BornCurious

How do communities recover from conflict—especially when it involves violence? In this episode, Melani Cammett, a Harvard political scientist who has conducted research in regions recovering from sustained conflict, shares what she’s found in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lebanon, and Northern Ireland—and why there’s cause for hope in our increasingly divided world.

Released on October 22, 2026.

Episode Transcript

Guest

Melani Cammett is a political scientist whose work focuses on identity politics, conflict, and development. As the 2025–2026 Perrin Moorhead Grayson and Bruns Grayson Fellow at Radcliffe, she worked on a book about interethnic relations after conflict, using Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lebanon, and Northern Ireland as case studies. She is the Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs in the Department of Government and director of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.

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Fellowship Bio: Melani Cammett

Harvard Bio: Melani Cammett

Credits

Ivelisse Estrada is your cohost and the editorial manager at HRI, where she edits Radcliffe Magazine.

Alan Catello Grazioso is the executive producer of BornCurious and the senior multimedia manager at HRI.

Heather Min is your cohost and the senior manager of digital strategy at HRI.

Anna Soong is the production assistant at HRI.

Special thanks to Cabin 3 Media for their invaluable contributions to the editing of this podcast episode.

In her decade-plus of food journalism, Priya Krishna has worked to make Indian cuisine more accessible to home cooks while telling the stories of unsung food laborers. At a recent Radcliffe event, Krishna sat down with the scholar Durba Mitra to talk about family, improvisation, authenticity, and “the America we live in today,” where we rely on human labor for greater access to a variety of cuisines while shopping for groceries at Walmart.

This program coincides with an exhibition in the Schlesinger Library, Cooking Up Change: Women’s Agency and Community Building Through Cookbooks, featuring selections from the Library’s renowned collection of cookbooks, which include the papers of Julia Child, Grace Zia Chu, Zarela Martinez, and Madhur Jaffrey, about whom Krishna and Mitra had much to say.

Released on September 24, 2026.

Episode Transcript

Guests

Priya Krishna is a food reporter, video host, and former restaurant critic at The New York Times as well as the best-selling author of the cookbooks Priya’s Kitchen Adventures: A Cookbook for Kids (Harvest, 2024) and Indian-ish (Harvest, 2019). She hosts On the Job, a New York Times online series that looks at labor in the food industry, and has appeared as a judge on MasterChef.

Durba Mitra is the Stanley Kelley, Jr., Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton University. Her scholarship brings together feminist studies, sexuality studies, and global intellectual history. She is the author of The Future That Was: A History of Third World Feminism Against Authoritarianism (Princeton University Press, 2026) and Indian Sex Life: Sexuality and the Colonial Origins of Modern Social Thought (Princeton University Press, 2020). She was a Carol K. Pforzheimer Assistant Professor and a 2018–2019 fellow at Harvard Radcliffe Institute, where she also served as interim faculty director of the Schlesinger Library.

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Priya Krishna

On the Job by NYT Cooking

Cooking and Culture: A Conversation with Priya Krishna

Credits

Ivelisse Estrada is your cohost and the editorial manager at HRI, where she edits Radcliffe Magazine.

Kevin Grady is the multimedia producer at HRI.

Alan Catello Grazioso is the executive producer of BornCurious and the senior multimedia manager at HRI.

Bill McCurdy is the A/V support technician at HRI.

Heather Min is your cohost and the senior manager of digital strategy at HRI.

Anna Soong is the production assistant at HRI.

Special thanks to Cabin 3 Media for their invaluable contributions to the editing of this podcast episode.

The Kim and Judy Davis Dean’s Lecture Series was established through the generosity of Kim G. Davis AB ’76, MBA ’78, and Judith N. Davis, longtime friends and champions of Harvard Radcliffe Institute. This annual lecture series invites leading figures from across the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences to share their expertise, ideas, and diverse perspectives with the Harvard community and the broader public.

