Colloquy
Conversations with visionary scholars and thinkers from the Harvard PhD community
- Update frequency
- every 21 days
- Average duration
- 21 minutes
- Episodes
- 63
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
When Home Is the Barrel of a Gun
In 2014, Boko Haram terrorists kidnapped 276 female students from their dormitory at the Government Girls Secondary School in the Nigerian town of Chibok. The act inspired international outrage and a…
A Cosmic Game of Battleship
It’s important to understand how massive stars live and die because of their role in the formation of some of the fundamental elements of the universe. That kind of science requires the development o…
Vets, Trauma, and the Search for Meaning
Ben Bellet, is a Harvard Griffin GSAS PhD student in clinical psychology who studies PTSD. A graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point, Bellet served as an officer in the army for five years.…
The Best Poetry Critic in America
For this special Poetry Month bonus episode of Colloquy, a conversation with Harvard Professor Helen Vendler, PhD ’60—once called “the best poetry critic in America” by The New Republic’s Alfred Kazi…
The Secret Teachings of Jesus
“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
Is this saying from a Zen Buddh…
Colloquy Podcast: The Debt Ceiling—and Beyond—with Laurence Kotlikoff
As politicians and pundits wring their hands over the debt ceiling, the economist and Boston University professor Laurence Kotlikoff, PhD ’77, says the United States is already bankrupt. He calculate…
How Good Do Black Students Have to Be?
“You have to be twice as good to go half as far.” It's a maxim that Black and Brown Americans know well, particularly in their experience of the educational system. In recent decades, college prepara…
New York Times Executive Editor Joe Kahn and Harvard’s Danielle Allen on Journalism and Its Discontents
Does objectivity exist? Is it possible for news organizations to cut through the noise of the digital age and get citizens the information they need to be responsible participants in democracy? How c…
Eating disorders can be lethal. We don't treat them that way.
For many, the holiday season’s combination of festivities, family, and food makes this time of year joyous. If you're one of the nearly 29 million Americans who deal with an eating disorder at some p…
Midterms and Minority Rule
As the 2022 midterm elections approach, many citizens are worried about the state of our democracy. And with good reason. Our electoral system increasingly produces leaders who do not represent the w…
Beyond the Massacres, Part II: Solutions for Red States and Blue
In this episode of Colloquy, part two of our discussion of guns and public health in America. In part one, we got a sense of the scope of the problem: nearly 400 million guns owned by US civilians, o…
Beyond the Massacres Part I: Guns and Public Health
In this episode of Colloquy, part one of a discussion about guns and public health in America. We'll move past the horrors of Uvalde—and El Paso, and Parkland, and Orlando, and Las Vegas, and Sandy H…
Maternal Eugenics: The Dark History Behind the Dobbs Decision
"A victory for white life." That's how Illinois Congresswoman Mary Miller described the Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to an abortion at a rally with former President Don…
Race at the Top
“We are living in an age of anxiety,” writes the Tufts University sociologist Natasha Warikoo, PhD '05, one in which even wealthy families who seem to “have it all” are insecure about their status. H…
Graduate Student Mental Health Crisis
Co-chaired by GSAS Dean Emma Dench, Harvard University's Task Force on Managing Student Mental Health reported in 2020 that nearly one in four graduate students surveyed exhibited symptoms of moderat…
“It Was Hell”: The Forgotten Earthquakes that Reshaped America
“Torn to pieces.” That's how the American frontiersman Davy Crockett, described the West Tennessee landscape. Nearly 15 years after it was rent asunder by the New Madrid earthquakes from December 181…
Russia, Ukraine, and Avoiding WWIII
Today on Colloquy, we bring you a recent conversation with two of the country's leading experts on eastern Europe and national security. Dr. Fiona Hill is a senior fellow in the Center on the United …
The Economics of Life: Why Exercising More May Not Help You Lose Weight
Wondering why the "COVID 19" you packed on during the pandemic won't go away no matter how hard you workout? Herman Pontzer, PhD '06, associate professor of evolutionary anthropology and global healt…
The Black Agenda
The Black Agenda is a new collection of essays that centers the voices of Black experts—particularly women. Whether the issue is climate change, public health, economic inequality, or education, the …