Episodi

  • Formative 15: From childhood sports fan to pro team president (with Mark Lamping, Rockhurst University ‘80)

    Formative 15: From childhood sports fan to pro team president (with Mark Lamping, Rockhurst University ‘80)
    May 7 2025
    When Mark Lamping, Rockhurst University class of 1980, was camping out for World Series tickets in the 4th grade, he wouldn’t have dared to dream of running the team one day. Ironically lucky for him, a 1994 strike and cancelled season found those same St. Louis Cardinals in need of the longtime Anheuser-Busch marketing executive. The national pastime – our summer storyline that unspools slowly and satisfyingly – had been stolen from fans. It was a call to repair and rebuild. In episode 15 of Formative, we talk about the commercial value of fan emotion; why the NFL remains the last form of American mass culture amidst fragmentation; and taking a mid-life leap from professional comfort and stability to go build a billion-dollar stadium for New York City.
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    36 min
  • Formative 14: In politics, may the best argument win (with Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Marquette University ‘67)

    Formative 14: In politics, may the best argument win (with Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Marquette University ‘67)
    Jan 22 2025
    Kathleen Hall Jamieson has an enlightenment faith in “eloquentia perfecta” – faith in reason, faith in facts, faith in public debate and civil discourse. Sometimes – and especially these days – that faith might feel in short supply. But that faith took Jamieson from Marquette University, class of 1967, to the heights of political communication scholarship – authoring a library shelf of pioneering books, achieving a CV’s worth of distinguished career awards, and serving as both dean and public policy center director at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. In episode 14 of Formative, we talk about presidential communication styles from Reagan’s televisual charm to Trump’s norm-shattering volume; the epistemological peril in discrediting expertise; and how rhetoric, at its best, can open up the humanity of an audience.
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    34 min
  • 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 min
  • 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 min
  • 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 min
  • Formative 10: Steeling the judicial ramparts on the last line of democracy (with Benes Aldana, Seattle University ‘91)

    Formative 10: Steeling the judicial ramparts on the last line of democracy (with Benes Aldana, Seattle University ‘91)
    Dec 12 2023
    When it comes to the faith and health of the American judiciary, no one would likely describe this as “the best of times.” Judges faces personal threats; courts are seen as politicized; and public opinion slumps, in tandem with civic education. But that’s the challenge that faces the last line of democracy, as Benes Aldana, frames it. The idealistic Seattle University, class of 1991, alum is president of the National Judicial College, which tasks itself with addressing these issues. In episode 10 of Formative, we talk about the moral education that informed him when working on detainee cases at Guantanamo Bay after 9/11; the need to create an anti-racist court to address issues of systemic, unconscious bias; and how the Jesuits taught him that relationships and love must be the foundation of any professional aspiration.
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    36 min
  • Formative 9: The cartoonist’s pen versus the autocrat’s sword (with Adam Zyglis, Canisius University ‘04)

    Formative 9: The cartoonist’s pen versus the autocrat’s sword (with Adam Zyglis, Canisius University ‘04)
    Oct 16 2023
    If the job of journalism is to speak truth to power, newspaper cartoonists do it with a paintbrush in hand and a tongue-in-cheek. This puts them in the crosshairs of thin-skinned dictators abroad and on “the front lines of the first amendment” at home, as Adam Zyglis, Canisius University, class of 2004, phrases it. Since graduating from the school paper to The Buffalo News as its youngest staffer, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Zyglis has, quite literally, drawn readers’ attention to the issues of the day in a fashion that transcends language and both punches and tickles you in the gut. In episode 9 of Formative, we talk about the escalating backlash and hate felt by journalists thanks to social media; doing your best to fill your own shoes when following esteemed predecessors; and how he uses lies to, ultimately, tell the truth.
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    37 min
  • Formative 8: On the front lines of the global refugee crisis (with Michael Gallagher, SJ, Spring Hill College ‘73)

    Formative 8: On the front lines of the global refugee crisis (with Michael Gallagher, SJ, Spring Hill College ‘73)
    Apr 21 2023
    103 million people. That’s the United Nations’ best estimate of how many have been forcibly displaced worldwide – some of the highest recorded waves of migration since World War 2. And for decades now, Father Michael Gallagher of the Society of Jesus and Spring Hill College class of 1973, has been on the front lines of those borders and those crises. From providing direct legal representation in El Paso to helping formulate global policy in Geneva, from the Caribbean to southern Africa to Latin America, Father Gallagher has embodied the ministry of accompaniment that defines the Jesuit Refugee Service. In episode 8 of Formative, we talk about the escalating danger that aid workers face on the front-lines; the scapegoating lies peddled about foreigners by polarizing politicians; and being adaptive to the surprises that God throws your way – like needing to identify the sound of a Kalashnikov rifle after you’ve passed age 60.
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    45 min