's fun to be a part of that. At some level,   Speaker 1 ** 39:31 how does the audience get drawn in to something like that? Because they are watching it, but there must be something that draws them in.   Matt Forbeck ** 39:39 Yeah, part of it is that you have some really skilled some actors are very funny, very traumatic and very skilled at improvisation, right? So the the dungeon master or Game Master will sit there and present them with an idea or whatever. They come up each with their own characters. They put them in wonderful, strong voices. They kind of inhabit the roles in a way that an actor. A really top level actor would, as opposed to just, you know, me sitting around a table with my friends. And because of that, they become compelling, right? My Marty and my his wife and I were actually at a convention in Columbus, Ohio last weekend, and this group called the McElroy family, actually, they do my brother, my brother and me, which is a hit podcast, but they also do an actual play podcast called The Adventure zone, where they just play different games. And they are so funny. These guys are just some of the best comedians you'll ever hear. And so them playing, they actually played our Marvel game for a five game session, or a five podcast session, or whatever, and it was just stunningly fun to listen to. People are really talented mess around with something that we built right it's very edifying to see people enjoying something that you worked on.   Speaker 1 ** 40:51 Do you find that the audiences get drawn in and they're actually sort of playing the game along, or as well? And may disagree with what some of the choices are that people make?   Matt Forbeck ** 41:02 Oh, sure. But I mean, if the choices are made from a point of the character that's been expressed, that people are following along and they they already like the character, they might go, Oh, those mean, you know that guy, there are some characters they love to hate. There are some people they're they're angry at whatever, but they always really appreciate the actors. I mean, the actors have become celebrities in their own right. They've they sell millions of dollars for the comic books and animated TV shows and all these amazing things affiliated with their actual play stuff. And it's, I think it, part of it is because, it's because it makes the games more accessible. Some people are intimidated by these games. So it's not really, you know, from a from a physical disability kind of point. It's more of a it makes it more accessible for people to be nervous, to try these things on their own, or don't really quite get how they work. They can just sit down and pop up YouTube or their podcast program and listen into people doing a really good job at it. The unfortunate problem is that the converse of that is, when you're watching somebody do that good of a job at it, it's actually hard to live up to that right. Most people who play these games are just having fun with their friends around a table. They're not performing for, you know, 10s of 1000s, if not hundreds of 1000s of people. So there's a different level of investments, really, at that point, and some people have been known to be cowed by that, by that, or daunted by that.   Speaker 1 ** 42:28 You work on a lot of different things. I gather at the same time. What do you what do you think about that? How do you like working on a lot of different projects? Or do you, do you more focus on one thing, but you've got several things going on, so you'll work on something for one day, then you'll work on something else. Or how do you how do you do it all?   Matt Forbeck ** 42:47 That's a good question. I would love to just focus on one thing at a time. Now, you know the trouble is, I'm a freelancer, right? I don't set my I don't always get to say what I want to work on. I haven't had to look for work for over a decade, though, which has been great. People just come to me with interesting things. The trouble is that when you're a freelancer, people come in and say, Hey, let's work on this. I'm like, Yeah, tell me when you're ready to start. And you do that with like, 10 different people, and they don't always line up in sequence properly, right? Yeah? Sometimes somebody comes up and says, I need this now. And I'm like, Yeah, but I'm in the middle of this other thing right now, so I need to not sleep for another week, and I need to try to figure out how I'm going to put this in between other things I'm working on. And I have noticed that after I finish a project, it takes me about a day or three to just jump track. So if I really need to, I can do little bits here and there, but to just fully get my brain wrapped around everything I'm doing for a very complex project, takes me a day or three to say, Okay, now I'm ready to start this next thing and really devote myself to it. Otherwise, it's more juggling right now, having had all those kids, probably has prepared me to juggle. So I'm used to having short attention span theater going on in my head at all times, because I have to jump back and forth between things. But it is. It's a challenge, and it's a skill that you develop over time where you're like, Okay, I can put this one away here and work on this one here for a little while. Like today, yeah, I knew I was going to talk to you, Michael. So I actually had lined up another podcast that a friend of mine wanted to do with me. I said, Let's do them on the same day. This way I'm not interrupting my workflow so much, right? Makes sense? You know, try to gang those all together and the other little fiddly bits I need to do for administration on a day. Then I'm like, Okay, this is not a day off. It's just a day off from that kind of work. It's a day I'm focusing on this aspect of what I do.   Speaker 1 ** 44:39 But that's a actually brings up an interesting point. Do you ever take a day off or do what do you do when you're when you deciding that you don't want to do gaming for a while?   Matt Forbeck ** 44:49 Yeah, I actually kind of terrible. But you know, you know, my wife will often drag me off to places and say we're going to go do this when. Yes, we have a family cabin up north in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that we go to. Although, you know, my habit there is, I'll work. I'll start work in the morning on a laptop or iPad until my battery runs out, and then I shut it down, put on a charger, and then I go out and swim with everybody for the rest of the day. So it depends if I'm on a deadline or not, and I'm almost always on a deadline, but there are times I could take weekends off there. One of the great things of being a freelancer, though, and especially being a stay at home father, which is part of what I was doing, is that when things come up during the middle of the week, I could say, oh, sure, I can be flexible, right? The trouble is that I have to pay for that time on my weekends, a lot of the time, so I don't really get a lot of weekends off. On the other hand, I'm not I'm not committed to having to work every day of the week either, right? I need to go do doctor appointments, or we want to run off to Great America and do a theme park or whatever. I can do that anytime I want to. It's just I have to make up the time at other points during the week. Does your wife work? She does. She was a school social worker for many years, and now as a recruiter at a local technical college here called Black Hawk tech. And she's amazing, right? She's fantastic. She has always liked working. The only time she stopped working was for about a year and a half after the quads were born, I guess, two years. And that was the only time I ever took a job working with anybody else, because we needed the health insurance, so I we always got it through her. And then when she said, Well, I'm gonna stay home with the kids, which made tons of sense, I went and took a job with a video game company up in Madison, Wisconsin called Human Head Studios for about 18 months, 20 months. And then the moment she told me she was thinking about going back to work, I'm like, Oh, good, I can we can Cobra for 18 months and pay for our own health insurance, and I'm giving notice this week, and, you know, we'll work. I left on good terms that everybody. I still talk to them and whatever, but I very much like being my own boss and not worrying about what other people are going to tell me to do. I work with a lot of clients, which means I have a lot of people telling me what to do. But you know, if it turns out bad, I can walk I can walk away. If it turns out good, hopefully we get to do things together, like the the gig I've been working out with Marvel, I guess, has been going on for like, four years now, with pretty continuous work with them, and I'm enjoying every bit of it. They're great people to work with.   Speaker 1 ** 47:19 Now, you were the president of Pinnacle entertainment for a little while. Tell me about that.   Matt Forbeck ** 47:24 I was, that was a small gaming company I started up with a guy named Shane Hensley, who was another tabletop game designer. Our big game was something called Dead Lands, which was a Western zombie cowboy kind of thing. Oh gosh, Western horror. So. And it was pretty much a, you know, nobody was doing Western horror back in those days. So we thought, Oh, this is safe. And to give you an example of parallel development, we were six months into development, and another company, White Wolf, which had done a game called Vampire the Masquerade, announced that they were doing Werewolf the Wild West. And we're like, you gotta be kidding me, right? Fortunately, we still released our game three months before there, so everybody thought we were copying them, rather than the other way around. But the fact is, we were. We both just came up with the idea independently. Right? When you work in creative fields, often, if somebody wants to show you something, you say, I'd like to look at you have to sign a waiver first that says, If I do something like this, you can't sue me. And it's not because people are trying to rip you off. It's because they may actually be working on something similar, right already. Because we're all, you know, swimming in the same cultural pool. We're all, you know, eating the same cultural soup. We're watching or watching movies, playing games, doing whatever, reading books. And so it's not unusual that some of us will come up with similar ideas   Speaker 1 ** 48:45 well, and it's not surprising that from time to time, two different people are going to come up with somewhat similar concepts. So that's not a big surprise, exactly, but   Matt Forbeck ** 48:56 you don't want people getting litigious over it, like no, you don't be accused of ripping anybody off, right? You just want to be as upfront with people. With people. And I don't think I've ever actually seen somebody, at least in gaming, in tabletop games, rip somebody off like that. Just say, Oh, that's a great idea. We're stealing that it's easier to pay somebody to just say, Yes, that's a great idea. We'll buy that from you, right? As opposed to trying to do something unseemly and criminal?   Speaker 1 ** 49:24 Yeah, there's, there's something to be said for having real honor in the whole process.   Matt Forbeck ** 49:30 Yeah, I agree, and I think that especially if you're trying to have a long term career in any field that follows you, if you get a reputation for being somebody who plays dirty, nobody wants to play with you in the future, and I've always found it to be best to be as straightforward with people and honest, especially professionally, just to make sure that they trust you. Before my quadruplets were born, you could have set your clock by me as a freelancer, I never missed a deadline ever, and since then, I've probably it's a. Rare earth thing to make a deadline, because, you know, family stuff happens, and you know, there's just no controlling it. But whenever something does happen, I just call people up and say, hey, look, it's going to be another week or two. This is what's going on. And because I have a good reputation for completing the job and finishing quality work, they don't mind. They're like, Oh, okay, I know you're going to get this to me. You're not just trying to dodge me. So they're willing to wait a couple weeks if they need to, to get to get what they need. And I'm very grateful to them for that. And I'm the worst thing somebody can do is what do, what I call turtling down, which is when it's like, Oh no, I'm late. And then, you know, they cut off all communication. They don't talk to anybody. They just kind of try to disappear as much as they can. And we all, all adults, understand that things happen in your life. It's okay. We can cut you some slack every now and then, but if you just try to vanish, that's not even possible.   Speaker 1 ** 50:54 No, there's a lot to be there's a lot to be said for trust and and it's so important, I think in most anything that we do, and I have found in so many ways, that there's nothing better than really earning someone's trust, and they earning your trust. And it's something I talk about in my books, like when live with a guide dog, live like a guide dog, which is my newest book, it talks a lot about trust, because when you're working with a guide dog, you're really building a team, and each member of the team has a specific job to do, and as the leader of the team, it's my job to also learn how to communicate with the other member of the team. But the reality is, it still comes down to ultimately, trust, because I and I do believe that dogs do love unconditionally, but they don't trust unconditionally. But the difference between dogs and people is that people that dogs are much more open to trust, for the most part, unless they've just been totally traumatized by something, but they're more open to trust. And there's a lesson to be learned there. No, I   Matt Forbeck ** 52:03 absolutely agree with that. I think, I think most people in general are trustworthy, but as you say, a lot of them have trauma in their past that makes it difficult for them to open themselves up to that. So that's actually a pretty wonderful way to think about things. I like that,   Speaker 1 ** 52:17 yeah, well, I think that trust is is so important. And I know when I worked in professional sales, it was all about trust. In fact, whenever I interviewed people for jobs, I always asked them what they were going to sell, and only one person ever answered me the way. I really hoped that everybody would answer when I said, So, tell me what you're going to be selling. He said, The only thing I have to really sell is myself and my word, and nothing else. It really matters. Everything else is stuff. What you have is stuff. It's me selling myself and my word, and you have to, and I would expect you to back me up. And my response was, as long as you're being trustworthy, then you're going to get my backing all the way. And he was my most successful salesperson for a lot of reasons, because he got it.   Matt Forbeck ** 53:08 Yeah, that's amazing. I mean, I mean, I've worked with people sourcing different things too, for sales, and if you can rely on somebody to, especially when things go wrong, to come through for you. And to be honest with you about, you know, there's really that's a hard thing to find. If you can't depend on your sources for what you're building, then you can't depend on anything. Everything else falls apart.   Speaker 1 ** 53:29 It does. You've got to start at the beginning. And if people can't earn your trust, and you earn theirs, there's a problem somewhere, and it's just not going to work.   Matt Forbeck ** 53:39 Yeah, I just generally think people are decent and want to help. I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've had issues. Car breaks down the road in Wisconsin. Here, if somebody's car goes in the ditch, everybody stops and just hauls them out. It's what you do when the quads were born, my stepmother came up with a sign up sheet, a booklet that she actually had spiral bound, that people could sign up every three three hours to help come over and feed and bathe, diaper, whatever the kids and we had 30 to 35 volunteers coming in every week. Wow, to help us out with that was amazing, right? They just each pick slots, feeding slots, and come in and help us out. I had to take the 2am feeding, and my wife had to take the 5am feeding by ourselves. But the rest of the week we had lots and lots of help, and we were those kids became the surrogate grandchildren for, you know, 30 to 35 women and couples really, around the entire area, and it was fantastic. Probably couldn't have survived   Speaker 1 ** 54:38 without it. And the other part about it is that all those volunteers loved it, because you all appreciated each other, and it was always all about helping and assisting.   Matt Forbeck ** 54:48 No, we appreciate them greatly. But you know every most of them, like 99% of them, whatever were women, 95 women who are ready for grandchildren and didn't have them. Had grandchildren, and they weren't in the area, right? And they had that, that love they wanted to share, and they just loved the opportunity to do it. It was, I'm choking up here talking about such a great time for us in   Speaker 1 ** 55:11 that way. Now I'm assuming today, nobody has to do diaper duty with the quads, right?   Matt Forbeck ** 55:16 Not until they have their own kids. Just checking, just checking, thankfully, think we're that is long in our past,   Speaker 1 ** 55:23 is it? Is it coming fairly soon for anybody in the future?   Matt Forbeck ** 55:27 Oh, I don't know. That's really entirely up to them. We would love to have grandchildren, but you know, it all comes in its own time. They're not doing no well. I, one of my sons is married, so it's possible, right? And one of my other sons has a long term girlfriend, so that's possible, but, you know, who knows? Hopefully they're they have them when they're ready. I always say, if you have kids and you want them, that's great. If you have, if you don't have kids and you don't want them, that's great. It's when you cross the two things that,   Speaker 1 ** 55:57 yeah, trouble, yeah, that's that is, that is a problem. But you really like working with yourself. You love the entre

