UConn 360: The UConn Podcast

Episode 139: Takin’ Our Licks

UConn is known for many things – great academics, championship sports …. and the world’s great ice cream (in our humble opinion!). Joining us on this edition of the podcast is Bill Sciturro, who is the manger of the UConn creamery that is responsible for making the ice cream that is sold at the UConn Dairy Bar. Bill tells us a little bit about the history of ice cream making at UConn and what flavors are the most popular. He has an interesting background himself as he grew up working in ice cream shops in Rhode Island and started his career in health care before returning to his ice cream roots. The process of making ice cream, and the other products produced at the creamery is not an easy and sometimes unglamourous task and Bill goes through the whole process. He also talks about what preparation is done to prepare special favors like the Senior Scoop and the ones that honor basketball championships. Finally, he brought us some ice cream and we got a chance to have a taste. If you want to visit the Dairy Bar this summer, these are the hours.

Episode 138: Novel Brands Give Consumers New Choices

When somebody scrolls through the top product categories on Amazon odds are some 60% of the brands for sale will be ones you’ve never heard of before. That poses a challenge for marketers looking for their brands to be chosen among the many options, including familiar ones. UConn marketing professor Danielle Brick has researched how novel brands can make inroads in a very crowded marketplace and it has been published in the Journal of Consumer Research. She joins us on the podcast and tells us about how she went about her research, which included offering candy bars to people that just worked out at a gym. Brick also tells us about how novel brands have affected her personal shopping habits and her research on spiteful brand choices in relationships.

Episode 137: UConn’s Rudd Center Studies Various Food Issues

UConn’s nationally-renowned Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health promotes solutions to food insecurity, poor diet quality, and weight bias through research and policy. Marlene Schwartz is the director of the Rudd Center and joins us on the podcast. She is also a professor of Human Development and Family Studies. Marlene talks about how the Rudd Center performs research and advocates on these various issues. She also gives parents helpful hints on how to get their children to eat healthy foods and good tips on how buying things like fruits and vegetables can be done in an economic way. Schwartz also reviews what college students can do to eat healthy when they move into dormitory life.

Episode 136: UConn Professor Looks at Role of Law in Businesses

Robert Bird, a professor of business law in UConn’s School of Business, has a new book out -  “Legal Knowledge in Organizations: A Source of Strategic and Competitive Advantage.” Bird tells us that most companies believe that lawyers and legal knowledge are only necessary to avoid breaking the law or getting stuck in a lawsuit. Legal knowledge, however, is much more valuable than that and can be a source of competitive advantage for any company that wants to use legal knowledge in this fashion. Bird goes through the five pathways a business can use to make the law a positive difference and be a competitive advantage. In addition to interviewing Bird, co-host Izzy Harris talks about her recent experience working at the NCAA Women’s Final Four for University Communications.

Episode 135: The Future of Clothing Is So Smart

John Toribio is a doctoral student at UConn in polymer chemistry – and is the first student to join us in this current format of the UConn 360 podcast. In addition to his studies, he is the CEO and CTO of Zemi Labs, (zemilabs.com), which is a start-up company creating smart clothing for comprehensive health and fitness. The company creates wearable garments that provide real-time relevant analytics about human bio-mechanical data, like heart and muscle performance, cognitive awareness, emotional status, and physiological workload. Zemi was the winner of UConn’s 2024 Innovation Quest entrepreneurship competition and received a $15,000 award. Toribio discusses where Zemi is now and what the future might hold. In addition, he talks about how he uses smart clothing and technology in his own life, how he balances his academic and entrepreneurship efforts, and what his own workout regime is like.

Episode 134: Irish Studies at UConn

It is March, which means Saint Patrick’s Day and Irish-American Heritage Month in the United States. Here at UConn, Mary Burke is a professor in the Department of English and oversees the Irish Literature Concentration. She joins us on this episode of the UConn 360 podcast to talk about Irish studies on campus and her background as a scholar and professor. Mary explains the origins of the holiday back in Ireland and some of her own family traditions. If you are interested in learning about Irish literature, but have never studies it, she gives you a few places to start. Mary organizes the annual Gerson Irish Reading event on campus, which takes places this year on Tuesday, April 1, at the UConn Alumni House.

Episode 133: A New Book from Coach Calhoun

Former UConn men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun won three national championships for the Huskies, but the relationship he has with players goes well beyond in the court. Calhoun has recently finished his third book - “More Than a Game: How the UConn Dynasty Was Built on a Culture of Caring” – which he co-authored with sportswriter Dom Amore. The book takes a look at Calhoun’s relationships with a number of former players from all his various coaching stops with many of them former Huskies. Amore joins us on the latest episode of the UConn 360 podcast to talk about how the book came about, when people will be able to get a copy, some insight about its content, and a little bit about his career as well.

Episode 132: Helping High School Athletes Eat Right

Jennifer Fields is an assistant professor of nutritional sciences at UConn and recently published a study about high school athletes and their lack of knowledge in nutrition. Fields knew that college student-athletes often turned to unscientific outlets, like social media, for nutritional information in the absence of formal education. Given this, she became interested in seeing if similar patterns existed for high school athletes. Fields found out it was, and she talks about the reasons why and how this lack of knowledge can hurt the high school athlete. One of the key differences between sports and regular nutrition is athletes’ calories and carbohydrate needs, and she discusses that with us. Fields also talks about what parents and families can do to help their high school athlete gain nutritional knowledge.

Episode 131: Hope Springs Eternal

Husky baseball coach Jim Penders joins this edition of the UConn 360 podcast as he enters his 22^nd season guiding this historic program. He is just the fifth coach to guide the team in the past 100 years and Penders talks about the responsibilities that carries. The Penders family has deep baseball and athletic roots in Connecticut and nationally, which inspires him every day. He has spent 33 of the past 35 years as part of the “Hook C” as a player, assistant coach and head coach – the two other years were spent in politics in Washington, D.C. Penders has led UConn to nine NCAA tournament trips and to the Super Regionals in two of the past three years. He previews the 2025 Huskies, which look to make UConn’s first trip to Omaha and the College World Series since 1979.

Episode 130: Trying to Make the Roads Safer

There are many ways that UConn impacts the citizens of Connecticut beyond its obvious academic mission. The Connecticut Transportation Institute is one of the outlets and it is led by director and associate research professor Eric Jackson. The institute serves to advance the maintenance and enhancement of transportation systems and safety, with a particular focus on Connecticut’s current and future needs. Eric joins us on the UConn 360 podcast to talk about his work and why traffic safety and fatalities have increased in recent years. The reasons are many and vary from the effects of COVID, to distracted driving, and many others. The CTI is doing important work and Eric tells the story in an interesting enlightening way.