The Academic Life

By Christina GesslerBusiness Education Arts Books Careers

The Academic Life episodes

April 14, 2022Community Building and How We Show Up
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:
How ‘the good life’ makes people disconnected and unhappy
Mia Birdsong’s work in community building
The intentionality required for creating communities of support
The importance of interdependence, vulnerability, accountability, and leaning on each other
And a discussion of her book How We Show Up
Today’s book is: How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community by Mia Birdsong, in which Birdsong uses research, interviews, and stories of lived experience to explore how showing up—literally and figuratively—points us toward the promise of our collective vitality and leads us to the liberated wellbeing we all want.
Our guest is: Mia Birdsong, who was an inaugural Ascend Fellow and faculty member with The Aspen Institute, a New America California Fellow, and Advocate-in-Residence with University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice. She has been published widely and speaks at conferences and universities across the country. A graduate of Oberlin College, she stays “apocalypse ready” by gardening, keeping bees and chickens, studying herbalism, and occasionally practicing archery. Her children, partner, and chosen family are her home.
Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator and co-producer of the Academic Life.
Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:
How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community by Mia Birdsong
Mia Birdsong’s website
Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good by adrienne maree brown
Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformational Justice Movement, by Ejeris Dixon and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, eds.
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, by Ibram X. Kendi
This Academic Life episode about finding mentors and friends

You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you experts about everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
1 hr 12 min
April 07, 2022Scholarly Skills: From Dissertation to Book
A Conversation with Dr. William Germano
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:
Important questions to ask yourself before getting started on revising
A review of the basic options for the post-defense dissertation
Hurdles a manuscript must clear in the scholarly publishing process
How voice operates in scholarly writing
The importance of book and chapter titles
What good writing is and what it does
Our guest is: Dr William Germano, professor of English at Cooper Union in New York, where he served as dean of humanities and social sciences for more than a decade. In the years before he joined Cooper Union, he served as editorial director at Columbia University Press and, for almost twenty years, as publishing director at Routledge. He, and the editorial teams he has worked with, have published hundreds of leading scholars in the humanities and the social sciences.
Bill Germano is the author of six books, On Revision: The Only Writing that Counts (University of Chicago Press, 2021) and Syllabus: The Remarkable, Unremarkable Document That Changes Everything, coauthored with Kit Nicholls and published by Princeton. Editor, publisher, teacher, writer, he is especially attuned to the problems that academic writers face. Those problems, and practical solutions for them, are the focus of his best-known work, Getting It Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Books (published by Chicago and currently in a third edition) and From Dissertation to Book (also from Chicago and currently in its second edition).
Our host is: Dr. Dana Malone, a scholar and practitioner energized by facilitating meaningful learning experiences for students and educators alike. From Dissertation to Book was a valuable recommendation at pivotal moment in her scholarly life, and she is excited to share it with The Academic Life audience.
Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:
NBN Interview with William Germano for On Revision: The Only Writing that Counts On RevisionNBN Interview with William Germano for Getting it Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Getting It Published
On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser (Quill)
How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One by Stanley Fish (Harper)
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott (Anchor Books)