Malcolm X would have turned 100 years old today. We revisit a series of conversations about why Americans so often overlook Malcolm X when it comes to Black History Month celebrations and formal education spaces. GUESTS: John Aerni-Flessner, associate professor for the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities at Michigan State University Kidada Williams, associate professor of African American and American history at Wayne State University Herb Boyd, Detroit writer, journalist, and activist Looking for more conversations from Stateside? Right this way. If you like what you hear on the pod, consider supporting our work. Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The traditional residential college experience is transforming. Driven by rising costs, declining enrollment, and student demand for flexibility, small private colleges are rethinking their academic models. A 2022 McKinsey & Company survey found that 65% of higher education students want aspects of their learning experience to remain virtual, even post-pandemic. This shift signals a growing appetite for hybrid environments that blend campus life with scalable online access.What does a hybrid future look like for small colleges, and can it preserve the heart of the campus experience while offering students more?On DisruptED, guest host Darin Francis, the CEO at Harbinger Lane Consulting, welcomes Charlie Anastasi, the VP at Rize Education. Anastasi explains how his team is guiding colleges through the shift toward hybrid learning. Speaking from the ASU+GSV Summit, he describes how Rize partners with over 100 institutions, including many residential colleges, to collaboratively deliver online programs that broaden academic offerings, boost enrollment, and improve career outcomes.Key TakeawaysRize enables small colleges to launch high-demand programs like cybersecurity by sharing core online courses across institutions.Students retain the in-person residential experience while gaining access to new majors that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive to launch individually.Rize partners report a fivefold return on investment through increased enrollment and strong student satisfaction with hybrid course offerings.Charlie Anastasi is Vice President of Revenue and Academic Partnerships at RizeEducation, where he leads institutional growth strategies that expand access to affordable, career-aligned programs. He previously served in leadership roles at Adrian College and CADRE, bridging higher education innovation with strategic development. Earlier in his career, he worked in real estate private equity at Blackstone, bringing strong financial and operational expertise to the education sector.

