How does a young boy from Lima, Peru grow up to become a world-renowned conductor? What is the role of the conductor in the music their orchestra is performing? What new goals do the Shepherd School of Music have for the 2025-2026 school year?

Miguel Harth-Bedoya is an Emmy-winning and Grammy-nominated conductor, and also the Mary Franks Thompson Professor of Orchestral Studies at Baylor University and overseer of the Shepherd School’s preeminent orchestral programs in the 2025-26 season. 

Miguel and host David Mansouri discuss Miguel's journey to finding a love for music and he explains some about his philosophy on conducting. They talk about Miguel's educational initiatives, his thoughts on the future of classical music - the surprising reason why he wouldn’t use that word himself, and his commitment to community engagement, working with kids, and broadening the audience for orchestral music. Harth-Bedoya also discusses conducting Peter and the Wolf featuring John Lithgow in both English and Spanish, his upcoming role at Rice and his plans to enrich and expand the school's musical outreach. 

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Episode Guide:

• 01:21 Miguel Harth-Bedoya’s Early Life and Musical Beginnings
• 03:18 First Steps into Conducting
• 07:34 The Role of a Conductor
• 14:27 Working With People Instead of Instruments
• 16:08 Joining the Shepherd School of Music
• 20:06 Community Engagement and Future Plans
• 23:27 Creating More Opportunities for Young People
• 27:43 Caminos del Inka and Musical Legacy
• 35:04 Rapid Fire Questions and Conclusion

Beyond The Hedges is a production of the Office of Alumni Relations at Rice University and is produced by University FM.

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Conductors works with people, not just with instrument

14:23: [David] How do you build a relationship with, or chemistry with, the musicians that you're conducting? What does that look like? Are there things that work particularly well, or things that don't work as well, in building that chemistry or relationship?

14:39: [Miguel] Well, you've hit another big, important aspect of what we do, is we work with people. And conductors need to remember that we are working with people, not with instruments. These are human beings, and each of them have their own lives, their own emotions, their own feelings, their own knowledge, their own background. And we all are sharing the same piece of music. Now, unfortunately, or fortunately, we are the individuals that have to bring units. And sometimes you have to agree to disagree or have others understand that maybe you did it this way, but I think it's this way. So understanding people's willingness and desire to sound good is number one.

On building connections beyond music

26:22: I love being very active in connecting with non-musicians. As a matter of fact, what I bring to Rice, or what I will be doing at Rice, is what I've been doing officially since I joined academia, which is: I teach musicians, I teach artists, music teachers, and I teach music lovers. We, as musicians, have to know people in every aspect if we want to think about doing what we're talking about. You cannot have a plan about engaging people in what we do and not be part of it. So, in other words, you have to get your hands dirty. If you want to plant the soil, you cannot just correct from above and let others.

How Miguel is opening doors to music and life beyond performance

34:26: In the current times that we live in, the 21st century, and with the technologies that we have available to connect throughout the world, I think creating the doorway—it's both literally a door to get into a building but also a virtual door to expose, first of all, what a musician is and what life as a musician is as well. And because we see somebody performing surgery, it doesn't mean we know the life of a surgeon. In creating more of that, in promoting that, that gateway is there early on, rather than waiting until you're out of high school before you dare to come to my building. And the one way I do this, personally, is by keeping in touch with the younger crowd.

How is the Rice Architecture department preparing its students for the difficult challenges of today and the unknown urban challenges of the future? What is a megalopolitan city and how should design choices shift when dealing with multiple city centers? How can architects affect car use in cities?

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This episode was recorded live at Rice University's Alumni Weekend, and features host David Mansouri conversing with Troy Schaum. Troy is an associate professor in architecture at Rice and principal architect at SCHAUM Architects. 

Troy and host David Mansouri discuss architectural philosophy, Troy’s journey into the field, and his work on significant projects such as the White Oak Music Hall. Troy provides insights into the concept of post-megalopolitan cities and how it shapes his research and design work. Additionally, the episode highlights how climate change influences current architectural practices and how that is reflected in the evolving nature of Rice's architecture program.

Troy then takes questions from the live audience.

Episode Guide:

• 01:44 Troy's Journey Into Architecture
• 05:16 Exploring the Concept of Post-Megalopolitan City
• 10:59 Buildings That Catch Troy’s Eye
• 14:34 Impact of Climate Change on Architecture
• 19:29 Teaching the Next Generation of Architects at Rice
• 28:05 Rapid Fire Questions
• 30:06 Audience Q&A Session
• 39:06 Closing Remarks

Beyond The Hedges is a production of the Office of Alumni Relations at Rice University and is produced by University FM.

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How can we make Houston's diversity visible beyond outdated city models?

