Notre Dame Stories

In the final episode of the season, we sit down with Madeline Owen, the valedictorian of the class of 2021. Madeline discusses her Notre Dame journey, and what it meant to finish that journey here, on campus. Read more about Madeline at: https://news.nd.edu/news/madeline-owen-named-valedictorian-alexis-waldschmidt-selected-salutatorian/. Notre Dame Stories podcasts will break for the summer. Some special episodes may be on the way, but our regular schedule won't resume until the new academic year. Thanks for listening.

In this episode, we look at the history of St. Joseph's Farm, a place where religious brothers cultivated land to provide fuel for the University. Today, the farm is being used to produce another kind of fuel: solar power.

We're changing things up a bit and featuring another podcast from the University of Notre Dame. Many of our listeners are probably familiar with it: It's called With a Side of Knowledge. Host Ted Fox interviews scholars from all over the disciplinary spectrum for some of the most interesting conversations in academia. In this episode, Ted interviews C. Fred Higgs, vice provost for academic affairs at Rice University. Read more about With a Side of Knowledge at withasideofpod.nd.edu. Notre Dame Stories will be back in May for two more episodes to close out the season for the academic year. Thanks for listening.

The American Rescue Plan—the latest pandemic stimulus—was signed into law earlier this month and it was billed as a means to slash poverty. We discuss that proposition with Jim Sullivan, economist and co-founder of the Wilson-Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities.

For the better part of a year, the mail has been increasingly slow…and COVID is only partly to blame. To find out what’s behind this we spoke with James O’Rourke, professor of management in the Mendoza College of Business and an expert on corporate communications and reputation. O'Rourke has studied the cost structure and business of the United States Postal Service for more than a decade.

As most of the country awaits their turn in line to receive a coronavirus vaccine, some have questions about its safety, how it was developed, and what it means for life…after the vaccination. Today we talk with Dr. Mark Mulligan '80, an infectious disease expert and head of NYU’s Langone Vaccine Center. Dr. Mulligan has worked on vaccine trials for decades, including most recently, the vaccine for COVID-19.

For most of us these days, “office hours” take place…almost anywhere but the office. The dining room, bedroom, basement…they’ve all become the places we work, not just where we live. The pandemic has profoundly altered the work-life balance of Americans, and new research is uncovering how we’re dealing with this shift. We spoke with Abi Ocobock, who studies family sociology, about the research and some early findings. Read more: https://news.nd.edu/news/mom-guilt-work-hours-rise-in-pandemic-parenting-but-so-does-quality-family-time/

Andy Royer confessed in 2003 to strangling a 94-year-old woman who lived in his apartment building in Elkhart, Indiana. But Royer, who has mental challenges that make him seem childlike despite his huge size, then asked if he could just go home. Confessions are convincing to juries. Most people are surprised to learn that they are sometimes given by the innocent. Royer was convicted and given a sentence of 55 years. After three earlier attempts failed, the Notre Dame Exoneration Justice Clinic in April won his release after 16 years – the first of what law students and faculty leaders hope are a string of successful petitions. In Episode Three, we hear about Royer’s legal troubles from his mother, himself and his attorney. But our main guide is former Notre Dame law student Paula Ortiz Cardona, who worked on his case during her three years on campus.

In Episode Two, we hear the story of Keith Cooper’s 20-year odyssey to clear his name of a crime he didn’t commit in a town he hardly knew. Cooper tells the story in his words, starting with his arrest in 1997 based on a description of a crime by someone tall, thin and black. Mistaken witness identifications led to a speedy bench-trial conviction and a 40-year sentence. New scientific evidence weakened the case against Cooper, and in 2006 he chose to give up his claim to innocence so he could help his struggling family. It took another 11 years of struggle to win the first pardon based on actual innocence in Indiana history.

Episode One traces the origins of the Notre Dame Exoneration Justice Clinic’s rapid growth over the last four years. It began as a student volunteer club in 2016 with some awareness and advocacy events. The students launched into action after a visit from Keith Cooper, the only person in Indiana history to receive a governor’s pardon based on actual innocence, and his attorney, Elliot Slosar. They focused their legal assistance on Slosar’s cases in Elkhart, Indiana, a city about a half hour from Notre Dame’s campus. After recruiting faculty member Jimmy Gurulé, their efforts turned into a class and this year into the University’s sixth legal clinic. Club founder and first president Tia Paulette guides listeners through this evolution.

Thousands of people across the country are penned in prisons for crimes they didn’t commit. Want proof? More than 2,700 prisoners have been legally exonerated over the last 30 years, largely through the innocence work of crusading lawyers and legal students. Notre Dame law students, inspired by meeting a nearby example of this tragedy, pushed to get involved in overturning wrongful convictions. With guidance from Chicago attorney Elliot Slosar and faculty member Jimmy Gurulé, the Notre Dame Exoneration Justice Clinic is now on the case. Our series, Proving Innocence, takes you inside this legal effort through a handful of individual stories.

In one of our most popular episodes, Notre Dame astrophysicist Grant Mathews unpacks his research into what the Christmas Star may have been. Read more at: https://www.nd.edu/stories/royal-beauty-bright/.

As the real estate market rebounds, more people are thinking about what makes a perfect home. Architecture professor Marianne Cusato is one an industry leader in the home building industry. She’s been named one of the top women in real estate by Fortune Magazine, to list just one of her many accolades. She earned international acclaim for the Katrina cottage, an attractive, well-built home that could be deployed in case of emergency. In her book, The Just Right Home, Cusato suggests criteria for home buying and community that is at times contrarian to some of today’s popular home buying trends. Read more about Marianne Cusato at https://womenlead2020.nd.edu/marianne-cusato/. Learn more about the School of Architecture at architecture.nd.edu.

As the national conversation about race and policing took shape over the summer, questions began surfacing about how police departments would respond. At Notre Dame, they were already working on an answer. Guests: Keri Kei Shibata, Chief, Notre Dame Police Department Mike Seamon, Vice President for Campus Safety and University Operations Matty Aubourg '21, Black Student Association of Notre Dame Notre Dame BSA Statement: https://bsa932.wixsite.com/notredamebsa/upcoming-events NDPD Statement on Equity in Policing: https://police.nd.edu/equity-in-policing/

As the University prepares to confer degrees on the Class of 2020, we speak with the class valedictorian, Brady Stiller, about this unique moment in Notre Dame history.