Daily Anglican Prayer - Sunday Morning – 23rd February 2025 Readings:   Psalm 37. 1-11 Genesis 45. 3-15 Luke 6. 27-38. Led by Felicity Scott, an Anglican lay minister in Queensland, Australia. The full prayer transcript is available by going to this episode on the Podcast website. https://dailyprayeranglicanprayerbookforaustralia.podbean.com Welcome to Sunday Morning prayer from the Anglican ‘A prayer book for Australia'. We proclaim the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ: GOD in his infinite mercy, forgives all sins, and through our baptism in the name of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, we are given a rebirth into new life, free from the burden of all sin. ALLELUIA With faithfulness we respond to the good news: We acknowledge Christ as our saviour and accept with gratitude, that we are forgiven for all wrong doings, past and present. To honour the gift of forgiveness, we release our burden of guilt and rise up to live in the glory of God forever more. Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Blessed be God forever. Let us Pray.   1 This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.  Psalm 118.24 Glory to God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit:  as in the beginning, so now, and for ever. Amen.   3 The opening Canticle Oh come let us sing out to the Lord. let us shout in triumph to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his face with thanksgiving. And cry out to him joyfully in psalms. For the Lord is a great God. and a great king above all gods. In his hands are the depths of the earth. and the peaks of the mountains are his also. The sea is his and he made it. His hands moulded dryland. Come let us worship and bow down. And kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is the Lord our god. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Today if only you would hear his voice: “Do not harden your hearts as Israel did in the wilderness.” “When your forebears tested me.” “Put me to proof though they had seen my works.” “Forty years long I loathe that generation and said.” “It is a people who err in their hearts.” “For they do not know my ways.” “Of whom I swore in my wrath.” “They shall not enter my rest.”      3 The Opening Prayer   The night has passed and the day lies open before us;  let us pray with one heart and mind.       Silence may be kept.   As we rejoice in the gift of this new day,  so may the light of your presence, O God,  set our hearts on fire with love for you;  now and for ever.  Amen.       4 The Psalms as appointed. A pause is observed after each. Psalm   5 At the end of the (last) pause there may follow Lord God, whose blessed Son rose in triumph and set us free: grant us the fullness of life he promised us, that through the Holy Spirit our hearts may possess him whom our eyes cannot see, the same Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.   6 One or two Readings from the Bible as appointed.   OT Reading Genesis 45. 3-15   3Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence. 4Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 9Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. 10You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children's children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. 11I will provide for you there—since there are five more years of famine to come—so that you and your household, and all that you have, will not come to poverty.' 12And now your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you. 13You must tell my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt, and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.” 14Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. 15And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him. The reading is followed by Hear the word of the LORD. Thanks be to God.   NT Reading – Luke 6. 27-38 27“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31Do to others as you would have them do to you. 32“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. 37“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”   The reading is followed by Hear the message of Christ. Thanks be to God.   7 The Canticle, The Song of Zechariah (Benedictus) Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel:  who has come to his people and set them free.  The Lord has raised up for us a mighty Saviour:  born of the house of his servant David.  Through the holy prophets, God promised of old:  to save us from our enemies, from the hands of  all who hate us,  To show mercy to our forebears:  and to remember his holy covenant.  This was the oath God swore to our father Abraham:  to set us free from the hands of our enemies,  Free to worship him without fear:  holy and righteous before him, all the days of our life.  And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High:  for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,  To give his people knowledge of salvation:  by the forgiveness of their sins.  In the tender compassion of our God:  the dawn from on high shall break upon us,  To shine on those who dwell in darkness  and the shadow of death:  and to guide our feet into the way of peace.  Luke 1.68–79      8 The Apostles creed I believe in God, the Father almighty,       creator of heaven and earth.   I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,       who was conceived by the Holy Spirit       born of the virgin Mary.       suffered under Pontius Pilate,       was crucified, died, and was buried;       he descended to the dead.       On the third day he rose from the dead.       He ascended into heaven       and is seated at the right hand of the Father.       From there he will come to judge  the living and the dead.   I believe in the Holy Spirit,       the holy catholic church,       the communion of saints,       the forgiveness of sins,       the resurrection of the body,       and the life everlasting. Amen.   9 The Prayers Lord have mercy.  Christ have mercy.  God have mercy.     10 The LORDs prayer Our Father in heaven,  hallowed be your name,  your kingdom come,  your will be done,  on earth as in heaven.  Give us today our daily bread.  Forgive us our sins  as we forgive those who sin against us.  Save us from the time of trial  and deliver us from evil.  For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours  now and for ever. Amen.    10 The Collect of the Day Seventh Sunday after Εpiphany God of compassion, keep before us the love you have revealed in your Son, who prayed even for his enemies. In our words and deeds help us to be like him, through whom we pray, Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen   Prayer of the Week Seventh Sunday after Εpiphany Almighty god You have taught us through your son That love is the fulfilling of the law Grant that we may love you with our whole heart Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen   11 Intercessions and Thanksgivings may be made according to local custom and need.   Let us pray   Almighty God, through your Son Jesus Christ you gave many excellent gifts to your apostles and commanded them to feed your flock. Bless all Archbishops and bishops in the Anglican Church. So, to fill them with your truth, and clothe them with holiness, that as pastors of your Church they may diligently preach your word, and modernise their teachings of the people, to the glory of your name. In God we ask Grant our prayer     God of wisdom, grant we pray that the words we have heard today make in us a desire to serve the people in bringing the good news of Christ to all who have yet to hear it, so that they may bring forth in us the fruit of good works to honour and praise your name. In God we ask Grant our prayer   Creator God, we thank you for all created living beings, we ask that you look kindly with saving grace upon all animals this day, whether they are in the wild, on the streets, in captivity, or elsewhere. In God we ask Grant our prayer   Loving God, we ask your blessing for those listed on the Anglican cycle of prayer: 23/2/2025 The Diocese of Madi and West Nile – The Church of the Province of Uganda The Diocese of Rockhampton: The Parish of Wynnum Anglicare Insync youth services in Beenleigh, Mt Gravatt, and Cleveland. St John's Residential College in University of Queensland Church Mission Society All Parishes seeking clergy. All Anglican schools seeking chaplains. All Prison ministry chaplaincy teams All people joining in this prayer offering. In God we ask Grant our prayer     12 The Morning Collect Eternal God and Father,  by whose power we are created and by whose love we are redeemed;  guide and strengthen us by your Spirit,  that we may give ourselves to your service,  and live this day in love to one another and to you;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.   13 The Lord be with you. And also with you.  Let us praise the Lord.  Thanks be to God.    The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen.    2 Corinthians 13.14 Music by John Keys – Anglican Chant Canticle organ accompaniments. A reminder disclaimer to the listener. The readings in the podcast may include ancient and old-fashioned sayings and instructions that we do not in any way condone as in use or to be used in today's modern world. The readings have not been modernised to reflect todays thinking, instead the readings remain from the old version of the NRSV bible. The podcast owners explicitly declare that each listener is responsible for their own actions in response to the bible readings and the podcast owners bare no responsibility in this sense.  

Welcome back to the Distinctly Detroit Podcast! Our guest, Professor Angela Dillard was the Chair of the Department of History at the University of Michigan, but since the recording, Professor Dillard has been promoted as the first Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. She is also the Richard A. Meisler Collegiate Professor of Afro-American & African Studies in the Residential College. Professor Dillard is a native Detroiter whose interdisciplinary research focuses on racial issues in America within the scope of religion and bi-partisan politics. She is working on her third book tentatively titled A Different Shade of Freedom that will examine the unexpected relationship between the Civil Rights Movement and the New Right. Please help us welcome Professor Angela Dillard!

Malcolm X was a son of Lansing, where he spent some of his most formative years before becoming the iconic activist we know of today. So why aren't his the quotes and legacy we teach in Michigan schools or during Black History Month? Today on Stateside, we explore Malcolm X's family history and controversial legacy in the struggle for Black empowerment.  GUESTS: John Aerni-Flessner, associate professor for the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities at Michigan State University Kidada Williams, associate professor of African American and American history at Wayne State University Herb Boyd, Detroit writer, journalist, and activist This episode originally published on February 7, 2022. ___ Looking for more conversations from Stateside? Right this way. If you like what you hear on the pod, consider supporting our work. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

'Students of SMBC' – A mini-series exploring what it is like to be at one particular bible college in Sydney, Australia. Meet some of the people, their stories, their longings, and their questions.

Holyoke Media, en asociación con WHMP radio, emiten diariamente la Síntesis informativa en español a través del 101.5 FM y en el 1240 / 1400 AM. Esta es la síntesis informativa del lunes 8 de agosto de 2022: - En una sesión conjunta, el Comité Escolar y el Concejo Municipal de la Ciudad de Holyoke seleccionaron el jueves a la Dra. Yadilette Rivera Colón como la nueva miembro del Comité Escolar del Distrito 3. Rivera Colón ocupará el puesto que dejó vacante el mes pasado Rebecca Birks, quien se mudó de Holyoke. Las juntas entrevistaron a cuatro candidatos el jueves por la noche y después de múltiples votaciones, Rivera-Colón obtuvo los 12 votos requeridos. Los otros candidatos fueron Lawrence Jackson, Hannah Kennedy y Faizul J. Sibdhanny Jr. La Doctora Yadillette Rivera-Colón es originaria de Puerto Rico. Se graduó de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, con un bachillerato en ciencias naturales y biología y obtuvo su doctorado en Biología Molecular y Celular en 2013 de la Universidad de Massachusetts, Amherst. Actualmente es Profesora Asistente de Biología y Coordinadora de Investigación del Programa de Ciencias de Pregrado en la Universidad Bay Path. Imparte cursos de bioquímica y biotecnología en el programa de pregrado de Residential College. Adicionalmente, La Dra. Rivera-Colón es presidente de la junta directiva de Girls Inc. of the Valley y es una defensora de la diversidad, la equidad y la inclusión. Rivera Colón dijo que esta oportunidad le permite servir a la juventud de la ciudad. FUENTE: HOLYOKE MEDIA Los demócratas llevaron su paquete económico del año electoral a la aprobación del Senado el domingo, un compromiso muy reñido menos ambicioso de la visión interna original del presidente Joe Biden pero que aún cumple con los objetivos profundamente arraigados del partido de frenar el calentamiento global, moderar los costos farmacéuticos y gravar a inmensas corporaciones. El paquete estimado de $ 740 mil millones se dirige a la Cámara, donde los legisladores están preparados para cumplir con las prioridades de Biden, un cambio sorprendente de lo que parecía un esfuerzo perdido y condenado que de repente volvió a la vida política. Los vítores estallaron cuando los demócratas del Senado se mantuvieron unidos, 51-50, con la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris emitiendo el voto de desempate después de una sesión de toda la noche. Biden, quien tuvo su parte de largas noches durante sus tres décadas como senador, llamó al guardarropa del Senado durante la votación por altavoz para agradecer personalmente al personal por su arduo trabajo. El presidente instó a la Cámara a aprobar el proyecto de ley lo antes posible. La presidenta de la Cámara, Nancy Pelosi, dijo que su cámara “se movería rápidamente para enviar este proyecto de ley al escritorio del presidente”. Se esperan votaciones en la Cámara el viernes. FUENTE: AP

