In the second episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings, hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton interview Michael Lamb, a faculty leader at Wake Forest University. He discusses ethics and the importance of virtues in public life, encouraging listeners to connect passions with community needs and to cultivate virtues in discovering personal callings.
Michael Lamb
In the second episode of this season of NetVUE’s podcast Callings, hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton interview Michael Lamb, the senior executive director of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University. An associate professor of interdisciplinary humanities and the F.M. Kirby Foundation Chair of Leadership and Character at Wake Forest, Michael also serves as an associate fellow of the Oxford Character Project at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, a project which helps graduate students in various fields, including government, law, medicine, business, and academia, think about the role of ethics in their professions. Michael’s research and teaching focuses on the ethics of citizenship and the role of virtues in public life, all of which offers many connections to the exploration of vocation.
The sixth season of NetVUE’s podcast Callings features Lee C. Camp, a public theologian and educator. Camp discusses vocational questions in higher education, emphasizing the importance of asking deeper questions about life’s meaning. He encourages students to pursue larger, more truthful narratives to foster meaningful lives and societal impact.
Lee C. Camp
NetVUE’s podcast Callings has launched its sixth season with an episode featuring Lee C. Camp, host of the podcast and nationally syndicated public radio series No Small Endeavor. In this show he’s explored what it means to live a good life in conversation with some of the country’s most notable philosophers, scientists, entertainers, and politicians. Lee is also the Distinguished Faculty Fellow at Lipscomb University, a NetVUE member institution. As a public theologian, author, and social commentator, Lee’s work focuses on Christian ethics, the intersection of faith and politics, and the meaning and pursuit of human flourishing.
In his conversation with hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton, Lee brings a wealth of experience to bear on questions of vocation in higher education. In the process, he challenges more simplistic and subjective notions of “meaningfulness,” which can often overemphasize our individual needs and perspectives. Instead, he encourages us to be good question-askers. “If we can give our students a better set of questions than the questions that they have,” he says, “it will change their lives.” For Lee, these questions often emerge out of the kinds of stories we live our lives by. He urges all of us, but especially undergraduate students, to expand the moral scope of these stories and consider this question: “Am I trying to live by a big enough, true enough story?” he asks, for “if you try to live by a too small, not true enough story, it can cause all sorts of horrific damage, to yourself and the world around you.” Ultimately, Lee encourages listeners to embrace the exciting adventure of living out these larger stories and creatively pursuing the virtuous life.
Click hereto listen to the episode featuring Lee C. Camp, “A Big Enough Story.”
Scott Carlson’s newsletter highlights Rachel Elliot Rigolino’s insights on general-studies programs, emphasizing their value for nontraditional students returning to education. Rigolino argues that these programs foster vocational exploration, despite misconceptions of their lack of rigor. Her students’ experiences illustrate the potential for meaningful academic growth and professional development through such degrees.
Readers unfamiliar with Scott Carlson’s newsletter “The Edge” (which appears on the The Chronicle of Higher Education) might find a post from this past summer inspiring and relevant to the work we do within vocation studies. In this post, he celebrates one of the winners of its “Edge Essay Contest”—Rachel Elliot Rigolino and her submission, “What My General-Studies Students Taught Me About Higher Ed’s Future.” As a lecturer of English and coordinator of the Supplemental Writing Workshop at the State University of New York at New Paltz, Rigolino uses her experience in these areas to argue “for the power of an unusual approach,” as Carlson writes, “in service to a nontraditional student population.”
NetVUE’s podcast Callings has wrapped up its fifth season with a bonus episode featuring highlights from various interviews. It offers valuable insights and advice for undergraduate students on understanding vocation and navigating life’s uncertainties. Guests discuss the importance of adaptability, resilience, and the complexities of pursuing one’s calling amidst challenges.
