Burn Your Draft is a series of interviews with current seniors and recent graduates focusing on the Reed College senior thesis experience: what is it, why did they do it, and what comes next. Burn Your Draft is a joint production of Reed College students, alumni, and staff, produced by the Center for Life Beyond Reed. New episodes released every other week during the academic year.

History

Seth Paskin ’90 (co-host/co-founder of the philosophy podcast The Partially Examined Life) had been interested in starting a campus podcast for a number of years. The idea formed during a conversation between Seth and Alice Harra (director of the Center for Life Beyond Reed), while Seth was visiting campus. They were both looking for a project that would better connect the alumni and student communities while still relating to student development.
The Paskin Podcast Project was the outcome and began in summer 2019, after Seth decided to fund the project to allow us to hire a student producer. Production began in fall 2019 and student Frank Tangherlini was hired as the first Paskin Podcast Producer. The first episodes were released on August 31st, 2020, on Soundcloud (and wherever podcasts are found). Music for the podcast was created by Jack Salvucci ’20. Art for the podcast was created by Henry Gottschlich ’22, with additional work by Lillyanne Pham ’20.

Goals

Burn Your Draft was created to promote engagement between the student and alumni communities and to encourage student development by helping Reedies learn how to talk about the value of their own work. We hope to encourage collectivity within the Reed community by discussing a common thread, a common achievement, and a common burning of drafts.