Challenge. Change.

Clark University
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Conversations to challenge your mind with people who are changing our world. Produced on Clark University's campus in Worcester, Massachusetts.

  1. OCT 10

    Indulging Your Inner Child with Photographer and Professor Stephen DiRado

    Photographer and Visual and Performing Arts Professor Stephen DiRado fell in love with cameras at age 12 and remains infatuated five decades later. "As a nervous kid, the camera had that same kind of heartbeat — that click, click, click, click, click — as opposed to the slow, methodical way of working with a paintbrush or with a pencil. It spoke to me on so many levels," says DiRado. On this episode of Challenge. Change., DiRado recalls some of the first images he captured and shares a glimpse into how he constructs a photograph from behind the lens. Challenge. Change. is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

    9 min

  2. AUG 20

    An Introvert's Clark Journey with Dean of Students Danielle Morgan Acosta

    A two-time and first-gen Clark alum, Danielle Morgan Acosta '05, MAT '06, knows what it's like to arrive at college and feel overwhelmed by all the opportunities ahead. Acosta, the dean of students, came to Clark all the way from California, and the self-identified introvert remembers leaning on her peer mentor and friends to help get settled on campus. On this episode of Challenge. Change., Acosta shares a few tips to help incoming students step out of their comfort zone and find where they fit in — introvert or not. "I think the best advice is to take a deep breath and try to be as much of a sponge as you can during your time in college," she says. "Unlike many other parts of your life, really everywhere you turn during college is a learning experience. That can be incredibly exciting, but also tough and difficult. Clark offers so many opportunities for new experiences and for students to dive deeper into the things that they really care about." Challenge. Change. is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

    10 min

  3. MAY 22

    Highlights from Clark University's 121st Commencement

    Clark's 121st Commencement Ceremonies on May 19, 2025, conferred 468 undergraduate degrees and 1,014 advanced degrees. NPR journalist Ari Shapiro and Esther Duflo, a Nobel Prize-winning economist and the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, delivered speeches to graduate students and undergraduate students, respectively. Both spoke about the need for care and compassion in the world. In addresses to their peers, Temera De Groot ’25 and Kumar Gaurav, MBA ’25, spoke about their journeys at Clark as first-generation college students. Relive the highlights of the day on this episode of Challenge. Change. Challenge. Change. is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

    17 min

  4. APR 25

    How Maps can Erase or Unify with History Professor Nathan Braccio

    History Professor Nathan Braccio is a scholar of Indigenous and colonial American history and has a special interest in maps. "Like many other people, I have a fascination with maps," he says. "A map can be a legal tool that allows you to assert, 'this is where my borders are.' A map could be used to visualize an empire, to visualize a nation." His forthcoming book, “Creating New England, Defending the Northeast: Contested Algonquian and English Spatial Worlds, 1500–1700,” examines how Algonquian-speaking peoples and Puritan colonists mapped the landscape of present-day New England.  On this episode of Challenge. Change., Braccio explains how maps have changed over time and how English settlers erased Indigenous populations through mapmaking practices. "One of the things that has changed in maps is the ways that they reflect our different set of values or assumptions about the land, because that is at its heart what a map is doing. It's supporting how we think about the land and the world," he says. "How someone in the 17th century thought about land may have prioritized a different set of things than we do now." Challenge. Change. is produced by Brenna Moore ’24, MSC ’25, and Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

    18 min

  5. APR 10

    Fungal Armageddon: Why We're Drawn to “The Last of Us” with Professors Betsy Huang, Ulm, and Javier Tabima Restrepo

    With season two of HBO Max's "The Last of Us," based on the acclaimed video game franchise created by Naughty Dog, hitting screens this weekend, we asked Clark University professors to unpack people's fascination with post-apocalyptic stories and comment on the fictional science of the series. On this episode of Challenge. Change., English Professor Betsy Huang discusses speculative fiction and the depiction of institutions in catastrophic tales; Becker School of Design & Technology Professor Ulm explains how video games help players explore their fears; and mycologist and biology Professor Javier Tabima Restrepo comments on the depiction of Cordyceps in this wildly popular game and show. Challenge. Change. is produced by graduate student Brenna Moore '24, MSC '25, and Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

