Pokes PodCAS

Imagine you work at a nonprofit, where the hours are long, the cause is so big that it can feel overwhelming, and the pay is less than what is available in the corporate world. But you believe so deeply in the idea of nonprofits that you decide to leave your job, which has been stable for a decade, to start your own business, partnering with nonprofits to increase the amount of good they do. And then, as your approach the date of this career transition, a global pandemic causes an economic recession. Would you still make the leap? Becky Endicott and Jon McCoy, a pair of CAS alumni, did. On January 1, they left the Integris Foundation to create We are for Good, which produces podcasts and courses along with its for-hire services in branding and design, storytelling and writing, and consulting. They started with a bang, debuting at No. 1 on Apple Podcast’s chart of nonprofit podcasts. We talk about why they went ahead and made the leap, how OSU helped prepare them for success, and what they wished more people understood about the world of nonprofits.

We are in the midst of a national conversation about many topics related to the American legal system. Though virtually everyone agrees that a just system is ideal, there are disagreements over how fair our current system is and what changes might improve it. Michelle Estes, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology, conducts research on wrongful convictions. We talk about what happens to people who have been exonerated, how they were wrongfully convicted in the first place, and what they want people to know about them.

As COVID-19 became a global pandemic, Governor Kevin Stitt asked experts across Oklahoma to create models projecting how it would affect the state. One of those models came from a team at OSU, which included Mindy McCann, head of the Department of Statistics. She joined us to talk about the difficulty of making predictions about COVID-19, how much confidence we should have in the data, what it shows about the effectiveness of masks, and the importance of critical thinking.

Jennifer Rudd has studied pandemics and respiratory infectious diseases for years. She is a CAS biology graduate who went on to earn two more degrees at OSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine, where she is now a faculty member. After completing her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, she practiced for years before returning to OSU to pursue a doctorate in respiratory infectious diseases. Her research focuses on the excessive immune response seen with pandemic viral pneumonias and ways to improve clinical outcomes through targeting the immune response. We talk about the best way to end this pandemic, what makes COVID-19 unique, and why you should put a veterinarian on your zombie apocalypse team.

Tyler Bunch is an OSU alumnus who studied Theatre and went on to become a successful puppetry and voice-over artist, one you or your children have probably heard before. We cover his time at OSU, his transition into the craft of puppetry, and how his role as Elmo’s dad on Sesame Street has helped millions of kids understand the complexity of combating racism.

The COVID-19 pandemic has paused virtually the entire world. What does that mean for researchers, especially those whose work entails international travel? One faculty member dealing with that question is art history professor Louise Siddons, who was recently awarded a summer stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Award. The Fulbright will fund her travel to London’s Eccles Centre for American Studies, assuming there are no complications. But as we have seen over the past six months, complications are a regular part of living in a world infected by COVID-19. Louise talks about what it’s like to have your work as both a researcher and teacher in flux, why she likes abstract art, and what led her to research Laura Gilpin, a renowned photographer whose work documenting the lives of the Navajo Nation was featured in a 1957 exhibition at OSU.

Matthew Mungle is a former OSU student who studied Theatre and went on to become a renowned Academy Award-winning makeup artist and designer. In addition, he became a successful business owner specializing in makeup design, special effects and prosthetics. He joined us to talk about his time at OSU, what it's like to work in Hollywood, and why Gary Oldman is one of his favorite actors to work with.

Footage of the death of George Floyd while being arrested by the Minneapolis Police Department has sparked outrage across the country. Large protests, and in some cases riots, are pushing for a variety of changes in our justice system. In order to have an educational discussion about these difficult topics, we welcome Lawrence Ware, co-director of the Africana Studies Program and Teaching Assistant Professor and Diversity Coordinator in the Department of Philosophy. Like all of our podcasts, this episode is an open discussion for the purpose of education, and should not be mistaken as OSU’s institutional stance on race relations or any other topics discussed.

Annagrace Lewis recently graduated from Oklahoma State University after triple majoring in Biology, Plant Biology and Zoology. She joined us to talk about why she earned three degrees, how the College of Arts and Sciences has helped her prepare for medical school, and what it was like to have the end of her undergraduate experience wiped out by the COVID-19 epidemic.

While Oklahoma and most of America has been in some form of lockdown over the past two months, Italy implemented one of the strictest versions in the world and did it earlier than most nations. That country has now begun easing restrictions, but we spoke with OSU art history alumna Lora Webb when they were still in place. She is in Italy working toward a Ph.D. from Stanford. Lora published a letter in the Oklahoman urging her home state to shut down to save lives, just as Italy did. We spoke about that, how her experience compares to what we are seeing in Oklahoma, and why her research area makes some people uncomfortable.