Passion and Practicality: A Liberal Arts Podcast
Passion and Practicality is a podcast series produced by Southern New Hampshire University‘s online Liberal Arts department, which includes academic programs and courses in Communication, Composition, Creative Writing, English, Fine Arts, Graphic Design, History, Literature, and Philosophy. In this podcast series, faculty, staff, and guests discuss the career paths open to graduates of those programs, the research and creative work of practitioners in the field, and other interesting stuff.
Episodes

Friday Feb 28, 2025
Ethics in Action 2024: Anne Marie Collier and Chloe Price
Friday Feb 28, 2025
Friday Feb 28, 2025
Ethics in Action is an event series hosted each year by the SNHU Liberal Arts team that focuses on student discussion, ethical reflection, and collaboration around current issues. The Fall 2024 Ethics in Action event was a student conference that took place on December 11, 2024, and focused on leadership in the 21st century.
In Conference Session 1, Anne Collier will present “The Ethics of VIP Status.” Following that, Chloe Price will present “Leading Humanity Back into Balance with Nature through the Implementation of the Indigenous Worldview and Traditional Ecological Knowledge.” This panel is moderated by Paul Witcover, the Associate Dean for the online Master of Fine Arts program at Southern New Hampshire University.

Friday Feb 21, 2025
Wireside Chat featuring Jan Elizabeth Watson
Friday Feb 21, 2025
Friday Feb 21, 2025
In which Wireside Chat is joined by Online MFA instructor Jan Elizabeth Watson, author of the contemporary fiction novels "Asta in the Wings" and "What Has Become of You"! We discuss the appeal of pseudonyms, ambition as a creative goad, red flags writers should know before querying agents and editors, and more!

Friday Feb 14, 2025
History Speaker Series with Margaret MacDonald and Carolyn Beatrice Parker
Friday Feb 14, 2025
Friday Feb 14, 2025
In this History Speaker Series event, Dr. Margaret MacDonald discusses her professional and academic career, her advocacy work as a public historian, and her research on Carolyn Beatrice Parker, the first Black woman known to receive an advanced degree in physics and worked on the Dayton Project, part of the Manhattan Project, during World War II.

Friday Feb 07, 2025
Word for Word featuring Special Guests Adrienne Kisner and Melissa Marr
Friday Feb 07, 2025
Friday Feb 07, 2025
Join us as Word for Word celebrates SNHU's creative writing instructors in a special event spotlighting Young Adult fiction! Award-winning writers and SNHU instructors Melissa Marr and Adrienne Kisner read from their works-in-progress, discuss their writing journeys, and share insights into today's YA fiction market!

Friday Jan 24, 2025
Wireside Chat featuring Kaitlyn Ballenger
Friday Jan 24, 2025
Friday Jan 24, 2025
In which Wireside Chat is joined by Online MFA instructor and award-winning author Kait Ballenger! Lovers of paranormal romance and dark romantasy will not want to miss this episode, as Kait shares an insider's view of romance publishing today and talks about her love of villainous heroes and spicy redemption arcs.

Friday Dec 20, 2024
Composition as a Path to Healing Self and Community
Friday Dec 20, 2024
Friday Dec 20, 2024
How many times have you graded a narrative from a student that helped them process a difficult time in their life or assisted another student with researching a controversial topic as they became passionate about healing a societal ill? Join composition instructors Bonnie Fox and InnaRae Guy in exploring avenues to support students who find themselves on a healing journey while working on course writing projects.

Friday Dec 13, 2024
Word for Word featuring Special Guest Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Friday Dec 13, 2024
Friday Dec 13, 2024
Word for Word proudly welcomes award-winning, bestselling writer Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of the collection Friday Black and the novel Chain-Gang All-Stars. Listen as this young literary superstar reads and discusses his work, his writer’s journey, and the uses and abuses of violence in fiction.

Friday Dec 06, 2024
Friday Dec 06, 2024
At this event, Dr. Matt Schandler discusses the effects of artificial intelligence on the study, research, and writing of history. Topics of discussions include the origins of Generative AI; emerging historical applications beyond text, image, and video; working with bots; AI in academic settings; AI output as source material; academic integrity and AI use; best practices and dangerous practices; and future-proofing one's skillset.
Matt Schandler is a historian of technology, data scientist, and political scientist who studies the histories of domestic digital technologies, environmental technological systems. artificial intelligence, digital gaming, and information technologies. In addition to teaching the undergraduate capstone course at SNHU, he teaches courses on The History of Everything; Data Science for the Social Good; World History and Technology; and Technology, Society, and Public Policy at Chestnut Hill College.
This event was recorded on October 11, 2024 and originally broadcast on the Working Historians podcast feed.

Friday Nov 29, 2024
Wireside Chat Featuring Abigail Baia
Friday Nov 29, 2024
Friday Nov 29, 2024
In which Wireside Chat is joined by Abigail Baia, a writer who wears many hats: MFA instructor, author, editor, and publisher. She is also an alum of the Online MFA! Tune in to learn Abby's multitasking success secrets!

Friday Nov 15, 2024
Wireside Chat Featuring Sidney Williams
Friday Nov 15, 2024
Friday Nov 15, 2024
In which Wireside Chat is joined by Online MFA instructor Sidney Williams, who reveals the secret behind the name of his website, 'Sidisalive,' shares the playlist for his funeral, and talks about his horror and offbeat detective novels and how to get along with editors.