Office Hours Air, created and hosted by Noah Sveiven, features guests in conversation about their work and the experiences in their lives that drew them to that work. Sveiven hopes the program will be of interest to other undergraduates discerning their callings, as well as anyone else wanting to try out new ways of thinking. Office Hours Air is produced weekly and available online on all major podcast platforms.

Former Stanford University archivist Roxanne Nilan recently authored a new biography on former Stanford University President Wallace Sterling, who shepherded the university through a period of extraordinary growth in prominence from 1949 to 1968. Published in October 2023, “Stanford’s Wallace Sterling: Portrait of a Presidency” charts Sterling’s time at Stanford, as well as the contributions of other figures. 

In conversation with Karen Bartholomew, the contributing editor to the book, and Larry Horton, the current president of the Stanford Historical Society, Nilan discusses the legacies from Sterling’s time that shape university life today. During Sterling’s presidency, the medical school moved from San Francisco to campus, ambitious new faculty raised the profile of the University and admissions became increasingly selective. 

Toward the end of the program, Nilan, Bartholomew and Horton remark on their relationship with the University. Cumulatively, the three have lived and worked at Stanford for more than a century, and the memories of times past endure in their minds.