For many, graduation means no more tedious forum responses, thick stacks of reading, time consuming labs, or cramming last minute essays. The working world awaits, happy to never step foot in a classroom again. If you’re anything like me, you are not ready for academics to be a thing of the past. Despite not registering for classes next semester, I cannot help but browse Bucknell’s course catalog to see a myriad of courses I dreadfully will not be able to pursue. I am certainly not alone, and feel great comfort from the popularity of post graduates posting the content they consume to fill their “education void”. For the curious girlies who love to learn, the fact that education will not be so easily at our fingertips is daunting, but there is nothing stopping us from seeking it. To lessen the post graduate scaries, I have prepared a few education void fillers, and I hope anyone holding on to the last bit of academia is hopeful that learning will not end after graduation.
#1: Binchtopia – Eliza McLamb and Julia Hava (Podcast)
Twenty-three year old Eliza McLamb, former student at George Washington University, and Twenty-six year old Julia Hava, Brown University alumni, talk all things social and cultural phenomenon in their podcast Binchtopia. These two incredibly intelligent women share their nuanced and well researched takes on all pressing political and societal issues. However, with their humor they find a way to gab and laugh through any topic imaginable. Typically, the duo chooses one subject, and Julia explores the history of the concept before Eliza gives a contemporary analysis. The girls have range, exploring topics from the monetization of children through mommy influencers to the cultural importance of reality TV. To get a taste of their content, a few episodes are titled, “Honey, I Monetized the Kids Again”, “Freud Shrieking From the Grave”, and “The Yassification Crisis”.
#2: You’re Wrong About – Sarah Marshall (Podcast)
Journalist Sarah Marshall picks a niche topic each week and exposes how it was misconstrued in the public image. Warning, this podcast may send you into a crisis over what you thought you were sure of. However, you will develop a new perspective on the aims of certain media, and you are guaranteed to learn shocking information. Plus, Sarah always has incredible banter with her guests. Some subjects she has explored are Stockholm Syndrome, the Clinton Impeachment, and The Satanic Panic.
#3: The Deadline – Jill Lepore (Essay Collection)
Jill Lepore is a historian and journalist working in Harvard University’s History Department and as a staff writer at the New Yorker. The Deadline is a collection of her most powerful essays exploring the political and historical state of the nation. Her book’s summary describes the essays as offering, “a prismatic portrait of Americans’ techno-utopianism, frantic fractiousness, and unprecedented—but armed—aimlessness. From lockdowns and race commissions to Bratz dolls and bicycles, to the losses that haunt Lepore’s life, these essays again and again cross what she calls the deadline, the ‘river of time that divides the quick from the dead’”.