Formative: Conversations on Who We Became

By: Conversations Magazine
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  • Summary

  • A Jesuit college judges itself on who our students become and ‘Formative’ is an interview podcast about those lives and stories. It features intimate conversations with notable alums – from arts and culture, public service, business, philanthropy, sports, education, science, and so on – from Jesuit colleges across the country. Host Michael Serazio, associate professor of communication at Boston College, asks questions about who and what shaped their life journeys, influenced their successes, and guided them through callings, causes, challenges, and careers. An official podcast of Conversations Magazine and the National Seminar on Jesuit Higher Education, ‘Formative’ is about the impact our graduates have had and how they might inspire future generations of young people to set the world on fire.
    Copyright Conversations Magazine
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Social Sciences
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Episodes
  • Formative 13: A career-long view from the American embassy (with Harry Thomas, Holy Cross ‘78)

    Formative 13: A career-long view from the American embassy (with Harry Thomas, Holy Cross ‘78)
    Jul 31 2024
    When Harry Thomas, College of the Holy Cross class of 1978, first took the foreign service exam, the kid from Queens couldn’t speak another language and had never been outside the country. Over three decades later, he’d served as ambassador to Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Zimbabwe, along with a portfolio of distinguished State Department postings across the arc of a fraught geopolitical era. In episode 13 of Formative, we talk about being accused of fomenting a coup by the Mugabe regime with racist vitriol; why ideals of democracy and human rights bring a message of hope worldwide; and how the curiosity the Jesuits instilled in him helped navigate culture shocks felt from Worcester to Manila.
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    32 mins
  • Formative 12: When an endangered child can’t come home (with Darcy Olsen, Georgetown ‘93)

    Formative 12: When an endangered child can’t come home (with Darcy Olsen, Georgetown ‘93)
    May 14 2024
    It was a newborn infant sleeping in a homeless shelter in a government office building that changed Darcy Olsen’s life. The Georgetown University class of 1993 alum had thought she knew her purpose, both personally and professionally, serving as CEO of the Goldwater Institute think tank and advocating for public policy reforms like terminally ill patients’ right to try cutting-edge medications. But that foster child beget nine more – along the way to becoming the founder of the Center for the Rights of Abused Children, which offers pro bono legal services to help protect the rights and safety of abandoned kids. In episode 12 of Formative, we talk about the source of her social justice passions; the opioid crisis and communal disintegration that creates a need for her work; and why the utter helplessness of children makes them society’s most heartbreakingly vulnerable.
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    33 mins
  • Formative 11: What’s eating away at our local food systems (with Erika Polmar, St. Louis University ‘89)

    Formative 11: What’s eating away at our local food systems (with Erika Polmar, St. Louis University ‘89)
    Feb 21 2024
    You don’t have to tell Erika Polmar, St. Louis University, class of 1989, that “we are what we eat.” Her reverence for local food systems has been lifelong. It inspired her Oregon-based farm-dinner series, Plate + Pitchfork, to educate eaters about the people and places that their sustenance originates. And when the pandemic closures devastated restaurants nationwide, she co-founded the Independent Restaurant Coalition, advocating to help secure some $30 billion in rescue funds for her 500,000 trade group members. Solving complex, intertwined social and political puzzles, Polmar often seems to have a lot on her plate. In episode 11 of Formative, we talk about why food mediates our relationship to time; how to get healthy, fresh alternatives to eaters of all economic backgrounds; and if “we are what we eat,” we’re also where we eat.
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    40 mins

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