Podcast Ep. 100: All Hail to 100 Episodes

Kate Young:

Hi, I’m Kate Young and you’re listening to This Is Purdue, the official podcast for Purdue University. As a Purdue alum and Indiana native, I know firsthand about the family of students and professors who are in it together, persistently pursuing and relentlessly rethinking; who are the next game changers, difference makers, ceiling breakers, innovators? Who are these Boilermakers? Join me as we feature students, faculty and alumni taking small steps toward their giant leaps and inspiring others to do the same.

Welcome to our 100th episode of This Is Purdue. Over the past three years, we have featured more than 160 Boilermaker guests, produced 50 hours, 42 minutes, and 27 seconds of audio, received seven national awards and distinctions, ranked on Apple Podcasts Top Charts 32 times and created 207 YouTube videos. It has been so rewarding to look back at how far our team has come and experience the growth of this podcast community we have created. And when it comes to our 100th episode celebration, we knew we had to highlight something that’s been a constant in all 100 of our episodes, and that’s you, our loyal listeners. So in this episode, you’ll hear from both This Is Purdue listeners and a few of our podcast team members as we reflect and reminisce on some of our most exciting, emotional and just pure fun episodes. To kick off this 100th episode celebration, we’ll start with a question that many of our listeners are likely curious about.

Kristi Lee:

Hi, this is Kristi Lee from Indianapolis, Indiana, the proud mom of a Boilermaker, and as a listener of the podcast, I’ve always wondered, where do you find your guests?

Kate Young:

Kristi Lee, wow, I love that we have a celebrated radio host listening to our podcast, how special. So to kick off this special 100th episode celebration, we are going to answer Kristi’s question and our friend, Teresa Walker, one of our podcast producers is going to help me out here. Now, Teresa helps guide our team on strategic decisions, assists at our podcast shoots, and helps lead our podcast distribution efforts. So, Teresa, I think Kristi’s question here is probably the question I get asked the most. I’ve spoken to a lot of marketing and communications classes at Purdue. Anytime a student reaches out to me, anytime I’m having a conversation with family friends, that’s usually their top question is; how do you choose these guests? How do you find these stories? So I’m really excited to discuss this further with you.

Teresa Walker:

Yeah, I think it’s such a great question, because it’s such a crucial aspect of creating engaging content for our listeners and we have so many incredible Boilermakers to choose from. So you can imagine there is some strategy behind it, so I’m excited to share that with you. So as part of our department storytelling efforts, we provide a unique perspective on various topics, whether it’s research, student alumni achievements or initiatives led by the university, all through rich storytelling by our teams, and they’re told in different mediums, such as written stories and videos and even standalone podcast episodes like this one. So these stories are shared on The Persistent Pursuit, the premier destination for the best Boilermaker stories. That’s my shameless plug. And we keep a close eye on our engagement with those stories and videos and such and look for those promising indicators. So, we consider whether it’s a good fit for our podcast audience.

For example, we had stories of Heather Penney and Dr. Lau published on The Persistent Pursuit first and their stories were so captivating, evidence of high engagement, those are clicks on our website, as well as social engagement, and we decided to invite them for an in-depth podcast interviews. In addition, our university, it’s always evolving, we know that, and we want our podcast to reflect that. So when the university launches new initiatives or sets strategic priorities, we see it as an opportunity to bring in those key figures that are involved. I know you can think of several here, Kate. Most recently we just introduced the inaugural dean of the Daniels School of Business, Dean Bullard, and we know our listeners would be interested in hearing from him about the future of the school, so we were really excited to include him. With all that said, the team really strives to bring our listeners the most relevant and engaging content possible, and that’s how we do it.

Kate Young:

Thank you, Teresa, for walking us through that question from Kristi. I know our podcast team loves welcoming people like Dean Bullard to the Purdue community. Having that opportunity is really unique and our team is honored to help tell these Boilermaker stories.

Next up, we’re answering a listener question on something that Purdue has very close ties to. Can you guess which episode we’re reflecting on next?

Nick:

Hi, gang. My name is Nick. I work for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network. I’m actually born and raised in Tippecanoe county and I’m a huge supporter of everything Purdue University does in and out of the classroom. I absolutely loved the interviews you all did highlighting Angela Ashmore and her involvement as an engineer, winning the Indy 500 back in 2022. I know from my personal experiences working in the IndyCar Paddock, I’ve always found it remarkably cool, not only how many Boilermakers are working on and engineering these race cars, but just how many female engineers, like Angela, have gravitated towards the sport. So, I’d love to know if you all at Purdue University have seen an uptick in interest in motorsports engineering in recent years. And I’d also love to know if those of you on the podcast who maybe weren’t racing fans before became one after meeting Angela, learning about her story and seeing the sport up close. Take care guys.

Kate Young:

Nick, I absolutely love this question and we so appreciate you sending this one our way. Angela’s episode is actually really one of my favorites, because there were just so many exciting behind the scenes elements with that. And then when her team won in 2022, we did a follow-up episode with her. That was really fun to get her perspective after she achieved her giant leap of winning the Indy 500. And today, to help me answer this question, I have Derek Schultz, Purdue’s Senior Strategic Communicator and Media Relations Specialist, and he is the point person for most of the university’s external communications, when it comes to Indianapolis initiatives. He also has a focus on promoting Purdue University in Indianapolis and the Daniels School of Business’ faculty, research and stories, pitching those to the media. He also has his own podcast, so I’m excited to have a fellow podcaster to chat with on this question

Derek Schultz:

At this point, Kate, who doesn’t have a podcast? It seems like everybody has one, but first and foremost, huge This Is Purdue fan. Not only a colleague, but a fellow podcaster, I’ve been trying to get on this show forever, so I’m so glad that all that badgering paid off. Now I don’t have to spam your inbox anymore asking when I’m going to be on This Is Purdue, so this is great.