You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you experts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
1 hr 1 min
March 31, 2022Skills for Scholars: How Can Mindfulness Help?
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:
The science that explains our busy minds
What mindfulness is
The difference between mindfulness and meditation
How changing our habits is a small-step by small-step process
A discussion of the book Bettter Daily Mindfulness Habits: Simple Changes with Lifelong Impact
Today’s book is: Better Daily Mindfulness Habits: Simple Changes with Lifelong Impact Mindfulness by Kristen Manieri. Mindfulness is a powerful tool for staying calm, centered, and steady―but it can be challenging to remember to stay mindful. Better Daily Mindfulness Habits helps practitioners of any level. Rooted in proven habit-building methodology, the book contains 40 practices designed to orient your attention to the present. In as little as a few minutes at a time, it can become easier to practice self-compassion and connect with others, your work, and yourself more mindfully.
Our guest is: Kristen Manieri, a certified habits coach as well as a certified mindfulness teacher. Kristen believes that when we actively engage in our growth and evolution, we can begin to live a more conscious, connected, and intentional life. She is the author of Bettter Daily Mindfulness Habits: Simple Changes with Lifelong Impact.
Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.
Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg
Create Your Own Calm: A Journal for Quieting Anxiety by Meera Lee Patel
The Mindfulness Journal by Worthy Stokes
Quick Calm: Easy Meditations to Short-Circuit Stress Using Mindfulness and Neuroscience by Jennifer Wolkin
The 60 Mindful Minutes podcasts with Kristen Manieri
This discussion of meditation
You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you experts about everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
46 min
March 24, 2022Tia Brown McNair, "From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education" (Jossey-Bass, 2020)
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear:
Why it is so important to have the conversation about “Equity in Higher Education” and why now is the time to do so
What equity means; for whom, and what equity entails in thought and action
What it means to perform equity as a routine practice in higher education
What makes individuals equity minded
Today’s book is: From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education, draws from campus-based research projects sponsored by the AAC&U and the Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California. The book is a practical guide on the design and application of campus change strategies for achieving equitable outcomes. The authors offer advice on how to build an equity-minded campus culture aligning strategic priorities and institutional missions to advance equity.
Our guest is: Dr. Tia Brown McNair, is the Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in Washington, DC. She oversees both funded projects and AAC&U’s continuing programs on equity, inclusive excellence, high-impact practices, and student success. McNair also directs AAC&U’s Summer Institutes on High-Impact Practices and Student Success, and Truth, Racial Healing, & Transformation Campus Centers. McNair currently serves as the project director for several AAC&U initiatives: "Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Campus Centers," "Strengthening Guided Pathways and Career Success by Ensuring Students Are Learning," and “Purposeful Pathways: Faculty Planning and Curricular Coherence.”
Our host is: Dr. Zebulun R. Davenport, Vice President for Student Affairs, West Chester University.
Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:
AAC&U’s Committing to Equity and Inclusive Excellence: Campus Guide for Self-Study and Planning.
AAC&U’s Step Up and Lead for Equity: What Higher Education Can Do to Reverse Our Deepening Divides.
Five principles for enacting equity by design by E.M. Bensimon, A.C. Dowd, and K. Witham in Diversity & Democracy 19 (1)
Engaging the “Race Question”: Accountability and Equity in U.S. Higher Education, Multicultural Education Series by A.C. Dowd and E.M. Bensimon. (Teachers College Press).
Heutsche, A.M. and Hicks, K. (2018). Embedding equity through the practice of real talk. In: A Vision for Equity: Results from AAC&U’s Project: Committing to Equity and Inclusive Excellence: Campus-Based Strategies for Student Success. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges.

