The Elevator Podcast: Big Ideas in Short Rides

As Season One comes to a close, I reflect on photography not just as a way of capturing reality, but as a force that shapes memory, meaning, and history itself.

In my last episode of season one, I sit down with sociology professor Dr. Jimmie Bany to explore a powerful question: Does photography create social change, or simply reflect the world as it already is?

We unpack how images do more than capture mome... more

In a conversation with political science professor Dr. Claudia Sandoval, photography emerges as more than art, it becomes a powerful political tool. Reflecting on her upbringing in Inglewood during the Los Angeles Uprisings, Dr. Sandoval connects ima... more

On this episode of The Elevator Podcast, Dr. Mark Sellick unpacks politics not as a place, but as a process, driven by people, narratives, and power. Through that lens, photography emerges as far more than documentation; it becomes a political instru... more

In this powerful and deeply reflective episode, Ethnic Studies professor Dr. Melanie Lindsay explores photography as both a tool of oppression and a force for resistance. Drawing on the words of James Baldwin, who wrote that “to be Black and consciou... more

In this episode of The Elevator Podcast, history professor Monica Hernandez explores the powerful role photography played in the Chicano Movement and its offshoots, including the farmworker movement. More than just documentation, photography became b... more

In this episode of The Elevator Podcast, I sit down with Communications Studies professors Jose Oseguera and Rhejean Adu-Gyamfi to explore photography as a powerful non-verbal form of communication.

We break down how images function within the commu... more

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Adam Felton, professor of psychology, for a fascinating conversation on how photography has shaped the field of psychology, and how it continues to shape the way we see each other.

We explore how photographs became... more