Kate Young:

I love it. I love it. We’re happy to have you. So, Derek here is a huge sports fan. He’s super knowledgeable about all things IndyCar and Derek, I know you got to spend some time in the paddock for the 2023 Indianapolis 500 at IMS. And your role within Purdue University in Indianapolis, I think our listeners will be really interested to hear more about, because there’s an accredited motor sports engineering degree offered at Purdue in Indianapolis, and it’s the only degree like this in the entire country, and it teaches engineering with a focus on racing. So these students get this hands-on experience and direct connections to the industry in Indianapolis, AKA, the racing capital of the world.

Derek Schultz:

Yeah. When you think of Purdue, I think a lot of people think engineering. When those same people think of Indianapolis, I think the first thing that comes to mind is racing. So the marriage of those two, it’s just perfect. It makes sense. It’s not something that we have to force. Purdue University in Indianapolis, of course originally the brainchild of President Emeritus Daniels, but President Chiang has really taken the baton and made it a big university initiative along, with the aptly named Daniels School of Business, of course, which you mentioned, and Purdue Computes. It officially launches July 1st, and we couldn’t be more excited about it.

I think what we’ve seen here in the last year or so, as we’ve really hit the ground running to lift this university up, is a lot of interest in the motorsports program that you mentioned, Kate, in Indianapolis, which is the only accredited Motorsports Engineering undergraduate program in the entire country. It has fed students and graduates to racing series like IndyCar and IMSA and NHRA, where a lot of the teams are headquartered and then manufacturers as well. Dallara USA is right here in Speedway, Cummins, Allison Transmission is right across the street from the Speedway and all headquartered, at least their American operations, all headquartered right here in Indie. This past year alone for the Motorsports Engineering program, we’ve seen it get national coverage from outlets like Racer Magazine and Marshall Pruett, but also locally with WISH-TV, WTHR, all five television stations, in fact, have taken interest in the program. And we’re proud to highlight the work of Chris Finch, who’s been been really running point for that program for a long time, and his talented colleagues and students and graduates and marry them here under the Purdue umbrella, and then also connect that with everything that Todd Nelson and the folks in West Lafayette have done with Purdue Motorsports.

It’s a lot of exciting stuff. There’s so many success stories. You mentioned Angela Ashmore. Also on that team was Rebecca Hutton, who’s an Indianapolis graduate from the program. Just this past year, we’ve seen ME graduate from West Lafayette in Jonathan Hassler win the NASCAR Cup series title as the crew chief for Ryan Blaney. Josefine Eskildsen is a recent graduate of the Indianapolis program. She made two fuel strategy calls that won Bryan Herta Autosport races in the IMSA series. The Indy program alone, in 2022, in the 500 had members on 32 of the 33 car fields. So it’s incredible. You walk around that paddock and you don’t see golden black, because they’re all wearing their team outfits, of course, but you go around, if you just yell a boiler up like that, you’re going to get a hammer down right back, because somebody standing in that garage is going to be a Purdue student, either from the Indie program or the West Lafayette program.

So, it’s a crown jewel. I think of our offerings in Indianapolis, and we have other computer science and other engineering and science programs there in Indie, but that’s the one that has really drawn a lot of interest, because it’s 3.5 miles away from the world’s greatest racecourse, Indianapolis Motor Speedway. So we talk about putting students and graduates right in the heart of where they want to be in the future and connecting them with employers and building workforce right here in central Indiana and Indianapolis. And it makes a lot of sense for Purdue and Indianapolis to have a presence and adopt this program, which has done great things for a long, long time, and we’re looking forward to a really exciting future.

Kate Young:

And you know Derek, we had Angela Ashmore and Chip Ganassi Racing win in 2022, and then in 2023, most recently, we had two engineers on the team Penske, Josef Newgarden’s car who won the Indy 500. So that’s two for two. What do you think? Is Purdue lucky or what?

Derek Schultz:

Yeah, it’s definitely a good luck charm. In fact, word just getting around, because I’ve already got all the IndyCar teams, it’s January, they’re already flooding my inbox; “Hey, you got to get us on with Kate. You got to get us on with Kate.” So, they know, the people in the paddock know about the power of This Is Purdue, that’s for sure.

Kate Young:

I love it. Thank you for joining us, Derek. We appreciate it.

Derek Schultz:

No problem. Thanks so much.

Kate Young:

And to answer Nick’s second part of his question, after our interview with Angela and our experience working with Chip Ganassi Racing, I absolutely have become more of a fan of the IndyCar Series overall, and I’m always cheering from afar for Angela and the CGR team.

Speaking of Angela and her historic Indy 500 win, this Purdue School of Mechanical Engineering alumna recently made her mark on IndyCar history yet again. For the upcoming 2024 NTT IndyCar Series season, Angela will be the lead engineer on Marcus Armstrong’s number 11 Honda at Chip Ganassi Racing. She is the third woman to serve as a lead engineer for an IndyCar Series team. Congrats to Angela and good luck to her and the Chip Ganassi Racing team this season.

