The latest episode of podcast series on ‘Nostalgia’, hosted by Dr Chris Deacy, Reader in Theology and Religious Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, has just released.
In this week’s interview, Chris interviews Dr Laura Bailey, Lecturer in the Department of English Language & Linguistics, who talks about growing up in Newcastle and how the university culture has changed over the decades.
Laura places her earliest memory from when she was two and a half years old and she talks about her penchant for undertaking creative activities as a child, how she especially enjoyed the process of writing itself and about the peer pressure at secondary school in terms of learning about the latest songs. Laura reveals where she stands on the ‘Do you prefer Blur or Oasis?’ question before discussing her experience of watching The Princess Bride when growing up.
Laura went to university as a mature student and she ruminates on the role that fate and luck played in whether or not she was able to carry out a PhD. She recalls the role her inspirational teachers played in her life (and what happened when two of them, coincidentally, appeared at the till in Waterstones where she was working at the same time). An instructive conversation then unfolds regarding why several female academics added ‘Dr’ to their Twitter account name a few years ago, and the interview concludes with Laura talking about whether she has fulfilled the dreams she had when she was young and which decisions she wishes she had made.
The podcast is available here: