After Amherst

Bill Bares has lived a life that unfolded almost exactly as he planned it in his early twenties, when he completed a Tony Robbins-branded one‑year, five‑year, and 25‑year plan.

That plan resulted in a career as a jazz pianist, scholar, and now Distinguished Professor of Humanities at UNC Asheville. These days, Bill finds his interests shifting to unlearning the habits that made him successful and designing a more relational, community‑centered future — much the way he sits at the center of jazz ensembles as a pianist.

In this conversation, Bill talks candidly about the psychological forces that drove his early ambition, the joy he finds in leading from the middle, and the shift he’s making toward serving others.

In the process, we explore how midlife invites a different kind of planning. That includes what it means to loosen the grip of individual achievement and how to build a second life phase dedicated to connection and generosity.

You can learn more about Bill or get in touch with him via URSA Asheville (ursaasheville.com), Bill’s music site ( billbaresmusic.com), and email: [email protected].

Kate Lewis (nee Westerbeck) has willed every stage of her career into existence.

In her childhood, she knew she wanted to work in media. Her very first job after Amherst College landed her at Conde Nast. She then joined Hearts and rose all the way to Chief Content Officer, overseeing some of the most iconic titles in American publishing. When she later set her sights on Apple, she made that happen too, bringing her editorial acumen into one of the most influential technology companies on the planet.

Kate exudes the power of optimism, curiosity, and good old fashioned cheerfulness. She makes a compelling case for something every Amherst alum will feel in their bones: that a liberal arts education is awfully useful in a world where the ability to synthesize, communicate clearly and compellingly, and connect the dots across disciplines is as valuable as ever.

Her recent shift from media to tech and from the East to the West Coast is instructive for anyone contemplating their own pivot. Her playbook also affirms why the skills we honed at Amherst still matter in some of the most competitive environments in the world.

To reach Kate, email is best: [email protected].

Show note: Kate mentions a Radiolab podcast episode on the power of novelty. Listen to that episode here: https://radiolab.org/podcast/secret-long-life

Sara Keen has been a close friend for more than three decades. She has a rare gift: she listens in a way that makes people feel fully seen, and even when she disagrees with them, she remains attentive, kind, and firm yet flexible in her own mind. Whether we’re talking sports, politics, or the messy realities of organizational life, she always brings curiosity, good humor, and a deep respect for other people’s perspectives.

Professionally, Sara has spent more than 20 years helping organizations work through complexity, aligning teams, repairing strained partnerships, and guiding leaders through the choppy, human side of change. Her work spans biopharma, academic medicine, major health systems, and cross‑industry collaborations. She grounds all of it in an ability to uncover the deeper meaning beneath what people say and to help them find their shared ‘what,’ even if they disagree on the ‘how.’

This conversation is both professional and, for me, personal, because all her abilities are on such vivid display, especially the quiet strength of someone who makes every room and every relationship better.

For most of his adult life, JJ Haines has called Tokyo home. He didn’t imagine that outcome while at Amherst College, but in retrospect it almost feels inevitable given his long-standing appreciation for Japanese culture.

JJ traces the winding path from studying Buddhism and Japanese cinema at Amherst to building a global banking career that took him through risk management, real estate, the Lehman collapse, and now his role as Managing Director and Country Manager for Japan at ING. He reflects on the the self‑awareness practices that have shaped his entire life, the curiosities that first pulled him toward Japan, and the family he and his wife have raised in Tokyo, including how they navigated the perilous days immediately following the 3/11 earthquake and Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Highlights include:

You can email JJ at [email protected] and find him on LinkedIn.

Valerie Leipheimer may be the first person in human history who can persuasively and clearly show how much art history and tax law have in common. How’d she come to that conclusion? By way of a path that has taken her from Amherst College, where she studied art history, through law school, and into a serendipitous turn as a corporate tax law summer associate in London that helped her find her true professional calling. Along the way, she enjoyed a long detour through Florence that sparked a deep love of Italian culture.

She has passed her passion for arts and culture to her 17‑year‑old son, who has become her museum buddy and is lobbying hard to have her speak to his class about her Amherst thesis on Francis Bacon. For the opportunity to bond with her kid in his native environment, it may be time to dust off that thesis, which she came *this close* to publishing her senior year at Amherst.

