President Bergeron opens her podcast Think.Do.Lead. by expressing how its aim is to inspire campus dialogues and contribute to the “rich conversation that is happening every day on our campus.”
“It’s one thing to write an article about something, but to talk with alumni about their life paths… this was less a feature about Connecticut College alumni but the creative thinking about what the graduates do,” President Bergeron explained. “Think.Do.Lead.” was a slogan that emerged in Bergeron’s first semester at Conn, when she was already thinking about Connections, general education, and what it encourages people to do, “Think.Do.Lead” became another way to have a conversation with our alumni about the importance of the liberal arts.
President Bergeron described her experience speaking with several of the prolific individuals featured in her podcast, many of whom are recognized on the “difference wall” on the first floor of Fanning: David Housler ‘75, Lizbeth Scott ‘80, and Blanche Boyd, the Roman and Tatiana Weller Professor of English and Writer-in-Residence at the College. During each 45 minute podcast, Bergeron brings the “insights into where creative ideas come from,” to life.
With the implementation of new technology and the help of Jim McNeish, Director of the Elizabeth Gilbert Fortune Recording Studio, where President Bergeron has already recorded several conversations, she was given the tools to galvanize such intimate conservations.
President Bergeron described recording in the studio with her guests as “having what feels like a cocoon of a conversation.” McNeish teaches courses in recording technology and helps with the recording. With a “little editing on the tracks,” Bergeron said, “the conversations have been so fluent … [and] sounding the way it did in the moment.” A portable microphone allowed her to take her podcast on the road, as well. Each interview features a different alumi. For instance, Bergeron takes the podcast on the road in Episode 11 and 12, noting two rewarding experiences: her interview with Blanche Boyd in front of a live audience in New York, and her interview with Peter Som ‘93 in his Greenwich Village. Bergeron also emphasized the deeply stimulating discussion that emerged from her live episode with Susan Froshauer ‘74, David Haussler ‘75, and Lynn Cooley ‘76. The “enthusiastic presence of David,” Bergeron said, as someone who had the “distinction of having led the team that sequenced the first human genome,” was inspiring. As someone who cares a great deal about Connecticut College, the panel discussion that he participated in explored the journey he took to solving a puzzle on human DNA, and he also took steps to ensure that such information was not private data.
Bergeron was very welcoming of audience involvement, and even noted a “very impressive first-year student” who asked a question during her discussion with Haussler. The “intimate and intense conversation” that emerged during her conversation with Blanche Boyd came with a “very full audience, a lot of her [Blanche’s] fans … New York based writers, and other kinds of artists,” and Bergeron enjoyed having a diverse audience and tributes from devoted students.
Lisbeth Scott ‘80, a Los Angeles based singer/composer featured on over 150 television shows and films (including Shrek, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the HBO series True Blood), played musical examples from her repertoire with President Bergeron in Episode 7. Bergeron stated that Scott is “the voice of many many soundtracks of movies you’ve probably heard.” Scott describes how she grew up, how music impacted her life, and how she creates music to match visuals.
To Bergeron’s listeners, Scott advises that “it is those who have a unique voice that rise above the rest.” Bergeron noted that this message is particularly impactful coming from someone who never studied voice, yet has written music in an ancient language found only in Western Syria— a “true liberal arts project,” Bergeron adds. Steven Spielberg called Scott’s voice the “voice of atonement for all of humanity” during her work on music for the film Munich.
On creating the podcast itself, Bergeron states,“The creative process that’s most significant is the one beforehand, it’s the preparation… I actually spend a lot of time thinking about what those questions are and what order to ask those questions… what might be the narrative arc and will it actually allow the person to tell a story.” In order to understand the trajectory of each of her guests’ careers, Bergeron states that she executes a fair amount of research before sitting down to record the podcast.
Bergeron’s podcast is available on several platforms, such as Podbean, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and the College website, although it is unclear how far the podcast reaches. On the aggregate, those numbers don’t get compiled. However, President Bergeron did state that it was to her surprise that the most downloaded podcast was her interview with Sarah Reicman ‘01. In her interview with Reicman, Bergeron stated that she was “surprised by how vibrant it turned out to be because she was such an amazing thinker and doer… a wonderfully accomplished and wonderfully humble person.”
President Bergeron and Reicman explored why chemistry is important today, in a conversation that discussed molecular solutions to some of the most pressing environmental issues. For Bergeron, Reicman’s response is “the most incredible liberal arts answer” and led her to be “very hopeful” about environmental solutions.
“We’re an earbud culture, aren’t we?” President Bergeron asked. She went further to state: “I kind of love this phenomenon.” While video and video culture has been obsessive, there is something that is focusing about listening to a podcast. “You can’t really do it in a distracted way… there is something that can be essentially distracting about video that makes you not listen as much,” Bergeron said. Podcasts, she says, call into question a long way of listening. Having noticed the way that newspaper journalism is already branching out through different media channels, President Bergeron sees podcasts as inherently important: “it’s something that is collectible, that you can go back to.”
While President Bergeron plans to maintain her attention to alumni and their journeys, she is interested in having students discuss with her what they are doing as well. This year, President Bergeron plans to engage in discussions with Fletcher Previn ‘00, Chief Information Office of IBM, Emily Callahan Hazlewood ‘11, a Forbes 30 under 30 energy sector recipient and co-founder of Rigs to Reef, Jonathan McBride ‘92, Chief of White House Personnel under the Obama Administration and head of Global Diversity and Inclusion at Black Rock, as well as others who work in the renewable power and professional art industries.
“Traveling, meeting so many alumni, created these lives on purpose,” Bergeron asserted.
“A podcast about our alumni … this is an incredible opportunity to meet somebody in a form that allows you to see into their personality, the decisions they made,” she concluded. Furthermore, this is “an opportunity for them to have a conversation, too.”
Think.Do.Lead. is nothing short of an extension of the many wonderful connections that are found on the Connecticut College campus. There is a real, fundamental connection and partnership between the graduates of the College and the students that cultivates rewarding work. President Bergeron’s Think.Do.Lead. is a profile of the institution as a whole, a reflection on the interactions, professional and social, that occur on the campus and throughout the alumni network, a reflection of the way that institutional leadership on campus shares itself with a community far greater than its comfortable turf. •
