When First Lady Michelle Obama spoke to the graduating class of Oberlin College and Conservatory in 2015, she encouraged students to embrace Oberlin’s history and run to the “noise”— those challenging, contentious situations that threaten to divide us.

As the first college in America to officially embrace the admission of black students, and the first co-ed school to grant bachelor’s degrees to women, Oberlin has been Running to the Noise almost since our inception. And that’s just what we’ll do in each episode of our podcast, hosted by College President Carmen Twillie Ambar.

President Ambar will talk with all manner of interesting and influential people on and off our campus who are tackling some of the world’s toughest problems, working to spark positive change for everyone.