Notre Dame Stories

In this episode, Rev. Edward Malloy, C.S.C., reflects on the events of 9/11 and what followed for the campus community and himself.

Iris Seabolt was convicted of felony murder in 2004 and sentenced to 45 years in prison. Prosecutors did not accuse her of killing restaurant owner A.J. Williams, but claim she was the female lure in an intended robbery that ended in murder. The police presented no physical evidence at all in her trial. Instead, a series of witnesses claimed they heard Seabolt admit her guilt. Seabolt lost hope, so she took a plea deal. All those witnesses have since recanted, saying they were coerced into lying by a corrupt and disgraced police officer.

In the fifth installment of the Proving Innocence series, Mary Rofaeil guides us through the case as the students race to exonerate Seabolt before her prison term ends next year.

In the fourth installment of the Proving Innocence series, Notre Dame law students take on the case of Leon Tyson. He was convicted of a 2015 murder in Elkhart and sentenced to 63 years in prison. The Notre Dame Exoneration Justice Clinic believes he is innocent. The case took a turn when the students and professor placed a call to the mother of a man who was also there during the crime. Her revelations intrigued the students, but the case may turn on the question of hair — witnesses said the shooter had dreadlocks, but Tyson has long had alopecia, a condition that makes him bald. Tyson team leader Mackenna Krohn guides listeners through the twists and tangles of this case.

*Edited description July 21, 2021.

In the final episode of the season, we sit down with Madeline Owen, the valedictorian of the class of 2021. Madeline discusses her Notre Dame journey, and what it meant to finish that journey here, on campus.

In this episode, we look at the history of St. Joseph's Farm, a place where religious brothers cultivated land to provide fuel for the University. Today, the farm is being used to produce another kind of fuel: solar power.

In this episode, Ted Fox, former host of the With a Side of Knowledge podcast, interviews C. Fred Higgs, vice provost for academic affairs at Rice University.

The American Rescue Plan—the latest pandemic stimulus—was signed into law earlier this month and it was billed as a means to slash poverty. We discuss that proposition with Jim Sullivan, economist and co-founder of the Wilson-Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities.

For the better part of a year, the mail has been increasingly slow…and COVID is only partly to blame. To find out what’s behind this, we spoke with James O’Rourke, professor of management at the Mendoza College of Business and an expert on corporate communications and reputation. O'Rourke has studied the cost structure and business of the United States Postal Service for more than a decade.

As most of the country awaits their turn in line to receive a coronavirus vaccine, some have questions about its safety. How it was developed, and what it means for life after vaccination.

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Mark Mulligan '80, an infectious disease expert and head of NYU’s Langone Vaccine Center. Dr. Mulligan has worked on vaccine trials for decades, including the vaccine for COVID-19.

These days, “office hours” take place almost anywhere but the office. The dining room, bedroom, basement… they’ve all become the places we work, not just where we live. The pandemic has profoundly altered the work-life balance of Americans, and new research is uncovering how we’re dealing with this shift.

In this episode, Abi Ocobock, who studies family sociology, shares findings from her research on how working parents are managing dueling priorities.