Burn Your Draft, 3203 SE Woodstock Boulevard (2026)

“Burn Your Draft” is a podcast exploring the year-long senior thesis experience at Reed College, an independent liberal arts and sciences college in Portland, Oregon. Each episode showcases a senior or recent graduate and interviews them about their thesis: what is it, why did they do it, and what comes next. This podcast is a joint production of Reed students, staff, and alumni, and was made possible by a gift from Seth Paskin '90. Episodes may contain swearing and may deal with sensitive topics. The views, information, or opinions expressed on this podcast are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of Reed College.

18/05/2026

While Alyssa came to Reed planning to study economics and eventually go to law school, she ended up writing a psychology thesis on social anxiety, drinking motives, and alcohol use in gender-diverse communities. In this episode, Alyssa shares about her experience discovering clinical psychology at Reed and taking on a complex statistical analysis project that, despite her best efforts, didn’t always cooperate with her intentions.

Tune in to hear Alyssa reflect on how she learned to let go of preconceived notions of the “senior thesis,” how she has been continuing her psychology research post-grad, and how her senior year taught her to occasionally step away from the computer and touch grass.

🎧 Hear from Alyssa on Spotify (or listen to Burn Your Draft anywhere you find podcasts):
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1WB7edSOexwhy3NaGqkncT?si=1dc31e1997d643f0

This is the last episode that our student producer, Ace Lackey ’27, will produce for the podcast. We’re sad to reach this end, but excited for Ace to start their senior year next year, and who knows, maybe they’ll be back to do a mini-episode for us while they’re working on their thesis.

Listen to interviews with dozens of Reed alumni and learn about their thesis years on our website:
🔥📜🔥 reed.edu/burnyourdraft 🔥📜🔥

Reed College

06/05/2026

Ace sits down with Emilie Kelly ’25 to discuss Berlin’s war memorial Neue Wache, or New Guardhouse, the centerpiece of Emilie’s anthropology thesis. Following a semester abroad in Berlin, Emilie became fascinated by the cultural rituals surrounding war memorials, and how these memorials—and the administrations that govern them—play an important role in constructing our collective memory.

Tune in to hear Emilie and Ace explore the complex relationship between history and memorialization, from past regimes to the rise of authoritarianism around the world today. In addition, Emilie reflects on how her archival research, ethnographic fieldwork, and cohort-style thesis experience at Reed came together in her thesis—a project which, as she and Ace put it, “doesn’t need to be perfect; it just needs to be done.”

🎧 Hear from Emilie on Spotify (or listen to Burn Your Draft anywhere you find podcasts):
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1A4oKuKp0RYMFbJMI9Gsmr?si=942ad4e135604f2a

Listen to interviews with dozens of Reed alumni and learn about their thesis years on our website:
🔥📜🔥 reed.edu/burnyourdraft 🔥📜🔥

Reed College

20/04/2026

Ace chats with Lucas Forshee about his thesis on the molecule strychnine, which, despite being poisonous, was used as a stimulant for athletes in the 1904 Olympics. Lucas shares a bit about the chemical composition of strychnine, why it's such a complicated molecule, and why it's so fascinating to researchers.

But Lucas's research didn't just take place in the chemistry lab: a big part of his project was developing a written history of strychnine. Tune in to hear Lucas reflect on synthesizing the humanities and science in his thesis, and how this process gave him a renewed love for writing and a desire to return to graduate school (eventually).

🎧 Hear from Lucas on Spotify (or listen to Burn Your Draft anywhere you find podcasts):
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Hmn7LhPOgO1NY36lYqLHO?si=672a0bb709544c2c

Listen to interviews with dozens of Reed alumni and learn about their thesis years on our website:
🔥📜🔥 reed.edu/burnyourdraft 🔥📜🔥

Reed College

08/04/2026

In this episode, we hear from Caleb about the central theme of violence in McCarthy’s 1985 novel Blood Meridian and its relevance to modern times. Responding to the grimness of McCarthy’s book, set in the 19th-century American southwest, Caleb explores questions such as: What is the significance of violence in society, and how can we resist its inevitability? How can we make meaning, as readers, to respond effectively to violence in our society today?

Tune in to hear about Caleb’s process of literary analysis, how his background in Religious Studies showed up unexpectedly in his thesis, and how he found glimmers of hope amidst the bleakness of McCarthy’s novel and, at times, the modern world.

🎧 Hear from Caleb on Spotify (or listen to Burn Your Draft anywhere you find podcasts): https://open.spotify.com/episode/7sKoUibFDDcK5fu0svBiPq?si=ed2e67a0937c4c3d

Listen to interviews with dozens of Reed alumni and learn about their thesis years on our website:
🔥📜🔥 reed.edu/burnyourdraft 🔥📜🔥

Reed College

26/03/2026

In today’s episode, we hear from Rhiannon about restorative justice, therapeutic horticulture, and how their intersection can present alternatives to the carceral justice system for young adults. Rhiannon shares about the experience of working in a gardening program at the juvenile justice complex in Northeast Portland and how this experience profoundly changed Rhiannon’s life. Tune in to hear more about how gardening can cultivate belonging, community, and confidence for young people, as well as how this research might lead to long-term policy changes in the future.

🎧 Hear from Rhiannon on SoundCloud (or listen to Burn Your Draft anywhere you find podcasts): https://on.soundcloud.com/vGXX1fGfDTSw3NnzIe

Listen to interviews with dozens of Reed alumni and learn about their thesis years on our website:
🔥📜🔥 reed.edu/burnyourdraft 🔥📜🔥

Reed College

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3203 SE Woodstock Boulevard

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https://www.reed.edu/burnyourdraft

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