Summer Listens: Podcasts from the New School Community
Summer 2021 will be one to remember! After a year inside, we’re finally able to get out and enjoy all that the summer months have to offer. Whether traveling, spending time outdoors, or getting back into that pre-pandemic commute, we’ve got the perfect podcasts to keep you entertained while on the go.
Find these + more on our NEW Spotify Podcast Playlist!
TRACE MATERIAL
Hosted by the Healthy Materials Lab
Healthy Materials Lab’s podcast, Trace Material, explores the intersection of our lives and the lives of the materials that surround us. Produced by the lab’s Ava Robinson, Alie Kilts, and Burgess Brown, each season digs into a material you might find in your interior environment to discover what it can tell us about our history, our culture, and our bodies. Now in its second season, Trace Materials is exploring the world of plastics.
BLACK GIRLS TEXTING
Hosted by New School Alumni Glynn Pogue, MFA Creative Writing ’17
Glynn Pogue, MFA Creative Writing ’17, is a co-host of Black Girls Texting, a podcast that explores current events, relationships, and navigating NYC as young Black women. Pogue, a writer based out of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, co-hosts the show with Chelsea Rojas and Sade Parham, and, together, they unpack the conversations held in their group chat. Recently partnered with LadyGang, Black Girls Texting has over 90k downloads, with listeners from across the country and abroad and has featured guests from CNN’s Abby Phillip to The Bachelorette’s Rachel Lindsay.
WELCOME TO YOUR FANTASY
Hosted by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Associate Professor of History; Director of the Eugene Lang First Year Program
Named one of TIME’s Best Podcasts of 2021, Lang Faculty Natalia Petrzela’s Welcome to Your Fantasy provides an inside look at the world of 1980s male exotic dancers. It shows how two men — an immigrant from India, and a children’s TV producer from New Jersey — transformed a seedy strip club off the 405 freeway into a global phenomenon, and how paranoia and greed turned Chippendales into a hotbed for drugs, corruption and murder. Welcome to Your Fantasy was also featured in the Sydney Morning Herald where Petrzela says about Chippendales, “They seized upon a cultural moment when women became more independent and were wanting to spend money they earned their own way.”
Petrzela is also co-host of Eugene Lang’s Past Present Podcast with historians Nicole Hemmer and Neil Young to discuss what’s happening in American politics and culture today.
SOBER IN THE MORNING
Hosted by New School Alumni Zewiditu Jewel, Liberal Arts ’12
Sober in The Morning awakens its listeners spirit through impactful conversation on mental health, sobriety & spiritual healing. New School alumni Zewiditu Jewel knows that’s a lot to unpack, but believes if you start your day with the sobering reality that you are all you need and whatever comes your way, you can handle it; you will get there. Join them on their journey, sobriety starts in the AM.
Wantrepreneurs
Hosted by New School alumni Jamie Rabinovitch (MFA Creative Writing ’17, Media Management Certificate ’19) and Kelsey Caine (MFA Creative Writing ’18)
Earlier this summer, Jamie and Kelsey created Two Scoops Podcast Network as a way to uplift the artists they want to work with — kind, funny, thoughtful people with insightful things to say. As a part of the network, the duo launched a new podcast, Wantrepreneurs, where they talk about the difficulties and realities of becoming a successful entrepreneur.
Change That Podcast
Hosted by New School alumni Andrea Makhlouf, BBA Strategic Design and Management ’21
Change That Podcast is an innovative series with the subject matter of future proofing our modern industries. Hosted by New School alumni Andrea Makhlouf, the podcast is in its first season.
“Throughout my life, I’ve always admired change-makers, people who thought outside the box and were willing to courageously stand up for and make a difference in a world where it’s all too easy to remain in the comfort zones our daily lives can often afford us,” Makhlouf says about her inspiration to start the podcast. “The challenges this year have inspired me to look forward into what could be to move on from what is.”
UNBOUND
Hosted by students in the NSSR Philosophy department
This spring, Unbound wrapped up a successful first season. Unbound, a podcast that constantly tries to nudge the boundaries of philosophy, is hosted by students in the NSSR Philosophy department and features guests from various backgrounds. The podcast highlights the voices and work of people with underrepresented identities in philosophy and academia — specifically New School PhD students and faculty whose research focuses on diversity, feminism, gender studies, and fields of study that are often not categorized as belonging to the traditional Western canon.
