Beyond the Expected

In this episode of “Beyond the Expected,” Alan Inkles, Director of the Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook University, sits down with American actor, director, screenwriter, and author Alan Alda, visiting professor and founder of the Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University.

Alan has honed his skills as a masterful interviewer over 11 years on the award-winning PBS series Scientific American Frontiers where he spoke with hundreds of the world’s greatest scientists. When meeting with academic leaders around the country, Mr. Alda started suggesting to university presidents that they teach scientists how to present their research to the public. Stony Brook accepted his challenge by opening the Center for Communicating Science where Alan used his experience as an actor: whether in relating to the people he interviewed or acted.

Using exercises derived from improvisational theater, he and the Center’s trainers help participants connect with their audience and bring clarity to complex ideas.

The Center has trained over 15,000 doctors and scientists in eight countries to be world class communicators. The Center has also trained Stony Brook University Discovery Prize Award young scientific finalists to present their nominated presentation to judges for consideration of winning $200,000 to further their research.

Alan’s new podcast, “Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda®,” which looks to help listeners connect better with others in every area of their lives, launched in July 2018 and now has over seven million downloads.

A seven-time Emmy Award winner as well as six Golden Globes Awards and recipient of the 2019 Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, Alan Alda played Hawkeye Pierce and wrote and directed many of the episodes on the classic TV series M*A*S*H. He has starred in, written and directed many films, and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in The Aviator. He appeared in continuing roles on ER, The West Wing, 30 Rock, The Blacklist, Horace and Pete, The Good Fight, and a recurring role on Showtime’s Ray Donovan. Having most recently starred in the Academy Award nominated Noah Baumbach film, Marriage Story, Alan is also the author of several New York Times Best Selling books, the most recent being the 2017 break out book on relating and communicating, “If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?”

Production Credits 

Thanks to Alan Alda, legendary actor, director, writer, author, and, for more than 11 years, the host of “Scientific American Frontiers” on PBS. In 2010 he founded the Alda Center For Communicating Science at Stony Brook University, where he is a visiting professor. More recently, through his Alda Communication Training program, he launched “Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda®,” a podcast which looks to help listeners connect better with others in every area of their lives.

Guest Host: Alan Inkles, Director of the Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook University

In this episode of Beyond the Expected, Michael Bernstein is talking with Stony Brook University Physics Professor, Abhay Deshpande, who, in addition to his role as the Director of the Center for Frontiers in Nuclear Science at Stony Brook University, has a joint appointment at Brookhaven National Laboratory, where he is Director of EIC Science. Professor Deshpande works in experimental nuclear physics, and his current research includes various exploratory and precision studies in QCD using polarized proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus beams of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island. He also does research with high intensity polarized electron beams of the recently upgraded Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at the Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory in Newport News, Virginia. He was one of the original proposers of and has been involved deeply in the development of the science and promotion of the Electron Ion Collider, a $1.6 billion-dollar Department of Energy development project -- the first of its kind in the world -- that was awarded in January 2020 to Brookhaven National Lab. He’s been focused on this area of science for more than 20 years, and now, with the certainty that this new facility will come to fruition, he will actually see his dream come to fruition. We can be assured that scientists around the world will have an opportunity to explore new frontiers that have never been explored before using the BNL’s Electron Ion Collider.

Production Credits

Host: Michael A. Bernstein, Interim President

Beyond the Expected host, Michael Bernstein, sits down with Sharon Nachman MD, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children's Hospital and Associate Dean for Research in the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. Dr. Nachman is an international leader in the area of pediatric infectious diseases and the treatment of children with AIDS, flu and measles. She has been the principal investigator of more than 30 clinical trials of promising medicines for patients treated at Stony Brook University Hospital. These include international trials in areas such as new vaccines, Lyme disease, and AIDS. She also directs the Maternal Child HIV/AIDS Program. In this episode, Michael talks to Sharon about the international health crisis brought on by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus, the impact of the new New York State vaccine law on Long Island's school districts and discusses vaccines and immunizations and if vaccines are truly safe; what children and their families should know and how can they prepare; and what are some complications/symptoms that can occur if children are not vaccinated.

Production Credits

Thanks to episode two guest, Dr. Sharon Nachman, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital and Professor of Pediatrics at the Stony Brook University Renaissance School of Medicine

Host: Michael A. Bernstein, Interim President

Jazz Artist-In-Residence, Thomas Manuel, may have been at a crossroads the year he completed his D.M.A. at Stony Brook in 2016; if not for an unexpected intervention by the Ward Melville Heritage Organization in Stony Brook. A Newsday article published in May of 2014 entitled, “Tom Manuel has a collection. Now all he needs is a museum,” brought them together, which led to Tom emerging as founding president of The Jazz Loft in Stony Brook Village that same year. It was serendipitous: Ward Melville Heritage Organization’s Gloria Rocchio, saw the story and immediately called him to offer him space to start a museum and Jazz entertainment venue in an empty firehouse building in historic Stony Brook Village. The rest, as they say, is history. In this podcast episode, Beyond the Expected host, Michael Bernstein, will explore Tom’s trajectory as an endowed Jazz Artist in Residence at Stony Brook University, his work with young jazz musicians, and his contributions to this popular community hot spot. He may even convince Tom to smoke a jazz jam while he’s at it.

Production Credits

Host: Michael A. Bernstein, Interim President