I speak with Ella Ponthier, a UT alum. Ella breaks down recalling her experience being bullied in middle/ high school. She opens up about toxic boys, being lonely in college, and having an eating disorder. She tells me about how she got stuck in Peru during the beginning stages of COVID, and what her life looks like moving forward. Ella is relatable and honest and doesn’t hold back.

With everything going on right now with COVID-19, our future is uncertain. This pandemic has affected college life and has caused many recent high school graduates to take gap years. One of whom is Tess Levy, daughter of famous director Shawn Levy. Tess has been preparing her whole life to attend college, but only recently decided she is going to take a gap year in Israel prior to attending Yale University next fall. Tess comes on BDE and opens up about taking the road less travelled, why Yale was her dream school, and what awaits her in the road ahead.

Today I speak with UCLA junior Addison Wingate about sexual assault. She opens up about her personal experiences with being sexually assaulted and details her process of healing. She opens up about her relationship with her parents, her first love, and how being assaulted affected hookup culture for her in college. This episode highlights the trauma caused by sexual assault, and why it is so necessary to normalize talking about people's experiences. I applaud Addison's strength for coming onto the podcast and being so vulnerable and forthcoming. This is yet another reminder to ALWAYS treat people with respect and kindness.

I sit down and speak with my two freshman roommates from college. We confront each other about previous fights we had, discuss how we all became roommates, "glirting" and play a game of which roommate is most likely to...

Everybody has their questions and hesitations prior to going to college. Well, I (your host, Ashley Lifton) got you COVERED!! I break it all down for you in this episode where I answer people's assumptions about college. Everything is on the table for discussion, sexiling your roommate, how common are STDs, finding your friend group right away, time-management, and more!!

I speak with rising Brown sophomore Elyse Forman and rising Tulane sophomore Kate Stackel about how they are coping with life right now. We break down how our schools are dealing with COVID and what we expect next year to look like. We release all of our negative energy about how COVID has affected our lives, and most specifically our housing situations.

I spoke with college counselor Alexis White about the future of college admissions and college applications for rising seniors. She gives advice about the do's and don'ts for what to write about, and emphasizes the importance of letting your voice shine through on your application. We discuss the future of standardized testing and how to navigate this quarantine.

June is the month for gay pride and serves as a reminder to love all and be accepting of others. Especially with the recent actions taken against the gay and transgender community, I felt it was important to dedicate an episode to the pride movement. I spoke with my good friend, and rising freshman at USC, Max Bross about his internalized homophobia and how he mustered up the courage to come out in the 11th grade. Max and I talk about sex, his body count, dating apps, bearded relationships, and more. It is a good reminder to continuously spread love and kindness.

This is the first episode of a series I am doing dedicated to talking about hookup culture in college. I give listeners the real inside scoop by offering different perspectives and stories about people's experiences with hookups and relationships in college. This episode is broken down into three segments where I speak to three college students about their relationships and hookups freshman year. We cover topics from sex, one night stands, high school sweethearts, and everything in between. We spill lots of tea about what the hookup culture is really like and what you should anticipate. Enjoy :)

Zayan Khanmohammed is a rising sophomore attending UC Berkeley majoring in Molecular/Cellular Biology and Neurobiology. Zayan and I share stories from middle school and high school and recall how we first became friends. Zayan opens about about the difficulty of merging his religious identity with his American identity and how that affected his college experience. Being in a more "cut throat environment" taught him time management skills and forced him to adapt a go-getter attitude. Zayan addresses the fears many high school students feel prior to attending college; a super informative and interesting interview! Enjoy <3