We offer a preview discussion of Toledo Opera's upcoming production of Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore, including how the opera's complicated (and sometimes horrifying) plot echoes the experience of contemporary communities of color. You can watch a much more in-depth discussion of these issues in Toledo Opera's Tuesday Talk, streaming (and later archived) on September 28, 2021 at 6:00 PM via Toledo Opera's Facebook page and YouTube channel. Joining us for this discussion: Dr. Naomi Andre, Professor in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, Women's and Gender Studies, and the Residential College, University of Michigan. Sonia Flunder-McNair, Founder of Urban Wholistics David Ross, Muralist and Creative Placemaking Strategist for The Arts Commission Alyssa Greenberg, Community Engagement Director for Toledo Opera Moderated by WGTE radio host and producer Brad Cresswell Photo: Sonia Flunder-McNair/Toledo Opera

Associate Professor of English and African- American studiesSenior Fellow Luckyday Residential CollegeChair of African- American StudiesInterim Dean of Sally Barksdale Honors CollegePastor -  Alvis Grove Missionary Baptist Church, Oakland                   First United Baptist, Batesville

This month Michigan State University marked the 167th year since its establishment by the State of Michigan. From the 63 students, five faculty members, and three buildings on campus when we opened our doors in May 1857, we now enroll almost 50,000 students, boast 5,700 faculty and academic staff and 564 campus buildings. “These kinds of anniversaries are helpful in allowing us to take stock of where we're going as an institution,” Stanley says. “The founders would be very pleased with what they saw from Michigan State today. We're a top-100 ranked global university with half a million degreed Spartans who bleed green in our alumni network around the world. And all 83 counties in Michigan are being served by MSU. Those who envisioned this land grant mission would see it fulfilled on the state level as they wanted, but they would also see the impact MSU has on the national and international level as well through our work. We're taking the mission and working exponentially to expand it to be an institution that touches peoples' lives in so many different dimensions in so many ways.”President Stanley talks about recognition for MSU faculty from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “We have outstanding faculty who are really the lifeblood of what we do at MSU.”MSU has a new dean of our renowned Lyman Briggs residential college in the sciences, Kendra Spence Cheruvelil, who has served as interim Dean of Lyman Briggs College since December 2020. “Dean Cheruvelil has really made a difference in her interim time and there was extraordinary support in Lyman Briggs for her elevation to the role of dean. She's very much deserving of that. She's an internationally recognized ecology researcher who's an expert on lakes and bodies of water around this area and does tremendous work in analyzing their vibrancy and health. Water is so important to Michigan State, so to have someone who's an expert in that is important.“The residential colleges are a unique aspect of what we do, and they really allow students to experience the kind of small college experience that people can find very valuable. It's not for everybody, but it's an opportunity to be on campus and live with some of your faculty and instructors and fellow students who are interested in the same major. “James Madison, Lyman Briggs, and the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities allow this kind of coming together to occur and allow for a more intense educational experience. You can have a great educational experience at MSU without doing a residential college. You can create your own kind of nooks of knowledge and leadership with your roommates and people you want to live with who may share common interests. Those options are always available, too. President Stanley talks about the transition in the head coaching position for MSU Volleyball.“Cathy George was such a pioneer in women's sports, and we must put this in the context of all the ways in which she contributed as the first woman coach to take a team to the NCAA tournament in volleyball. Leah Johnson comes to us from Illinois State University, a Division I school where during her five seasons there, her team made five postseason tournaments, including four straight NCAA tournaments. That's where we want to be. As I think about our Michigan State teams, we want to compete for championships, and we believe we can. Coach Johnson has really shown her capabilities, and we look forward to her first season in the fall.”Give Green Day is Tuesday, March 15th when Spartans come together to support our students through a wide range of impactful programs. It's a chance for all of us to make a big difference in the space of 24 hours. Givingday.msu.edu is the place to go. Talk a bit about the important contributions to MSU's excellence that our donors make.“They are so important, Russ, and philanthropy is really the margin of excellence. I had a chance to attend with our students some alumni events over the weekend and hear their inspirational stories. The way they talked about the way in which Michigan State University has changed their lives and helped change the lives of their families and their siblings and everyone they know was extraordinary. These are all people who are committed to doing something to help their communities going forward. They're in different areas, but all related to science. They're all students who did research, but what they talked about at MSU was opportunity. They said very few institutions provided the opportunity to allow them to fulfill their dreams, and MSU did that.“They also had financial support to do this; all of them were recipients of scholarships. The scholarships that donors provide to our students and grant support for our faculty translates into changing lives and impact that goes far beyond just that gift. There's really a tremendous effect that comes from peoples' willingness to donate. This day is a chance to make a big difference in a mere 24 hours. I encourage everybody to participate. I appreciate all the giving that people are doing already, but this is a time to step up a little bit and make a difference in a student's or a faculty member's time at MSU.”President Stanley reflects on Black History Month, and in circling back to the first topic in our conversation adds “We've had 167 years now to make a difference, and we continue to do it every day. I thank everybody who's a part of it at Michigan State. We're going to continue to push the limits and make our state a better place to be.”Read President Stanley's Spartan Community letter by clicking on the communications tab at president.msu.edu. And as President Stanley said, there are links to more information throughout the letter on everything we've been talking about. You can also keep up with President Stanley on Instagram @msupresstanley. MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on WKAR News/Talk and Sunday nights at 8:00 on 760 WJR. Find, rate, and subscribe to MSU Today with Russ White on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Malcolm X was a son of Lansing, where he spent some of his most formative years before becoming the iconic activist we know of today. So why aren't his the quotes and legacy we teach in Michigan schools or during Black History Month? Today on Stateside, we explore Malcolm X's family history and controversial legacy in the struggle for Black empowerment.  GUESTS: John Aerni-Flessner, associate professor for the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities at Michigan State University Kidada Williams, associate professor of African American and American history at Wayne State University Herb Boyd, Detroit writer, journalist, and activist ---- Looking for more conversations from Stateside? Right this way. If you like what you hear on the pod, consider supporting our work. Stateside's theme music is by 14KT. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Angela Dillard is the Chair of the Department of History at the University of Michigan, and the Richard A. Meisler Collegiate Professor of Afroamerican & African Studies, History, and in the Residential College where she is part of the Social Theory & Practice program. She is a distinguished historian specializing in "American and African-American intellectual history, particularly around issues of race, religion, and politics — on both the Left and the Right sides of the political spectrum." She is the author of Faith in the City: Preaching Radical Social Change in Detroit and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Now?, a study on conservative political thought among minorities. Read more about Dr. Dillard and her upcoming work here: https://lsa.umich.edu/daas/people/core-faculty/adillard.html

We offer a preview discussion of Toledo Opera's upcoming production of Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore, including how the opera's complicated (and sometimes horrifying) plot echoes the experience of contemporary communities of color. You can watch a much more in-depth discussion of these issues in Toledo Opera's Tuesday Talk, streaming (and later archived) on September 28, 2021 at 6:00 PM via Toledo Opera's Facebook page and YouTube channel. Joining us for this discussion: Dr. Naomi Andre, Professor in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, Women's and Gender Studies, and the Residential College, University of Michigan. Sonia Flunder-McNair, Founder of Urban Wholistics David Ross, Muralist and Creative Placemaking Strategist for The Arts Commission Alyssa Greenberg, Community Engagement Director for Toledo Opera Moderated by WGTE radio host and producer Brad Cresswell Photo: Sonia Flunder-McNair/Toledo Opera

We offer a preview discussion of Toledo Opera's upcoming production of Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore, including how the opera's complicated (and sometimes horrifying) plot echoes the experience of contemporary communities of color. You can watch a much more in-depth discussion of these issues in Toledo Opera's Tuesday Talk, streaming (and later archived) on September 28, 2021 at 6:00 PM via Toledo Opera's Facebook page and YouTube channel. Joining us for this discussion:Dr. Naomi Andre, Professor in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, Women's and Gender Studies, and the Residential College, University of Michigan.Sonia Flunder-McNair, Founder of Urban WholisticsDavid Ross, Muralist and Creative Placemaking Strategist for The Arts CommissionAlyssa Greenberg, Community Engagement Director for Toledo Opera Moderated by WGTE radio host and producer Brad CresswellPhoto: Sonia Flunder-McNair/Toledo Opera

Laura Hulthen Thomas is the author of 'States of Motion,' a short story collection (from Wayne State University Press); she also heads the undergraduate creative writing program at the University of Michigan's Residential College, teaching fiction and creative nonfiction. A story that she performed on this podcast is going to be published this month via Fail Better magazine. http://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/states-motion   http://sites.lsa.umich.edu/rcwriters/  

