All in a Day's Work

In this episode, NYU student Ella Chuang speaks with Teresa Yang, a motion graphic designer. Ella speaks to Teresa about navigating the differences between freelance and corporate work and what it really takes to maintain a personal voice within structured brand systems.

Teresa is an IDM alumnus and a motion graphic designer. She started her career at a marketing agency in New York, while also taking on freelance gigs. In 2022, she moved to the west coast, joining the brand team at Asana as a motion graphic designer. Over the years, she has worked for clients from different industries, including an indie musician, interactive arts studio, non-profit organization, and tech companies. 

Teresa loves exploring both digital and traditional techniques in her creative projects. Currently, she indulges herself in the beauty of riso printing and gouache, and finds ways to integrate them in animation. After eight years of working full-time, she transitioned to freelancing as she works toward building her own studio, combining animation and risograph printing.

For a full transcript of this episode, please email [email protected].

In this episode, All in a Day’s Work editor and producer, Chidera Orazulike, speaks with Anika Deshpande, Julie Brownstone, and Taelor Peaks, recruiters from Veeva Systems, Bloomingdale’s, and Sony Music Entertainment, respectively. In this special episode, they chat about what the hiring process is actually like behind the scenes. Together, they discuss what recruiters genuinely look for beyond experience on paper and how to create sustainable career strategies in an unpredictable economy.

Anika Deshpande is a University Recruiter for the Consultant Development Program at Veeva Systems. An NYU Steinhardt alum, she took a unique path to the tech industry, graduating with a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance before jumping into the world of talent attraction and recruiting. Having started her own career as a new grad at Veeva, Anika is incredibly passionate about helping today's new grads navigate the job market and take that exciting first step into their professional careers.

Julie Brownstone is the Senior Manager of College Relations at Bloomingdale’s, where she leads early career recruitment and programming, helping students and recent graduates launch their careers in retail. She has been with Bloomingdale’s for seven years and has spent the past four focused on college recruitment. Outside of work, Julie enjoys sustainable fashion, exploring new restaurants, and traveling.

Taelor Peaks is a Talent Acquisition Partner and the Intern Program Lead at Sony Music Entertainment, bringing a firsthand perspective on how hiring trends and evolving talent needs are shaping the music business. She is particularly passionate about helping emerging professionals understand how to navigate the job market, position their experience effectively, and approach the application process with intention. Taelor also supports emerging talent through music industry-focused initiatives.

For more information, visit: 

https://careers.veeva.com/

https://bloomingdalesjobs.com

https://careers.sonymusic.com/

For a full transcript of this episode, please email [email protected].

In this episode, NYU student Gagana Venkatampalli speaks with Michael McGetrick, a professor at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Gagana speaks to Michael about building a career that crosses creative, technical, and educational work simultaneously;

Michael McGetrick has over 30 years of blended experience in digital marketing from advertising and creative agency management to founding roles in successful new ventures in marketing technology. He has taught Digital Marketing in the Department of Technology Management at NYU Tandon. In addition, he has taught in the digital design program at Brooklyn College for over 15 years, leading courses in motion graphics, 3D, web design, creative coding, and most recently Generative AI for Content Creation and Visual Design. Currently, Michael serves as the VP, Principal of Creative and Interactive at Spark451, a company he founded in 2011 with fellow NYU Tandon grads.

For a full transcript of this episode, please email [email protected].

In this episode, NYU student Beril Eski speaks with Fariba Nawa, a freelance journalist. Beril speaks to Fariba about why non-Western perspectives do not make it to Western audiences and how international reporters are trying to turn this trend around.

Fariba Nawa is an alumna of the Journalism and Middle Eastern Studies program. She has been covering global news for 25 years from places like Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan and now Turkey. She is also a speaker and author of the book Opium Nation: Child Brides, Drug Lords and One Woman’s Journey through Afghanistan. A native Afghan, Fariba’s fluent in Farsi/Dari and can get by in Arabic and Turkish. Some recent work can be found in The World, Time, The Christian Science Monitor,  The New Yorker, and The Financial Times.

For a full transcript of this episode, please email [email protected]. 

In this special episode, created by one of our student podcast fellows, NYU student, Alisha Lee, interviews Sally Seo, a fellow graduate student within the Animal Studies department with a background in documentary storytelling. Alisha speaks to Sally about the infiltration of documentaries into pop culture and her transition into academic research after a former job in the Original Documentaries department at Netflix.

Sally’s interests center on how connection and narrative shape our care toward nonhuman animals and the environment. Her background is in documentary storytelling, most recently at Netflix Original Documentaries, where she helped commission projects, develop ideas in-house, and lead diversity and inclusion initiatives. Building on that experience, she is now conducting a research project funded by the Center for Environmental and Animal Protection that examines how emotional and moral bonds with animals influence people’s sense of place and environmental responsibility. By investigating the psychological and cultural mechanisms that link empathy for animals to pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors, her work seeks to illuminate how fostering connection can motivate care for the natural world. Ultimately, her goal is to help reshape how people relate to the environment by demonstrating that care for the natural world is not merely a duty but a source of meaning, connection, and shared belonging.
For a full transcript of this episode, please email [email protected].

