Fifteen Questions
Fifteen Questions: Yevgenia Albats on Journalism in the USSR, Freedom of the Press, and Her Bibliophilia
The journalist sat down with Fifteen Minutes to talk about her career, including being declared an enemy of the Russian state, investigative reporting on KGB officials, and her deep love of reading that was kindled in Widener Library’s basement. “In many countries, people are suffering because of their cruel leaders, because of injustice, because of poverty, because of absence of normal medical help,” she says. “Our job is to tell their stories.”
Yegvenia Albats
Yegvenia Albats is a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and former Editor-in-Chief and CEO of Russian publication The New Times.
crespo portrait
Andrew Manuel Crespo ’05 is a professor of criminal law and procedure at Harvard Law school, the executive faculty director of the Institute to End Mass Incarceration, and a founding editor of Inquest, a forum for advancing decarceral ideas.
Fifteen Questions: Andrew Manuel Crespo ’05 on Plea Bargaining, Playing Football in High School, and a Fateful Coop Dance Party
The law professor sat down with FM to talk about the potential of collective plea bargaining, meeting his wife on the dance floor of the Dudley Coop, and what’s kept him coming back to Harvard. “The Harvard degree does not confer on you a guarantee that you will use the privilege and power that you get by virtue of being here to make the world better. That’s a choice. It’s always a choice,” he says.
Jonathan L. Zittrain
Jonathan L. Zittrain is a professor at Harvard Law School and faculty director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.
Fifteen Questions: Jonathan Zittrain on Social Media, AI Litigation, and CompuServe
The law professor sat down with Fifteen Minutes to discuss AI regulation, moderating online communities, and the Applied Social Media Lab. “I’m very interested in ways to see how people can gather with a sense of shared ownership rather than a corporate patron overseeing the conversation,” Zittrain says.
Fifteen Questions: Naomi Oreskes on Climate Change Denial, Apolitical Scientists, and Her Favorite Rocks
The historian and her dog sat down with Fifteen Minutes to talk about disinformation, climate change, and rocks. “Generally people don’t act — especially if you’re asking people to change how they're living, how they’re behaving, how they’re thinking — if you just give them dry scientific information,” Oreskes says.
Fifteen Questions: Jules Gill-Peterson on Trans DIY History, Deep-Fried Memes, and the End of the World
The historian sat down with Fifteen Minutes to discuss modes of transition and the current political moment. “Despite every attempt, people have been remarkably bad at stopping people from transitioning,” she says.
Jules Gill-Peterson
Jules Gill-Peterson is a 2023–24 Radcliffe fellow and an associate professor of history at Johns Hopkins University.
Fifteen Questions: Bruno Carvalho on Cities, Bike Lanes, and Punny Halloween Costumes
The urbanist sat down with Fifteen Minutes to discuss cities and urban studies. “I’m not sure I would say cities are inherently anything except for places where strangers live among each other and places where constructions are supposed to last beyond a single generation,” he says.
Maria Dominguez Gray
Maria Dominguez Gray has been at the Phillips Brooks House Association for going on 25 years, and has been the executive director for 11.
Fifteen Questions: Maria Dominguez Gray on PBHA, Leadership, and Public Service
The executive director of the Phillips Brooks House Association sat down with Fifteen Minutes to share her thoughts on what makes a good student leader and the value of community service.
rochelle walensky portrait
Rochelle P. Walensky served as the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2021 to 2023.
Fifteen Questions: Rochelle Walensky on Pandemics, Public Health, and Reading for Fun
FM sat down with the former CDC director to discuss her experience as one of the nation’s public health leaders during an unprecedented global pandemic. "I don’t know that America appreciates how the people of CDC, the 12,000 people of CDC, work tirelessly, quietly,” she says. “You never know their name.”
Vijay Iyer
Vijay Iyer is the Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts as well as graduate advisor for the Music Department’s Creative Practice and Critical Inquiry program.
Fifteen Questions: Vijay Iyer on Cognition, Temporality, and Musical Community
Professional musician and Harvard professor of the arts Vijay Iyer sat down with Fifteen Minutes to chat about his career, his teaching philosophy, and the neuroscience of music.
Jocelyn Viterna Portrait
Jocelyn Viterna is the chair of Harvard’s Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, a professor of sociology, and a researcher of sexual and reproductive rights.
Fifteen Questions: Jocelyn Viterna on El Salvador, Abortion Bans, and Finding Patterns
FM sat down with sociologist Jocelyn Viterna to talk about her research into gender politics and reproductive justice in El Salvador. “If a social movement is not based in actually changing the hearts and minds and practices of individuals, then I think it’s always going to be vulnerable,” she says.
David Yang
David Y. Yang is an Economics professor who studies change and stability in authoritarian regimes with a specific focus on China.
Fifteen Questions: David Yang on Chinese Authoritarianism, Political Economy, and Cookbooks
The Economics professor sat down with Fifteen Minutes to discuss his work on the political economy of authoritarian regimes in China. “There are people in China who eagerly want and fight for democracy. There are people in the U.S. who take on actions that go very much against democracy,” he says.
Mina Cikara Portrait
Mina Cikara is a Psychology professor that studies discrimination, conflict, and harm using social psychological and cognitive neuroscience approaches.
Fifteen Questions: Mina Cikara on Social Psychology, Intergroup Conflict, and Being a ‘Valley Rat’
Psychology professor Mina Cikara sat down with the magazine to discuss her influences and the psychology of discrimination. “Social psychology is rife with theorizing about all of the different inputs to intergroup conflict,” she says. “There are many, and they are multiply determined, and they are incredibly complex.”
Catherine Brekus Portrait
Catherine A. Brekus ’85 is a professor at Harvard Divinity School. She studies religion in America with a special emphasis in women’s religious history.
Fifteen Questions: Catherine Brekus on Historical Women, Christian Nationalism, and Religious Freedom
Divinity School professor Catherine A. Brekus ’85 sat down with Fifteen Minutes to talk about women’s history and religion. “For me, religion became a tool for asking questions about how women had made sense of their lives, and how they had made meaning,” she says.
Fifteen Questions: Kathleen Coleman on Gladiators, the Classics, and Poems
The former Chair of Harvard’s Classics Department discusses her experiences in apartheid South Africa, the gladiators of Ancient Rome, and the future of the Classics. She has been “privileged,” she says, “to spend my career basically pursuing my hobby.”