The Ear

Welcome back to The Ear! In this episode written for the Eye's Arts and Entertainment issue, reporter Matthew Lucia interviews the composers from Columbia’s fall 2020 advanced composition seminar to talk about their pieces, their writing process, and their mental health during the pandemic, and reflects on his own experience in the seminar as well.

Welcome back to The Ear, Spectator’s podcast dedicated to documenting, excavating, and investigating Columbia’s past and present.

In this week’s episode, reporters Noah Sheidlower and Sam Hyman capture the voices and issues surrounding jazz at Columbia. How has the community’s perception and involvement in jazz progressed over the years? What are the concerns about the lack of racial and gender diversity in our jazz program? Considering how Harlem is rife with musical history and significance, how has Columbia threatened or connected with the neighborhood’s iconic jazz scene? Listen to find out!

Credits:

Content warning: This episode discusses Columbia’s history with eugenics, sterilization, and the Nazi Party.

Welcome back to The Ear, Spectator’s podcast dedicated to documenting, detailing, and excavating Columbia’s past and present.

In this week’s episode, reporters Miles Stephenson and Matthew Lucia investigate Columbia’s historical involvement in the study and promotion of eugenics in the early 20th century. What were the varied consequences of Columbia’s advancement of the racist pseudoscience of eugenics? How did pro-eugenics faculty members influence world affairs? Has Columbia since acknowledged its historical ties with eugenics? Listen to find out.

Credits:

Content Warning: This episode of The Ear discusses sexual violence and rape.

Welcome back to The Ear, The Eye’s podcast dedicated to documenting, detailing, and excavating Columbia’s history!

In this week’s episode, reporter Teresa Lawlor examines Students for a Reformed Fraternity System, a student movement at Columbia in 1988 that tried to make the University’s all-male fraternities go coed. This past summer, national anti-racist protests sparked a University-wide debate on the future of Greek life and prompted disaffiliations from sororities. Why did SFARFS not achieve its goal? What can the successes and failures of those students, over 30 years ago, tell us about what is happening today? Listen to find out.

Credits:

Sarah M. Phillips Op-Ed Voice Actor: Grace Holleman

Gulbis/Kamber/Sheehy Op-Ed Voice Actor: Emma Specht

Gorsuch/Behringer Op-Ed Voice Actor: Matthew Lucia

Illustration: Isai Soto

Music (in order of appearance):

“The Spring” - Chad Crouch

“Neo-Noir 1” - Matthew Lucia

“The Bluff Trail” - Chad Crouch

“The Light Filtering Canopy” - Chad Crouch

“Harmony” - Alan Pilijak

“By the Pound” - Chad Crouch

“Post-Minimal 1” - Matthew Lucia

Welcome back to The Ear, The Eye’s podcast dedicated to documenting, detailing, and excavating Columbia’s history!

In this week’s episode, reporter Claudia Gohn dives into the history of Columbia’s fall break and why it coincides with Election Day each year. The Ear dives into the proposal by student senators in 1970 to create a 10-day election break and the unique circumstances that informed their debate. This episode looks at the factors that influenced the University’s decision in 1970 and then asks: What does the current 4-day election break mean for Columbia students today? Listen to find out.

Credits:

William J. McGill Voice Actor: Sam Hyman

Illustration: Jules Michaud

Music (in order of appearance):

“Window Shopping” - Podington Bear

“Cirrostratus” - Chad Crouch

“Many Hands” - Podington Bear

“Encounter” - Podington Bear

“GPiano” - Podington Bear

“Black Is the Color” - Podington Bear

Welcome back to The Ear, The Eye’s podcast dedicated to documenting, detailing, and excavating Columbia’s history!

In this week’s episode, reporter Briani Netzahuatl delves into the relationship between Columbia University and the surrounding neighborhoods of Morningside Heights and West Harlem by examining three key moments: the University’s move uptown to its current location in 1897, the proposed construction of the Morningside Park gymnasium in 1968, and the expansion into Manhattanville in the 2000s. How can these events help us understand the effects of Columbia on the physical landscape we see today? Why is this history particularly relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic? Listen in to find out.

Credits:

McGeorge Bundy Voice Actor: Cole Cahill

Mark Rudd Voice Actor: Paul Hanna

Illustration: Natalie Tak

Music (in order of appearance):

“Five Card Shuffle” — Kevin MacLeod

“Elipsis” — Chad Crouch

“Flotsam” — Parallel Park

“Moonrise” — Chad Crouch

“Organisms” — Chad Crouch

“Rice” — Chad Crouch

“Nature Shuffle” — Ketsa

“Periwinkle” — Chad Crouch

“Frost” — Chad Crouch

“Speaker Joy” — Blue Dot Sessions

Welcome back to The Ear, The Eye’s podcast dedicated to documenting, detailing, and excavating Columbia’s history!