    13 min

  6. MAR 28

    What Does Justice Look Like in Your City? With Geography Professor Asha Best

    Geography Professor Asha Best has lived in a handful of cities across the U.S., Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and Atlanta among them. Experiencing each place’s unique culture, transportation, and education systems has given Best insight into how different cities are designed and how they function. A curiosity to understand this more drives some of her current research. Best, an urbanist who studies mobility and urban informality, is researching how planners and developers can build just cities, where everyone lives equitably. One thing she’s noticed throughout her studies is that there is no common definition of what justice looks like, however. “We often know what injustice looks like in cities, but we don't often know what justice looks like. I think that equality is a good start. Do we have equal access to shared resources, and are vital resources distributed in a way that's consistent and even — and I'm talking about things like water and food and shelter, the basics,” she says. Best believes just cities are ones in which planners and officials address current problems and work to right historical wrongs. “I think it's about how cities deliver vital resources, discovering who doesn't have access to them and how to fix that, and creating a space that's livable, where people have dignity,” she says. Challenge. Change. is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

    18 min

  7. MAR 14

    Our Enduring Love and Hate of Twilight with Sarah Gallagher

    In 2008, just as the film adaptation of "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer was about to hit theaters, Sarah Gallagher was a doctoral student in Boston and saw everyone walking down Commonwealth Avenue with their heads buried in the book with an apple on its cover. Initially, she wasn't interested. But once she inevitably got her hands on the book, she tore through it in one night. "I can never explain what it felt like to read that book for the first time and to just fall in love with it. I immediately was so obsessed with Edward. There's something in the pages of that book that makes you fall into the world," says Gallagher, now the associate dean of students and operations in Clark's School of Professional Studies. Vampires don't age, but the series did, and not necessarily gracefully. On this episode of Challenge. Change., Gallagher explains some of Twilight's flaws and why the fandom is still so passionate about Bella and Edward despite the saga's issues. These topics are at the heart of Gallagher's book, "Why We Love (and Hate) Twilight," which is being published in April. Gallagher encourages the fandom to think critically about the kinds of media we love. "I think if we can start being critical about things that we love, then it will be a lot easier to be critical about terrible things that are happening," she says. "I think it's an exercise in evaluating the things in our life." Challenge. Change. is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

    18 min

  8. FEB 28

    Listening to a World of Sounds with Composer and Professor Matt Malsky

    Most people aren't thinking about just how many sounds they encounter on an average day. But Professor Matt Malsky, the Tina Sweeney, M.A. '49, Endowed Chair in Music, director of the Alice Coonley Higgins Institute for the Arts and Humanities, and director of the interdisciplinary Media, Culture, and the Arts program, part of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts, is immersed in it. "Our vision is something that we have some control over. We have eyelids, we can close our eyes, and we can stop seeing things," he notes. "But we don't have earlids. Hearing is always on, and there's no way to stop the sensations that come with sounds." As Malsky teaches his students about soundscapes and acoustic ecology — including walking tours around Worcester to partake in all the noises of nature and traffic — he's also thinking about the intersection of sound and our changing climate. "Lots of sea creatures depend on sounds to communicate with other creatures and to get feedback about their environment. As the climate changes, as the temperatures rise on the planet and the temperature of the ocean increases, it changes the way that sound is transmitted through water — it speeds it up, it increases the distance that it travels," Malsky says. "Combined with all the ways in which humankind is adding sounds to the ocean with increased traffic of tankers, underwater mining operations, and offshore wind turbines, we're adding an enormous amount of sound to the ocean, and it's changing the way that sea creatures are able to operate — to their deficit." Challenge. Change. is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

    17 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
12 Ratings

About

Conversations to challenge your mind with people who are changing our world. Produced on Clark University's campus in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Information

  • Creator
    Clark University
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2025
  • Episodes
    114
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 Clark University
  • Show Website
    Challenge. Change.

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