On Radcliffe Day 2026, Harvard Radcliffe Institute honored Ruth J. Simmons in recognition of how she has modeled extraordinary and transformative leadership in higher education. In this episode, this most recent Radcliffe Medalist sits down with the Harvard scholar Drew Gilpin Faust—herself a former University president—to recount how a sharecropper’s daughter from East Texas found her way to courageous leadership.

Released on June 25, 2026.

Episode Transcript

Guests

Drew Gilpin Faust is a president emerita of Harvard University, where she is also the Arthur Kingsley Porter University Research Professor, and the author of seven books, including the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (Knopf, 2008). Her most recent book is a memoir, Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury ((Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023). She was the founding dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Ruth J. Simmons is a three-time university president who has shaped generations of students and scholars—at Smith College, Brown University, and Prairie View A&M University. Simmons has championed the power of education while calling on colleges and universities to uphold their foundational ideals and reckon honestly with their failures. She is most recently the author of Up Home: One Girl’s Journey (Random House, 2023).

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Radcliffe Day 2026

Kim and Judy Davis Dean’s Lecture in the Social Sciences: Conversation with Ruth J. Simmons

Credits

Ivelisse Estrada is your cohost and the editorial manager at HRI, where she edits Radcliffe Magazine.

Kevin Grady is the multimedia producer at HRI.

Alan Catello Grazioso is the executive producer of BornCurious and the senior multimedia manager at HRI.

Heather Min is your cohost and the senior manager of digital strategy at HRI.

Anna Soong is the production assistant at HRI.

Special thanks to Productions, Inc. for production support and Cabin 3 Media for their invaluable contributions to the editing of this podcast episode.

As a young person deeply concerned with social justice, Naomi Ko thought she might become a lawyer—then, reality intervened. After a stint with Teach for America, a volunteer job at the Berkeley Free Clinic would set her on her current path as a breast oncologist. In this episode, Ko shares her unique journey.

Released on April 23, 2026.

Episode Transcript

Guest

Naomi Ko is section chief of Breast Cancer Medical Oncology at NYU Langone Health and an associate professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. She is writing a book, “Seeing the Unseen Among Us,” based on patient stories from her 15 years practicing medicine at Boston Medical Center.

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The Boston Globe: “A Double Diagnosis—Cancer While Poor”

Fellowship bio: Naomi Ko

Episode 508: The Importance of Access in Breast Cancer Care

Credits

Ivelisse Estrada is your cohost and the editorial manager at HRI, where she edits Radcliffe Magazine.

Alan Catello Grazioso is the executive producer of BornCurious and the senior multimedia manager at HRI.

Heather Min is your cohost and the senior manager of digital strategy at HRI.

Anna Soong is the production assistant at HRI.

Special thanks to Cabin 3 Media for their invaluable contributions to the editing of this podcast episode.

Naomi Ko has spent her career as a breast cancer oncologist working in safety-net hospitals—medical institutions with high rates of uninsured patients. What she’s learned is that poorer patients have worse cancer outcomes, and it has made her passionate about health equity. Now she’s writing a book about the patient stories and themes that keep recurring in her cancer-fighting career.

Released on April 7, 2026.

Episode Transcript

Guest

Naomi Ko is section chief of Breast Cancer Medical Oncology at NYU Langone Health and an associate professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. She is writing a book, “Seeing the Unseen Among Us,” based on patient stories from her 15 years practicing medicine at Boston Medical Center.

Related Content

The Boston Globe: “A Double Diagnosis—Cancer While Poor”

Fellowship bio: Naomi Ko

Episode 509: An Oncologist’s Origin Story

Credits

Ivelisse Estrada is your cohost and the editorial manager at HRI, where she edits Radcliffe Magazine.

Kevin Grady is the multimedia producer at HRI.

Alan Catello Grazioso is the executive producer of BornCurious and the senior multimedia manager at HRI.

Heather Min is your cohost and the senior manager of digital strategy at HRI.

Anna Soong is the production assistant at HRI.

Special thanks to Cabin 3 Media for their invaluable contributions to the editing of this podcast episode.