You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you experts about everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
36 min
March 17, 2022Dealing with Rejection
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:
Dr. Bacal professional and academic rejections
How success and rejection are part of the same path
The importance of having a supportive person or a support system
Why rejection is part of the hidden curriculum
A discussion of the book The Rejection that Changed My Life
Today’s book is: The Rejection that Changed My Life, featuring interviews with more than twenty-five women, including Keri Smith, Angela Duckworth, and Roz Chast. Rejections don’t go on your résumé, but they are part of every successful person’s career. All of us will apply for jobs that we don’t get or have ambitions that aren’t fulfilled, because that is part of pushing oneself to the next step professionally. While everyone deserves feel-better stories, women are more likely to ruminate, more likely to overthink rejection until it becomes even more painful—a situation that the women in this collection are determined to change, and in so doing, normalize rejection and encourage others to talk about it.
Our guest is: Dr. Jessica Bacal is director of Reflective and Integrative Practices and of the Narratives Project at Smith College. She leads programs to help students explore identity and find resilience in community. She also teaches a course called Designing Your Path, which guides students to consider questions like: What is your story? Where have you been and where are you going? What matters to you? What skills do you need to pursue what matters? Before her career in higher education, she was an elementary school teacher in New York City, and then a curriculum developer and consultant. She received a bachelor’s degree from Carleton College, an MFA in writing from Hunter College, and an EdD from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, with her husband, two children, and two dogs. She is the author of The Rejection that Changed My Life.
Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.
Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:
Mistakes I Made at Work, by Jessica Bacal
“Things You Didn’t Put on Your Resume” by Joyce Sutphen
Dr. Kristin Neff’s website
Dr. Kirby’s rejection letter dress
Rachel Platten’s Fight Song
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth
This conversation about dealing with failure
You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you experts about everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
1 hr 1 min
March 10, 2022Need A Break from Overworking and Underliving?
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:
How a devotion to efficiency can become unhealthy
Why leisure time (a.k.a. doing nothing) is essential
How to reclaim our time and humanity
· A discussion of the book Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving
Today’s book is: Do Nothing, by Celeste Headlee, which examines how in searching for ways to “hack” our bodies and minds for peak performance, people are working more instead of less, living harder not smarter, and becoming more lonely and anxious. We strive for the absolute best in every aspect of our lives, ignoring what we do well naturally, and reaching for a bar that keeps rising higher. In Do Nothing, Celeste Headlee illuminates a new path to stop sabotaging our well-being, and start living instead of doing. Celeste offers strategies help you determine how your hours are being spent, invest in quality idle time, and focus on end goals instead of mean goals.
Our guest is: Celeste Headlee, an award-winning journalist, professional speaker, and author. She is a regular guest host on NPR and American Public Media and a highly sought consultant, advising companies around the world on conversations about race, diversity and inclusion. Her TEDx Talk sharing 10 ways to have a better conversation has over 26 million total views, and she serves as an advisory board member for ProCon.org and The Listen First Project. Celeste is recipient of the 2019 Media Changemaker Award; the proud granddaughter of composer William Grant Still, the Dean of African American Composers; and she is the author of Do Nothing.
Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.
Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:
Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving by Celeste Headlee
Speaking of Race by Celeste Headlee
We Need To Talk: How To Have Conversations That Matter, by Celeste Headlee
Laziness Does Not Exist, by Devon Price
This conversation about seeking meaning instead of happiness
This conversation about the importance of spending time in nature
You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you experts about everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
47 min
March 03, 2022Rejection Skills: How to Win or Learn
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:
How rejection is normal and even inevitable
Skills to help you learn from and move through rejections toward your goals
Why you need to develop your capacity for patience
How asking people about their own rejections can help normalize yours
A discussion of the book Win or Learn
Today’s book is: Win or Learn: The Naked Truth About Turning Every Rejection into Your Ultimate Success, by rejection expert and New York Times bestselling author Harlan Cohen. Cohen lays the framework for identifying your wants, taking the risks necessary to pursue them, and finding success no matter the outcome. This step-by-step risk-taking experiment will guide you on a journey to understand your worth and fight for your goals—because rejection is a universal truth but not a final destination.
Our guest is: Harlan Cohen, bestselling author of seven books, a journalist, and a speaker who has visited over 500 college campuses. He loves helping people find support, happiness, hope, love, and light. He is the author of WIN or LEARN: The Naked Truth About Turning Every Rejection Into Your Ultimate Success.
Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator and co-producer of the Academic Life. She is a historian of women and gender.
Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:
The Naked Roommate, by Harlan Cohen
Harlan’s TedX talk (watch TEDx talk here).
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck
The Rejection that Changed My Life by Jessica Bacal
How to Fail podcast by Elizabeth Day
The Museum of Failure website