“It's great to be back,” Akmon says. “I did work here at the MSU Museum as an undergrad. I did what I like to affectionately refer to as grunt work, painting a lot of walls, helping with a lot of exhibitions, and putting the vinyl on the walls. I was an art history and museum studies student at the time. It's interesting to look back. I really think those were the first steps that actually launched my career. It exposed me to museums in a new way, and I got some theoretical training with some practical hands on experience. And when I left MSU, I ended up going to grad school and studying something completely different. And as luck would have it, instead of actually going into that field, I ended up in a museum as I finished my graduate studies and then began my journey. It's brought me back here almost 20 years later. I would have never imagined that I'd be back here at MSU working for the museum, but it's a bit of a homecoming. It's great to be back.”Akmon describes the mission of Science Gallery Detroit and tells why he was excited to add director of the MSU Museum to his responsibilities. And he shares some of his short- and long-term goals for the Museum.“The very first thing we're going to do is put our heads down and actually put together a strong strategic plan and think about, in that planning process, what are the types of resources we need? What does our programming look like over the next five years? In general, and especially coming out of consulting, I've learned that one of the number one barriers that prohibits organizations from truly flourishing in the arts sector is not planning out far enough. You don't have enough time to think creatively, to fundraise, to market, and to educate your audiences. We're going to put our heads down and really build a strong roadmap. And in that process, we'll really understand and figure out what we're going to do. But I think there are some overarching things we can already assume.“One of the things we realize is we've got this beautiful building. It's an old building, and it's geographically in the heart of the campus. But it's also limited. We already know that we're going to have to find a way of doing a little bit of what I call the push pull model. We want to pull people into the museum, but we're also going to have to push activities out into the campus community. Even this fall, we're already thinking about that with the first exhibition we're going to open when the museum reopens in September. We have some exhibits that we'll probably be embedding in the STEM building, and we'll be partnering with the Greater Lansing Arts Council to do some things up and down Grand River. And we're putting all the programming out over campus, like the workshops and performances. None of that will actually happen in the Museum.“We'll be thinking broadly about how we embed things across the campus community. We know we're competing for time and attention. We have to meet people where they are. We have to be relevant. We have to be creative and innovative in that programming. So, it's really top of mind to think critically about the partnerships we have in student success and academic success and how we support that. We want to be truly relevant in the life of students. Nothing would please me more than to just even see students studying in this building. People think you have to go to a museum only to see exhibitions, but I like to think of this as a third space on campus where people can just come sit and relax. We all had those experiences when we were undergrads, right? There were different places around campus that we went to. So, it's my heart's desire that the Museum will be that for our undergrads today.”Akmon says collaboration with campus partners will be one of his key goals.“I feel so fortunate that I have such great peers that I've already met across campus. My colleague Monica at the Broad Art Museum is just absolutely phenomenal. So are our friends over at the Residential College and our friends over at the Museum Studies Program. Everybody's really keen to collaborate. There's a shared focus on impact on the community. And we all know that we can go farther together than alone. We're already in so many ways coming to the table and thinking together. In fact, the MSU Museum, the Broad Art Museum, and WKAR are going to program an art event shortly after we open. And that just kind of materialized over the course of a week. People just say, ‘Hey, we've got this idea, do you want to be part of it?' You'll see a lot of that at the MSU Museum going forward.”What are some challenges to reaching those goals and some opportunities, too?“There are all kinds of challenges. We know that our campus community is busy. We're competing for time and attention, and we need to be relevant. And that's always a challenge, right? We're in a very loud and noisy world with so many activities happening. We're very pragmatic about the institution we're in. The physical building, as I mentioned, is very old. It has some really wonderful assets to it, but it also has some challenges.“We don't have a lot of gallery space. We don't have a lot of workshop space. Part of the reason that we don't do programming here is we don't have a lot of programming space. So, there are certainly plenty of challenges for not just our museum, but I think museums in general, especially as we navigate COVID. The whole industry and the traditional business model have been disrupted. Figuring even that out is really hard, but I always like to look for the silver linings. I have an entrepreneurial mindset. I like these challenges and it enables us to think boldly and creatively about what a new future can be and how a museum like this can serve its community for that next chapter. We're just going to tackle each challenge in that manner going forward.”What are some of the challenges and opportunities for museums in general and arts and culture in general?“One of the big things right now for museums as I keep alluding to is a very competitive landscape out there. We see attendance declining nationally in museums, which is interesting because museums remain among the absolute most trusted institutions in our country. There are a lot of things that people are pessimistic about, but museums and cultural centers seem to be still rated as trusted institutions. We face these weird challenges where we're trusted and celebrated but attendance is declining. That goes back to this idea of how we compete for time and attention. How do we make sure we're relevant? How are we responding to the needs of the communities we seek to serve? That has to be top of mind. We also really have to think about experience design.“That's what we refer to as the experience economy. And that's really critical. What does it mean to come and visit the museum? What does the experience feel like from the minute you walk into the door to the minute you leave?” When you were coming out of high school, why was MSU the place for you?“I grew up in Metro Detroit, but my dad worked in government. He got transferred up to Flint and we lived in a small town. And one of the first things right away that I fell in love with at Michigan State was the beauty of the campus. I came out here in the summer. And as we all know, summer on the MSU campus is a postcard. So that kind of coupled with the sheer size of it. Some people get intimidated by large schools. For me, it just felt so wonderful to be around so many like-minded and similar aged people. That's what kind of brought me here. My best friends to this day came from here.“I met my wife here as an undergrad. I feel really lucky that I chose MSU. And I often think I just don't feel like it was as competitive as when I was applying to college like it is today. I felt a little bit more free to choose a university that really fit me as opposed to the competitive nature of it. So I just feel really blessed in that regard. And MSU was just an incredibly good experience for me.“As an undergrad, I really began to blend some of my interests, one of which was the City of Detroit. I was doing a lot of photography and lithography work at the time. I was also studying studio art and I was going back and forth between Detroit and East Lansing. And I think that exposure was really critical in my development. I began much more to explore my identity. I'm a third generation Lebanese American, which opened up all kinds of doors for my professional work and museums later in life. I had a rich array of experiences. Not only did I work at the MSU Museum, but I worked for the State News and actually pursued a journalism career for a while before I figured out that wasn't really for me.“There are so many amazing assets here. If you truly embrace those and you explore these opportunities, all kinds of doors open. We grow as individuals, and we begin to see the opportunities out there in the world. I just kind of followed my heart with that. That's why the Science Gallery aspect of our work is still so critical. That really speaks to me. I keep thinking about how important it is for that age group and those experiences as undergrads to think that we can have a role in shaping that in the same way the university helped shape my life. There's an amazing power in that and I hope we can pay that forward.”Summarize what you'd like those joining in on our conversation to know about you and where you want to take the MSU Museum.“People should expect new ideas coming out of the MSU Museum, things they haven't experienced before in the past. This fall, we're going to open a whole new exhibition that explores surveillance and the way it permeates all aspects of our lives. It's going to be a very tech heavy show and probably a little bit unsettling because these are things that we tend to push out of our mind. You're going to see new things in the space programmatically with the exhibitions and certainly the way we engage faculty and students to provide richer experiences for them. Stay tuned.”MSU Today airs every Sunday morning at 9:00 on 105.1 FM and AM 870 and streams at WKAR.org. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get yours shows.

In this collaboration episode, our host RC communications and outreach specialist Robby Griswold talks with alum Mya Harris and fourth-year student Kaitlyn Colyer about their experiences as students in both the Residential College and the Barger Leadership Institute. Mya and Kaitlyn discuss developing their leadership identities, the importance of practicing cultural humility, and what advice they would offer incoming students.

Between 2014 and the present, Burgmann College, an independent Residential College on the Australian National University campus, has worked to develop its Advancement program from simple beginnings to a systematic approach. In conversation, Principal Sally Renouf and newly appointed Director of Advancement, Amelia Zaraftis will discuss with Global Philanthropic's Colin Taylor and Chanel Hughes, Burgmann College's seven year journey from its first fundraising plan to a programmed approach to fundraising that is showing significant dividends in the College's 50th year.Intended for staff of Residential Colleges at all levels, especially those considering starting an advancement program for the first time, the hour-long interactive discussion will range from the stops-and-starts of early advancement, through forming a compelling Case for Support, all the way to the College's first solicited gifts and its vision for advancement in the future. The conversation will take in the influence that engagement with senior alumni can bring, the sense of community that regular communication delivers and the role of planning and testing in winning internal support and building organisational confidence.Sally, Amelia, Chanel and Colin look forward to sharing their tips and tricks for navigating these difficult first years in Advancement.

