66 episodes

“Burn Your Draft” is a podcast exploring the year-long senior thesis experience at Reed College, an independent liberal arts and sciences college in Portland, Oregon. Each episode showcases a senior or recent graduate and interviews them about their thesis: what is it, why did they do it, and what comes next. This podcast is a joint production of Reed students, staff, and alumni, and was made possible by a gift from Seth Paskin '90. New episodes released every other week during the academic year. Episodes may contain explicit language and may deal with sensitive topics. The views, information, or opinions expressed on this podcast are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of Reed College.

Burn Your Draft Burn Your Draft

    • Education
    • 5.0 • 21 Ratings

“Burn Your Draft” is a podcast exploring the year-long senior thesis experience at Reed College, an independent liberal arts and sciences college in Portland, Oregon. Each episode showcases a senior or recent graduate and interviews them about their thesis: what is it, why did they do it, and what comes next. This podcast is a joint production of Reed students, staff, and alumni, and was made possible by a gift from Seth Paskin '90. New episodes released every other week during the academic year. Episodes may contain explicit language and may deal with sensitive topics. The views, information, or opinions expressed on this podcast are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of Reed College.

    #60: Mildly Morally Wrong with Ashley Ledbetter '24, Philosophy

    #60: Mildly Morally Wrong with Ashley Ledbetter '24, Philosophy

    Do you want to listen to this episode? Or do you want to want to listen to this episode? Ashley tells us a bit about first and second order desires in her thesis studying moral responsibility. She also shares with us how she selected her major and shares some of her own struggles with mental illness in her time at Reed.

    Reed community members can read Ashley's thesis, “How Mental Illness Impacts Moral Responsibility,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive:
    https://rdc.reed.edu/i/57075318-72d1-4b40-a407-9a5231861249

    Explore more interviews with Reed College alumni on our website:
    reed.edu/burnyourdraft

    • 20 min
    #59: Performing Gendered Speech with Joray Foster-Wexler '23, Linguistics

    #59: Performing Gendered Speech with Joray Foster-Wexler '23, Linguistics

    Joray tells us about the joy of digging into academic papers in their fall semester, and the fun of using the software in the linguistics lab to analyze the trove of interviews they were working with. There was also a kitten.

    We'd also like to welcome Avis Corea '27 to the team. Avis is our new student producer on the podcast, and this is the first episode she's produced for us. Welcome, Avis!

    Reed community members can read Joray's thesis, “Linguistic Erasure Hertz; a post-binary discussion of F0 performance in read speech,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive:
    https://rdc.reed.edu/i/4c352c75-6c02-45c7-a556-e02c704c6fb1

    Explore more interviews with Reed College alumni on our website:
    reed.edu/burnyourdraft

    • 17 min
    Thesis Mini #1

    Thesis Mini #1

    Producer and current senior, Juno Kerelis, talks about organization, and how being responsible for writing a year-long thesis differs from more structured, assignment-driven courses. Juno talks to other thesising seniors about how they're dealing with organization as well.

    Explore more interviews on our website: reed.edu/burnyourdraft

    Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/burnyourdraft/

    • 9 min
    #58: Snowbirds in South Beach with Isaac Walton '24, Anthropology

    #58: Snowbirds in South Beach with Isaac Walton '24, Anthropology

    Isaac graduated in fall 2023 as a spring/fall grad in the anthropology department. His thesis was titled "Aging in The Sun: An exploration of the Jewish Retirement Community in South Beach, Florida," and his work focused on how this community in Florida appeared and disappeared. He also talks about how he found anthropology, found his topic, and found Reed (he's from Australia).

    Reed community members can read Isaac's thesis, “Aging in The Sun: An exploration of the Jewish Retirement Community in South Beach, Florida,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive:
    https://rdc.reed.edu/i/8575a9a1-56ae-4511-b75e-9bac3cd03250

    Explore more interviews on our website: reed.edu/burnyourdraft

    • 22 min
    #57: Title IX Perceptions with Francesca Tangherlini '22, Sociology

    #57: Title IX Perceptions with Francesca Tangherlini '22, Sociology

    We're excited to welcome Francesca back to the podcast! Francesca was our first student producer, named the podcast, and was integral as we were still figuring out what we were going to be and how we were going to do it. The voice of this podcast is largely Francesca's voice (along with the voices of all the alumni we've interviewed) and it would have been something entirely different without her. Thanks Frank! (Francesca went by Frank back when she was working for the podcast.)

    Francesca's thesis examined Title IX implementations and student perceptions of these implementations at the level of the liberal arts college. Check out the episode to hear about institutional review boards, and why you should put your thesis into the library thesis template well before it's due.

    Reed community members can read Francesca's thesis, “The Small Liberal Arts Experience: Title IX and Student Perceptions of Sexual Misconduct,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive:
    https://rdc.reed.edu/i/ee929d9c-b4de-4985-b923-baefd1b68685

    Explore more interviews on our website:
    reed.edu/burnyourdraft

    • 25 min
    #56: Breaking Ancient DNA with David Rothfels '23, Chemistry/Classics

    #56: Breaking Ancient DNA with David Rothfels '23, Chemistry/Classics

    David studied archaeometry at Reed through an ad hoc major in the chemistry and classics departments (classics at Reed is now known as Greek, Latin, and Ancient Mediterranean Studies). He was introduced to archaeometry, the application of scientific methods and technology to archaeological study, by a research mentor after his sophomore year, and then went about petitioning to form his ad hoc program at Reed (it's not an easy process).

    Reed community members can read David's thesis, “Hoping to Smash DNA with Rocks and Pickaxes,” online in the Electronic Theses Archive:
    https://rdc.reed.edu/i/38fe0ef0-afa6-4cb8-b28a-2b988b231627

    Explore past interviews on our website:
    https://blogs.reed.edu/burn-your-draft/

    • 30 min

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21 Ratings

21 Ratings

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