You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you experts about everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
49 min
February 24, 2022Attention Skills: How to Gain Productivity
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:
How multi-tasking and reactivity drain productivity
Why skills you used before you turned 20 don’t work for your maturing brain
Which attention management skills can solve your time management problems
How mindfulness can help
A discussion of the book Attention Management
Today’s book is: Attention Management: How to Create Success and Gain Productivity Every Day, by Maura Thomas. In a short, color-coded book designed to be read in an hour, Thomas succinctly outlines why Attention Management is the most essential skill you need to live a life of choice rather than a life of reaction and distraction. Offering readers a collection of new behaviors, including focus, mindfulness, control, presence, flow, and practical skills that will support your success, Maura Nevel Thomas shows you how to master attention management with strategies that make an immediate impact.
Our guest is: Maura Nevel Thomas, an award-winning international speaker and trainer on individual and corporate productivity and work-life balance, and the most widely-cited authority on attention management. Her proprietary Empowered Productivity™ System has been embraced by the likes of the U.S. Army, L’Oreal, and Dell. She is a TEDx Speaker, founder of Regain Your Time, author of five books, and was named a Top Leadership Speaker in Inc. Magazine. Maura is frequently featured in major business outlets including Business Insider, Fast Company, and Huffington Post, and she’s also a regular contributor to both Forbes and the Harvard Business Review, with articles there viewed over a million times. Follow her on Twitter @mnthomas.
Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator and co-producer of the Academic Life. She is a historian of women and gender.
Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:
Information about Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing and Underliving by Celeste Headlee
Better Daily Mindfulness Habits: Simple Changes with Lifelong Impact by Kristen Manieri
· From To-Do to Done: How to Go from Busy to Productive by Mastering to Your To-Do List by Maura Thomas
This Maura Thomas article on attention
The Maura Thomas webpage on Flow https://maurathomas.com/flow/
This discussion of meditation
You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you experts about everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
55 min
February 17, 2022How to Finish Your Dissertation
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:
A process focused approach to completing a dissertation and other academic writing
The function of a dissertation and how it’s often misunderstood
The importance of the research question
The shift from student to scholar
How delaying writing saves time
The differences between fast writing, editing, and proof-reading
Our guests are: Dr. Sonja K. Foss and Dr. William Waters. Sonja and William are the coauthors of Destination Dissertation: A Traveler’s Guide to a Done Dissertation (Rowman & Littlefield). They offer writing retreats and present workshops at universities throughout the country on topics such as completing dissertations, publishing, and advisor advising and do individual coaching of scholars working on dissertations, articles, and books.
Sonja K. Foss is a professor emeritus in the Department of Communication at the University of Colorado Denver. Her research and teaching interests are in contemporary rhetorical theory and criticism, feminist perspectives on communication, the incorporation of marginalized voices into rhetorical theory and practice, and visual rhetoric. She is the author or coauthor of the books Feminism in Practice, Gender Stories, Rhetorical Criticism, Contemporary Perspectives on Rhetoric, Inviting Transformation, Feminist Rhetorical Theories, and Women Speak. Dr. Foss earned her Ph.D. in communication studies from Northwestern University and previously taught at Ohio State University, the University of Oregon, the University of Denver, Virginia Tech, and Norfolk State University.
William Waters is an associate professor in the Department of English at the University of Houston Downtown. His research and teaching interests are in writing theory and practice, the history of the English language, linguistics, and modern grammar. He was the managing editor of the book La Puerta: A Doorway into the Academy and has published several poems in national journals. Dr. Waters earned his Ph.D. in language and linguistics from the University of New Mexico and previously taught at Northwest Missouri State University; the University of Maine; University College in Galway, Ireland; and Cheongbuk National University in Korea.
Our host is: Dr. Dana Malone, a scholar and practitioner energized by facilitating meaningful learning experiences for students and educators alike. She benefited from Destination Dissertation as a doctoral student and is excited to share it with The Academic Life audience.
Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:
Dissertations and Project Reports: A Step by Step Guide by Stella Cottrell (Bloomsbury)
On Revision: The Only Writing that Counts by William Germano (Chicago UP)
Your PhD Survival Guide: Planning, Writing, and Succeeding in Your Final Year by Katherine Firth, Liam Connell, and Peta Freestone (Routledge)
How to Write a Better Thesis (3rd ed) by David Evans, Paul Gruba, and Justin Zobel (Springer)
You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you experts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
57 min
February 10, 2022A Conversation with the Director of the Emerson Prison Initiative
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:
The Emerson College Prison Initiative
The Bard Prison Initiative
How students apply to, enroll in, and attend college while in prison
Challenges faced by incarcerated students
Engaging effectively with incarcerated students
Our guest is: Dr. Mneesha Gellman, an Associate Professor of Political Science in the Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College, in Boston, MA, USA. her primary research interests include comparative democratization, cultural resilience, memory politics, and social movements in the Global South and the United States. She is the founder and Director of the Emerson Prison Initiative, which seeks to bring high quality liberal arts education to incarcerated students at Massachusetts Correctional Institute (MCI) at Concord, a men’s medium security prison. EPI follows the model of college-in-prison work led by the Bard Prison Initiative. Prior to joining the faculty at Emerson College, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research in Duisburg, Germany. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Northwestern University, USA, and an MA in International Studies/Peace and Conflict Resolution from the University of Queensland, Australia.
Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender, and the co-founder of the Academic Life on NBN. She is the daughter of a public defender.
Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:
Education Behind the Wall: Why and How We Teach in Prison [Brandeis University Press, 2022], by Mneesha
The Alliance for Higher Education in Prison
The Prison Policy Initiative
This report from the ACLU
The Sentencing Project
Equal Justice Initiative
The Emerson Prison Initiative (EPI) Emerson Prison Initiative (EPI)
The Bard Prison Initiative Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison
Democratization and Memories of Violence: Ethnic Minority Social Movements in Mexico, Turkey, and El Salvador by Dr. Mneesha Gellman
The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom by Stephen Brookfield
You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. We reach across our network to bring you experts about everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
49 min

About The Academic Life

From the publisher's feed

A podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Created and produced by Dr. Christina Gessler, the Academic Life podcast is inspired by today’s knowledge-producers around the world, working inside and outside the academy.