With a Side of Knowledge

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: A university campus is a destination for all kinds of interesting people, so why not invite some of these folks out to brunch, where we’ll have an informal conversation about their work, and then we’ll turn those brunches into a podcast?

It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

Dan Hinshaw is a professor emeritus of surgery at the University of Michigan and a consultant in palliative medicine at the University of Michigan Geriatrics Center. The author or coauthor of some 80 papers in peer-reviewed journals and publications, he spent the fall 2018 semester in residence at Notre Dame’s Institute for Advanced Study. Here Dan discusses the project he undertook there, examining how thoughtful engagement with the reality that none of us will live forever has the potential to help us find meaning in our own lives as well as transform the way we see each other, the aging process, and the delivery of healthcare. And did we mention he's really good with metaphors?

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: A university campus is a destination for all kinds of interesting people, so why not invite some of these folks out to brunch, where we’ll have an informal conversation about their work, and then we’ll turn those brunches into a podcast?

It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

Vamsi Kanuri is an assistant professor of marketing in Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. His areas of expertise include marketing analytics, digital marketing, and decision-support models, with one of his most recent studies—undertaken with two colleagues from Texas A&M University and published in the Journal of Marketing—developing a more scientific approach for posting content to social media. He and host Ted Fox talked about this research and the ways it can help social media managers sort through what can literally be a trillion options for sharing their stories. They also discussed how we, as a society, might promote more civil and responsible discourse on social media, where consumers, advertisers, and the platforms themselves regularly have conflicting interests.

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: A university campus is a destination for all kinds of interesting people, so why not invite some of these folks out to brunch, where we’ll have an informal conversation about their work, and then we’ll turn those brunches into a podcast?

It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

Lisa Mueller is an assistant professor of political science at Macalester College who is spending the 2018–19 academic year as a residential fellow at Notre Dame’s Institute for Advanced Study. Several months after Cambridge University Press published her book Political Protest in Contemporary Africa, she talked to host Ted Fox about what protests in different parts of the world—including the U.S.—have in common, and what makes protests in sub-Saharan Africa different. They also discussed how social scientists go about studying something as dynamic as a protest as well as her current project, which aims to answer whether the degree of cohesiveness among the protesters within a movement has any impact on their ultimate effectiveness.

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: A university campus is a destination for all kinds of interesting people, so why not invite some of these folks out to brunch, where we’ll have an informal conversation about their work, and then we’ll turn those brunches into a podcast?

It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

Madeleine Hyland is an actress, singer, and writer who has appeared in numerous theatre productions across the UK. She visited campus with Actors From The London Stage, one of the oldest touring Shakespeare theatre companies in the world. In their recent production of Hamlet, Madeleine played Hamlet as well as two other parts, and here she talks with host Ted Fox about the experience of inhabiting multiple characters in the same show. They also cover the magical transformation that takes place when the Bard’s words come to life off the page, her favorite Shakespearean roles, the differences between acting for the stage and for the screen, and her band, The Amazing Devil.

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• Episode Transcript

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: A university campus is a destination for all kinds of interesting people, so why not invite some of these folks out to brunch, where we’ll have an informal conversation about their work, and then we’ll turn those brunches into a podcast?

It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

At Notre Dame, the name “Matt Cashore” is synonymous with photography. His 20-plus years visually chronicling the University, its faculty, and its students have produced scores of unforgettable images captured both on and near campus and around the world. In this episode, Matt talks about his experiences at Notre Dame—including how he got a now classic shot of the Golden Dome beneath a sky full of lightning—as well as photography more generally and his three tips for taking great photos. Which later become five. Until he and host Ted Fox add a sixth. Did we mention Matt and Ted go back a ways?

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: A university campus is a destination for all kinds of interesting people, so why not invite some of these folks out to brunch, where we’ll have an informal conversation about their work, and then we’ll turn those brunches into a podcast?

It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

A New York Times bestselling author, Sam Kean has written four books on science—books with titles like The Disappearing Spoon and The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons. So as you might guess, he’s someone who appreciates a good story just as much as an interesting discovery. Here, he and host Ted Fox talk all kinds of science, from ill-fated efforts to control the weather and early research on DNA to the bum rap that mercury gets and everyone’s favorite precious metal … aluminum?

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: A university campus is a destination for all kinds of interesting people, so why not invite some of these folks out to brunch, where we’ll have an informal conversation about their work, and then we’ll turn those brunches into a podcast?

It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

For our season two premiere, host Ted Fox sits down with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson, a professor emerita at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Their conversation begins with Marilynne reading from her second novel, Gilead, the Pulitzer winner. From there, they talk about Gilead, broader ideas of faith and meaning, the writing process, and “the obligation to try to say something true.”

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: A university campus is a destination for all kinds of interesting people, so why not invite some of these folks out to brunch, where we’ll have an informal conversation about their work, and then we’ll turn those brunches into a podcast?

It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

Here in the show's season one finale, Laura Dassow Walls, William P. and Hazel B. White Professor of English at Notre Dame, discusses her book Henry David Thoreau: A Life, which was published in 2017 by The University of Chicago Press and earlier this year won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography. In the course of their conversation, Laura and host Ted Fox explore the many sides of Thoreau: writer, abolitionist, leader in the Transcendental religious movement, and so on. Just as importantly, though, it becomes clear there is one thing that he was not: the Walden Pond hermit of our imaginations.

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: A university campus is a destination for all kinds of interesting people, so why not invite some of these folks out to brunch, where we’ll have an informal conversation about their work, and then we’ll turn those brunches into a podcast?

It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

Except this time, host Ted Fox and his guest do something a little different: a live show during the University's annual Reunion weekend. An Emmy award-winning movie producer, Michael Swanson is also a television studio executive, serving as a vice president of production at NBCUniversal. He has been involved behind the scenes on some of the most acclaimed comedies in recent years—shows like Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and The Good Place. In this episode, he takes us inside the table reads he remembers most, the studio production system that moves a show from the initial pitch to air, and the evolving TV landscape of broadcast networks and streaming services.

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: A university campus is a destination for all kinds of interesting people, so why not invite some of these folks out to brunch, where we’ll have an informal conversation about their work, and then we’ll turn those brunches into a podcast?

It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

An IBM Master Inventor, Hendrik Hamann holds approximately 100 patents and is currently helping to lead IBM’s worldwide activities in Internet of Things research. He and host Ted Fox start with a primer on what terms like "Internet of Things" actually mean and then discuss the technology rapidly transforming our day-to-day lives as well as the processes by which it is created and managed.