Over 30% of people who start a PhD don’t graduate within ten years. This can be a grand disappointment and a real setback—and it can hold learners back from contributing to their full ability. But today, degree completion programs are helping some of these students to return to the academy, finish their studies, complete their research, and claim their diplomas. So what goes into designing a degree completion program? In this conversation with Diane Richard-Allerdyce, the founding director of the Completion Pathway in Antioch’s PhD in Leadership and Change, we ask her about all of these questions—and learn how taking into account educational trauma and structural barriers is key to helping students finally complete their dreams.

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Visit Antioch’s website to learn more about the PhD in Leadership and Change, and the Completion Pathway that Diane directs. You can also read the announcement of the creation of the Completion Pathway.

This episode was recorded November 21, 2025 and released December 17, 2025.

The Seed Field Podcast is produced by Antioch University

Host: Jasper Nighthawk

Editor: Nastasia Green

Producer: Karen Hamilton

Social Media Manager: Selina Starling

Work-Study Assistants: Dani LaPoint.

Additional Production Help: Jen Mont, Amelia Bryan, and Laurien Alexandre.

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To access a full transcript and find more information about this and other episodes, visit theseedfield.org. To get updates and be notified about future episodes, follow Antioch University on Facebook.

Visit Antioch’s website to learn more about the MS in Athletic Training that Ally chairs. You can also visit the main page for the Graduate School of Nursing and Health Professions. To learn more about the Coalition for the Common Good, visit the CCG website.

This episode was recorded October 22, 2025 via Squadcast and released November 19, 2025.

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The Seed Field Podcast is produced by Antioch University

Host: Jasper Nighthawk

Editor: Nastasia Green

Producer: Karen Hamilton

Work-Study Assistants: Dani LaPointe, and Liza Wisner.

Additional Production Help: Amelia Bryan, Jonathan Hawkins, Jefferson Blackburn-Smith, Gina Calcamuggio, Jenny Hill, Kati Skon, and Laurien Alexandre

To access a full transcript and find more information about this and other episodes, visit

theseedfield.org

. To get updates and be notified about future episodes, follow

Antioch University on Facebook

.

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To access a full transcript and find more information about this and other episodes, visit theseedfield.org. To get updates and be notified about future episodes, follow Antioch University on Facebook.

Physical and mental health are deeply connected, yet the medical field too often treats these as entirely separate domains. Deana Batross says that this is unfortunate, because medical procedures (like heart transplants) often have psychological side effects, and mental health conditions (like complex PTSD) often have physical causes. Luckily, Deana is a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners trained in the biopsychosocial model that sees the patient as a whole person. In this conversation, Deana discusses how she thinks about trauma, shares how her students in Antioch University’s Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner program study this topic, and discusses her work advocating for greater access to physical and mental healthcare.

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Visit Antioch’s website to learn more about the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program that Deana chairs. You can also visit the main page for the Graduate School of Nursing and Health Professions.

If you’d like to listen to a related podcast episode, try our conversation with the psychologist Stephen Southern about expressive writing's potential for treating complex PTSD: “Therapists Are Using Creative Writing to Treat Complex PTSD—and Build Resilience”. You may also be interested in our conversation with the therapist Rachele Moskowitz about somatic approaches to therapy: “Using Somatic Therapy to Understand the Trauma in Our Bodies”.

This episode was recorded September 22, 2025 via Squadcast and released November 5, 2025.

The Seed Field Podcast is produced by Antioch University

Host: Jasper Nighthawk

Editor: Nastasia Green

Producer: Karen Hamilton

Work-Study Assistants: Dani LaPointe, and Liza Wisner.

Additional Production Help: Amelia Bryan, Jonathan Hawkins, Melinda Garland, Jefferson Blackburn-Smith, Gina Calcamuggio, Jenny Hill, Kati Skon, and Laurien Alexandre.

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To access a full transcript and find more information about this and other episodes, visit theseedfield.org. To get updates and be notified about future episodes, follow Antioch University on Facebook.

