The Devils' Share: The Podcast of Duke Magazine

This month Devils and Details meets with David Ntim, a sophomore studying biomedical engineering and computer science, who was chosen as this year’s Duke Chapel Student Preacher. Ntim speaks with us about faith and hope (and finals). Here’s a link to the entire service where he delivered his sermon. To learn about alumni events we meet with Lisa Weistart ’92 to learn about Details of the Devil: The History of Duke’s Mascot, a new documentary about the history of the Duke Blue Devil. The Duke Alumni regional teams have taken the documentary to several regional events and plan to take it to more; Lisa tells us about that, and Ann-Louise Aguiar tells us about upcoming events in Philadelphi and Boston, including one at the Philadelphia Free Library, designed by Julian Abele, who also designed Duke’s West Campus. And David Lindquist ’86, Duke Alumni Association assistant vice president, tells us about an upcoming event in Shanghai. In our Everybody Comes to Duke segment we visit with Emmy-winning television writer and producer Michael Schur, who visited Duke to discuss his recent book, How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question.

A special compilation of the trailer and the first two episodes of The Race Course, to support its entry for a CASE Circle of Excellence Award,

In 2020, as the Black Lives Matter protests gathered strength in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd, Duke President Vince Price released a statement committing the university to “take transformative action now toward eliminating … systems of racism and inequality.” He listed expected steps: diversity in hiring and admissions, additional aid, salary equity, Juneteenth as a Duke paid holiday. More, he pledged to “incorporate anti-racism into our curricula … across the university.” One of the first places that led was to UNIV 101: The Invention and Consequences of Race, a new universitywide course addressing the very concept of race, and how it was created and what it has wrought. That 14-week course was the first time Duke had addressed a topic like this in a universitywide course. When it was time to create the UNIV 101: The Invention and Consequences of Race, professor Kerry Haynie had an issue. The course came about as part of Duke’s antiracism effort, and Haynie’s central concern was simple: “I don’t know what people mean by antiracist,” he said. “I mean, I think I have an idea of what they think they mean. “But I don’t know how to do that. That is not what I do as an academic.” It was a heavy lift. How do you create a course with a goal like that? How do you make sure you're teaching, not proselytizing? It's a complicated issue, so the Devils' Share attended that course to document. How'd it go? Did the students like it? Did they learn things? How'd the professors feel it went? What was it like to create such a course? What worked and what didn't? And, of course, what did everybody learn about race? So take a listen to "The Race Course," as The Devils' Share documents a university taking steps towards antiracism -- whatever that turns out to mean.

Duke's UNIV 101 course, The Invention and Consequences of Race, gathers momentum. We learn about the sociology of race and "immigrant whiteness," and how whiteness isn't a color, it's a social status that can be aspired to. Different groups, for example, both become and stop being white. How whiteness has a lot more to do with politics than skin color. And how the professors and the students feel the class is going, and how they chose to discuss or not discuss things.

In 2020, as the Black Lives Matter protests gathered strength in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd, Duke President Vince Price released a statement committing the university to “take transformative action now toward eliminating … systems of racism and inequality.” He listed expected steps: diversity in hiring and admissions, additional aid, salary equity, Juneteenth as a Duke paid holiday. More, he pledged to “incorporate anti-racism into our curricula … across the university.” One of the first places that led was to UNIV 101: The Invention and Consequences of Race, a new universitywide course addressing the very concept of race, and how it was created and what it has wrought. That 14-week course was the first time Duke had addressed a topic like this in a universitywide course. When it was time to create the UNIV 101: The Invention and Consequences of Race, professor Kerry Haynie had an issue. The course came about as part of Duke’s antiracism effort, and Haynie’s central concern was simple: “I don’t know what people mean by antiracist,” he said. “I mean, I think I have an idea of what they think they mean. “But I don’t know how to do that. That is not what I do as an academic.”   It was a heavy lift. How do you create a course with a goal like that? How do you make sure you're teaching, not proselytizing? It's a complicated issue, so the Devils' Share attended that course to document. How'd it go? Did the students like it? Did they learn things? How'd the professors feel it went? What was it like to create such a course? What worked and what didn't? And, of course, what did everybody learn about race? So take a listen to "The Race Course," as The Devils' Share documents a university taking steps towards antiracism -- whatever that turns out to mean. Here's episode 1.

This poem by Kimberly Gaubault appears in the Duke Magazine Special Issue 2021, in which all the stories focus on freedom. Gaubault (McCrae) graduated from Duke in 2000 and is an intentional lover of people and advocates for defining one's personal freedom.