In this week’s episode, The Ear delves into the murder of Columbia Law professor Wolfgang Friedmann in 1972 and Columbia’s complicated Public Safety response. Reporter Cole Cahill sheds light on the role that students play in shaping these policing decisions and considers how this chapter of Columbia’s history can inform our community’s continued reaction to a strikingly similar tragedy—the death of Barnard first-year Tessa Majors this past fall.

Credits:

McGill Voice Actor: Adam Dornblum

Illustration: Robert Hunter

Music (in order of appearance):

“Running on Empty”—Chad Crouch/Podington Bear

“Pulsars”—Chad Crouch/Podington Bear

Welcome back to The Ear, The Eye’s podcast dedicated to documenting, detailing, and excavating Columbia’s history!

In this week’s episode, reporters Teresa Lawlor and Sam Hyman examine three health crises from Columbia’s history—the 1832 cholera epidemic, the 1918 influenza, and the outbreak of polio on Columbia’s football team in the fall of 1951—in order to better understand how we as a community have navigated issues of public health prior to the coronavirus pandemic. How can these three events—different in scale, symptoms, mortality, and solution—help us make sense of the global pandemic that has so dramatically reshaped our lives this spring? Listen in to find out.

Credits:

Columbia Trustees Report Voice Actor: Paul Hanna

William H. McCastline Voice Actor: Paul Hanna

Virginia Gildersleeve Voice Actor: Sabrina Hyman

New York Times Photo Caption Voice Actor: Matt Lawlor

Columbia Daily Spectator Voice Actor: Ben Lawlor

Illustration: Robert Hunter

Music (in order of appearance):

“Bagatelle Op. 119”—Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by Circus Marcus

“Lyric Pieces Op. 12 No. 2”—Edvard Grieg, performed by Circus Marcus

“Phase 2”—Xylo-Ziko

“Csm”—Podington Bear

“Steps”—Podington Bear

“Dry Air”—Podington Bear

“La Tapa Improvisada”—Circus Marcus

“Piano Sonata Op. 28”—Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by Karine Gilanyan

“Starling”—Podington Bear

“Pulsars”—Podington Bear

Welcome back to The Ear, The Eye’s podcast dedicated to documenting, detailing, and excavating Columbia’s history!

In this week’s episode, Mabel Ping-Hua Lee—a brilliant and determined leader—defies easy categorization. Reporter Victoria Li traces Lee’s life from Barnard student to first Chinese-American woman to receive a Columbia Ph.D. to suffragette to director of the First Chinese Baptist Church in Chinatown, where she spent over 40 years of her life before passing away in 1966. What inspired this fascinating and enigmatic woman, from Morningside Heights to the Church on Pell Street? Listen in to find out.

Credits:

Hu Shih Voice Actor: Simon Xu

Dean Christina Kuan Tsu Voice Actor: Susan Li

Illustration: Liza Evseeva

Music (in order of appearance):

“Peacock”—Podington Bear

“Pianoman Sofa”—Lobo Loco

“Dark Matter”—Podington Bear

“The 49th Street Galleria”—Chris Zabriskie

“Prelude No. 23”—Chris Zabriskie

Welcome back to The Ear, The Eye’s podcast dedicated to documenting, detailing, and excavating Columbia’s history!

Our new season kicks off with a story about the historical relationship between Bard College and Columbia. The Hudson Valley college’s historical association with the University was one site of undergraduate coeducational debate decades before Columbia College opened its doors to women. This episode explores the legacy of that affiliation, tracing it through the Barnard-Columbia negotiations that preceded coeducation at Columbia College.

Music Credits

“Dark Matter” -Podington Bear

“Scandal In A Flat” -Benny Carter and his Orchestra

Sensitive -Podington Bear

“Down Along The Volga” -Podington Bear

“Pretty Build” -Podington Bear

“Strikes Again!” -Podington Bear

“Gentle Heart” -Podington Bear

“Operatives” -Podington Bear

“Halter Top” -Podington Bear

“Storm Clouds” -Podington Bear

“Call Now” -Podington Bear

Women Bard from Entry

Act I: St. Stephen’s Comes to Columbia

Act II: Bard Leaves Columbia

Act III: Coeducation at Columbia