CINE POP
Hosted by Natalia Molina Ballester, MA International Affairs ’20
Created and co-hosted by Natalia Molina Ballester, MA International Affairs ’20, as a way to bring new perspectives to the world of cinema, Cine Pop analyzes a new movie every week. Mexico’s only female-led Cinema podcast, Cine Pop takes a look at old and new movies alike, from Iron Man to Boogie Nights. So grab your popcorn, and hit PLAY or, “así que agarra tu palomitas y dale PLAY.”
DESIGN EDUCATION TALKS
Featured guest Jennifer Whitty, founder of the New School Continuing and Professional Education’s fashion sustainability certificate and Parsons Assistant Professor of Fashion Systems and Materiality
Faculty member Jennifer Whitty was a featured guest on Design Education Talks, a podcast that provies an open discussion on art and design education. In her episode, Whitty discussed art and design education, creativity, and design thinking, and talked about how the COVID 19 pandemic has shifted the way she looks at her work.
“As traditional modes of learning were often no longer relevant, we embraced and shared new strategies, new methods, and mindsets for the future of fashion design,” Whitty says.
THE TRUE BEAUTY BROOKLYN PODCAST
Hosted by Elizabeth Taylor, BBA Strategic Design and Management ’08
Millennial estheticians and entrepreneurs, Elizabeth Taylor and Alix Shapiro, host The True Beauty Brooklyn Podcast, a weekly conversation that brings the vibe of their Brooklyn beauty studio to life. Alix and Elizabeth are joined by experts, friends, and community members to answer listener questions about beauty and skincare that each one of us can relate to, host hilarious segments inspired by their diverse clientele, and share stories about living in a multicultural world. Its beauty school for all — giving everyone the recipe for How To Be a Bad Bitch.
MORE PODCASTS:
Jeffrey Malone, M.A. in Media Studies ’15, hosts the podcast That’s Auntertainment alongside his aunt, Beth Woods. Join the pop culture mavens for delightful conversation in which they discuss entertainment topics according to the 3 F’s: First, Favorite, and Forever.
In her podcast Damsels in Dialogue, New School alumni India Marie Paul, MFA Directing ’18, focuses on the portrayal of female protagonists in film, literature, and stage. Grab a cup of tea and join India and co-host Katie for laughs, origins, opinions, tackling the patriarchy, and more. Take a deep dive into a new fandom or genre each season.
Native New Yorker and journalist Ali McPherson, BA Journalism & Design ’19, hosts the podcast Saucy but Sweet with Ali McPherson, a no-filter, bi-weekly discussion on all things culture, romance, sex, and everything in between.
Pennie Anassi, MA Media Studies ’20, hosts the podcast For Your Thoughts with Pennie Anassi, a nonjudgmental space where psychology, pop culture, & self meet. The show takes a humanistic & empathetic approach towards the discussion of mental health, hip hop, pop culture, addictions, relationships, family, spirituality, and life itself.
Join MFA Creative Writing alumni Jake Steinberg and Wil Turner III, for their new The Viewer Digression Podcast. Every week, Jake and Wil visit or revisit a movie, television series, book, album or video game to decide once and for all if the critics got it right. Their latest episode takes a look at music sensation Olivia Rodrigo and a review of the star’s latest single.
Patricia Herrera, MS Nonprofit Management ’04, co-hosts the Spanish podcast Es lo Que Hay, a podcast “conducido por dos mujeres apasionadas por el mundo y con hacer lo que mejor que podamos con lo que hay ¡Así las cosas!”
The MPS Fashion Management program’s podcast, Retail Revolution, features experts in omni-channel fashion retailing with a focus on problem-solving, customer engagement and innovation. Each episode features in-depth conversations with guest experts in omni-channel retailing with myriad perspectives: technology, consumer engagement, data analytics, merchandising and more.
Pineapple Street Studios Producer Josh Gwynn, MS Media Management ’16, is the co-host of Back Issue, a podcast that tells the stories behind formative moments in pop culture. Back Issue looks back at some of the “moments that shook us, that changed us” and reckons with some of culture’s biggest questions, from “How did we let this happen?” to ‘Why do we still love this?” Because nostalgia is more than just a feeling.
For decades, Parsons faculty Neil Goldberg has jotted observations about the everyday and the overlooked onto index cards. He’s got thousands of them. In his podcast She’s a Talker, he lets the cards prompt conversations with his favorite fellow New Yorkers — artists, writers, performers, and beyond. Each guest has a wild imagination and balances humor with vulnerability.
Looking for more podcasts? Last summer we created a list of podcasts to get us through the pandemic, click here to explore that list.
Do you host a podcast or know of other New Schoolers with podcasts you’d like us to add to this list? Let us know on Twitter @TheNewSchool.
