Celebrating 10 Years & Season Reflections on Meaning, Identity, Care, and Leadership

This is a special episode because it’s not only marks the end of the current season, it also celebrates 10 years of the Changing Academic Life podcast, The first podcast episode went out on 3 July 2016 and it has now reached 156 episodes by late June 2026. In this episode I start off reflecting on the podcast as a service contribution towards trying to create a better academia and the reminder that small actions can have big impacts. A big thank you to my guests and listeners, and for your feedback as exemplified in a supportive email I just received from Eleanor, among others. And I ask listeners to share the podcast and consider informal discussion groups. I then go on to reflect across the 11 season episodes, highlighting themes of meaning and joyful effort, evolving identity, navigating academic “games,” bureaucracy and corporatization, better leadership grounded in trust, deep listening, and care and wellbeing. My last invitation is for you to make one small intentional change towards your better academic life and creating better cultures.

00:00 Welcome to the Podcast

00:32 Ten Year Milestone

02:21 Why Keep Going

03:58 Listener Messages Matter

05:59 Share the Podcast

06:38 Season Episodes Recap

12:30 Meaning and Joy

14:37 Identity and Agency

17:01 Bureaucracy and Leadership

19:47 Listening and Care

24:48 Intentional Next Steps

26:36 Closing Thanks

Previous CAL100 episode from Feb 2024: Celebrating 100!