All right, our next question comes from one of our youngest podcast listeners. His name is Russell. Russell is the proud son of a Boilermaker mom and within his extended family, a big majority attended Purdue. This young man has a lot of black and gold in his blood. Now Russell has a question for Danny Milisavljevic, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy in Purdue University’s College of Science. If you haven’t checked out our 2023 research series episode with Danny yet, we’ll link that in the show notes for you. Danny shared more about his work on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and how this incredible tool has been a major key to his research. Plus, he discussed Scary Barbie, virtual reality field trips and a supernova explosion, Cassiopeia A, that was created by a stellar explosion 340 years ago from Earth’s perspective. Trust me, it’s a must listen. So, let’s hear what Russell wants to learn from one of our resident space experts here at Purdue.

Russell:

Hi, my name is Russell and I’m six years old. How many stars are in all the universes in one?

Danny Milisavljevic:

Russell asks, “How many stars are in the universe?” This is actually not an easy question to answer, because we can’t count them all. Most stars are too far away to see individually and many stars we can’t even see at all. We must estimate. Let’s begin, for instance, with the Milky Way for which we have a reasonable estimate, something like 100 billion stars. Next, we must multiply that number by the number of galaxies in the universe, which is something like a trillion. There are approximately 100 billion trillion stars in the universe. That’s 100 sextillion, not a number you use every day. One with 23 zeros after it. Try writing that out, it’ll take you a while. It’s a tremendous number and is why us astronomers are kept busy with work. Excellent question, Russell.

Kate Young:

Thank you so much to Danny and to our young listener, Russell. Boiler up. Our next question…

Kate Young:

A young listener, Russell. Boiler Up.

Our next question comes from a Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business alumna.

Katie:

Hi, this is Katie from Indy, Management and Accounting class of 2011. I loved your episodes with spacesuit engineer Amy Ross and flight director Ronak Dave. We’re big NASA fans here. We even named our dog Armstrong after Neil. My question is for you and the podcast team, Kate. I know a lot of your interviews are done in person, so can you talk us through how the virtual interview process works when you have guests like alumni working from the Johnson Space Center in Houston? Thanks.

Kate Young:

Katie, this is a great question. Thank you so much for asking. Please give Armstrong some extra pets for us, okay? But for this question, I’m joined by Thad Boone. He is one of our podcast video producers, and the entire team loves having Thad around because he can always make us laugh, he’s incredibly creative, and he just has this infectious energy that you’ll probably soon see or hear. So welcome, Thad.

Thad Boone:

Thanks for having me, Kate.

Kate Young:

I think, first of all, to answer the first part of Katie’s question, Purdue is truly lucky to have this really strong relationship with NASA that grants us the opportunity to speak with these incredible Boilermaker alums like Amy and like Ronak. So Thad, as you know, we do a lot of our interviews in person on Purdue’s campus, but it’s also important for us to lean in on these virtual interviews because some of our alumni don’t live in the Midwest anymore, maybe they don’t get to campus as often as they’d like to, and I know you’ve sat in as a producer while we’ve filmed some of these virtual interviews. So why do you think having a virtual interview strategy is important in this podcast space?

Thad Boone:

Well, Kate, I think just having video strategy in general whenever it comes to podcasts is a really great idea. We can chunk out certain clips or sound bites that I guess says that if we want to hit a certain presidential initiative or a strategic initiative, we can chunk that out and make it really easy for viewers to get ahold of as opposed to just scrubbing through a whole episode. If we put it on social media or YouTube, people might not be familiar with the podcast, they might not even know that Purdue has a podcast. Hopefully they do by now, but on the off chance that they don’t, these videos can, especially if they are in YouTube, might sneak into their recommendations, might pique their interest, and then just hook them from there, lead them to our Spotify.

And also, people are very visually geared and wired. There’s a lot of name association. I like to put a face to a name whenever, whether I’m reading a book or listening to a podcast. Hopefully we’re at the point now where if they see or hear Kate Young, they can connect those dots mentally and then come to This is Purdue. You get a lot of nuances with video that you lose with just audio. Different emotional beats. The one that comes to mind is the Shawn Taylor episode. Whenever you were talking to him about his experience and just his connection with Dr. Bell, in real time you see him start to go down an emotional path as he’s starting to remember and reminisce about Dr. Bell. You wouldn’t get that if it was just purely audio. So I think that is a really, really big plus just for video in general.

Kate Young:

Thad, I know Amy and Ronak were super special examples because of their ties to NASA. Any episode that has ties to NASA usually is pretty popular with our audience. But is there another virtual interview that has stuck out to you over the past three years?

Thad Boone:

The biggest one that comes to my mind just from a movie lover’s perspective is Stephen McKinley Henderson. He’s one of our alumni. That is a prime example of the benefit of doing virtual interviews. If we had him in person, I’d probably just hijack the interview and pepper him with questions about Dune or working with Ari Aster, Timothée Chalamet, you name it, so it was very good that we were in different time zones for that. But also, he’s a very successful and working actor, so as long as they have, and not just Stephen McKinley Henderson, but as long as a guest has access to wifi and a laptop or a phone even that has a webcam, we’re good to go. We’ve got them as long as their schedule permits it. Stephen McKinley Henderson was a lot of fun to be a part of.

