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Gustavus Religion Professor Blake Couey talks about growing up working class in Georgia, his path from there to Princeton Theological Seminary and then Gustavus, his scholarship on the Hebrew Bible and the poetry of Isaiah in particular, the Bible’s complicated and even contradictory meanings (as, for example, around women and gender), teaching its complexity and poetry to Gustavus students, why studying the Bible and religion matters, and what he enjoys most about being a  Gustavus professor.

Kate Dario, class of 2024, talks about her background as an adoptee from India growing up in St. Paul, her path to Gustavus and her major in Communication Studies and minors in Art Administration and Theater Design and Technology, the campus Compassion Initiative which she organized, the Gustavus Adoption, Recognition, Community organization, her involvement in diversity, equity, and inclusion work, being a student of color on a majority white campus, study away in London and Paris, and her pitch for Gustavus.

Happy Holidays, dear listeners! New episodes of the podcast will begin in January 2023.  Until then we are offering some memorable past episodes. In this one, Katherine (Katie) Aney ’18 talks about her path to Gustavus and from there to the Harvard/MIT Health, Science and Technology program, her love of science and tennis, her research into pancreatic cancer, and what her alma mater offers those who choose it as their college.

While Greg is absorbed in teaching and grading the last weeks of fall semester 2022, we are offering some memorable past episodes of the podcast.  In this one from January 2021, Katie Schlangen ’14 talks about her challenging background and path to Gustavus, living and teaching in Seoul and Hong Kong, working and traveling internationally for a Minnesota-based NGO focused on healthcare, her commitment to health access and policy, and graduate study in global health policy through the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Currently, Schlangen is Senior Program Coordinator - Immunization at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

While Greg is absorbed in teaching and grading the last two weeks of fall semester 2022, we are offering some memorable past episodes of the podcast. In this one, lawyer, professor of history, award-winning author, and Gustavus graduate William Green ’72 talks about coming to Gustavus from New Orleans as an African American student in 1968, his time at the College, the social and political history of Black Minnesotans in the 19th and early-20th centuries (including the little-known story of enslaved woman Eliza Winston’s emancipation), and how that history informs Black-white relations in Minnesota today.  Prof. Green's latest book (not discussed here) is Strike! about the landmark and then-illegal 1970 Minneapolis teacher strike.

While Greg is absorbed in teaching and grading the last two weeks of fall semester 2022, we are offering some memorable past episodes of the podcast.  In this one, Dr. Paul Finkelman, distinguished historian of slavery and the law and the spring 2023 Rydell Professor at Gustavus, talks about the pro-slavery U.S. Constitution, Chief Justice John Marshall’s buying and selling of enslaved people, the proslavery jurisprudence of the antebellum Supreme Court, and the present-day monuments conflict.

Eliza Scherschligt ’23 and Kathleen Grube ’24 on their backgrounds and paths to Gustavus, their choice of majors, attending college amid the COVID-19 pandemic, how and why they became campus Peer Assistants, the work of the assistants in promoting student wellbeing, what they have gained from that work, student stress and coping with it, and their pitches for Gustavus.

Dr. Peg O’Connor, Professor of Philosophy and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at Gustavus, talks about teaching amid the COVID-19 pandemic, her background and fascination with the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and his thought, what it means to be a philosopher, her alcoholism and sobriety, bringing philosophy to bear on addiction and recovery, William James and the history of Alcoholics Anonymous, and why the liberal arts education offered at Gustavus matters.

Dr. Bernard Powers ’72, Professor Emeritus of History at the College of Charleston, talks about his family background and growing up in Chicago, his path to Gustavus and experiences as a Black student there, why he majored in history, his PhD focus at Northwestern University, the significance of Charleston and South Carolina in the history of enslavement, the Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston which he founded and directs, the city’s new International African American Museum for which he served as interim president, and the sources of his hopefulness.

Dr. Hagar Attia of the Gustavus Communication Studies Department on growing up as an Egyptian American, her path from sociology to graduate work in communication, the focus and findings of her recently completed doctoral dissertation on “fundamentalist argumentation,” public deliberation (including her department’s co-curricular program in public deliberation and dialogue, which she co-directs), her involvement in voter engagement among Gustavus students, why communication studies matters as a major, and her love of watching historical dramas.

