Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We will end today, in our last few minutes, with a call in for anyone who heard a commencement address during this graduation season to call in and share one nugget of wisdom that you might have heard along the way that is worth repeating. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Call or text.
First of all, congratulations to all the graduates. Did you have an interesting speaker at your graduation or at the graduation ceremony of a loved one? What did they say in their speech to the graduates that sticks with you? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.
Some ones that have been making news. The singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers is a graduate of NYU's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, and she gave the commencement speech at the Tisch School of the Arts earlier this month. She shared a lot of advice she would have liked to hear when she graduated college. Some of it basic, stay hydrated, wear sunscreen. Some of it more grand and about the meaning of art and life and life as an artist.
This is a quote from her speech, "A lifetime making art is in some ways about your tolerance for risk, whether it's money or lifestyle or your own heart, but it's equally about your ability to dream." She writes to her younger self, "I tell her to keep the dreams bigger than the fear." Those were Maggie Rogers words from a commencement address she gave earlier this month at NYU.
Did you hear anything so lovely and poignant at a graduation this year or just one thing that stuck with you? Give us a call or text it to 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. The pop star Usher gave a commencement address at Emory University this year. He spoke about dreaming big and working hard. Here's 45 seconds of his speech.
Usher: You know, sometimes you may be passed on. Someone for some reason may not understand or feel the same as you do or share the same passion for your commitment. But if you can change your mindset, you can blaze a new trail within the system. The system didn't understand me, or rather it didn't know what to do with a student like me. They couldn't help me prepare for the future I would have. That would require real-world experience that would motivate me based off of passion and empower my spirit. Eventually, as a result of that, I became Usher.
Brian Lehrer: Became Usher. Anyone hear a motivating speech like that one from Usher, where he talked about activating your passion for something, even if it's outside the traditional path, like he did? 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692.
Obviously, this year is fraught in so many ways. 2025 graduates have dealt with COVID upending their education, tension on campus over speech, the war in Gaza, anti-Semitism. They're graduating into the polarized real world with Donald Trump as president and an unstable economy. Did you hear anything at a commencement address that took on this moment in a productive or hopeful way? Give us a call, shoot us a text. What are you hearing at commencements this year that stick with you? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.
One more from the commencement address the songwriter and performer Maggie Rogers gave at NYU on advice she wishes she had heard as a young graduate before we take your calls. She said, "The thing about being an artist is that it's not a profession. It's a vocation. It's not something you do or sign up for. It's who you are. It's something that calls to you from the deepest depth of your being. I would tell her," her younger self, "to trust that knowing." From Maggie Rogers. What did you hear? 212-433-9692.
I'll just mention that I had the privilege of being invited to give a commencement address this year to the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia. One of my thoughts to them was to fall in love with local news. That, yes, the national and global issues are extremely compelling right now, but the real crisis of journalism is in the dearth of local news. Local news needs you. Local news provides more opportunities for finding common ground and enhancing democracy than national news sometimes does, because it's harder to divide up into our political echo chambers on local issues when they really are at the neighborhood and block by block level. Journalists, this was to journalists in particular, fall in love with local news.
What did you hear at a commencement address that stuck with you? We'll take your calls and texts right after this. 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692.
Brian Lehrer on WNYC. In our last minutes today, whatever you heard this year at a commencement address that was worth remembering and repeating. 212-433-WNYC. Willa in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hello.
Willa: Hi, Brian. Yes, I was at my younger brother's graduation. Congrats, Lucas. Congrats all the graduates at UMass Amherst, the College of Natural Sciences. The Dean of Sciences gave a very short speech, which was nice, but he said to all the students that the country and the world really needs science right now. I think that that was really important and comforting given how scary it must feel to go into sciences now with all the cuts to the HHS and the NIH, and just like the attack on sciences in this country.