Kate Young:

Thad is a huge movie buff, so he helped me prep for that interview a ton, and it was really cool because immediately after the interview, Thad went in and listened to it. That’s how into movies and how excited he was to have Stephen McKinley Henderson.

So another cool thing about that was actually when I interviewed him in the summer of 2023, he was shooting in Toronto for an upcoming Netflix show. So there was no way his schedule would allow him to get back to campus, set up an interview in West Lafayette. So that’s just another great example of the power of virtual interviews, is we were able to talk to this incredible alum who was just casually shooting for Netflix for his next big project, right?

Thad Boone:

Yeah, as one does. And it was also really interesting, too, because he was talking about upcoming projects, and he said that he was a part of a movie called Civil War that was on the cusp of being released. I think it’s released this April, but the trailer for that came out in December, so it was like, “Oh, hey, I know this. I know this guy, kind of.”

Kate Young:

Yeah, I felt really in the know when that trailer came out and I saw it. How cool.

We love utilizing virtual interviews as well as in-person interviews, and thank you, Thad, for talking us through that.

Thad Boone:

Yeah, thanks for having me, Kate.

Kate Young:

We have a few more virtual interviews coming up on This is Purdue this spring, so be sure to stay tuned for our episode with Ukari Figgs, Stephanie White, and Coach Carolyn Peck from the 1998-1999 Purdue Women’s Basketball championship-winning team as they reflect on the 25th anniversary of that big win.

Our next listener comment is actually from our Purdue Facebook channel. Remember, you can follow Purdue on Facebook and LinkedIn by searching Purdue University, and on X and Instagram at lifeatpurdue.

This is Purdue listener Angie is a proud Purdue graduate and received her degree in elementary education in 1988. Angie commented, “My favorite This is Purdue episode is the interview with Heather Penney and her story about 9/11. That was so powerful.”

Thank you for this comment, Angie. And to elaborate more on Heather Penney’s special episode, I’m joined by Ted Schellenberger. Ted is our lead videographer for This is Purdue. You know, the first time Ted and I worked together was actually at former Purdue president Mitch Daniels’s podcast shoot back in May of 2021. This shoot was our very first video shoot in person with a full video crew, and it’s really funny looking back now because we do this type of video production on a lot of our episodes, but back then, it was new to the podcast. And really, my favorite way to explain Ted’s role is that he’s just my right-hand man. He collaborates with me, we collaborate together for each podcast episode. It’s been just such a joy, Ted, watching you get as excited about the podcast as I do. And Ted even has built out some sets in his backyard to test certain things before an interview. He’s also been known to build some set pieces in his garage. So, Ted, welcome. We’re so excited to have you today to talk us through some of our video strategy, especially with Heather’s episode.

Ted Schellenberger:

Thanks for having me. I was really excited to help out with This is Purdue from the first time that you had mentioned it to me. I saw it as an awesome opportunity to get to meet some really interesting people and have them tell their stories in their own words, and it gave me an opportunity to do what I like to do most, which is record interviews with people, do all the lighting, and have lots of cameras. So that was really a good opportunity.

Kate Young:

So as Angie mentioned in her comment on Facebook, one of our most popular episodes of all time was Heather Penney, who’s a Purdue alumna and a fighter jet pilot, and she has her story with 9/11. So looking back at this episode, I remember being pretty nervous for this one. Heather’s been featured on national TV. We knew as a team it was going to be a really emotional story. We also knew Heather would be on campus. So we really wanted to take advantage of those strong in-person interview visuals for this episode. We’ve talked about virtual episodes and the purpose that they serve, but this one was going to be in person, and we knew we had to just nail this and make it the most perfect location for Heather’s story. So, Ted, give us a little bit of some context and background about Heather’s video shoot and how you chose that location.

Ted Schellenberger:

It was a big episode, and Heather has such a unique story. It was important to let her tell it. With Heather’s background as a pilot, it made sense to try to incorporate that into the interview location, so I took it upon myself to try to secure an airport hangar for us.

Kate Young:

And I remember walking in there that day. It’s just incredible. You’re in this huge airport hangar. There’s Purdue-themed logoed planes in there. Heather herself was so thrilled and maybe even a bit shocked at the setup and how just perfect it was. So, Ted, I know this was a really emotional interview. I remember our entire team was just in awe, absolute silence while she was sharing her story. How did you feel during it? Did you find yourself getting emotional? What were you thinking when you were hearing her story?

Ted Schellenberger:

Her story was one of the most interesting stories that I have heard. She has such a fascinating story, and it was incredible to be in the same room and to hear it from her instead of watching it on television. I have seen her on television on some of the 9/11 memorial times that she’s been on. It was so special to see her there in person. It was such a historically significant event, 9/11, and it was such a big national tragedy, but it also has significance on the whole world. I, living in Indiana, have never met anybody who was in New York at Ground Zero that day or in any of the locations that were so significantly impacted, so it was really interesting to hear her story. She and only one other person had that story to tell of being called up to go in the jets and do what they were doing that day. It was amazing.

Kate Young:

Absolutely. Absolutely. And Heather has such a commanding presence. It was just, I think, an experience that we can all say we’ll remember forever.

Ted Schellenberger:

Yes, Purdue is so lucky to have an incredible aviation program and an airport at the university. That really set the stage for this interview and featuring Heather’s story, and it was such a special experience.