From their position on the frontlines of healthcare, nurses intimately understand the issues facing their patients and communities. To tackle these big-picture problems, mid-career nurse practitioners are increasingly returning to school to get their Doctor of Nursing Practice degree (DNP). As today’s guest, Jeffrey Fouche-Camargo explains, “It's all about the clinical settings and how we can take those problems that we encounter in our day-to-day work and, you know, come up with solutions on how to fix that.” In this conversation with the Founding Director of Antioch University’s DNP program, Jeffrey shares about the theoretical basis of nursing, his own doctoral project around postpartum care after caesarean, and how he’s hoping the DNP program will bring Antioch’s social justice mission to nurses in the heart of their careers.

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Visit Antioch’s website to learn more about the Doctor of Nursing Practice program that Jeffrey directs. You can also visit the main page for the Graduate School of Nursing and Health Professions. To learn more about the Coalition for the Common Good, visit the CCG website.

If you’d like to listen to a related podcast episode, try our conversation with Rachel Chickerella from earlier this year, “Bi+ Mental Health Is a Crisis. Why Is No One Talking About It?”

This episode was recorded September 18, 2025 via Squadcast and released October 8, 2025.

The Seed Field Podcast is produced by Antioch University

Host: Jasper Nighthawk

Editor: Nastasia Green

Producer: Karen Hamilton

Work-Study Assistants: Dani LaPointe and Liza Wisner

Additional Production Help: Amelia Bryan, Jonathan Hawkins, Melinda Garland, Jefferson Blackburn-Smith, Gina Calcamuggio, Jenny Hill, Kati Skon, and Laurien Alexandre

To access a full transcript and find more information about this and other episodes, visit theseedfield.org. To get updates and be notified about future episodes, follow Antioch University on Facebook.

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To access a full transcript and find more information about this and other episodes, visit theseedfield.org. To get updates and be notified about future episodes, follow Antioch University on Facebook.

In higher education, we rarely have the chance to stop, take a year, and thoughtfully redesign entire programs. But that’s just what the faculty of Antioch University’s newly founded Graduate School of Nursing and Health Professions have been doing this last year: taking the highly regarded programs previously offered through our partner, Otterbein University, and working to bring them to a nationwide audience through Antioch’s five campuses. In this episode, we talk with Regina Prusinski, Antioch’s founding Director of Nursing Programs, about why nursing is a fulfilling career, how she’s reworking the curriculum to emphasize Antioch’s focus on adult learners and social justice, why nurse practitioners will be in high demand over the next decade, and how this training prepares future nurse practitioners to be transformative agents of health justice in their communities.

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Visit Antioch’s website to learn more about the Nursing Programs that Regina directs and the MS in Nursing: Family Nurse Practitioner that she chairs. To learn more about the Coalition for the Common Good, visit the CCG website.

This episode was recorded September 12, 2025 via Squadcast and released September 24, 2025.

The Seed Field Podcast is produced by Antioch University

Host: Jasper Nighthawk

Editor: Nastasia Green

Producer: Karen Hamilton

Work-Study Assistants: Dani LaPointe and Liza Wisner

Additional Production Help: Amelia Bryan, Jonathan Hawkins, Melinda Garland, Jefferson Blackburn-Smith, Gina Calcamuggio, Jenny Hill, Kati Skon, and Laurien Alexandre

To access a full transcript and find more information about this and other episodes, visit theseedfield.org. To get updates and be notified about future episodes, follow Antioch University on Facebook.

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To access a full transcript and find more information about this and other episodes, visit theseedfield.org. To get updates and be notified about future episodes, follow Antioch University on Facebook.

The Critical Skills Classroom was founded forty years ago. This approach to classroom teaching pulls together experiential learning, cycles of action and reflection, and the cultivation of emotional intelligence. But today’s guest, Laura Thomas, says that the Critical Skills Classroom is still in some ways a secret—a good idea that more people should know about. That’s part of why she is marking the anniversary by releasing a 400-page book about the approach: The Complete Guide to the Critical Skills Classroom. In this conversation we talk with Laura about why the approach is more relevant today than ever, why cycles of action and reflection are so important, and what she sees for the future of this approach—and public education as a whole.

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Learn more about the Critical Skills Classroom at the Critical Skills Classroom website. This resource contains free lesson plans, e-books, an FAQ, and more.

The book Laura edited is The Complete Guide to the Critical Skills Classroom. It is available on Amazon in hardcover, softcover, and e-book editions.

