By this time, we are waaay sick of Zoom meetings and videochats devoid of emotion and human connection. But how can we stay connected with one another while apart? Is distance the enemy of vulnerability and intimacy?? Theater director Kari Barclay joins LUE podcast to share thoughts on intimacy during the COVID era, and how distance is actually an intimacy director's best friend. 

Kari Barclay is a theater maker, educator, and researcher based at Stanford University's PhD in Theater and Performance Studies. kari-barclay.com

REMEMBER to send in questions for "NOT ADVICE" to [email protected].

CREDITS: theme music is airtone by wuChi

Kat invites Mary-Catherine Anderson to the show to share her perspective on the homelessness crisis and COVID19.  MC researches social and environmental determinants of health and conducts community-engaged research in Nashville. In a global pandemic, everyone is your neighbor, and they share how our concept of neighborhood is changing. They also talk about mental health, community, and how Stanford hasn't yet committed to paying its subcontracted workers, unlike some peer institutions. 

MENTIONED:

studentsforworkersrights.org Sign the Stanford petition here http://bit.ly/payworkers and help #paystanfordworkers here http://bit.ly/pay-workers-fund

REMEMBER to send in questions for "NOT ADVICE" to [email protected].

CREDITS: theme music is airtone by wuChi

This is actually nothing like homeschooling. For the first episode in this special series--Life the University, and COVID-19--Kat welcomes Colette and Joel to the show to talk about their previous experiences being home-schooled. Colette Kelly is a marine biogeochemist and Joel Schneider studies chemical engineering, both currently PhD students. 

We also grapple with themes of isolation and normalcy in the Coronavirus era, and reflect on how growing up in an insular, safe environment is nothing like trying to learn amidst a global pandemic in a hyper-connected world. Also, what is normal, what is awkward, and how does society treat "difference"? Also, does homeschooling make kids awkward? For our "Not Advice" segment, we answer, "What is un-schooling?" 

Last time we asked, "What even is home?", and this week we're going a little deeper. Today we chat with Emily Lacroix, a PhD candidate studying soils! Emily chats with us about her life geography and sense of place, challenges of belongingness in college, challenges of being a good long-distance friend in grad school, and musings on community--or lack of it the Bay Area. We also grappled with how to be a PhD student but not have it be a "soul-defining feature" of our identity. 

REMEMBER to send in questions for "NOT ADVICE" to [email protected]. 

CREDITS: theme music is airtone by wuChi

Do our ideals make us lonely? What does belonging feel like? Aldis and Kat discuss Home, Belonging, Loneliness, Ideals, and Suffering. Aldis Petriceks is a medical student at Harvard and was a research assistant at Stanford Medicine until summer 2019. Aldis grew up in Palo Alto, went out East for college, and then came back to reckon with Silicon Valley's idealization of success and image. He writes about themes such as loneliness, physical suffering, and hope at Palo Alto Online.