To contact Valerie, email her at [email protected].

Anthropologist Anand Pandian joins me to explore the everyday walls—physical, social, and mental—that shape modern American life.

Drawing from his book, Something Between Us, he explains how the boundaries built into our homes, cars, and information sources make it harder to imagine living in community with people who might think differently or come from another place. We talk about what it takes to lower those barriers and create better ways to coexist. Anand also reflects on Ayya’s Accounts: A Ledger of Hope in Modern India, his book about his family’s ancestral homeland told through his grandfather’s harrowing refugee journey.

We revisit Amherst, where he didn’t study anthropology but where he definitely got the bug. He also fondly remembers the rooftop “beach” at Valentine, the professors who shaped him, and the unexpected ways and timing that our intellectual callings announce themselves.

We close with thoughts about the world the next generations will inherit, the ecological futures he’s working to imagine, and the advice he won’t give his teenagers.

To get in touch, email him at [email protected]. You’ll find his books on Amazon and other booksellers, and you also can visit his website: https://anand.studio/.

Aaron Carroll has spent his entire life following the instincts Amherst sharpened, especially the belief that learning never really stops. In this conversation, he traces the path from his first‑floor Morrow dorm room (where Bruno’s pizza arrived through the window) to a career shaped by a liberal arts way of thinking.

Aaron talks about the moment in residency when he nearly left medicine and how questioning assumptions became the through‑line of his work. We explore how the habits he built at Amherst show up everywhere: in the way he communicates complex ideas, in his drive to understand systems and symptoms, and in his commitment to helping others make sense of a messy world.

Today, as CEO of AcademyHealth, Aaron continues to work at the intersection of evidence, public understanding, and policy. At its core, this is a story about how a liberal‑arts education can shape a life by teaching someone how to think, how to listen, and how to keep asking better questions.

Aaron’s professional contact information is publicly available. Listeners can also find him easily on social platforms and through his published work online.

Fans of the pod will know how often my college classmates’ lives have unfolded in ways none of us could have predicted back in the mid‑1990s. Geoff Klein is a perfect example of that non‑linearity.

After Amherst, he nearly landed at Leo Burnett before being told (accurately) that he seemed more interested in film than advertising. That observation set off a chain of reinventions: working for Seth Godin in New York, heading to Temple Law without any intention of practicing, and ultimately moving to Los Angeles to work in the story department at major studios like Paramount and MGM.

Just when it looked like he’d found his lane, life shifted again. Geoff married a woman from Manchester, England, moved overseas, worked in real estate, and eventually returned to Philadelphia.

Today he teaches at Temple and Wharton, runs a story‑driven branding practice, speaks professionally, and helps organizations adopt AI in ways that keep people at the center. Through every pivot runs a consistent worldview: humans are wired for connection and stories are how we make sense of our lives.

You can email Geoff at [email protected].

Russ Hanser arrived at Amherst as a self-described nerd with big ambitions: maybe law, maybe journalism, maybe even director of the CIA. His liberal arts education sharpened his thinking and ultimately launched him into a career shaping telecommunications and technology policy at the highest levels.

Today, Russ serves as Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Chief Legal Officer of NCTA – The Internet & Television Association. In this episode, he reflects on how early interests in politics and computers converged into a career navigating spectrum policy, AI governance, broadband access, and the future of connectivity. He also speaks candidly about carving out space to support not-for-profit organizations and navigating fatherhood through a divorce.

Highlights:

Russ also nominates the next classmates he’d like me to interview. If you’d like to connect with Russ, you can reach him at: [email protected].

Elizabeth Doyle is one of the proprietors of Doyle & Doyle, a purveyor of antique and vintage jewelry based in New York City. We talk about her wonderfully serendipitous path from Amherst College to the Gemological Institute of America, and then into building a jewelry business that has now spanned decades. Her journey is a delightful example of the good things that can happen from saying ‘yes,’ learning by doing, and staying open to whatever unfolds.

Elizabeth also gives a window into what makes her so good at her work. It’s so liberal arts. She knows the chemistry, histories, and stories of the objects she sells. She also has what it takes to guide couples from engagement ring decisions to helping them celebrate life’s most memorable milestones.

Highlights:

Visit https://doyledoyle.com and email Elizabeth at [email protected].