New podcast by the Independent is out this week!
By Kelsey O’Connor
Listen to our teaser on iTunes!
This week the Indy is launching a new podcast called Tell Me More. We are talking to undergraduates about the people who inspire them: the moms, dads, sisters, artists, and superheroes who motivate the students who walk by you in the Yard every day. The process of developing Tell Me More has introduced me to a variety of people whom I otherwise would not have known. I hope that listeners will enjoy getting to know them as much as I have! The first episode will be released on Monday, February 13, 2017.
It is sometimes easy to forget, while we are here at school, slogging away at work, that the people around us are pretty great. But it only takes a few moments to ask deeper questions, and find new inspirations in our peers.
How is the Indy choosing the guests from our deep bench of interesting talent at Harvard? I have been asking my friends to out their remarkable roommates and friends who would be fun to have on the show. This has sparked many conversations over dinner, psets, and readings about the coolest people that everyone knows at Harvard. There is a list in my notes app that is about 30 people long. The challenge remains whom to pick next!
Our first guest is Miles Counts. Miles is a junior in Quincy House studying History & Literature. When I connected with him in the first days of February he was excited to discuss James Baldwin. Baldwin was a famed author and civil rights activist. He wrote many essays and novels about race in America and particularly about being black in America. Miles discovered Baldwin’s writing at a crucial time, a time when he had a lot of seemingly unanswerable questions about where he, as a black American, fit into the national identity. Baldwin’s work inspired him not only to write, but also to feel and think differently about his heritage and the possibilities in his future.
Later in the season we will hear from Bushra Hamid. A freshman in Straus and a native of Houston, Texas, Bushra is passionate about storytelling. As the daughter of two Syrian immigrants she has always found it important to stand up for what she believes in and to support Syrian refugees in any way she can. When she arrived at Harvard she made it her mission to meet a new person every day and has stayed pretty close to that goal. She is an excellent listener and absorbs all of the stories she can from the people she meets, knowing that they propel her to change the world.
Tell Me More has led me across the paths of individuals in the music community like Alasdair McKenzie and Joe Kerwin who wrote the music for Tell Me More; with alumni who are starting their own podcasts; with Carleen Su who will be working with us and is passionate about podcasting. I am ever grateful for their stirring presences.
The goal of the podcast, to introduce Harvard students to one another and to intertwine the usually parallel paths that keep us moving in an ambitious line, has manifested itself in the beautifully tangled making of Tell Me More. I truly hope that you will listen and that your path will cross with mine and Miles’ and Bushra’s. See you at the intersection.
Kelsey O’Connor (kelseyoconnor@college.harvard.edu) urges both friends and strangers alike to reach out and tell her more.