Author: Steven Ovadia

Steven Ovadia writes about music, technology, and how people work. You can see more of his work at https://steven.ovadia.org.

Episode 36: Mark Carpentieri on the flat tire shuffle

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Mark Carpentieri teaches public speaking at Queensborough Community College and is the owner of M.C. Records, a blues/roots music label based on the South Shore of Long Island. Mark is also a graduate of Queens College. In this interview, Mark shows the connection between public speaking and running a label, talks about the need for online teaching and learning, and explains what makes a good blues drummer. Suffice it to say, this interview covers a lot of ground.

As someone who loves music, talking to Mark about his life in the music industry was a real treat. As was his optimism about the music industry and about higher education.

A few links to check out after you listen:

Listen to Episode 36 now!

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Episode 29: ‘We Once Feared ATMs’

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Nicole Bode teaches at the Craig Newmark School of Journalism and is the head of Newsroom Sustainability for Civil. Civil is a fascinating project designed to help journalism, which, you may have heard, is going through a bit of a rough patch.

Civil does interesting things, like using the blockchain to archive content. What that means for librarians is that content won’t disappear. News content can disappear for a variety of reasons, both accidental and deliberate. Civil is working to make sure the historical record remains intact.

Civil is also using cryptocurrency as a tool to help news organizations get paid. If you’re like me, you know nothing about what cryptocurrency really is, but it makes you vaguely nervous. The knock on Civil is that it’s complicated. Nicole addresses that concern, pointing out that ATMs once seemed hopelessly complex to people. And now, much less so. Unless you’re using one in front of me. Then, they become impossibly complicated.

Nicole also gets into the similarities between the struggles of journalism and the struggles of public higher education.

It’s an accessible, informative interview.

I promise.

Listen to Episode 29 now!

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Episode 16, Part 2: The Things We All Do

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In part two of our exciting season finale, we continue our conversation with Stephanie and Jennifer, but allow the interview to degenerate into guilty TV pleasures and the addicting nature of social media.

Show Notes

Listen to Episode 16, part 2 now!

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Episode 16, Part 1: The Things We All Do

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In our exciting, surprise two-part season finale, we interview Professors Stephanie Margolin (Hunter) and Jennifer Poggiali (Lehman) about their work around academic libraries and bathrooms. While the topic lends itself to fairly easy jokes, it’s fascinating and important, speaking to everything from student success to the human experience.

Jennifer and Stephanie talk about what sparked their research and how libraries and librarians can improve their spaces for their patrons.

Show Notes

Listen to Episode 16, part 1 now!

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Episode 13: Dana Weinberg and digital publishing

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I first met Dana Weinberg when I was a graduate student in the Queens College Applied Social Research program. She was, as you’ll soon hear for yourself, an incredible teacher. Her work at the time was around the sociology of nursing and we read Code Green: Money-Driven Hospitals and the Dismantling of Nursing, an amazing book which I often give to nursing students. It’s beautiful, both in terms of its prose and its ideas.

I was very interested to learn Dana is now working on the sociology of digital publishing. Her article, “Comparing gender discrimination and inequality in indie and traditional publishing” (with her collaborator, Adam Kapelner), examines the impact of gendered names on publishing, finding that books written by male-sounding names sell for higher prices than female — across independent and traditional publishing (sorry Kathleen!).

Dana also studies digital publishing from the inside as novelist DB Shuster. Her latest book, To Catch a Traitor is a is a Cold War spy novel. I was moved by Dana’s thoughts on DB Shuster helping her to find herself.

Also, in the spirit of correcting/clarifying, Dana correctly remembered that Art Worlds is by Howard Becker.

Listen to Episode 13 now!

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Episode 10: Richard Lieberman on teaching with archives

Dr. Richard Lieberman
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Richard Lieberman is the head of the La Guardia and Wagner Archives, which just happens to be housed at LaGuardia Community College, my home campus. In this interview, we touch on a lot of great topics, ranging from the importance of faculty-led projects, to Wikipedia, to Ed Koch’s mayorship. If these seem like disparate strands, then you’ve never met Richard, who masterfully ties together the strands of history.

Richard’s many loves come through in this interview. He loves history. He loves teaching. He loves New York City. To sit with him is to become energized and inspired.

A quick bit of housekeeping. In the interview, Richard references Ann and Ximena. That would be my colleagues (and future interview subjects…I hope) Ann Matsuuchi and Ximena Gallardo, who work with Richard on the incredible Koch Scholars project.

Listen to Episode 10 now!

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Image courtesy of YouTube

Episode 7: Technology isn’t mysticism

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Boone Gorges is the lead developer for the CUNY Academic Commons and a one-time CUNY grad student, making him uniquely qualified to navigate between the technical world and the academic one. As someone who truly believes free and open source software is the pillar of an informed society, I loved speaking with Boone, who can articulately argue that a broad technical understanding of our various systems–from operating systems to algorithms–is an important new literacy. He even makes a compelling case that understanding these systems, and understanding how best to focus our attention, is a form of information literacy, something that speaks to me as a librarian.

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Episode 4: Wraparound, Episodes 1-3.

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In this installment, Steve and Kathleen chat with each other about what they’re reading and who they’re wearing. They also reflect on the three interviews they’ve done so far, finding a set of serendipitous commonalities that also correspond to the idea behind Indoor Voices. They did so at the LaGuardia Community College recording studio where they foresee having future wraparounds, so we all have something to look forward to.

Be sure to enjoy the soothing buzzing of Steve’s phone vibrating during the interview, perhaps pushing out the jackhammers in Barbara Katz Rothman’s interview as the most distracting sound in an episode…

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Episode 3: “Corralling scholarly cats…”

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As a librarian, there are certain issues, like open access, that I feel I have a pretty firm grip on. When I read Jessie Daniels and Polly Thistlethwaite’s Being a Scholar in the Digital Era: Transforming Scholarly Practice for the Public Good, I knew it would be good, but I didn’t expect many surprises. But the book blew me away in terms of the fantastically interesting takes on what matters to academics—not necessarily to academia—in the 21st century.

This interview, which took place in LaGuardia Community College’s lovely podcast studio, touches on a lot of those issues, but also the fixes for some of the challenges of digital scholarship, such as the tension between wanting to reach a broader audience with your work while also being intimidated by the repercussions of the work being misunderstood.

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