Join Heather Ann Thompson, Flint Taylor and Darrell Cannon as they discuss 1969 murders of Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton and Panther Mark Clark—and the historic, thirteen-years of litigation that followed—through the dogged pursuit of commander Jon Burge, the leader of a torture ring within the CPD that used barbaric methods, including electric shock, to elicit false confessions from suspects. The three panelists will further delve into the events leading up to and the legacy surrounding the 1971 Attica prison uprising when 1,300 prisoners took over the facility. These event will be framed in the context of the paperback release of Taylor's book Torture Machine: Racism and Police Violence in Chicago and Thompson's Pulitzer-prize winning book Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy. ---------------------------------------------------- Speakers: Heather Ann Thompson is a Collegiate Professor of History in the departments of Afro- American and African Studies, History, and in the Residential College at the University of Michigan. She is the Pulitzer Prize and Bancroft Prize winning author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971. Blood in the Water won five other major book prizes and was also a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the Silver Gavel Award, and the Cundill Prize in History. The book has also been optioned by Sony Pictures and Thompson is also the lead advisor on Stanley Nelson's forthcoming Showtime documentary on Attica. Thompson is also a public intellectual who writes extensively on the history of protests, policing, prisons, and the current criminal justice system more broadly. On the policy front, Thompson served on the historic National Academy of Sciences blue-ribbon panel that studied the causes and consequences of mass incarceration in the U.S. She currently serves on the standing Committee on Law and Justice of the National Academies. She is currently writing her next book on the MOVE Bombing of 1985. @hthompsn Flint Taylor is a founding partner of the People's Law Office in Chicago. He is one of the lawyers for the families of slain Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, has represented many survivors of Chicago police torture over the past 30 years and is counsel in several illegal search and wrongful death cases brought against the Milwaukee Police Department. Darrell Cannon is a Chicago police torture survivor who was subjected to electric shock and a mock execution at a remote torture site on the far southeast side of Chicago by two of notorious Chicago police commanderJon Burge's main henchmen. As a result he gave a false confession, was wrongfully convicted, and spent 24 years in prison, 9 in a supermax prison, before he was exonerated in 2007. After his release, he became a powerful leader in the successful movement to obtain reparations for 60 Chicago police torture survivors. ---------------------------------------------------- Order a copy of Flint Taylor's book , The Torture Machine: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1642-the-torture-machine Order a copy of Heather Ann Thompson's book, Blood In The Water: https://bookshop.org/a/1039/9781400078240 Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/neXDQiYTpns Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks

In 2013, poet Lauren Russell acquired a copy of the diary of her great-great-grandfather, Robert Wallace Hubert, a Captain in the Confederate Army. After his return from the Civil War, he fathered twenty children by three of his former slaves. One of those children was the poet’s great-grandmother. Through several years of research, Russell would seek the words to fill the diary’s omissions and to imagine the voice of her great-great-grandmother, Peggy Hubert, a black woman silenced by history. The result is a hybrid work of verse, prose, images and documents that traversed centuries as the past bleeds into the present. Lauren Russell is the author of Descent (Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2020) and What’s Hanging on the Hush (Ahsahta Press, 2017). She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Cave Canem, and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, and work has appeared in various publications, including the The New York Times Magazine and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day. She was assistant director of the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics at the University of Pittsburgh from 2016 to 2020. In August 2020, she joined the faculty of Michigan State University as an assistant professor in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities and director of the RCAH Center for Poetry. Philip Lance, Ph.D. is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Los Angeles. He can be reached at PhilipJLance@gmail.com and his website address is https://www.drphiliplance.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2013, poet Lauren Russell acquired a copy of the diary of her great-great-grandfather, Robert Wallace Hubert, a Captain in the Confederate Army. After his return from the Civil War, he fathered twenty children by three of his former slaves. One of those children was the poet’s great-grandmother. Through several years of research, Russell would seek the words to fill the diary’s omissions and to imagine the voice of her great-great-grandmother, Peggy Hubert, a black woman silenced by history. The result is a hybrid work of verse, prose, images and documents that traversed centuries as the past bleeds into the present. Lauren Russell is the author of Descent (Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2020) and What’s Hanging on the Hush (Ahsahta Press, 2017). She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Cave Canem, and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, and work has appeared in various publications, including the The New York Times Magazine and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day. She was assistant director of the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics at the University of Pittsburgh from 2016 to 2020. In August 2020, she joined the faculty of Michigan State University as an assistant professor in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities and director of the RCAH Center for Poetry. Philip Lance, Ph.D. is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Los Angeles. He can be reached at PhilipJLance@gmail.com and his website address is https://www.drphiliplance.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2013, poet Lauren Russell acquired a copy of the diary of her great-great-grandfather, Robert Wallace Hubert, a Captain in the Confederate Army. After his return from the Civil War, he fathered twenty children by three of his former slaves. One of those children was the poet’s great-grandmother. Through several years of research, Russell would seek the words to fill the diary’s omissions and to imagine the voice of her great-great-grandmother, Peggy Hubert, a black woman silenced by history. The result is a hybrid work of verse, prose, images and documents that traversed centuries as the past bleeds into the present. Lauren Russell is the author of Descent (Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2020) and What’s Hanging on the Hush (Ahsahta Press, 2017). She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Cave Canem, and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, and work has appeared in various publications, including the The New York Times Magazine and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day. She was assistant director of the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics at the University of Pittsburgh from 2016 to 2020. In August 2020, she joined the faculty of Michigan State University as an assistant professor in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities and director of the RCAH Center for Poetry. Philip Lance, Ph.D. is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Los Angeles. He can be reached at PhilipJLance@gmail.com and his website address is https://www.drphiliplance.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We don't really know when this pandemic will be behind us, though promising vaccines are on the way. Students and faculty prepare for Winter 2021, when the majority of courses will be offered online with some exceptions like some of our studio arts and music courses. Who better to fill us in on the RC's academic offerings but director of RC Academic Services and long-time beloved advisor and mentor, Charlie Murphy? (Amirite?) Want to know about the history of race and the law, or about the elements that go into building an egalitarian metropolis? Want to apply your Spanish speaking skills - learned in school or from your heritage - to support the local Latino community? Or maybe you want to know how to live a life more aligned with your values of civility and justice? Listen up and get acquainted with a handful of the staggering 75 courses offered in the Residential College in Winter 2021. (And remember: RC courses are open to all LSA students!)

The world of theater performances is often thought of as being composed of wealthy persons who received elite educations at art institutions all so they could be observed by a small, wealthy elite at exclusive and expensive gatherings. Theater is seen as an insular, elitist practice, for and by a select few. However, this image of theater is deeply misleading, especially as more performances are available for download, and many smaller more open institutions invest more in theater productions. One place that might surprise a lot of people is the popularity of performances staged by incarcerated persons, and presented in behind the walls of prisons. Theater is a social, communal practice, so making it happen within an institution that is not only isolated from the outside world, but is designed to isolate those within, will naturally come with various challenges, and also raises various questions on the nature of both theater and the carceral system.  These are the questions Ashley Lucas addresses in her recent book Prison Theatre and the Global Crisis of Incarceration (Bloomsbury, 2020). Featuring a combination of her own firsthand experience as a director of prison theater, interviews with those involved in the world prison theater and scholarly research, the book is a unique combination of genres that occupies some very interesting intersections, and is able to explore some very difficult topics, from questions of artistic expression, the nature of community and what hope in a hopeless situation looks like. Ashley Lucas is an associate professor of Theatre and Drama and the Residential College at the University of Michigan, and is also the former director of the Prison Creative Arts Project. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The world of theater performances is often thought of as being composed of wealthy persons who received elite educations at art institutions all so they could be observed by a small, wealthy elite at exclusive and expensive gatherings. Theater is seen as an insular, elitist practice, for and by a select few. However, this image of theater is deeply misleading, especially as more performances are available for download, and many smaller more open institutions invest more in theater productions. One place that might surprise a lot of people is the popularity of performances staged by incarcerated persons, and presented in behind the walls of prisons. Theater is a social, communal practice, so making it happen within an institution that is not only isolated from the outside world, but is designed to isolate those within, will naturally come with various challenges, and also raises various questions on the nature of both theater and the carceral system.  These are the questions Ashley Lucas addresses in her recent book Prison Theatre and the Global Crisis of Incarceration (Bloomsbury, 2020). Featuring a combination of her own firsthand experience as a director of prison theater, interviews with those involved in the world prison theater and scholarly research, the book is a unique combination of genres that occupies some very interesting intersections, and is able to explore some very difficult topics, from questions of artistic expression, the nature of community and what hope in a hopeless situation looks like. Ashley Lucas is an associate professor of Theatre and Drama and the Residential College at the University of Michigan, and is also the former director of the Prison Creative Arts Project. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The world of theater performances is often thought of as being composed of wealthy persons who received elite educations at art institutions all so they could be observed by a small, wealthy elite at exclusive and expensive gatherings. Theater is seen as an insular, elitist practice, for and by a select few. However, this image of theater is deeply misleading, especially as more performances are available for download, and many smaller more open institutions invest more in theater productions. One place that might surprise a lot of people is the popularity of performances staged by incarcerated persons, and presented in behind the walls of prisons. Theater is a social, communal practice, so making it happen within an institution that is not only isolated from the outside world, but is designed to isolate those within, will naturally come with various challenges, and also raises various questions on the nature of both theater and the carceral system.  These are the questions Ashley Lucas addresses in her recent book Prison Theatre and the Global Crisis of Incarceration (Bloomsbury, 2020). Featuring a combination of her own firsthand experience as a director of prison theater, interviews with those involved in the world prison theater and scholarly research, the book is a unique combination of genres that occupies some very interesting intersections, and is able to explore some very difficult topics, from questions of artistic expression, the nature of community and what hope in a hopeless situation looks like. Ashley Lucas is an associate professor of Theatre and Drama and the Residential College at the University of Michigan, and is also the former director of the Prison Creative Arts Project. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The world of theater performances is often thought of as being composed of wealthy persons who received elite educations at art institutions all so they could be observed by a small, wealthy elite at exclusive and expensive gatherings. Theater is seen as an insular, elitist practice, for and by a select few. However, this image of theater is deeply misleading, especially as more performances are available for download, and many smaller more open institutions invest more in theater productions. One place that might surprise a lot of people is the popularity of performances staged by incarcerated persons, and presented in behind the walls of prisons. Theater is a social, communal practice, so making it happen within an institution that is not only isolated from the outside world, but is designed to isolate those within, will naturally come with various challenges, and also raises various questions on the nature of both theater and the carceral system.  These are the questions Ashley Lucas addresses in her recent book Prison Theatre and the Global Crisis of Incarceration (Bloomsbury, 2020). Featuring a combination of her own firsthand experience as a director of prison theater, interviews with those involved in the world prison theater and scholarly research, the book is a unique combination of genres that occupies some very interesting intersections, and is able to explore some very difficult topics, from questions of artistic expression, the nature of community and what hope in a hopeless situation looks like. Ashley Lucas is an associate professor of Theatre and Drama and the Residential College at the University of Michigan, and is also the former director of the Prison Creative Arts Project. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The world of theater performances is often thought of as being composed of wealthy persons who received elite educations at art institutions all so they could be observed by a small, wealthy elite at exclusive and expensive gatherings. Theater is seen as an insular, elitist practice, for and by a select few. However, this image of theater is deeply misleading, especially as more performances are available for download, and many smaller more open institutions invest more in theater productions. One place that might surprise a lot of people is the popularity of performances staged by incarcerated persons, and presented in behind the walls of prisons. Theater is a social, communal practice, so making it happen within an institution that is not only isolated from the outside world, but is designed to isolate those within, will naturally come with various challenges, and also raises various questions on the nature of both theater and the carceral system.  These are the questions Ashley Lucas addresses in her recent book Prison Theatre and the Global Crisis of Incarceration (Bloomsbury, 2020). Featuring a combination of her own firsthand experience as a director of prison theater, interviews with those involved in the world prison theater and scholarly research, the book is a unique combination of genres that occupies some very interesting intersections, and is able to explore some very difficult topics, from questions of artistic expression, the nature of community and what hope in a hopeless situation looks like. Ashley Lucas is an associate professor of Theatre and Drama and the Residential College at the University of Michigan, and is also the former director of the Prison Creative Arts Project. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The world of theater performances is often thought of as being composed of wealthy persons who received elite educations at art institutions all so they could be observed by a small, wealthy elite at exclusive and expensive gatherings. Theater is seen as an insular, elitist practice, for and by a select few. However, this image of theater is deeply misleading, especially as more performances are available for download, and many smaller more open institutions invest more in theater productions. One place that might surprise a lot of people is the popularity of performances staged by incarcerated persons, and presented in behind the walls of prisons. Theater is a social, communal practice, so making it happen within an institution that is not only isolated from the outside world, but is designed to isolate those within, will naturally come with various challenges, and also raises various questions on the nature of both theater and the carceral system.  These are the questions Ashley Lucas addresses in her recent book Prison Theatre and the Global Crisis of Incarceration (Bloomsbury, 2020). Featuring a combination of her own firsthand experience as a director of prison theater, interviews with those involved in the world prison theater and scholarly research, the book is a unique combination of genres that occupies some very interesting intersections, and is able to explore some very difficult topics, from questions of artistic expression, the nature of community and what hope in a hopeless situation looks like. Ashley Lucas is an associate professor of Theatre and Drama and the Residential College at the University of Michigan, and is also the former director of the Prison Creative Arts Project. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Laura Hulthen Thomas is the author of STATES OF MOTION, a collection of short stories http://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/states-motion.      Thomas also teaches fiction and creative non-fiction for the University of Michigan, as program head for the Residential College's creative writing program. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including The Cimarron Review, Nimrod International Journal, Epiphany, Witness, Midwestern Gothic, and other literary journals.   "Underlying Conditions" is a very new piece (composed during quarantine) that resonates with our current moment/reality; excerpted for this podcast.  https://www.pw.org/writers_recommend/laura_hulthen_thomas 