History and political science double major Eric O’Denius ’94 talks about his path to Gustavus and experience there, how he embarked on an eventual distinguished career in immigration enforcement with the United States government, the work of an Immigration Enforcement Agent and Deportation Officer, a particularly gratifying case involving a son and his father, the importance of effective writing in his work, having one of his affidavits cited in Supreme Court decisions, and what meaningful immigration reform requires.

Dr. Colleen Stockmann of the Gustavus Art and Art History Department on her background and path to art historian, including her undergraduate years at a liberal arts college, the unplanned origins of her PhD research on the plant drawings of William Trost Richards, her work on the landscape history of tenements in New York City and histories of color in the early modern world, the objects audit she is conducting with students at Gustavus, and “visual complicity” in and “visual solutions” to problems that confront us today. 

Gustavus senior and Goldwater Scholarship recipient Haley Jostes ’23, talks about her background and early interest in science, her path to Gustavus and her chemistry and biochemistry & molecular biology majors, working in labs on campus and in Germany, her research on PFAS or “forever chemicals” and how to remove them from water, the importance of writing to the work of science, the usefulness of a management minor to her career aspirations, her graduate school plans, why chemistry in general matters, and the strengths of the chemistry program at Gustavus.  

Professor Philip Voight of the Communication Studies Department at Gustavus on his background in South St. Paul, MN, his path to forensics and communication studies, researching political advertising, teaching amid the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant innovations in his methods, his course about reality food television programming, memorable and rewarding experiences of travel with Gustavus students in Vietnam, changes in how Vietnam represents the history of the U.S. war against it, and why his field matters to a liberal arts education.

Bruce Gray ’61 and Owen (Sam) Sammelson ’58 talk about their backgrounds and paths to Gustavus, where each eventually became an administrator (in Bruce’s case, financial aid director, Dean of Students, and member of the Advancement team, and, in Sam’s case, Director of Admission and then Vice President for Administration), and the origins of and their roles and experiences in the College’s groundbreaking recruitment of Black students from the Jim Crow South and some northern cities amid the civil rights movement. 

Dr. Axel D. Steuer, 13th president of both Gustavus (1991-2002) and subsequently Illinois College (2003-2013), talks about his journey from Second World-War refugee to religious studies scholar, professor at his alma mater Occidental College, and eventually liberal arts college president, the role of his mother and the Lutheran church in the early part of that journey, his attraction to Gustavus and its presidency, how he and his administrative team led Gustavus’s recovery from the destructive tornado that hit the campus and town of St. Peter in March 1998, the ingredients of an effective presidency, and the importance and purpose of a college education.

Award-winning teacher Dr. Darsa Donelan of the Gustavus Physics Department and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies program on their path to science, physics, and the Gustavus faculty, the influence of their grandmother Jane and other important women mentors on their interests and career, their research trajectory and the contingencies that shaped it, sexism in the discipline, their work as faculty advisor to the campus Queers and Allies group, cosplaying in and out of the classroom, and why science and the liberal arts matter. Attention Star Trek fans! 

Joanne Jones-Rizzi, award-winning Vice President of Science, Equity, and Education at the Science Museum of Minnesota, on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the museum, returning to the museum in person, her African American-European Jewry family history and its importance to her identity and work, how she came to a career in the museum world focusing on equity and education, first in Boston and then in St. Paul, her role developing and producing the Science Museum’s exhibit RACE: Are We So Different? which opened in 2007, the premise and goals of the exhibit, restorative justice work in connection with it, the contrast between public responses to the original exhibit and its updated iteration, and why museums matter.

Dave Kamper ’96 on his path to Gustavus and the College Republicans, the lasting importance of his education in critical thinking there, his PhD research in history, becoming a professional labor organizer and writer on labor issues, collective actions by Amazon and Starbucks workers, why unions must do better in communicating and collaborating with one another, New Brookwood Labor College in St. Paul, and the case for worker power in a democratic society.

Dane Moore '12 talks about why he attended Gustavus and how it prepared him for "who and what I would be," his path to creating and hosting The Dane Moore NBA Podcast on Blue Wire about pro basketball and the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Timberwolves' 2021-22 season, the hiring of Tim Connelly as new general manager, and the team's prospects going forward into next season and beyond.  Note: Recorded prior to the 2022 NBA draft.