BornCurious

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.

In a conversation with Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin, the columnist and author David Brooks discusses his career and his perspectives on American politics, society, and higher education.

Released on March 26, 2026.

Episode Transcript

Guests

David Brooks is a best-selling author and a political analyst who has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, and PBS News Hour, among other outlets. He serves as a senior advisor to the University of Chicago, Leadership and Society Initiative and recently began a five-year appointment as a presidential senior fellow at Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs.

Tomiko Brown-Nagin is dean of Harvard Radcliffe Institute, the Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School, a professor of history in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and a distinguished scholar in the fields of law and history.

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The Harvard Gazette: How Academia Can Help America Heal

Academic Freedom and Connecting Across Difference

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.

In storytelling, can the personal be universal? For the animator and filmmaker Domee Shi, the answer is a resounding yes. In this episode, Shi talks with Ju Yon Kim, a Harvard professor, about how she’s turned her own personal history into successful Pixar movies.

Released on March 5, 2026.

Episode Transcript

Guests

Ju Yon Kim is the Patsy Takemoto Mink Professor of English at Harvard University. 

Domee Shi is an Academy Award–winning director, writer, and storyteller and a creative vice president at Pixar.

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Domee Shi Biography

Bao

Turning Red

Elio

Ju Yon Kim Biography

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.