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PODCAST

The Pre-Made Podcast

Matthew C Collins

In this podcast, you"ll hear stories primarily from my Amherst College Class of 1994 classmates as we reflect on life 30+ years removed from graduation day. What have we been up to all these years? How has Amherst and a liberal arts education impacted our lives? What college memories have stayed with us? How are we thinking about the next 20 years?

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All Episodes

41:27

Deb Thalheimer Long Listens Her Way to a Life of Meaning

The Pre-Made Podcast ·

2025/11/20

Deb Thalheimer Long's career and life since graduating with me from Amherst College have been marked by subtle yet profound transformations. From Wall Street to academia, from the Baltimore public schools to the hospital floor, Deb has navigated big career pivots with intentionality. Now a nurse specializing in wound care and infusion therapy, she brings to her patients the same attentiveness she has offered students, colleagues, and friends: an ability to read people gently, listen deeply, and act

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52:47

Matt Sawyer Has Found His Forever Team

The Pre-Made Podcast ·

2025/11/13

Matt Sawyer has built a career rooted in one place: the Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, Mass., where he’s taught English, coached baseball and football, and served as ninth-grade dean for more than three decades. In a world that celebrates mobility and reinvention, Matt’s story is one of steadfastness and the value of deep community attachments. This conversation explores how teaching has changed since the 1990s, why he’s finally stepping away from coaching varsity baseball after 30

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53:27

David Young Finds Hope and Purpose Amid USAID’s...

The Pre-Made Podcast ·

2025/11/06

When I started the Amherst College part of this podcast, I wanted to capture the stories of my 1994 classmates who’ve navigated big pivots in their lives. Few stories embody that better than David Young. He joined me from Mozambique, where he and his husband make their home.David’s career has taken him from Amherst’s ROTC program to the Air Force JAG Corps, then into a remarkable 20-year run with USAID. His tenure ended abruptly when the agency was dismantled earlier this year. His reflections on

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54:41

Zack Henry Has Mastered The Art Of Connection

The Pre-Made Podcast ·

2025/10/30

Since our freshman year in Morrow (“Psycho Ward”), Zack Henry has built a life that’s taken him across the globe. He’s lived on four continents, worked on six, and led projects ranging from energy dialogues in Saudi Arabia to business development in New York and São Paulo. But at the heart of his story is something simpler and deeper: a belief in what he calls “the hidden pass.” Borrowed from soccer, it’s his metaphor for the unexpected connections between people and ideas that unlock

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47:21

Jessica Smith Sent Climate Instruments To The Edge Of...

The Pre-Made Podcast ·

2025/10/23

Thirty years ago, a Boston Globe classified ad launched Jessica Smith into a career at Harvard, where she built bespoke instruments and launched them on NASA’s converted U-2 aircraft, flying at 70,000 feet to read the chemistry of our stratosphere. In this conversation, she traces the improbable path from Amherst’s machine shop to equipping these delicate high fliers for experiments over the Arctic winter, tracking ozone recovery, and measuring changes in and storm impacts.After a federally funded

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54:36

Erin Cowhey Designs Spaces That Tell Her Clients’...

The Pre-Made Podcast ·

2025/10/16

Erin Cowhey is an Amherst College classmate and architect whose profession is awfully interesting its own right, but it interests me more than ever now that my daughter works as an interior designer. Erin runs her own firm in Brooklyn but wasn't always destined for the field. She enrolled at Amherst with every intention to go pre-med before pivoting to architecture. In this episode, she talks about how personal tragedy reshaped her career path and how she’s balanced running her own firm with raising

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59:30

Brian Clark Heals Others – And Himself – From Trauma

The Pre-Made Podcast ·

2025/10/09

Brian Clark transferred into our Amherst Class of 1994 having emerged from a childhood marked by instability and deep family pain. Today he serves as Director of Partnerships in Technology at the Spiritual Life Center in Hartford, where he helps others find healing through faith, psychology, and honest self-examination. Brian talks about growing up in a home dominated by an abusive father, the moment he chose to break free from the cult his dad started, and what it means to be both a healer and

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29:53

Update: Justin Neely Reflects On The Fire That...

The Pre-Made Podcast ·

2025/10/02

On September 17, a 19th century warehouse located in Red Hook, Brooklyn, went up in flames, resulting in a five-alarm response that was unable to spare Justin Neely's art studio home of over 12 years. He's facing the loss of every painting he has ever made, photographs that chronicle his life, computer equipment, and a treasured collection of sports jerseys.In this episode, Justin demonstrates remarkable generosity of spirit, acknowledging that others have it worse and that authorities who are

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43:31

Jason Spero Is Learning From Both Endings and Beginnings

The Pre-Made Podcast ·

2025/10/02

Jason Spero is going through a lot of change. His father recently passed away following a years-long battle with Alzheimer's. His youngest child is in the back half of her high school years, and after nearly two decades helping to build Google’s mobile advertising business, he is stepping away from a big job to chart a new path, one shaped by family, community, and the lessons of mortality and loss. In this candid conversation, Jason opens up about caring for his father during his battle with

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48:36

Bonus Episode: Will Dix ’77 Helps Families Navigate...

The Pre-Made Podcast ·

2025/09/25

I published this episode about getting into college with my friend and former Amherst College Associate Dean of Admissions Will Dix (Amherst '77) a few years ago, but it has aged well. As teens and their parents explore and apply to colleges, I wanted to share it once again. It covers most of the major considerations: how to select colleges for application, the importance and pitfalls of campus tours, what to do if a college has an optional step in its application, essay writing, financial aid, and

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51:33

Evan Wollen on Finding Purpose in Military Service...