09:56: Houston people come here and they say, “Well, where can I go and walk around and just see what's going on?” And you can't do that in Houston in the same way you could in a lot of cities. And so, that's what I mean by representational problem. How do you make the city that does exist, that we know is this diverse, lively, engaged place? How do we make it visible so we can actually act on it in intelligent ways and not just try to replicate historical models that don't necessarily apply?

How Houston became a model for post-war car-centric urbanism

06:49: Houston is one of the paradigmatic cities, one of the paradigms of urbanism when it comes to thinking about the post-war city and how we organize our lives that essentially means around the car.

How totalization shapes architects at Rice

24:27: Graduate undergraduates would work together, and they would solve complex problems in very highly speculative but also highly technically resolved ways. And it was amazing; we won many awards for this and got a lot of attention for it. And maybe there's a book that compiled and published about this with our collaborators that looks at this, and that's kind of magic alchemy of architecture—the way in which all of these different decisions that seem to be playing out moment to moment and all the contingencies or decisions you make come together to form a kind of complete work. And each time, it's a little bit different, but you have to make students that aren't afraid of that, or make it so students feel comfortable engaging in that space of not knowing, knowing who they can ask, knowing how to formulate a question, knowing how to do their project when they're confronted with contingency that they haven't fully appreciated far along in the project.

How is the Rice Bioengineering Capstone Design course integral in the development of students in the bioengineering department and across all engineering disciplines? How do Rice students benefit from being at an institution that prioritizes premier teaching and research?

Dr. Sabia Zehra Abidi is an assistant teaching professor in bioengineering at Rice with expertise in stem cell research, microfluidics, and disease treatment. Dr. Abidi shares her journey through the field, from research to teaching, driven by her fascination with cellular communication and tissue engineering.

Sabia and host David Mansouri discuss how Rice is engaging students in bioengineering. Sabia also shares her involvement with students in various innovative programs, including through the Medical Humanities Research Institute.

David asks Sabia about her insights on the intersection of bioengineering and artificial intelligence, highlighting the potential and also the challenges of AI in healthcare. Additionally, she shares insights into her mentorship roles, advising on medical device projects, and the unique aspects of undergraduate education at Rice University.Let us know you’re listening by filling out this form. We will be randomly selecting listeners to receive Beyond the Hedges Swag every month.

Episode Guide:

• 03:36 Current Focus and Excitement in Bioengineering
• 05:26 Intersection of Bioengineering and AI
• 07:50 Teaching and Student Innovation
• 12:09 Capstone Design and Student Achievements
• 20:49 Transition from Research to Teaching
• 23:37 Rapid Fire Questions and Conclusion

Beyond The Hedges is a production of the Office of Alumni Relations at Rice University and is produced by University FM.

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Bringing medical humanities into bioengineering to solve human-centered problems

08:30: I think the power of medical humanities is approaching problems from a perspective that we're not necessarily trained in. As bioengineers, we look at things in terms of, I don't know, here's the biology side, here's the engineering approach, here are the equations. And with medical humanities, you're really thinking about the experience; you're thinking about these people, where they're coming from, really getting into that human-centered design aspect. And so, that's the power of combining with medical humanities, for example, with this grant that we have together, where students, these bioengineers, actually go into hospitals, and they're looking for areas for innovation. And they're trained to look at these spaces in a certain way, but with technology tools from medical humanities. They can really dig into problems and understand, "Okay, what are the human-related issues here? And are we solving the right problem?"

What makes the bioengineering program at Rice special?

16:25: Rice's undergraduate bioengineering program is very special in that there are many opportunities for students to interact with the material in different ways, both in-depth and breadth.

Teaching as a path to profound impact and lifelong learning

23:09: In terms of teaching, I feel like you have the ability to impact people in a way that is profound. Like sometimes it's just a small conversation here and there. And then you can also create these programs, right? So these amazing programs that are training students do great.

As AI grows and becomes more accessible, it's changing our lives in many ways—including the workforce. Our guest today is an expert in organization and workforce development who will tell us how AI is shaping the hiring process. 

Fred Oswald is a Professor at Rice and the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences. His Organization & Workforce Laboratory (OWL) at Rice focuses on selection and job performance models in organizational, educational, and military contexts, as predicted by individual differences (such as personality and ability) as well as group differences (workgroup characteristics, gender, race/ethnicity, and culture). 

In our first episode of Season 3, Fred joins host David Mansouri. They delve into Fred’s journey to Rice, his research on testing and job performance models, and the work being done in his lab at Rice. 

The conversation highlights the ethical and practical applications of AI in organizational and educational settings, exploring how AI tools can shape hiring practices and support teaching and learning.

Let us know you listened to the episode and leave questions for future guests by completing this short form.

