Podcast Episodes

What does the way we learn have to do with drug addiction? In our fourth episode, Erin Calipari, associate professor of pharmacology and director of the Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research, joins Provost C. Cybele Raver for an enlightening conversation. In this episode, they discuss nucleus accumbens—the part of… Read More

In our third episode, Provost C. Cybele Raver welcomes chemist Brian Bachmann, who is the principal investigator for the Vanderbilt Laboratory for Biosynthetic Studies. Bachmann talks about his work discovering useful chemicals made from natural products (compounds made by tiny living things like bacteria and fungi) that are paving… Read More

In our second episode, Vanderbilt University provost C. Cybele Raver explores civil justice inequities with Lauren Sudeall, law professor and director of Vanderbilt’s Access to Justice program. Through her groundbreaking research in rural Alabama and Georgia, Sudeall reveals how low-income individuals navigate eviction proceedings—with or without legal representation—and advocates… Read More

In our premiere episode, Vanderbilt University Provost C. Cybele Raver hosts acclaimed poet Major Jackson, holder of the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities, for a deep dive into what he calls “sacred secular conversation.” During this extraordinary conversation, they explore the intersection of music and poetry, pluralism,… Read More