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Formative: Conversations on Who We Became

Formative: Conversations on Who We Became

By: Conversations Magazine
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About this listen

 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 Social Sciences
Episodes
  • 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 mins
  • 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 mins
  • 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

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