“So, tell me about your journey since graduating from Harvard.”
Each episode of Will Bachman ’92’s podcast, The 92 Report, kicks off the same way—but from there, Bachman lets his guests take the reins and lets the conversation flow organically.
The 92 Report, which first debuted in February 2022, follows Will Bachman as he speaks with his former classmates in the Harvard College and Radcliffe College Class of 1992. Since its pilot, where Bachman introduces himself and the podcast, he has hosted and produced over 100 episodes.
One evening in the fall of 2021 while biking home from Manhattan to Queens, Bachman was struck with the idea for this ambitious project. “I was just thinking, why, I wish that I had connected with more of my classmates, right?”
But Bachman’s motivation went beyond wishing he had connected with more of his classmates. “My second thought was, other people might feel the same way, right? And then it just occurred to me, ‘Why don’t I do a podcast and interview every member of the class who is willing?’”
His goal, in every episode, is to discover what Harvard students end up doing in life, and how the University impacted their trajectory.
From the Oval Office to local communities, Bachman is committed to recognizing the contributions of every member of the Class of ’92: “I did not want to do something where I was interviewing just high profile, famous members of the class who were well known. Everyone, to some degree, is famous to the family, and as you know, capable.”
Around 1,600 members make up the Class of 1992, so at his rate of one episode per week, Bachman expects that this project will take close to 30 years to complete. Acknowledging the feat ahead of him, Bachman noted, “As I go along, people will be at different stages of life—by the back half of the class, most people will be retired. So it’s a little bit of a moving biography.”
In the early days of The 92 Report, Bachman interviewed Angel Taveras ’92, the 37th and first Hispanic mayor of Providence, R.I., in Episode 3. “I asked him: ‘What was the most challenging part of that job?’ I was a little bit surprised when he talked about snow removal, and those snow removal days were always very, very stressful. So that was fascinating to get insight there.”
In Episode 4, Bachman speaks with Rajani Larocca ’92, a doctor and a Newbery Honor-winning author. In Episode 42, Bachman probed Father Roger J. Landry ’92, the Columbia Catholic Chaplain, on what exactly Landry had meant when in passing he claimed that he “had gotten to know three popes personally.” In Episode 58, Ruth Hertzman-Miller ’92 shared with Bachman how she pivoted midlife from being a practicing physician to pursuing her passion for music, dedicating herself to a career in composing. In Episode 60, in conversation with Shannon (Willey) Winakur ’92, Bachman uncovered what life looks like for Winakur as both a cardiologist and an ice hockey player.
In his most recent episode, Episode 118, Bachman interviewed Jason Furman ’92, American economist and professor of Economics 10a: “Principles of Microeconomics.” “[Jason] shared some fascinating behind-the-scenes stories about how policies were developed in the Oval Office, and that was fascinating.”
Although each episode boasts a diverse array of experiences, opportunities, and perspectives, Bachman noted there’s a lot of luck involved. “The majority of the class have taken this nonlinear path, ending up doing something that they completely did not expect to do in college, and just the high prevalence of contingency is the word. Contingency of just being in the right place at the right time, or having opportunities presented to you.”
Personal side passions, Bachman pointed out, are also a consistent thread between interviews. “The other theme, I’d say, would be the importance in people’s lives of continuing to pursue side interests and hobbies, and in a lot of cases, it’s things that were important to people in college.”
For Bachman, an unexpected gift from The 92 Report has been hearing about all the ways that the podcast has reconnected members of the class. “It’s certainly been very rewarding to me to hear from members of the class that they heard an episode with a former friend of theirs—even a former roommate—they haven’t spoken with in a while, and that then after that show, they went out and reached out to that person and reconnected.”
For his Class of 1992 listeners specifically, Bachman hopes that the weekly episodes serve as a way to reconnect with old friends or forge new connections with classmates they may have not known well.
For those of us who are still lucky enough to be Harvard undergraduates, Bachman offered up a tidbit of advice: “Invest less in classwork and more in getting to know your classmates.” Acknowledging how college is a unique time, Bachman continued by emphasizing how “you need to make some investments over time to maintain those relationships. It can just be one touch per year—a phone call, an email, a handwritten note—to keep those relationships somewhat warm.”
The Harvard network is one of a kind, a web of connections that extends far beyond the hallowed brick halls of the Yard. Bachman’s podcast serves as a testament to how these relationships, whether old friendships or newfound connections, require energy, care, and continuous cultivation to survive. The true value of this campus, though, resides in its enduring nature—this idea that no matter where life takes us, the ties forged here have a way of keeping us intertwined forever.
You can listen to The 92 Report on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Rania Jones ’27 (rjones@college.harvard.edu) might just have to make The 27 Report.