In this special episode, created by one of our student podcast fellows, NYU student Pranali Thakkar interviews Alexandra Devin, a creative arts and drama therapist. Pranali speaks to Alexandra about her journey from the arts to therapy, what drama therapy looks like in practice, and how imagination and play intersect with deep emotional work. 

Alexandra Devin is a licensed creative arts therapist and registered drama therapist in Beacon, NY.  She graduated from NYU Steinhardt in 2013 with a Masters in Drama Therapy. She has extended post-graduate training in psychodrama methods, and also studied the other creative arts therapy modalities of dance/movement, art, and music at The New School.  Her current therapy patients and life coaching clients are adults struggling with anxiety and/or depression, with additional coexisting issues of relationships, life transitions, body image, or past trauma.

For a full transcript of this episode, please email [email protected]. 

In this special episode, created by one of our student podcast fellows, NYU student, Kyli Fox Soug, interviews Makena Naegele, the founder and CEO of oyster. Kyli speaks to Makena about helping job seekers find genuine career communities and engage in mentorship conversations in the changing career landscape.

Makenna Naegele is an NYU Stern alum with a background in UX design, data science, and entrepreneurship, and has worked at firms like frog, Capgemini, and Women in Innovation. She has worked on projects spanning from media and entertainment to tech and innovation. 

Today, she is the founder and CEO of oyster, a career-discovery and micro-community app designed to help job seekers find genuine community, engage in mentorship, and build their careers with intention. oyster is founded on the belief that your ideal career exists and that someone out there is likely doing it right now, you just need to be connected to them. oyster helps you not only survive in your jobs, but thrive in your career. 

For a full transcript of this episode, please email [email protected]. 

In this special episode, created by one of our student podcast fellows, NYU student Avani Advani, interviews Joshua Lewis, an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the NYU Stern School of Business. Avani speaks to Joshua about the human side of decision-making, how “loss aversion” influences what we value, and why some people chase risk while others avoid it entirely.

Professor Lewis researches consumer behavior, managerial decision-making, and global risk management. His research addresses wide-ranging themes such as when people will invest to improve outcomes they care about, how to optimally set targets, whether people neglect low probability risks, and much more. His work has been published in leading journals such as Journal of Consumer Research, Management Science, Psychological Science, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

In 2019, Professor Lewis received the Society for Judgment and Decision Making’s Hillel Einhorn Award for the best paper by a new investigator, and in 2020, he received ACR’s Best Paper award. He received his BS in Economics from the University of Warwick. He holds a PhD in Decision Processes from the University of Pennsylvania.

For a full transcript of this episode, please email [email protected]. 

In this special episode, created by one of our student podcast fellows, NYU student Mia Xiao interviews Daniel Ketchum, a Principal Narrative Designer at Wizards of the Coast. Mia speaks to Daniel about how Gallatin’s interdisciplinary education helped him get a foot in the door at Marvel and continues to shape his approach to learning.

Daniel Ketchum is a narrative and creative leader with more than two decades of experience shaping some of the most iconic stories in pop culture. A BA '06 graduate of NYU’s Gallatin School, pursuing a concentration titled "Storytelling in the Graphic Novel." Daniel has built a career at the intersection of creativity, worldbuilding, and strategic IP development. He spent over a decade at Marvel Entertainment as an Editor, contributing to landmark titles including Uncanny X-Men, The Amazing Spider-Man, Punisher, and many more. In 2018, Daniel joined Wizards of the Coast, where he has held roles including Senior Franchise Art Director, Principal Designer for IP Development, and Principal Narrative Designer for Dungeons & Dragons. Across these positions, he has led cross-disciplinary creative teams, guiding the development of new worlds, for some of the most influential fantasy franchises in the world.

For a full transcript of this episode, please email [email protected]. 

In this special episode, created by one of our student podcast fellows, NYU student Hodan Barreh interviews Niobe Way, a Professor of Developmental Psychology at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Their conversation delves into Dr. Way’s research across cultures to better understand skills around emotional development and connection. They discuss how identity influences emotional health and the importance of softness and vulnerability in healing and building meaningful relationships.

Dr. Niobe Way is a developmental psychologist and author whose work centers emotional development, friendship, and the ways culture shapes identity. A professor at NYU, she is widely recognized for her research on boys’ friendships and the social forces that discourage vulnerability and connection. Her scholarship challenges narrow definitions of strength and belonging, opening space for relational and embodied forms of healing. Her work has inspired interdisciplinary conversations across education, mental health, and community-based wellness initiatives.

For a full transcript of this episode, please email [email protected].