The Pre-Made Podcast ·

2025/09/18

It's time to catch up with my Amherst College birthday twin, Evan Wollen. While many of us left Amherst still unsure of what was next, Evan’s path was shaped by a love of history and a calling to service. He went on to spend more than 22 years in the U.S. Army, leading combat units in Iraq, teaching history at West Point, and running the ROTC program at Claremont McKenna.One of the most powerful parts of our conversation comes when Evan describes his work as a casualty notification officer. It is

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54:59

JC Leveque Makes The Case For Conversation As A...

The Pre-Made Podcast ·

2025/09/10

What do 1990s college radio, Richard Scarry's picture books, and complex spine surgery have in common? They’re all part of JC Leveque's journey. Today he’s the Section Head of Neurosurgery at Virginia Mason in Seattle, but his path included years on the road with his Amherst-born band Rosemary Caine, the decision to, as he put it, “step off the bus” before med school, and a career built around making some of the hardest conversations easier for his patients.In this episode, you’ll hear about: How

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43:05

Jordan Hayslip Lives At The Intersection Of Teaching,...

The Pre-Made Podcast ·

2025/09/04

When you think of Amherst football in the early ’90s, you probably remember linebacker Jordan Hayslip, a four-year starter and anchor of the defense. But Jordan was much more than a gifted athlete. An English and Fine Arts double major, today he describes himself as a teacher, coach, and maker. I call him a Renaissance man who has woven together art, athletics, and community in ways that feel deeply intentional. After years teaching in Watts, working as a coach and educator in Hawaii, and

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73:49

Bonus Episode: Professor Emeritus Barry O’Connell

The Pre-Made Podcast ·

2025/09/01

My favorite podcast episodes of all-time tend to feature friends, family, teammates, classmates, and others who love each other. Their warmth comes through every time. Every episode I publish is precious to me, but I love this one in particular because of the deep affection and respect that emerges between a beloved teacher and one of his former students. Classmate Ben Batory sits down with Amherst College Professor Emeritus Barry O'Connell and explores Barry's origin story and journey into higher

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58:28

Alisa Pincus Finds Home Abroad

The Pre-Made Podcast ·

2025/08/28

Alisa Pincus is in the 22nd year of a five-year plan to live in Sydney, Australia. After starting her legal career in New York, a blind date changed her trajectory, leading her to Australia, a global role with Nielsen, and extensive travel across the Asia Pacific region.In this episode, Alisa reflects on the ways being an expat has shaped her perspective on America, Australia, and herself. She also shares the highlights of her years in corporate law — and her decision to step back and focus on

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52:41

Abbie Raikes Seeks Out The Hard Stuff And Makes It...

The Pre-Made Podcast ·

2025/08/07

Curiosity and challenge have propelled Abbie Raikes ever since she left the stage at Amherst College in 1994 with her diploma in hand and launched her career in public service just five days later. Abbie describes the moves she’s made, from Nebraska to Paris and back again, as a series of deliberate choices to get closer to big, tough, important problems. She’s now tackling early childhood development on a global scale through her company, ECD Measure, and her role as a professor at the University

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47:30

Pete Lalor Brings a Coach’s Mindset to Surgery and...

The Pre-Made Podcast ·

2025/07/24

Pete Lalor, a bariatric surgeon and medical director in Ohio, launched from Amherst College to Ireland to the hockey rinks of Holland—but today we find him leading a surgical weight loss program. A former student-athlete, Pete shares how his performance mentality evolved from athletics into medicine, and why he remains a student of psychology even decades after majoring in it at Amherst.Pete opens up about parenting five kids, the future of medicine (including the hype and limitations of GLP-1

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54:10

Jane Rohde Bowers Excels In Public Health By Meeting...

The Pre-Made Podcast ·

2025/07/17

Jane Rohde Bowers grew up both overseas and in the Pioneer Valley, with parents who graduated from Amherst College and Mount Holyoke. She also had a front-row seat to international public health via her father’s career. A self-described “beach gal” who dreamed of marine biology, she instead found herself pulled into anthropology at Amherst and later, public health herself. Today, Jane is a Health Program Manager in Los Angeles County, where she champions equitable access to HIV and sexually

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53:12

Adam Bonin Champions Democracy One Ballot at a Time

The Pre-Made Podcast ·

2025/07/10

Adam Bonin’s voice, passion for politics, and Philadelphia sports devotion certainly will sound familiar to his Amherst classmates, but his post-college path has been anything but predictable. Adam takes us through his early certainty that law was his calling, the disillusionment he experienced practicing corporate law, and the path he carved into political law and election work. We hear how a career pivot allowed him to integrate his passion for politics with his legal skills, how he’s become the

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54:08

Toby King Made His Own Path—From Geology To Bluegrass...

The Pre-Made Podcast ·

2025/07/03

When I think of people who’ve allowed life’s serendipities to shape their course, Toby King comes immediately to mind. In this episode, he walks me through a zigzagging journey that began with a keg behind the geology building before his freshman year at Amherst College even started and took him to UNC Asheville, where he's Associate Professor and Chair of Music and, starting this fall, the chair of the UNC Faculty Assembly. Toby’s story is a reminder that we don’t always have to know where we’re

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69 results

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