Through the Gates at IU

Rafat Ali came to study new media at IU in the heat of the dot-com boom. By the time he graduated, the bubble had burst. Yet, Ali managed to enter and excel in digital media, founding paidContent, ContentNext and Skift. In this episode, he talks with Dean Shanahan about how he did it.

Assistant Professor of the Psychological and Brian Sciences Lorenzo Lorenzo-Luaces discusses depression, psychotherapy, and the potentials of online treatment for mental illness.

In our season finale, Maria and Gabrielle Sanchez Steenberger graduate from IU as first-generation college students, as education advocates, as mother and daughter. Their matching caps? "La Gente Está Presente Mamá" and "La Gente Está Presente Mija."

It's no surprise that Indiana has a long legacy of top-tier athletic programs. This week, Dean Shanahan sits down with Galen Clavio, IU Associate Professor & Director of the National Sports Journalism Center, and Zach Osterman, the Indy Star's collegiate sports reporter, to talk about IU Athletics past and present.

Emmy-winning environmental photographer James Balog shares with Dean Shanahan harrowing stories of mountaineering and the keys to creating new narratives about the environment. Balog is the founder of the Extreme Ice Survey and the Earth Vision Institute, and his latest film, "The Human Element," explores how humanity affects and is affected by earth, air, fire and water. He has spoken at the White House, in the U.S. Congress, at NASA, and is widely known for his popular TED talk "Time-Lapse Proof of Extreme Ice Loss."

Angelina Davydova reports on the environment for Russian and international media. During a visit to IU Bloomington, this Hurbet H. Humphrey fellow from UC Davis sat down with Dean Shanahan to discuss Russian waste management, thawing permafrost and how the changing climate is affecting the natural landscapes of Russia.

Under sunny early-April skies, IU's First Nations Educational & Cultural Center hosted its Eighth Annual Traditional Powwow. For years, this has been an event where native students can celebrate and non-native students can learn. This year, we chat with recent grad Scout Landin about the jingle dress and why she came back to town for this IU tradition.

This week Dean Shanahan sits down with IU alumna and Rhodes Scholar Jenny Huang. Tune in to hear Jenny's story: from her avid reading as a child, to field research in Iceland, to her new adventure as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford.

On April Fools' Day 1975, IU grad Leon Varjian held the first annual Banana Olympics in Dunn Meadow. To honor the original event's spirit of absurdity and fun, the producers of The Sample held their own version of the games 44 years later.

With two Musical Composition/Arrangement Emmy wins behind him, professor Larry Groupé talks with Dean Shanahan about Hollywood scoring for movies, video games, and shows. Groupé leads IU's new film and media scoring program, teaching classed in the Jacobs School of Music and the Media School.