Episode Guide:

• 00:46 Fred Oswald's Journey to Rice University
• 02:27 Research at the Organization and Workforce Laboratory (OWL)
• 03:29 Student Research Projects in OWL
• 07:16 AI Applications in Organizational Decision-Making
• 13:56 Ethics and Challenges of AI in Employment
• 23:29 AI in Education: Opportunities and Concerns
• 28:02 Skills-Based Hiring and the Future of Work
• 34:46 Rapid Fire Questions and Conclusion

Beyond The Hedges is a production of Rice University and is produced by University FM.

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Is AI turning users into critics?

21:17: I've noticed in my own experimentation—no surprise, because I think there's a common experience, you know, with generative AI. With the language models, you often become a critic in ways that you, of course, criticize or advise your own work, but when a GPT is producing language, say, summarize this paper for me or something like that, you shift into the role of a critic and say, is this good enough? However, you define that good enough for you, good enough for your audience, your stakeholders, you know, both in terms of the thematic, the substance—what is there? Does it seem right? But also, critically, what is missing? What didn't show up? And really working with that, I think, changes kind of your approach to how you do some of that work.

Using AI to empower the talents we have

27:47: You do have to build the fundamentals to understand what AI is doing, so in that sense, we can't use AI as a crutch. We have to use it as a way to empower the talents we already have and are building ourselves.

Examining bias and AI's influence in decision-making

08:59:  How does bias work when we talk about AI as biased? Well, what does that mean in terms of the data and the decisions that are made from those data? This work gets embedded in these organizations. So, I'm not only concerned with the development of tests, but I'm concerned about the context in which they're being used.

The fall semester is in full swing, and we are thrilled to announce the return of Beyond The Hedges! It’s been a while, so let’s get reacquainted. Our new host is David Mansouri, Rice alum and president of the Association of Rice Alumni board. This season, we’ll be spotlighting incredible members of the Rice community who are making a lasting impact on our university, Houston, and the world.

Join us starting October 9th, and every 2nd Wednesday of the month. While you wait, catch up on previous episodes available now, and follow us wherever you get your podcasts—you won’t want to miss these conversations!

“Hate is not something you can be indifferent about and just find middle ground. You have to denounce it whenever you find it,” says Luis Duno-Gottberg. In this episode, the Professor of Caribbean and Film Studies discusses his experience teaching one of the Humanities Department’s “Big Question Courses.” The question he and his students contend with is “what is hate?” Duno-Gottberg’s cross-discipline approach to the course and this conversation leaves a lot the think about both within ourselves and in our global community. His research on how subverting images of hate can be incredibly impactful hits home within the hedges, as he discusses the decision to move the statue of William Marsh Rice instead of removing it from the quad entirely.

How do unconscious, embedded stereotypes shape our behavior towards each other? And how do these behaviors subtlety affect a person’s self-confidence? Eden King, Lynette S. Autrey Professor of Psychology, does research that seeks to guide the equitable and effective management of diverse organizations. Listen in as she discusses her eye-opening findings on women in the workplace, parenting during lockdown and how to be an ally to your colleagues.

“Am I disabled because of my impairment or am I disabled because of attitudes in society?” This thought-provoking question is posed by this episode’s guest, the Director of the Disability Resource Center here at Rice University, Alan Russell. Whether visible or invisible, disabilities affect so many different people, but they are still stigmatized by society. Russell discusses barrier free accessibility, making sure to practice compassion instead of pity, and the importance of intersectional work that includes disability within the movement for diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice.

Every Friday at noon during the fall and spring semesters, you can find Byrd and McDaniel leading a live webinar on Zoom for the Rice community, examining and discussing old documents and photographs from Rice’s past. Through a series of weekly webinars called Doc Talks, the history professors illuminate important research from historians and students with regards to racism and racial injustice. The webinars are then turned into podcast episodes and feature an added analysis by Beyond the Hedges host Kate Coley ’11. It’s just one way the university’s Task Force is working to encourage honest discussion around Rice’s history. Get to know these revolutionary Rice leaders in a more intimate setting on the Beyond the Hedges podcast as Byrd and McDaniel give listeners a behind-the-scenes look into their journeys at Rice, the process for creating and making Doc Talks, interesting findings thus far and more. Stay tuned until the end to hear from undergraduate student researcher, Indya Porter, talk about what she’s been working on for the Task Force.  

In the final episode of our three part series with Stephen Klineberg, we grapple with how to make Houston successful in the 21st century given the deep class divides, inaccessibility to quality education, and exploitation of immigrant workers. Steve says “the story of America is the story of immigrants, and we need to get back to that… I tell people all the time that if Houston’s African American and Latino young people are unprepared to succeed, it is impossible to envision a prosperous future for Houston. That is who we are and will be as the 21st century unfolds.” Houston has work to do, but Steve, along with his 40 years of survey data, is hopeful that the city is up to the task. Also stick around to the end for a new segment where Kate features a new Rice student each month to talk to them about a Rice-related passion project. This month's featured student is undergraduate McMurtry senior Alex Curylo.