Well Said

Sarah Birken, an assistant professor in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, focuses her research on applying lessons learned from academic studies to clinical practice, especially in cancer care. When she wants to share something with the world, her first instinct is to write an academic paper.

But an academic paper didn’t seem like the most effective way to share her experiences as a woman in academia. She pitched the idea of starting a podcast to tell her story and to help other women share theirs.

When the idea was approved, Birken had a realization.

“I just volunteered to do something that I have no idea how to do,” she said.

With the help of Whitney Robinson and other women across campus, Birken launched AcaDames earlier this year, a podcast which discusses the experiences of women in academia.

On this week’s episode of Well Said, Birken shares with us how this idea developed and explains the challenges she and her team overcame in taking AcaDames from an idea to iTunes.

In the early days of the University of North Carolina, classrooms were filled with only male students. But with trailblazers like Sallie Walker Stockard, Kitty Carmichael and Inez Stacy, women at Carolina progressed to a central role in campus life.

"This history of women at Carolina is a movement from being concerned with how we would be talked about on campus to thinking about how we want to talk about ourselves," said Sarah George-Waterfield, a graduate student at Carolina who has shared the story of women’s history at Carolina with many campus visitors.

On this week’s episode, she tells the stories of several pioneers, including the first group of female students who enrolled at Carolina in 1897.

Growing up in a segregated Georgia in the 1940s, Howard Lee didn't know where his life would lead, but eventually, it led him to earn a master’s degree from the UNC School of Social Work in 1966.

“The students in the School of Social Work embraced us, and of course we just simply didn't feel any different from any other student,” Lee said. “That started me on a road of feeling recertified as a person.”

But outside the classroom, Lee and his family continued to feel the racial tensions they experienced in Georgia. It was this tension that pushed him to run for mayor of the town in 1969.

“I decided to run for mayor not so much to win — because I didn’t think a black person would be elected mayor in Chapel Hill — but to make a point to push certain issues that needed to be dealt with,” Lee said.

Lee’s victory helped to pave the way for future black leaders.

On this episode of Well Said, Lee details living life in the segregated South and his path to the mayor's office.

As a 10-year-old in Chicago, Priscilla Layne was obsessed with Indiana Jones.

She knew the movies forward and backward — except for a few parts in “The Raiders of the Lost Arc” and “The Last Crusade" when characters speak German without accompanying subtitles. So Layne decided she would learn German to understand what they were saying.

“It became a hobby of mine,” she said. “Everyone knew my thing was German.”

On this week’s episode, Layne explains how a simple hobby developed into a career of professing her love for German.

Each year, about 610,000 people die from heart disease in the United States.

But thanks to UNC School of Medicine professor Sam Cykert and Heart Health Now, practices are getting better access to patients’ health data and helping people build healthier habits with dedicated coaches.

In 2015, Cykert — in partnership with Healthcare Research and Quality, Community Care of North Carolina and North Carolina Area Health Education Centers — developed Heart Health Now, a project working toward combating cardiovascular disease in North Carolina.

On this episode of Well Said, Cykert explains the Heart Health Now project, its impact on the state and where it’s going next.

In 2009, political science professor Jonathan Weiler and global studies associate professor Marc Hetherington released their research on the relationship between four questions and the political divide.

Those relationships continue to have implications in the current political climate today.

Weiler and Hetherington became interested in the acrimonious nature of politics as they watched the unfolding of the 2000 presidential election. They agreed that the political divide was intensifying, and as they investigated further, they discovered what might be a correlation between our intrinsic values and our passion for politics.

“At some point, we stumbled on these four parenting questions,” Weiler said. “Those four parenting questions don’t really tell you anything about how people feel about taxes, but they tell you a lot about how people feel about race, gay rights, gender, family structure [or] immigration.”

On this episode of Well Said, Weiler and Hetherington discuss the findings from their initial study, as well as their new book, "Prius or Pickup?"

Ever since he was a young boy on a farm in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Bill Ferris was drawn to music. When he was 12 years old, he started to document the music he loved after he received a camera for Christmas.

Documenting songs, storytellers and other artists all around him soon quickly become a new hobby.

And that hobby eventually became a profession that ultimately led Ferris to Chapel Hill, where he is the Joel R. Williamson eminent professor emeritus of history at Carolina.

That profession also led to “Voices of Mississippi,” a compilation of songs, stories and films that Ferris has recorded over the years. The box set was nominated for two Grammy Awards this year for best historical album and best album notes. The Grammy Awards ceremony takes place Feb. 10.

On this week’s episode, Ferris discusses his life’s work as a folklorist and how these Grammy nominations make good on promises he gave to his subjects many years ago.

As a husband, father, faculty member and full-time student, Kessonga Giscombé is no stranger to stress, but he doesn’t let stress affect him by staying in the moment.

Specifically, he uses mindfulness, which he defines as paying attention to the present moment on purpose without judgment.

Giscombé, a faculty member in the UNC School of Medicine’s Program on Integrative Medicine, teaches mindfulness courses at Carolina designed to introduce people to the practice of mindfulness and to reinvigorate the practice of others. These courses are open to the public, and his next course for beginners starts Jan. 29.

On this week’s episode, we discuss mindfulness — what it is and what it isn’t — and the benefits that can come from its practice.

As the son of Kenny Moore, founder of Hwy 55 Burgers and Fries, Andy Moore helped the national burger chain throughout his childhood and formative years. He had several responsibilities, including working behind the counter and at the grill.

After graduating from Duke University, however, Andy Moore applied for jobs outside of the restaurant industry, ultimately relocating from North Carolina to New York City.

“You know, after a couple of years I kind of — not kind of I really did — miss the job,” Andy Moore explained. “I missed the people I had worked with, and I felt like I wanted to do something meaningful with my family's business. So I made a pretty tough decision to come back, but I don't regret it.”

Since returning to the restaurant chain in 2014, he has transitioned from his role as director of communications to area developer, focusing on expansion efforts in Texas, while also enrolled in the MBA@UNC program at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Not only is Andy Moore learning practical skills he can immediately implement at Hwy 55, but he also works with the school’s Family Enterprise Center, launched with the mission of preparing next-generation family business leaders through conferences, workshops and personalized resources.

On this episode of Well Said, he tells the story of Hwy 55, discusses the unique nature of a family business and explains his experience as an online MBA student at Carolina.

As part of her role in UNC Athletics, Rachel Manor works with student-athletes on a weight-neutral approach to food consumption, which she likes to call “fueling.”

She teaches students not about diets, but about intuitive eating — the intentional body check-ins before eating a meal.

“I tend to steer people away from diets,” Manor explained. “Research has shown that not only do diets not work, but restrictive eating is actually harmful in the college population for individuals of all sizes.”

On this episode of Well Said, Manor discusses the benefits of intuitive eating and some strategies anyone can use to be more mindful to eat healthier and the right amount, leading to weight loss and a healthier mindset.