NetVUE’s podcast Callings has concluded its fifth season with the release of its annual bonus “Highlights” episode. It features clips from this season’s interviews, offering advice to undergraduate students on how they might think about vocation and the search for purpose and meaning in their lives. These excerpts are not only gems in their own right—representing the most interesting insights from the season—but they also provide listeners brief reflections that might be useful for classroom activities or points of departure for writing or discussion in their work with undergraduate students.
Guests include (top row, left to right) John Inazu, Bonnie Miller-McLemore, and Caryn Riswold; and (bottom row, left to right) Abel Chávez, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Jennifer Herdt.
The final episode of this season of Callings features Jennifer Herdt, a professor of Christian ethics at Yale Divinity School, discussing virtue ethics and the good life. She emphasizes that living well isn’t about self-gain but instead about being responsive to the world. Herdt encourages asking, “What is worthy of my devotion?” to guide one’s vocation.
Jennifer Herdt
The final episode of this season of Callings features an interview with Jennifer Herdt, the Gilbert L. Stark Professor of Christian Ethics at Yale Divinity School, where she also serves as senior associate dean of faculty affairs. She is the author of many books and articles on virtue ethics, early modern and modern moral thought, and political theology. Her most recent book, Assuming Responsibility: Ecstatic Eudaimonism and the Call the Live Well, engages with questions of calling and obligation to others. Jennifer’s research also explores science-informed theological anthropology, which has been funded by a grant by the Templeton Foundation. In her teaching and research, Jennifer explores the connection between virtues, the good life, and the “call to live well.”
The final episode of this season of NetVUE’s podcast features Kwame Anthony Appiah, an influential philosopher and professor at NYU. He discusses his journey from Ghana through England to the U.S., highlighting the significance of liberal education and the need for students to think critically about diversity and moral dilemmas rather than being told what to think.
Mustafa Akyol, a prominent Muslim modernist and senior fellow at the Cato Institute, is featured in the latest NetVUE podcast episode. He discusses his journey as a journalist and academic, emphasizing empathy and collaboration for peace. Akyol reflects on religious liberty, democracy, and his aspirations for peace in the Middle East.
The seventh episode of NetVUE’s podcast features Kiran Singh Sirah, a renowned storytelling artist and folklorist. He discusses storytelling’s role in fostering connection, agency, and communal healing in relation to vocation. A past president of the International Storytelling Center, Kiran’s initiatives have received global recognition. He emphasizes the importance of sharing personal narratives to bridge divides.
Kiran Singh Sirah
The seventh episode of this season of NetVUE’s podcast Callings features Kiran Singh Sirah, an award-winning storytelling artist and folklorist. He is the creative lead for Storytelling: A Gift of Hope, a project that harnesses the art of storytelling to create intimate healing and justice spaces to build dialogue, agency, and change for communities on their own terms. As well, he is the past president of the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee.
This podcast Callings features an interview with Abel Chávez, the tenth president of Our Lady of the Lake University. Chávez discusses his background as a first-generation college graduate and his commitment to supporting first-generation students. He emphasizes the importance of education in improving civic life and encourages listeners to engage as change makers in their communities.
Abel Chávez
NetVUE’s podcast Callings is pleased to release its recent interview with Abel Chávez, the tenth president of Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas. In this role, he has energized university efforts in fundraising and outreach, developing strong partnerships at the local, state, national, and international levels. An integrative leader and learner, he has served in multiple roles in higher education, including his work as a civil and environmental engineer. Abel is himself a first-generation, first-in-family college graduate, and a son of immigrants. As such, he brings his bilingual skills and bi-cultural heritage to all of his work, reflecting his commitment to enhancing the quality, access, and affordability for all students while serving the needs of families and communities—all with an eye for their economic prosperity.
Professor Caryn Riswold discusses her work and insights on NetVUE’s podcast Callings. She emphasizes the importance of social justice, identity, and culture in vocational exploration and discernment. Riswold urges listeners to ask ask meaningful questions as a means to foster human connection and empower others in their vocational journeys.
