Princeton Alumni Weekly Podcasts

As an undergrad, Bill Farrell ’77 was proud to coach Princeton’s fledgling women’s track and field squad. Decades later, he found similar joy helping classmates to distribute much-needed wheelchairs in South America. (Season 4, Episode 7)

For Simone Schloss ’79, reconnecting with an old boyfriend at Alumni Day turned into a love story, with a 36-year gap in the middle. “You never know how things are going to turn out,” she says. “And it’s great being in love with your best friend.” (Season 4, Episode 6)

Are we entering a new era of the activist athlete? Will the FBI sting have a lasting impact on college basketball? And why is Olympic curling so popular? We talk about these questions and more with Sean Gregory ’98, a senior writer at Time magazine, in the January episode of PAW’s Q&A podcast.

In 2015-16, journalist and author Helen Thorpe ’87 sat in on a high school English-acquisition class for teenaged refugees from across the globe. She watched her subjects’ growth and struggles within their new environment and learned their stories, which mostly included displacement due to war or gang violence in their home countries. As the 2016 presidential primaries gave way to the political ascent of Donald Trump, Thorpe extended her reporting into 2017 and recounts the ways the new administration has affected America’s policy on refugee resettlement. Her book is called The Newcomers: Finding Refuge, Friendship and Hope in an American Classroom, and in this month’s podcast, she speaks with PAW’s Carrie Compton about the process of reporting and writing it.

Owen Curtis ’72 *75 reflects on the differences between ’70s-era Princeton hippies and preps, why TV broadcasters were right to be wary of the Princeton band, and how it feels to be pranked by legendary basketball coach Pete Carril. (Season 4, Episode 5)

John Stewart ’77 came to Princeton with a few family stories in mind, thanks to his mother, who’d worked at Firestone Library, and his father, a former Princeton Alumni Weekly editor. He found a campus that was much different than the one his parents had known, and his memories of the University include the friendships he made at Princeton Inn College (now Forbes). “At the time it seemed quite isolated from the rest of the University,” he says. “When you got back there you sort of stayed put.” (Season 4, Episode 4)

PAW’s Allie Wenner sits down with William Pugh ’20, co-founder of the “Woke Wednesdays” podcast, a new student-produced show that gives Princeton students (and guests) a platform to discuss issues relating to race, social justice, gender, sexuality, and more. Pugh talks about what it means to be “woke,” why he thinks it’s important for young people to speak out about controversial topics, and why he really hopes that people disagree with some of things that are said on the show.

After giving birth to a son as an undergraduate, J.C. Alvarez ’77 stayed in school, juggling the work of a student, mom, and wife. “While it’s not a journey I would recommend for everyone,” she says, “I knew it was the right journey for me.” (Season 4, Episode 3)

Anthropology professor Carolyn Rouse discusses her research trip to interview Donald Trump supporters in rural California, her “Trumplandia” project, the reasons why she hasn’t watched cable TV news this year, and how listening can be “a radical act.”

When Hale Bradt ’52 began reading his late father’s letters from World War II, the words “just grabbed me, viscerally,” he says. After decades of research, including trips to the Pacific islands where his father served, Bradt wrote about how the war reshaped his family. (Season 4, Episode 2)