Episode 27 of the PAD podcast features writer/author and performer Tracy Wise! After an international childhood lived throughout Asia because of her father’s aid work, Tracy Wise has spent her career in theatre, opera, and then higher education administration. She currently writes university presidential speeches, campus communications, and news stories in California’s Inland Empire. She has a BA in Theatre and Spanish from #WashU (which includes a year at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK) and an MA in Cultural Studies (a historiography degree) from the University of East London in the UK. Tracy talks to Rob about the many skills she learned as an official “Metzian” in the Performing Arts Department. Tracy learned local lessons that she leveraged into an international career. Don’t miss this one!

Episode 26 of the #PADpod features the very funny and engaging Joanna McNurlen! Joanna parlayed her Drama and Business background at #WashU into an interesting and exciting career journey that took her from positions at Deloitte and Spotify to her current role managing a team of Technical Architects at Salesforce and teaching Change Innovation and Management at NYU. Rob and Joanna talk about how the PAD taught the importance of failure and using that experience to leverage her way into a successful career of collaborating and presenting to large groups of people. We talk about the PAD classes that most shaped and (her word) broke her in a way that led her to a better understanding of the value of emerging from a struggle and understanding her true talents applied to business. Do not miss this funny, thought-provoking, and inspiring episode featuring the one and only Joanna McNurlen!

Episode 25 of the #PADpod features our FIRST designer sincethe podcast began with the enormously talented costume designer Chloe Karmin. Since graduating from WashU and studying costume design in the PAD, Chloe has been working nearly non-stop in the television and film industries. She’s designed costumes for films like Friendship and You Hurt My Feelings and been an assistant for multiple projects like Problemista (for Julio Torres whom she also did Fantasmas for HBO), Spaceman, Montana Story, and Lost Girls. She’s costumed Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Steve Buscemi and Paul Rudd just to name a few. Rob and Chloe talk about the values and skills she learned in collecting and assimilating research while at WashU and how she has leveraged that in making connections and engendering trust with her directors and collaborators. We also talk working with Antonio Banderas on-set for the upcoming Summer 2026 film Tony based on Anthony Bourdain’s book Kitchen Confidential. Don’t miss this episodeabout a talented #WashU trained costume designer with an extremely bright future in the business!