Northwestern Intersections

This special episode centers around the cast and crew of the upcoming film Play the Game: A Jock ‘N’ Roll Story. Directed by Mesa and executive produced by Versen and Korzilius, the film covers the incredible true story of how a group of Northwestern football players, including the executive producers, worked as security for the band Queen in its heyday. Join us as we discuss this wild career move and the world of rock and roll touring in the 1980s.

Kelsheimer is a college admissions adviser based in greater New York City. She previously served as a high school music instructor and a college professor before moving into her current role, where she helps students and families find their best fit for college. Join us as she gives advice to parents on the college admissions landscape and shares tips for students on how to market themselves in a job search.

Adina Bezerita is a Romanian-American, award-winning Oxford-Cambridge philosopher and scholar, whose works pioneer interdisciplinary projects in ancient wisdom relevant to contemporary thought across the humanities and sciences. With her Numinous Threads foundation (2016), Adina provides leadership, education, consultation and collaboration to individuals, profit and non-profit organizations and to governmental bodies for achieving visionary goals in the polyvalent world. Adina serves as a global ambassador for Northwestern University in Eastern Europe, the first in Romania. She is an appointed honorary advisor to the Romanian Government Ministry of Research, Innovation and Technology.

Byington is a play-by-play commentator who has covered major sports events, including the Women’s World Cup and Olympic Games. She’s the first woman to do play-by-play for the NCAA men's basketball tournament and for a men’s professional basketball team, the Milwaukee Bucks. Hubbarth is an Emmy Award–winning Evanston native who works as an anchor for ESPN’s SportsCenter, NBA Tonight, and First Take. Join us as we discuss the changing sports media landscape and the rich legacy of Northwestern graduates in sports media. “NCAA and NCAA Championships are trademarks of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.”

Frishman is an author and former news reporter and editor. She has written human interest and medical health articles and recently began writing children’s books. Her recent book, Nina Allender: Suffrage Cartoonist, illuminates the life and work of an underappreciated hero in the women’s suffrage movement. Join us as we discuss how she helped tell the story of one of America’s first female political cartoonists and what Women’s History Month means to her.

Marsh has served the University in countless meaningful ways, including as president of the Northwestern University Black Alumni Association (NUBAA), a member of the Northwestern University Leadership Circle (NULC) Chicago Regional Board, and a host of alumni events at her jazz club, M Lounge, in Chicago’s South Loop. She was an importer-exporter of American blue jeans in Europe before returning to Chicago to become an art gallery owner and now a real estate broker. Join us as we explore her fascinating career trajectory and the incredible story of how a Northwestern professor helped reunite her Nigerian family in Chicago.

Join us for a special episode celebrating alumni who coupled up at Northwestern. Six guests share short stories about finding true love on campus. Take a break from the cold and warm your heart with tales of campus romance.

McCollough Seletzky was a litigator before becoming an award-winning writer and memoirist with work featured in the Atlantic, O Magazine, and the New York Times. Join us as we discuss her memoir, The Kneeling Man: My Father’s Life as a Black Spy Who Witnessed the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and her journey to discover her family history.

Skladany is an icon across industries, working as a television and radio personality, writer, editor, publicist, and lifestyle content expert. He has worked on countless projects with recognizable brands, from People magazine and Apartment Therapy to Food Network and CBS. Join us as we discuss his ubiquitous career path and the lessons he has learned from working in multiple industries.

Hahn and Sandler met on campus and have been a Northwestern power couple ever since! Their careers have included acting and producing credits on some of Hollywood’s most memorable productions, from New Girl and Meet the Robinsons to WandaVision and Private Life. Join us as they discuss their time at Northwestern, finding their way in Hollywood, and working together in the industry.

Kliegman is a sportswriter and copy chief at Sports Illustrated. Her journalism often focuses on underrepresented topics in sports and society, including gender, asexuality, and mental health. She shares valuable lessons on working as a sports journalist and finding stories that matter. Join us as we discuss her important work and her upcoming book, Mind Games: An Inside Look at the Mental Health Playbook of Elite Athletes, due out in March 2024.