Abigal talks about what it took for her to get truly comfortable in her own skin, lets Jason know when she believes it's appropriate to pick someone up at the library and they both share the dichotomy of knowing it's all a long game and then being easily frustrated by not being the best immediately."Keep your shit."Abigail Kirby Conklin is a writer and visual artist with a New York City birth certificate, a Virginian driver's license, a degree from Michigan State University, and a student permit allowing her to enter Ontario, Canada. ​She is an alumnus of the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities and the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program at MSU, where she studied radical pedagogy, youth development and social justice.Kirby Conklin has been involved with young people and public education for almost ten years, and is currently doing graduate work at the University of Toronto.www.abigailkirbyconklin.usInstagramLinkedinEnjoying the podcast? Please tell your friends, give us a shoutout and a follow on social media, or take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes or wherever else you get your shows!Find the show at all of the cool spots below.WebsiteFacebookInstagramIf something from this or any episode has sparked your interest and you’d like to connect about it, please email us at podcast@jasonfrazell.com. We love hearing from our listeners!If you are interested in being a guest on the show, please visit jasonfrazell.com/podcast and click on the “Learn More” button at the bottom of the page.Artwork by Jordan Snodgrass

MLC Collegian Bonnie Hyatt (2018) found her passion for immunology and language studies at MLC. Bonnie leaped into every opportunity while at MLC and she hasn't changed. As the Boarding Prefect in Year 12, Bonnie took her role as a big sister very seriously and dedicated much of her time to caring for the boarders and creating fun activities for them to take part in. Now that she's at Residential College, she endeavours to create the same experiences for university students.

Dr. Brian Arao (he/him/his) serves as the Associate Dean of Students and Chief of Staff at the University of California Santa Cruz. In his eighteen years as a student affairs practitioner, Dr. Arao has cultivated a clear understanding of his professional purpose and passion: to facilitate transformative and empowering educational experiences for all students, with an emphasis on those who have been marginalized within and excluded from the academy. He has creatively and consistently applied this approach to his work across a broad range of institutions and functional areas including residential life, student conduct, orientation, first year experience, and equity and inclusion initiatives.Brian graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a Bachelor of Arts in Molecular, Cellular, and Development Biology. He went on to graduate with a Master of Education in Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration from the University of Vermont and a Doctorate in International and Multicultural Education from the University of San Francisco. He can be reached via email at barao@ucsc.edu or LinkedIn.

In this podcast discussing Il Trovatore, Dr. Naomi André explores - through letters between Giuseppe Verdi and librettist Salvadore Cammarano - the qualities of Azucena that make her one of the most complex characters in Verdi's operas. Dr. André is a professor in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, Women's studies, and the Residential College at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on opera and issues surrounding gender, voice, and race in the US, Europe, and South Africa. This discussion was recorded on Saturday, September 19, 2020 as a part of LA Opera Connects' professional development series for teachers: Opera for Educators. (https://www.laopera.org/operaforeducators)

Parents, what challenges do you understand your teenagers and young people have that affects their Mental Health? Thank you to my guest, Jason Lincoln, Head of St Albert's Residential College at University of New England in NSW Australia with over 300 resident students. Jason is going to talk about 3 mental health challenges that young people struggle with and what we can do, as parents to help them. I'd like to shout out to my friends from Middle B at Albies (back in the last century) who will remember the fun we had with our cleaners, Jude and Rube: Denise Robinson, Carlie Corke, Kate Pigram, Caroline Stitt, Margot McGibbon. Subscribe today - Mental Health Chats. Hannah Stainer will be talking next time about, “Spotting the signs of mental ill-health in teenagers”. Let's build awareness for anyone suffering from a mental illness. They are not alone. Please like, comment, share, and ask questions.

In this episode of Michigan Minds, Angela Dillard, Richard A. Meisler Collegiate Professor of Afroamerican & African Studies and in the Residential College, outlines the goals of the curriculum and how the Democracy & Debate Theme Semester will incorporate discussions about current events and social movements. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Chris Stipeck serves as the Director for Residential Staff & Programs in NYU Residential Life and Housing Services. Prior to this, he served in seven different roles that include hall positions in Hayden (Lipton), Carlyle Court, and 3rd North, and centrally as an Assistant Director for the Leased Properties then FYRE areas, and is in the first year of his current role. Chris also works on a research team for the Assessment of Collegiate Residential Environments and Outcomes (ACREO) – a national assessment to better understand the influence that living on-campus has on academic, social intellectual outcomes for students. He has presented and published research on topics related to developing intentionally inclusive communities (first-generation student support, Project Pay Attention), residential staff management (entry-level residential life staff burnout, mid-level management) and residential outcomes (the first-year experience, served as a faculty member for the ACPA Residential Curriculum Institute). Chris received a B.A. in History from Rutgers University-New Brunswick and then an M.A. and Ed.D in Higher Education Administration at NYU. Therese Grande’s career in higher education spans over fifteen years at both public and private institutions and includes cross-functional experience in student affairs, curriculum and instruction, and institutional planning. During her time at New York University, she served as a member of the Residential Peer Board, an RA in Third North and President of RA Council, a graduate assistant for Academic Initiatives in Residence Life, the ACDE/RHAD at Carlyle Court, and the Program Administrator for the FFIR, Explorations, and Residential College programs. In her current role as the Student Life Coordinator at Golden West College (a community college in Huntington Beach, CA), she trains and advises student leaders, facilitates campus-wide programming, and helps foster an environment where students can meaningfully engage with peers, faculty, staff, and administration outside the classroom. Therese is passionate about leveraging educational policy, institutional governance, and organizational structures to improve access and educational outcomes for students who have traditionally been underserved or marginalized by systemic inequities and has been recognized by the California Community Colleges Classified Senate and the American Association for Women in Community Colleges for her leadership in these areas. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from New York University, a master’s degree in Public Policy and Public Administration from California State University Long Beach, and is an alumni of the California Education Policy Fellowship program.