If you enjoyed this episode, consider listening to our 2022 Seed Field Podcast interview with Laura Thomas, “To Grow Emotional Literacy, a Classroom Must Become a Community.”

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This episode was recorded June 24, 2025 via Squadcast and released July 30, 2025.

The Seed Field Podcast is produced by Antioch University

Host: Jasper Nighthawk

Editor: Nastasia Green

Producer: Karen Hamilton

Work-Study Assistants: Stefanie Paredes, Lauren Arienzale, Dani LaPointe, and Liza Wisner.

Additional Production Help: Jen Mont, Amelia Bryan, Melinda Garland, and Laurien Alexandre.

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To access a full transcript and find more information about this and other episodes, visit theseedfield.org. To get updates and be notified about future episodes, follow Antioch University on Facebook.

Surveys show that almost half of bisexual folks report experiencing moderate to severe psychological distress in the last year. These rates are roughly double that of straight, gay, and lesbian populations. So why isn’t it being treated as a crisis? In this conversation with the psychologist and researcher Rachel Chickerella, we discuss this mental health crisis; the many factors leading to it; how everyone, and especially mental health professionals, can be bi-affirming; and why it’s important both to face the crisis and, at the same time, to celebrate bi+ joy.

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Visit Antioch’s website to learn more about the PsyD in Clinical Psychology that Rachel teaches in.

You can read our recent profile of Rachel on Common Thread, “PsyD Core Faculty Helps Students Challenge Power Structures and Bi+ Stigma.”

Rachel’s recent publications include “Is It Worth It? A Grounded Theory Analysis of Navigating the Decision to Come Out as Bisexual,” “Predictors of Psychological Distress for Bi+ Individuals during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” and “Janelle Monáe vs. Katy Perry: Depiction of Bi+ Identities and Relationship to Depression and Stigma.” You can read Rachel’s faculty bio to find more of her scholarship.

Rachel’s own podcast is Reality Test. She co-hosts it with her fellow PsyD faculty member Kate Evarts. (Learn more about Evarts in our Common Thread profile, “For Kate Evarts, Relationships Are ‘The Key to Working Toward Social and Racial justice’”)

This episode was recorded April 10, 2025 via Squadcast and released May 14, 2025.

The Seed Field Podcast is produced by Antioch University

Host: Jasper Nighthawk

Editor: Nastasia Green

Web Team: Jen Mont, Amelia Bryan, and Jonathan Hawkins.

Work-Study Assistants: Stefanie Paredes, Lauren Arienzale, Dani LaPointe, and Liza Wisner.

Additional Production Help: Karen Hamilton, Melinda Garland, and Laurien Alexandre.

To access a full transcript and find more information about this and other episodes, visit theseedfield.org. To get updates and be notified about future episodes, follow Antioch University on Facebook.

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To access a full transcript and find more information about this and other episodes, visit theseedfield.org. To get updates and be notified about future episodes, follow Antioch University on Facebook.

Today, Antioch University is announcing our next President: Lori Erica Varlotta. In preparation for this announcement, we sat down with Lori for a wide-ranging conversation about what makes Antioch special, her experiences and wisdom drawn from decades as a leader in higher education, and the challenges and opportunities that she, as our next university leader, sees for our institution during a time when colleges and universities across the U.S. are being pressured and threatened in unprecedented ways.

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To learn more about Lori, visit the Incoming President webpage on Antioch’s website, where you’ll find the announcement and welcome video, press release, a brief bio, her CV, selected publications, and a form where you can leave a note for the Incoming President.

The two essays referenced in the episode are “Lipstick Leadership in Higher Education” at the Chronicle of Higher Education and Lori’s blog post on “Experiential Adult Education: Living and Practicing Democracy in Higher Learning.”

This episode was recorded April 28, 2025 via Squadcast and released May 7, 2025.

The Seed Field Podcast is produced by Antioch University

Host: Jasper Nighthawk

Editor: Nastasia Green

Web Content Coordinator: Jen Mont

Work-Study Assistants: Stefanie Paredes, Lauren Arienzale, Dani LaPointe, and Liza Wisner.

Additional Production Help: Karen Hamilton, Melinda Garland, and Laurien Alexandre.

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To access a full transcript and find more information about this and other episodes, visit theseedfield.org. To get updates and be notified about future episodes, follow Antioch University on Facebook.