Kate Young:

I agree. I’m glad you and I could experience it together. And it is such a unique Purdue feature for our campus, and the Purdue Flies initiative, that furthers our Purdue President Mung Chiang’s ABCD strategy, in which the A stands for airport. So it’s actually Purdue’s goal to provide the university students, staff, families, residents in the Greater Lafayette area even with this easier, faster connection to the world via O’Hare in Chicago. So we will link that press release in our show notes for everyone. But again, having that airport at Purdue and having this incredible aviation program is just something that’s, as we like to say, so Purdue. So, Ted, thank you so much for joining me again, and thank you for everything you and the whole video team has done to grow this podcast.

Ted Schellenberger:

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Kate Young:

Another listener comment we received on social media was from Aaron. Aaron is a 2023 Purdue Global graduate, and he’s a huge Boilermaker basketball fan. He said his favorite This is Purdue podcast episodes were the Matt Painter and Gene Keady episodes because he loves all things Purdue basketball. These two episodes were indeed among our most popular and most memorable as a podcast team, which leads me into our next listener question.

Trevor:

Hi, this is Trevor from Detroit. What is the coolest place that you have ever done an interview, and what made it so special?

Kate Young:

This is such a fun question, Trevor, and it’s something we discuss often with the Business Purdue team. This also ties in with Aaron’s comment because our interview with Purdue Men’s Basketball Head Coach Matt Painter was done in the fall of 2021, and we got to shoot this special conversation with Coach Painter right on Keady Court in Mackey Arena. Here’s a few clips from that episode.

Matt Painter:

Purdue has an unbelievable brand. If you’re just going to have a great basketball career and that’s all you’re going to have, then you’ve been shortchanged, but you’ve allowed yourself to be shortchanged. So we keep sending that message that this is a life decision. This is the opportunity to be on scholarship and be at Purdue, and have all these things is great, but now going forward, you should use this as a springboard, not just to have a great basketball career, but have a great life.

Kate Young:

Why Purdue? Why have you continued to stay here? You were a player here, you have a long history with Purdue basketball, but why here?

Matt Painter:

I think it’s the best place for me. I don’t think there’s a place out there better for me than Purdue University. I’m familiar with it, I understand it, I understand what’s important. Why would you want to go anyplace else? This is just the perfect fit for me.

Kate Young:

And in March of 2022, we had the opportunity to talk to former Purdue Men’s Basketball Head Coach Gene Keady in Mackey Arena, too.

Gene Keady:

You have a…

Kate Young:

Head coach Gene Keady in Mackey Arena, too.

Gene Keady:

You have a tremendous job. Are you a graduate?

Kate Young:

I am. I graduated in 2012.

Gene Keady:

Good, good, good. You get paid for this job?

Kate Young:

I get paid to do this. How cool is this?

Gene Keady:

Oh, wow. That’s like me getting paid to be a coach.

Kate Young:

Exactly. Dream job.

Gene Keady:

[inaudible 00:28:16] What’s your like to do and love to do?

Kate Young:

And when I asked Coach Keady about his favorite memory or story from his experience leading the Purdue Boilermakers men’s basketball team for 25 years.

Gene Keady:

There’s so many. I could write a book probably if somebody wanted to listen to it. But mainly that I was very into Purdue because they were academic oriented and my players get a degree from Purdue. You could probably get a really good job and that’s what I always insisted on. My players go to class, be on time and try your best. That was my three rules.

Kate Young:

Being in an empty Mackey Arena and talking to these two absolute legends is something I’ll never forget and I know our entire podcast team agrees. A few more memorable interview locations include episode number 40 when our podcast team visited a practice for Purdue’s All-American marching band. We got to experience the students perform tricks with Purdue’s big bass drum, also known as the world’s largest drum. Our team also had the chance to interview a few Boilermaker super fans during Purdue’s Homecoming in 2021. And we went to a Pizza Hut in Lebanon, Indiana to shoot an interview with Pizza Hut U.S. President David Graves.

And of course recording interviews at iconic places like Holloway Gymnasium with Purdue volleyball coach Dave Shondell, getting to know our head football coach Ryan Walters and shooting video at one of the team’s practices are also at the top of the list. Episode number 69 with Phil Cook was another amazing experience because our podcast team got to take a field trip to Culver Academies to check out Phil’s viral Chem-o-ween experiments firsthand inside his classroom lab. And speaking of Phil, our next listener question highlights this engaging episode.

Speaker 1:

Hi, I am Caroline from Spring Grove, Illinois and I am a current student in the College of Liberal Arts. In your episode with Phil Cook, you participated in several experiments with him and I was wondering what is it like to do episodes where you might be doing something outside of your comfort zone? How do you approach them and did you have a favorite experiment or learning moment when you were there with Phil?

Kate Young:

A quick refresher for our listeners. Phil is a senior science instructor at Culver Academies in Culver, Indiana and a social media superstar with millions of followers. He shares videos of his chemistry experiments on his social media channels with the goal of getting more kids interested in STEM disciplines. This was a special episode of this is Purdue that was released right around Halloween of 2022, hence the Chem-o-ween reference. I also got to assist Phil with these spooky experiments like the candy corn trick and the self-carving pumpkin. Oh, and Phil also lit my hand on fire. Here’s a little snippet from Phil’s episode to better paint the picture.

Is my hand wet enough?

Phil Cook:

Yes. Okay, go ahead, grab some. Perfect. Okay. Over here. I’ll fix it. I’ll fix it. Lock that elbow. Okay. Flat palm. Ready? Going to be over in a second. Tuck your thumb. One, two.