Life for every student at U-M - let alone for every person on earth - has undergone tremendous change recently. We'll explore how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted people differently even within the Residential College community. This episode features three students as well as a member of the RC intensive language faculty and we explore family ties, procrastination, the strangeness of seeing other people in real life, and dealing with anxiety, all with humor and vulnerability.

Steve Esquith is dean of Michigan State University's Residential College in the Arts and Humanities. He talks with MSU President Samuel L. Stanley, Jr. MD and Spartans Athletic Director Bill Beekman about the “common good” mission of the college. “We think there are some basic things that the arts and humanities can contribute to society,” says Esquith. He talks about the college's excellent placement rate. “Parents are often pleased to hear about our graduation and placement rates,” he quips. For each of the past six years, 100 percent of RCAH graduates have found jobs or enrolled in grad school. That percentage is best among colleges at MSU. Esquith says RCAH greatly exceeded its fundraising goal in the university's recent campaign. And he details the advantages offered by a residential college. “In living together, the students encounter people who are different from themselves. A mark of our success in the college is our diversity. Richness of other cultures is not just something they read about in textbooks.” “What you're doing is such a powerful answer to the question of how the humanities are relevant to what's going on in the world,” says Stanley. “You provide a powerful answer to that question.” MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on 105.1 FM and AM 870. Find MSU Today on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.

“When else are you going to have this opportunity where a world-class university is giving you credit on your transcript to talk about sex with your peers? When does that happen?” The answer is the RC Forums program, a fully student-initiated and -led learning space open to all U-M that grants Residential College participants credit … Episode 23 – Student-facilitated learning spaces at U-M: RC Forums Read More »

RC Senior Hannah Brauer introduces listeners to the RC Review, an annual student-run magazine for writers and artists in the Residential College community. Bonus: you'll hear from multiple writers and current RC Review staff members members reading recently published work, à la an open mic at a coffee shop. Hear about the new developments in digital … Episode 21 – The RC Review with Hannah Brauer, Editor-in-Chief Read More »

On July 1, 2019, Catherine Badgley became the 11th director of the Residential College, and the 3rd woman in the role. She is no stranger to the halls of East Quad; she's been teaching in the RC since the late 1980s. In this interview, Catherine discusses her research in the fossil records of Pakistan and … Episode 19 – Catherine Badgley on the Fossil Record, Baking Bread, and the RC Read More »

Cindy Sowers, the venerated RC Arts and Ideas in the Humanities faculty member, has retired. We knew this would come but that knowing doesn't shield us from the shock and disorientation of the event itself! To pay homage to Cindy and her incredible 46 year career in the Residential College, I coaxed her into appearing … Episode 16 – Cindy Sowers and Her Retirement Read More »

We bid bon voyage to “Uncle Hank” as he completes a fulfilling and rich 32 year career in the Residential College. In this interview, Hank touches on how he accidentally wound up in the RC, how he accidentally happened upon his scholarly passion for interviewing and “learning with” Holocaust survivors, and how he hopes we … Episode 15 – Hank Greenspan and His Retirement Read More »

On this week's Exposure, your host, Stephanie Stapert, talks to some of MSU's a cappella groups. Following their performances at Accapalooza, WDBM brought each group into the station to discuss their group values & upcoming events, so that you can get to know them!Stephanie's first interaction with MSU a cappella was with the Accafellas, so of course this week's episode starts with them. The Accafellas are one of the all male a cappella groups here on campus. They just performed this past weekend, but in case you missed it, they will be bringing holiday cheer on November 30. You can also find them on all social media @msuaccafellas and their music on most streaming services.Up next is RCAHppella, the co-ed group that began in the Residential College of Arts and Humanities. They will be bringing the '70s back with their Groovyppella on November 15 in the Snyder Phillips Auditorium. You can find them on social media @msurcahppella and their music on YouTube. To close this week's show, State of Fifths a co-ed a cappella group that strives to include more people in the a cappella community since their origins in 2008. They will be at the Great Lakes A Cappella Showcase on December 1. You can find them on social media @StateOfFifths and their music on most streaming services.Love a cappella? Stay tuned next week, Sunday 9 A.M. on 88.9 FM to learn more about some of MSU's other a cappella groups!

One of the purposes of the RC podcast is to preserve the oral history of the Residential College and East Quadrangle. It's our pleasure to offer episode five that introduces you to Dr. Harvey Slaughter, RC class of 1972, who created a very distinguished undergraduate career including much activism for the advancement of Black students and … Episode 5 – Interview with Harvey Slaughter, RC Class of '72 Read More »

“How can the modern individual maintain control over his or her self-representation when the whole world seems to be watching?” This is the question that prompts Julia Fawcett‘s new book, Spectacular Disappearances: Celebrity and Privacy, 1696-1801 (University of Michigan Press, 2016). Drawing on a diverse range of material to analyze some of England's earliest modern celebrities, Fawcett offers a fascinating glimpse into the paradoxes of their eighteenth-century autobiographical performances. More than just the rise of celebrity culture she argues, these performances can help deepen our understanding of the making – and unmaking – of the modern self. Using creative, playful and transgressive techniques, the celebrities in Fawcett's study experimented with presenting themselves as legible to curious publics even as they obscured their identities through ‘overexpressive' acts that helped enable their spectacular disappearance. The result is a tantalizing narrative that continues to fascinate, three centuries later. Julia Fawcett is Assistant Professor in the Theatre Dance and Performance Studies Department at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests include Restoration and eighteenth-century theatre and performance, performance historiography, the intersections between literature and performance, autobiographical performance, urban space, celebrity, gender, and disability studies. She received her PhD in English Literature from Yale University, and has published essays in PMLA, The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation, and Modern Drama. Fawcett is currently working on her next book, Unmapping London: Performance and Urbanization after the Great Fire. Sitara Thobani is Assistant Professor in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities, Michigan State University. Her research focuses on the performance arts in colonial and postcolonial South Asia and its diasporas, especially as these relate to formations of nation, gender, sexuality and religion. She received her DPhil in Social and Cultural Anthropology form Oxford University, and is the author of Indian Classical Dance and the Making of Postcolonial National Identities: Dancing on Empire's Stage (Routledge 2017). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeff sits down with Sam Patterson, Jenny Grabec and Casy Cohen to discuss 1:1 education. Topics include starting 1:1, implementing 1:1, and community involvement with 1:1. Show TopicsGoing 1:1 Choosing the right tech for 1:1 Preparing the buildings and classrooms for 1:1 How to Go 1:1 Getting your Teachers to go 1:1 1:1 Lessons and Lesson Plans Does 1:1 mean 100% Tech? Resources online for 1:1 deployment Community involvement with 1:1 About our GuestsJenny Grabec As Director of Instructional Technology at a K-12 independent school, Jenny has the privilege of leading a one-to-one iPad/Mac rollout with students, faculty and staff. The students at her current school have average to above average intelligence and have been diagnosed with specific learning disabilities; primarily dysgraphia, dyslexia, language processing, executive function deficits, and/or attention deficit disorder. Jenny also led the first one-to-one iPad pilot in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in a middle school and high school classroom of ESL newcomers back in 2011, when the iPad 2 was first released. Jenny is an Apple Distinguished Educator and CEO of Tech Girl Savvy, LLC. Jenny Grabiec Casy Cohen Casey Cohen is an English teacher at Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School (PPACS), an Apple Distinguished, 1:1, paperless school where each student's primary learning tool is an iPad. She is a lead curriculum writer for the high school English courses. Casey's curriculum work is based on project-based inquiry learning that supports the Common Core and allows students the freedom to explore and discover their passions and purposes as they take ownership in their learning. Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School courses are published and can be found in the String Theory Schools collection on iTunes U. Casey received her B.A. at the University of Michigan, where she studied English, history, and theater in Michigan's Residential College. She received her Ed.M. at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, where she studied English and secondary education in HGSE's Teacher Education Program. Currently, she is earning her Principal Certification at the University of Pennsylvania where she is participating in the School Leadership Program. Casey is certified in English, social studies, and communications grades 7-12 in PA. She has taught a combination of middle and high school English for eight years. Outside the classroom, Casey has been a theater director, stage manager, track coach, and sponsor for various clubs and activities. At PPACS she organizes a Poetry Out Loud contest and supports the Speech and Debate, Homework, and Yearbook clubs. Sam Patterson, M.F.A. Ed.D. Poet, Writer, blogger, teacher of students: Sam has taught in independent Jewish schools for the last 12 years in the subject of English, writing, darkroom photography, algebra, algebra 2, and pre-calc and he currently teaches K-5 technology. Sam is an innovator on campus and he uses his blog to reach out to his campus environment and to reach beyond into the community of connected educators. There are many things that edtech can do, Sam looks at the pedagogical opportunities and helps teachers find the best tool for the job. Recorded 2014