Access to Excellence Podcast Features Grand Challenges

Mason President Gregory Washington takes on some of the toughest issues facing students and graduates and the opportunities those issues present.

Access to Excellence Podcast

"Here are some of the big issues out there that you can solve, that you can attack with your Mason education," says Mason President Gregory Washington. Read more. 


 

President Washington at lectern

About the Podcast

The world is facing serious challenges. Mason President Gregory Washington's conversations on these topics with thought leaders and experts will broaden perspectives, enlighten and educate.


 

Latest Episode

Access to Excellence Podcast Episode 42, featuring Doc Nix

Dr. Michael Nickens, an associate professor of music in George Mason University’s Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music, tells Mason President Gregory Washington how he transforms from his mild-mannered persona into Doc Nix, the flamboyant leader of the Green Machine, the nation’s No. 1 pep band. The band doesn't play mechanically, Nix says. There are times its members are “exploring the universe in that moment. Those are the moments that feel like we have really accomplished something.” Nix is pretty good on the tuba, too.

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More Episodes

  • August 26, 2021
    Mason's Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a nationally recognized expert on the U.S.-Mexico border, has a slightly different view of the border region than we generally see on television news. She talks about the wonders and the dangers of the region, her research into border security, social movements and human trafficking.
  • July 28, 2021
    Mason's Cynthia Lum, a former Baltimore City cop, talk about how evidence-based policing is part of an overall strategy to fight crime that also includes police being respectful to the communities with which they work.
  • July 14, 2021
    Spencer Crew, A Robinson Professor of U.S. history at Mason and the first African American to lead a major Smithsonian museum, talks about the evolving role museums play in society, and how the Black community in the United States, and those who work with it, are trying to be the conscience of the nation.
  • June 26, 2021
    Shane Caswell, co-director of Mason's S.M.A.R.T. Lab, discusses his research that could change the way we diagnose and treat concussions, and what the latest science tells us about concussions and CTE.
  • June 8, 2021
    Robyn Mehlenbeck, director of Mason's Center for Psychological Services, discusses how colleges can help students, faculty and staff cope with the well-being stresses that have resulted from the pandemic, and how her center is extending services to the broader community.
  • May 14, 2021
    A false story has been told in this country about people of color, said Gail Christopher, executive director of the National Collaborative for Health Equity and a Mason senior scholar and it’s time to tell the truth about the ‘bad idea’ of the hierarchy of human value.
  • May 4, 2021
    Emergent Ventures, which looks for big and unique ideas, has raised $60 million and funded 200 projects. Mason economist and co-founder Tyler Cowen says the program grants are “something you can win that’s not about connections.” Push ideas, he said. “Make the world tell you no.”
  • Host Dr. Gregory Washington speaks with Ed Maibach, director of Mason's Center for Climate Change Communication about overcoming misinformation about climate change dangers.
  • Host and Mason President Dr. Gregory Washington speaks with Mason epidemiologist and public health expert Saskia Popescu about what she has experienced on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • How could the U.S. have improved its response to the COVID-19 pandemic? Mason president Gregory Washington hosts CHHS epidemiologist, Amira Roess, PhD MPH, as she breaks down the many factors impacting the nation's response and recovery.
  • How are anti-racism efforts building on college campuses? How will Mason affirm its core values and mission of inclusion? President Gregory Washington speaks with Wendi Manuel-Scott and Shernita Parker, co-directors of Mason's Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence Task Force about the university's commitment to be a national leader in this dialogue.
  • In this fascinating conversation, President Gregory Washington speaks with Kevin Clark, director of original animation for preschool programming at Netflix, and retiring professor in the Learning Technologies Division in George Mason University’s College of Education and Human Development, about how technology and economics are helping fuel the rich entertainment content highlighting people of color, and how that programming can be a conduit for anti-racism efforts.