Kate Young:

Ah, it happened so fast. (laughing)

The amount of trust I had in Phil for this one, whew. So to answer your question, Caroline, yes, this job requires me to get out of my comfort zone quite often. I never thought having my hand lit on fire or being run over by Purdue’s big bass drum would be part of my job description as a podcast host. But hey, anything to make an episode more exciting, right?

I loved our entire day with Phil, but my favorite part of this experience was when our whole team got involved in one of those Chem-o-ween experiments and ate some of Phil’s liquid nitrogen marshmallows. It’s definitely a podcast shoot we will never forget. Okay, and while we’re still on the topic of cool locations for podcast shoots, I can’t not mention this episode from the summer of 2021.

Speaker 2:

Really? What?

Kate Young:

You won the old golden ticket!

Speaker 2:

Are you serious? [Cheers!]

Stephen:

Hi, my name is Stephen. I’m a 2021 Purdue engineering grad, and my question is, what was it like behind the scenes filming the Golden Ticket episode and coordinating travel all around the Midwest?

Kate Young:

Thank you for this question, Stephen. And this is an episode that I’m really excited to talk about and reminisce on. For this one. I’m joined by Ashlee Shroyer, social media manager for Purdue. Now, Ashley has been part of our podcast team since 2021. We actually started at Purdue around the same time, so we’ve been working together on the podcast social media strategy for about three years now. She’s not only a colleague but a great friend to me. Super excited to discuss the Old Golden Ticket. Welcome, Ashlee.

Ashlee Shroyer:

Hello. I’m so happy to be here to reminisce with you.

Kate Young:

Okay, Ashlee. So we have to go way back for this one. This is the summer of 2021. Purdue University came up with a really creative plan to encourage students to get vaccinated as part of our Protect Purdue initiative. So the Old Golden Ticket vaccination drawing was born. And the prize, the golden ticket, was $9,992, which is the equivalent of a year’s undergraduate tuition cost for an in-state Boilermaker.

So 10 lucky students were randomly selected and once our team received a list of those 10 students, we didn’t just call them up and tell them, “Oh, you’ve won.” No, no. Ashlee, you and I, we went on a Midwest road trip together along with a few of our other teammates and we got to award and surprise some of these 10 students in person. To this day, I think it’s one of my favorite experiences working for Purdue and it’s probably my core Purdue podcast memory to date.

Ashlee Shroyer:

I completely agree. What a great memory and an experience to be a part of gathering the 10 winners, figuring out how we could talk to them without spoiling this massive surprise was definitely a bit complex to say the least. And the other thing, Kate, if you remember, we had basically less than a week to pull this off. So we got to work immediately.

Kate Young:

Yes, it was a bit of a time crunch.

Ashlee Shroyer:

I remember our team went on the road trip. Of course, as Stephen mentioned, we surprised winners with visits to their house. This of course included the Boilermaker Special, Purdue Pete and our entire team. We had gold confetti that we popped as they opened the door. It was just truly such a fun celebration and every student was genuinely surprised and you could truly see that on their faces.

Our golden ticket reveals dominated our social media for that week. The actual reveals, we were posting them all over on all of our channels. The Boilermaker audience was speculating where we were going to deliver the next Old Golden Ticket and were celebrating in real time with us. Those that had won. We had the Boilermaker special of course, driving with us on the interstate. So I remember taking a photo of it from the car that we were in and posting it, where are we headed next? And it was just such a unique interactive experience for us. And then for our social audience as well.

Kate Young:

I remember meeting each of these student winners of course, but also their families. And one of the students who won Jeremiah, he was from Naperville, Illinois. His dad cooked our whole team lunch. It was just such a special memory that I’ll hold in my heart forever. And the parents getting involved in it was really half the fun. They wanted to surprise their student, their child as much as this Purdue team did. So it was just so much fun. And honestly, I love that I’m able to reflect back with you, Ashlee, because I’m remembering things that I had kind of forgotten about. This was a couple summers ago now.

Ashlee Shroyer:

Absolutely. You had said we actually FaceTimed Jeremiah’s grandfather in India because it was his birthday. So I mean when we say it was like a whole family experience, it truly was.

Kate Young:

It really was.

And I’m going to play a clip of some of this episode now because I want all of our listeners, our new listeners who maybe didn’t catch it back in 2021 to hear all of the different audio elements we had had behind the scenes audio of our team on the road. We had parents leaving me voicemails trying to coordinate these reveals and these surprises.

Kate Young:

So we headed off to surprise Alex Vusco, a mechanical engineering student from New Lenox, Illinois. I had left a few voicemails on Alex’s parents’ cell phones before I heard anything.

Speaker 3:

You guys were funny on the phone the way you tried to kind to tell us, but not really tell us. It was cute.

Kate Young:

We had to tip off Alex’s parents about this surprise, but they were excited to help us plan.

Dan Vusco:

Hey Kate, this is Dan Vusco [inaudible 00:38:24] when talk to Alex, we found out we could meet you Wednesday at 5:30. I think you guys can probably pick the location.

Kate Young:

So we had Alex’s girlfriend lead him out of his on-campus apartment thinking he would be grabbing a casual dinner with his parents.

Alex Vusco:

Serious?

Speaker 3:

Surprise. Come see your parents, tell us how you feel.

Alex Vusco:

I kind of don’t believe it. What are the odds guys, really?

Speaker 3:

You tell me.