Brian Lehrer: Yes. Just as Maggie Rogers was talking about the world needing artists, the Dean of Sciences talked about the importance of having scientists when their funding is being cut so much. Willa, thank you for that, from UMass in Amherst.
Bijan in Jersey, you're on WNYC. Hi, Bijan.
Bijan: Hey, good morning, Brian. Yes, so I just graduated a couple weeks ago from the Rowan School of Osteopathic Medicine. Similar to the previous caller, our dean kind of closed out with just a simple statement. He said, remember to always serve the underserved. I just thought it doesn't always have to be like a Whitmanian speech. It was just simple, and that's the last thing that we heard as medical students. After that, he said, congratulations, you're all doctors. I thought it was pretty cool.
Brian Lehrer: Remember to always serve the underserved; a good message to new doctors, and congratulation to you. 212-433-WNYC. If anyone else wants to chime in and what you heard at a graduation speech. Here are some coming in in text messages. One listener writes, "I watched Kermit the Frog's commencement speech at the University of Maryland," and yes, that's real. Kermit the Frog, I saw a clip on TV, did give a speech at the University of Maryland. According to this listener, Kermit said, "Rather than jumping over someone to get what you want, consider reaching out your hand and taking the leap side by side, because life is better when we leap together."
Another one writes, at Pace University, an actor whose dream job fell through, followed by no after no, concluded with this, "No one decides your worth. You do." Let's see. Where's-- There was another one.
Okay, let's take another phone call. Jeremy in Georgia, you're on WNYC. Hi, Jeremy.
Jeremy: Yes, thank you. Yes, of course. Good morning, Brian. I just want to say that as an expat, New York expat, I think it's irresponsible to have given the mic to Maggie Rogers to have done this commencement speech at NYU. This is the epitome of gentrification of our city. Let's come up with a better example.
Brian Lehrer: Fair enough. You have one? No. He's gone. Let's see. Bob in Brooklyn is going to remember, I think, an older commencement address. Bob, you're on WNYC. Hello.
Bob: Hi, good morning, and thank you for having me.
Brian Lehrer: Oh, and by the way, before you go, I know somebody just already wrote kind of in defense of Maggie Rogers that she was giving a speech specifically to the graduates at the School of the Arts, so that she was relevant to that. Two views on Maggie Rogers on the show in this segment. Bob in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi. Go ahead.
Bob: Hi. Hi. Long time. Long time. Happy to be here. Mine was not specifically at a commencement speech, but it was early in my career. I was anxious about a new job, and a relative had told me, don't be plagued by my anxieties. Here's my advice. Work as hard as you can, for as fast as you can, for as long as you can, and everything will be all right. That advice has served me excellently throughout my entire life.
Brian Lehrer: Bob, thank you very much. All right. Work as hard as you can. Did you say, as fast as you can? Always good advice. Of course, that doesn't acknowledge structural outside obstacles, but I guess even with structural outside obstacles, that's always good advice.
Tanya in Syosset, you're on WNYC. Hi, Tanya.
Tanya: Hi. How are you?
Brian Lehrer: Good. You were at the Wesleyan commencement, do I see?
Tanya: Yes, yes, for my daughter. The speaker there discussed how a challenging time it was for these graduates, and mentioned that John F. Kennedy was graduating in 1940 under similarly challenging times. He alluded to Kennedy's thesis, which was called Why Britain Slept, referring to how the democracy in Britain did not, and people within that, did not recognize the rise of authoritarianism quickly enough during the 1930s. He was encouraging all the graduates to really think of this time as a time when they can fight for democracy. I thought that was interesting.
Brian Lehrer: Yes, a poignant thought that I wonder if a lot of speakers addressed at universities around the country or a lot of speakers tried to sidestep, but apparently they addressed it at Wesleyan. Thank you, listeners, for your calls and texts. That's The Brian Lehrer Show for today, produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum. Megan Ryan is the head of Live Radio. You had Juliana Fonda and Milton Ruiz at the audio controls. Stay tuned for Alison.
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