Gallagher is a television producer and author based in Los Angeles. She worked on MTV’s wildly successful The Real World and went on to become an executive producer for several major reality TV shows, including The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood, and Married at First Sight. Join us as she talks about her time in Hollywood and how she found the inspiration for her Twist My Charm young adult book series.

Jackson is an author, playwright, and poet currently serving as the Illinois Poet Laureate. She is a Chicagoan through and through, having grown up on the South Side, and uses her experiences in the area as inspiration for her poems and novels. Her works have been awarded major literary honors, including the Pushcart Prize, Carl Sandburg Literary Award, and American Book Award. Join us as we talk through her creative trajectory and the sights, smells, and sounds of Chicago that influenced some of her most recognizable projects.

Lord is a Peabody and Emmy Award–winning journalist, an author, and a Vietnam War veteran. He went from a career in television news management to writing the book, 50 Years After Vietnam: Lessons and Letters from the War I Hated Fighting, in 2018. Lord has reported in several major American cities, including Nashville, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC, and was also a correspondent for NBC News. Join us as he discusses breaking news, pursuing the truth, and sharing your own story.

Arana is a prize-winning author, literary critic, and inaugural literary director of the Library of Congress. She has been an executive at publishing houses Simon & Schuster and Harcourt Brace, a judge for the National Book Awards and Pulitzer Prizes, a Latin America columnist for the New York Times editorial page, a media commentator for numerous news outlets, and editor in chief of Book World at the Washington Post. Join us as we explore her incredible literary contributions and discuss her upcoming projects.

Alomá is a CEO, lecturer, and author based in Chicago. He went from working in communications and consulting to lecturing at Northwestern to founding his own marketing company, Threadline. Alomá applies his knowledge of narrative psychology to the practice of marketing and branding, serving as a self-described “couples therapist” for clients and their customers. Join us as Alomá talks about his journey toward founding his dream company and finding time to write a bestselling book, Start with the Story: Brand-Building in a Narrative Economy.

Ginni Rometty came to Northwestern after a challenging childhood and left with a computer science degree that would help her change the world of technology. In 1981, she joined IBM as a systems engineer and worked her way to becoming chairman, president and CEO of the company. Ms. Rometty helped revolutionize the global tech giant in the 2010s and became one of the country’s most influential business leaders. In this special episode, we share a fireside chat between Rometty and Northwestern President Michael Schill from an event last spring. The pair discusses changemaking leadership, the future of technology, and her new bestselling book, “Good Power: Leading Positive Change in Our Lives, Work, and World.” Don’t miss important lessons and advice from one of Northwestern’s most influential alums.

Ayun Halliday is a writer, illustrator, and actor based out of New York City. She is a creative jack-of-all-trades, serving as the architect for plays, books, and her own zine, the award-winning East Village Inky. Halliday's unique comedic style has won her acclaim for her creative projects, and she’s taken the road less traveled to her current work. Join us as she discusses her new book, creative background, and wide-reaching (and usually hilarious) job history.

Mary Jo Bang is an award-winning poet and professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis. After finishing her sociology degree at Northwestern, she took a winding road to becoming a poet, working in medicine and photography before her first teaching job. Her path to poetry paid off: she's now published eight books of poetry, earned fellowships from Princeton University and the Guggenheim Foundation, and featured in The New Yorker and other publications. Join us as Professor Bang discusses her unique career trajectory and how she produced one of her most recognizable works, a pop-culture laden translation of Dante's Inferno.

Award-winning author, blogger, podcaster, and proud Northwestern alumnus, Phil Yu '00 first came to prominence as the author of the popular entertainment website Angry Asian Man. In this special episode, Phil is interviewed by author and Northwestern Asian and Asian American Alumni Association (NU-A5) member Kathy Khang '92. Phil shares how his experiences at Northwestern and beyond helped to develop his own personal identity as an Asian American man and influenced his career as a blogger and author of recent release, Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now