Eric Dozier grew up in a tiny Tennessee town and got his education at Duke. But when it came time to make his contribution in the world, he was drawn back to the music traditions of his background. He now uses that music in performances and presentations, in which things like gospel and call-and-response music help bridge societal divides. Here he even manages a call and response on Zoom!

In our series connected to our 2020 special issue on Realizations, physical therapist Callie Beasley talks about her belief that she had to give up her practice of music to take up her practice of physical therapy. It took a curmudgeonly client, a piano, and "The Sound of Music" for her to realize she didn't need to give up music at all.

In our series on realizations, Duke Forest communicator Blake Tedder tells us about the many realizations he experienced when he underwent the process of recovering from a major burn injury. That leads to a discussion of the realizations he experienced when he believed he was going to die in the plane crash that caused the burns. He uses the phrase "instant satori," and he's not wrong.

A Religious Studies class at Duke University called "The End of the World: Apocalyptic Arguments from Antiquity to the Present Day" seemed rather well timed even before the onset of COVID-19. But in a time when many seemed to fear they were facing the end of the world, the class decided to write a manifesto expressing their feeling that it was not. This podcast tells the story of that manifesto, and the students read portions of it.

This is part three of a three-part series. In February 1969, African American students at Duke seized the Allen Building, the university's main administration building. A daylong standoff ended with the students leaving the building at the same moment that police in riot gear stormed the building. Police subsequently engaged crowds of students in its main quad, using clubs and tear gas. The protest and its results has left a long shadow at Duke. In 2019 celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the takeover brought original protesters back on campus for panel discussions, storytelling, and reconnection with old friends and places. Using those discussions, interviews, and archival tape, Pivot Point tells the story of the occupation and its aftermath. This is part three of a three-part series.

This is part two of a three-part series. In February 1969, African American students at Duke seized the Allen Building, the university's main administration building. A daylong standoff ended with the students leaving the building at the same moment that police in riot gear stormed the building. Police subsequently engaged crowds of students in its main quad, using clubs and tear gas. The protest and its results has left a long shadow at Duke. In 2019 celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the takeover brought original protesters back on campus for panel discussions, storytelling, and reconnection with old friends and places. Using those discussions, interviews, and archival tape, Pivot Point tells the story of the occupation and its aftermath. This is part two of a three-part series.

In February 1969, African American students at Duke seized the Allen Building, the university's main administration building. A daylong standoff ended with the students leaving the building at the same moment that police in riot gear stormed the building. Police subsequently engaged crowds of students in its main quad, using clubs and tear gas. The protest and its results has left a long shadow at Duke. In 2019 celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the takeover brought original protesters back on campus for panel discussions, storytelling, and reconnection with old friends and places. Using those discussions, interviews, and archival tape, Pivot Point tells the story of the occupation and its aftermath. This is part one of a three-part series.

Dr. Kenneth Lyles of Duke University School of Medicine has developed a subspecialty -- in pound cake. He explains how he has come to bake and share some 5,000 pound cakes.

Leslie Lewis '79 calls herself "one of the lost Dukies." In a world where our alumni offerers of advice in general suggest pursuing what interests you and letting things shake out from there, she looks back from her 60th birthday and wonders whether more planning might not have helped her. Mind you, she's accomplished great things, and her look backwards might suggest more about Duke alumni and their high standards than anything else. Her story ends our first season of The Devils' Share. Don't forget to email us at dukemag@Duke.edu if you have thoughts or suggestions for upcoming seasons or stories.

Jim Fleming '09 is an IT project manager but thinks his work came less from specific courses he took at Duke than from his background in coaching, plus "a combination of luck and hard work." It's rather a story.

It was professor Plum, with the candlestick, in the conservatory! Paul Kim, '97, is a forensic accountant, a career you might not have known exists. It does, and in this episode of our "Now What?" series, he describes his breakthrough moment and explains how he got there.

Reid Lewis '84 thought of himself as a Steve Jobs or Bill Gates guy who would grow an enormous company. He turned about to be better at the growing part than the enormous part and has become a specialist in entrepreneurship, and though he wouldn't mind a little more stability, he's found that he loves the challenge and personal nature of his work. For our fourth episode he explains how that all happened.

Tania Hossain Caravella '96 graduated from Trinity with a dual major in biology and history. But that wide range of study did not leave her feeling ready for anything; she instead felt almost clueless about what to do next. Things have worked out extremely well, and has a job she loves in research: "I ended up doing exactly what I'm meant to be doing." How'd she get there? Take a listen.

As part of Duke Magazine's podcast The Devils' Share, Duke grad Aileen Reid describes how she has found her way and advises people to .