For the Season Nine Finale this week, we are taking a look back at the beginning of Catalyst. Chapman University Faculty, and Catalyst Co-host, Ryan Haley, and his Season’s Eight and Nine Co-host, Mike Gravagno speak with former Catalyst hosts Taryn Stoop and Shannon Halverson about how the podcast came into existence, what its purpose was, and how it has evolved through the CCI 304: Creative and Cultural Industries in Practice Course.

The four also discuss how their backgrounds in the liberal arts, both through education and work, have influenced what they are doing today. Gravagno who graduated from Columbia University with a BA in Creative Writing Nonfiction and went on to earn his MFA in creative writing from Chapman University in 2018, talks about how his education and work in podcasting has lead him to his current position as Senior Content Marketing Specialist at Workiva.  Stroop who is also an alum of Chapman, graduating with a BA in Sociology in 2010, relates how her background and extensive work experience in the creative and cultural industries contributed to her career, and her current position as the Recreation Coordinator for the City of Tumwater Parks and Recreation Department.

Halverson, who is currently the Program Manager for the Center for Creative and Cultural Industries at Chapman University and Stroop touch on early recording days of Catalyst, when Gravagno helped to record and produce the episodes. They look at how that format transitioned under Haley’s course, and how the students now fully produce the interview sections of the show each season.  The quartet wrap the interview with some musings on where they think the cultural and creative industries are headed in a post pandemic, AI filled future.