Alex Vusco:

What are the odds?

Dan Vusco:

Well, you did it.

Speaker 3:

Congratulations.

Alex Vusco:

I don’t know how to react. I basically don’t know how to move my body right [inaudible 00:39:08] to react.

Ashlee Shroyer:

I think we’re due for another podcast road trip, Kate.

Kate Young:

I completely agree. Let’s make that happen.

Steven, thanks again for this question. It was a blast reminiscing on that special episode.

Our next listener question is actually a question for one of our This Is Purdue Podcast guests, Mark Lundstrom. Mark is the chief semiconductor officer at Purdue University and he was part of our 2023 research series.

Sam:

Hi, my name is Sam. I’m a student in first year engineering and I’m really interested in the semiconductor industry. So I have a question for Dr. Mark Lundstrom. I was wondering, in your episode you talked about how the demand for the STARS program is so high. And in my experience talking to my peers at Purdue, a lot of us want to be accepted into the Stars program, but the ability to handle that many students, it seems like isn’t there quite yet. So I was wondering what alternatives exist for me and students like me to do this summer who aren’t accepted into the STARS program.

Kate Young:

Sam, that’s a wonderful question and I’m so glad that we’re able to feature some of our Boilermaker student questions and comments on this special hundredth episode. So I’m here again with our producer, Teresa. And Mark’s episode, Teresa, as you know, will always be special to me and to our whole team because it was the very first episode of our research series that we launched in 2023. And of course also one of the hottest topics coming from Purdue, all eyes were on Purdue for this in 2023 was the semiconductor research and education. So Teresa, can you please read Mark’s answer for Sam?

Teresa Walker:

I would be happy to answer that on behalf of Professor Lundstrom. So Sam, here’s your answer.

Thank you for asking. What you should know is that we are working hard to double the number of slots in STARS for the coming summer. Still, I understand that the interest level is high. STARS is designed to get students started on a semiconductor track. If you are unable to do that with STARS, consider earning a college of engineering semiconductor certificate or one of the semiconductor concentrations in chemical engineering, electrical and computer engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, or materials engineering. Also look for opportunities to join a semiconductor VIP team. We plan to have a call-out later this semester to make students aware of these opportunities.

Kate Young:

Thank you. And we know Mark and his team are working incredibly hard in this semiconductor space. So we really appreciate Mark taking the time to answer this question. And thanks again, Sam, for your question and best of luck on your Purdue journey.

This next question highlights another episode that was part of our 2023 research series. Amanda Deering, Associate Professor of Fresh Produce Food Safety, and Haley Oliver, 150th Anniversary Professor of Food Science, joined us for episode number 87 to discuss a challenge facing the entire world, food safety, security, and sustainability. This next listener has a question for both Amanda and Haley.

Speaker 5:

Hi, I’m Marty, Purdue Mom from Geneva, Illinois, and number one fan of This is Purdue.

When I listened to Kate Young’s podcast with professors Amanda Deering and Haley Oliver on the topic of food science at Purdue, the professors emphasized their work with students and I greatly appreciated that having watched my own daughter. If I could speak to them personally, I would ask them about the anticipated future research projects that are made possible because of their ability to work with so many colleagues in a multitude of specialties. I greatly appreciate Purdue for how it offers a combination of people to find a solution, and I thought their podcast really spoke directly to that.

Kate Young:

Marty, our number one podcast fan and no, Marty is not my mom. Okay, thank you so much for this question. I’m here again with our producer Teresa. Now Teresa, both Amanda and Haley responded to this question and spoiler alert, one of the answers has to do with hot sauce and I’m excited. I love spicy things. I love hot sauce. So can you read their answers for us?

Teresa Walker:

Of course. And I’m sure that’s leaving everybody wanting more information, right? Like, what? Hot sauce? Okay, so here we go.

So this is Amanda’s response. One of the projects we’re working on is looking at various post-harvest sanitizers that can be used to kill any human pathogenic bacteria like salmonella, for example, on the surface of cantaloupes. You may have seen in the news the current outbreak that has been associated with cantaloupe grown in Mexico that has caused illnesses and deaths in both the US and Canada. We grow a lot of cantaloupe in Indiana, so our growers are always wanting to know the latest and greatest post-harvest recommendations that they can do to ensure the cantaloupes they produce are as safe as possible. We have shared our results with our Indiana growers and they have started to use the combination of sanitizers that work the best to kill the pathogenic bacteria in their own packing houses. This kind of research is ongoing as we are always looking to do research that answers some of the questions that our growers have regarding food safety.

The other thing that Amanda’s excited about and I think we’re equally as excited about, and here you go, here’s the answer to the spicy question here. It’s not in her research, it’s a class that she co-taught with faculty and staff from both food science and horticulture. Students made their very own fermented hot sauce last semester.

Amanda shared the following. The students started out sampling peppers, grown at the Purdue Student Farm, did several test formulations, and then fermented and bottled their own hot sauce. It’s called Boilermaker Hot Sauce, and there is a gold and black edition. We worked with our Ag communication team who designed a label. And if you want to see more, the communication team documented their entire semester of making sauce from beginning to end, and they’re going to be selling that hot sauce at the Ag Alumni Fish Fry, as well as Spring Fest.

Kate Young:

Teresa, I feel like you missed your calling. You’re like Vanna White presenting this hot sauce. I loved it.

So I know Haley responded and joked with us that she couldn’t compete with Amanda’s hot sauce class necessarily, but let’s hear her response.

Teresa Walker:

Yeah, I think she cut herself short. This is actually very important work, but I’m going to first set the stage for you in regard to Haley’s response to her most recent work. Maybe our listeners, I know with you, Kate, do you remember a couple of years ago when the national headlines were all about shortages in baby formula? This started out as an issue of the formulas tainted with Cronobacter sakazakii. The crisis that ensued, the shutdown of a production plant responsible for producing the formula in large quantities causing a domino effect with a months long nationwide shortage and this resulted in the most substantial food security threat to the US in decades and it was a super scary time for parents caring for their infants. This incident motivated Haley to launch a research project to improve safety of low moisture food processing facilities.

So as a Boilermaker feeling the call to address this challenge, Haley and her research partner from Old Dominion University have secured funding from the US Department Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. And not to get too far in the weeds, if you’re interested in learning more about this research, we’ll include a link to the latest press release of her new project. But ultimately they’ll be working with industry stakeholders as they conduct their research, and we’ll be assessing what genes basically exploit that particular bacteria to help it survive and dry food products and search for ways to inactivate or kill it.

Kate Young:

Wow, that’s incredible. Thank you Teresa for breaking it all down for us. Really appreciate that. Thank you to our loyal listener, Marty for this wonderful question for Amanda and Haley. And of course, we so appreciate those food science experts taking the time to answer.

Our last listener question features a question for one of our members of the Purdue Cradle of Quarterbacks.

Speaker 6:

Hello, my name is Adam, proud Purdue alum and even prouder Purdue dad now. And my question is for Curtis Painter, with all the media that you’ve done over the years, what was it like working on this Purdue podcast? How cool was that?

Kate Young:

Thank you, Adam, for this question. So Teresa and I are back, and this time we’re discussing an episode that most Boilermakers are very passionate about. It has to do with our Purdue athletics world and community that we love so dearly.

So Teresa, I know you were at this Curtis Painter podcast shoot with our team and you know firsthand how special it is to interview these former stars. And then on top of it, Curtis went on to play in the NFL as a starting quarterback right in Indiana with the Indianapolis Colts. So that was extremely special for our team as well. He was so humble, so kind. And our athletic episodes are always popular with our listeners because we know how unique this Boilermakers’ spirit is. So Teresa, can you read Curtis’s answer for us, please?

Teresa Walker:

I would be honored to. So here’s Curtis’s answer. Purdue holds such a special place in my life and I love talking about my experiences there whenever I can. Being back in the spotlight for This is Purdue podcast interview with such a great opportunity to take a trip down memory lane and talk about and relive my time at Purdue and all of the great people I was surrounded by.

Back when I was doing interviews during my playing career, both collegiately and professionally, you always felt like members of the media were inquiring for a story, which they normally were, but that’s their job. What’s great about This is Purdue podcast is that Kate and the crew do such an awesome job of taking everyone’s individual experiences, putting them all together and highlighting the type of university Purdue really is, from athletics to academics, to campus life and so much more. I enjoyed my chance to be a very small part of a big story and a part of the true history of Purdue University.

Kate Young:

So was thoughtful and kind, and it was just such a joy to meet Curtis and interview him. And then a little fun fact that we recently discovered our YouTube short featuring Curtis Painter, he was teaching our listeners and viewers how to throw a perfect spiral, literally throwing the football, and we were getting some video of that. It is on the first page of Google when you search for throwing a spiral. And Teresa, you’re the one that filmed that. And it was just so exciting to search this and find this out from some of our other teammates who work closely on our social content and YouTube content.

Teresa Walker:

The biggest thing I remember from that is, first of all, having a ball thrown at me at my face, but also for Ted, somebody on our team tried to catch it. It was amazing. But I have that on my phone, so I will treasure that video forever. But Curtis, what he answered is him. I love that response and he hung with us the whole time, and it was a great day.

Kate Young:

So authentic and genuine. It’s a testament that he wanted to respond and he responded with such kind words. So thank you Adam for the question. And thank you again, Curtis.

We can’t thank our This is Purdue listeners enough for helping us grow this show over the past three years. This episode was a fun opportunity to reflect as a team and we wouldn’t be here today without all of you. From an encouraging Facebook comment to recommending an episode to a friend or family member to following us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, we truly appreciate you. Be sure to head over to our podcast YouTube page, YouTube.com/@ThisisPurdue and click on that subscribe button. And while you’re there, be sure to watch our fun celebratory videos for this 100th episode.

This is Purdue is hosted and written by me, Kate Young. Our podcast videography is led by Ted Schellenberger in collaboration with Bad Boom, John Garcia, Zach Mogenson and Ali Cheney. Production Assistance is done by Delaney Young and Carly Calcao. Our social media marketing is led by Maria Welch. Our podcast distribution strategy is led by Teresa Walker and Carly Eastman. Our podcast photography is led by John Underwood and Becky Robinos. Our podcast design is led by Caitlin Freeville. Our podcast team, project manager is Rain Goon. Our podcast YouTube promotion is managed by Megan Hoskins and Kirsten Bowman. Additional writing assistance is led by Sophie Ritz and Mara Klopfenstein. And our podcast intern is Caroline Kime.

Thanks for listening to This is Purdue. For more information on this episode, visit our website at purdue.edu/podcasts. There you can head over to your favorite podcast app to subscribe and leave us a review. And as always, boiler up.