ÜBER DIESE EPISODE
Academic Career
Dive into the world of academia with valuable career insights and job tips from English Professor Tom Kitts. Tom has spent 45 years teaching English at St. John’s University - when he wasn’t in the classroom, he was busy with his cool side gig - writing books about Rock 'n Roll legends like Ray Davies, John Fogerty, and Richie Furay.
In our chat, we don’t just talk music - we dig into what an English degree can actually do for you in today’s job market. Is academia a good career, the life of a professor.
Follow us to discover a new career paths.
Got job ideas or questions? Reach out at https://www.howmuchcanimake.info/
Trying to figure out what career might actually fit you? Take my QUICK CAREER QUIZ and see your matches, NO EMAIL, NO HASSLE, just 5 questions ➡️
Visit howmuchcanimake.info
Music credit: Kate Pierson & Monica Nation
About the host: Mirav Ozeri has always been drawn to storytelling and journalism, especially the stories of everyday people. A former CBS Producer and a documentaries filmmaker.
During her years at CBS, Mirav developed a television pilot built around a simple idea: giving people an honest look at what different careers are really like. Although the pilot was never picked up, the concept stayed with her. Years later, she brought it back as How Much Can I Make?, a podcast that explores real jobs, real stories, and the many paths people take to build a career.
IN DIESER FOLGE
NOTIZEN ANZEIGEN 🔗
TRANSKRIPT 🔗
00:00:04.687 --> 00:00:09.903
The good thing about being an English major is it's very applicable to many other, many other industries.
00:00:09.903 --> 00:00:13.804
People like English majors because they could write, they could think critically.
00:00:14.766 --> 00:00:17.812
Welcome back to how Much Can I Make the podcast about jobs.
00:00:17.812 --> 00:00:23.542
Be sure to follow us and, if you like what you hear, leave a review to help others find our content.
00:00:23.542 --> 00:00:29.568
Today I'm joined by Dr Thomas Kitts, professor of English at St John's University in New York.
00:00:29.568 --> 00:00:39.701
Tom is not only a dedicated teacher, but also an author of several acclaimed books on music legends like Richard Foray, john Fogarty and Ray Davis.
00:00:39.701 --> 00:00:45.914
He also wrote about theater and literature, so let's jump right in and hear it from Tom.
00:00:45.914 --> 00:00:50.649
Tom, first of all, thank you very much for agreeing to do that.
00:00:50.649 --> 00:00:51.491
It was a pleasure.
00:00:51.491 --> 00:00:56.872
You've been a professor, an editor, a writer, an author, I should say.
00:00:56.872 --> 00:01:00.631
When you go to a party and people ask you what do you do, what do you answer?
00:01:00.899 --> 00:01:04.387
I usually say professor, and then I'll add author.
00:01:04.387 --> 00:01:09.305
Author helps get a conversation going if I want to engage with someone Right.
00:01:10.608 --> 00:01:16.768
What got you into English literature and how did you get from English literature to write about rock and roll?
00:01:16.768 --> 00:01:17.730
Oh, that's interesting.
00:01:17.870 --> 00:01:21.563
I guess when I was an undergraduate I got really involved in literature.
00:01:21.563 --> 00:01:24.007
I really liked especially American literature.
00:01:24.007 --> 00:01:32.516
And then I got my PhD at NYU and I worked with a professor, kenneth Silverman, very influential on me.
00:01:32.516 --> 00:01:46.290
Silverman had won a Pulitzer Prize for one of his books on an old Puritan, cotton Mather, and he worked very closely with me on my dissertation and, while I didn't know it at the time, I was writing about popular culture.
00:01:46.290 --> 00:01:53.001
I was writing about American playwright in the 1800s and I think from that things kind of evolved.
00:01:53.120 --> 00:01:59.284
My dissertation ended up being my first book on a guy named George Henry Boca that nobody's ever heard of, but anyway.
00:01:59.284 --> 00:02:04.746
And from that I was starting to write a second book on American theater in the 1800s and I saw an advertisement for Ray Davies of the Kinks.
00:02:04.746 --> 00:02:13.308
I was starting to write a second book on American theater in the 1800s and I saw an advertisement for Ray Davies of the Kinks who was performing a solo show, and I said to myself that's who I should write a book about.
00:02:13.308 --> 00:02:15.044
I've been talking about this guy all my life.
00:02:15.044 --> 00:02:18.431
What a great songwriter he is, what a great performer he is.
00:02:18.431 --> 00:02:19.939
And that's when that started.
00:02:19.939 --> 00:02:32.991
It was kind of, when I look back, a sort of neat kind of movement into popular culture, because I really had been writing about popular culture by writing about the theater, so I started to write about Ray Davies and everything just kind of snowballed.
00:02:33.240 --> 00:02:40.913
So you wrote about John Fogarty and actually I found the Richie Fouret really interesting story.
00:02:40.932 --> 00:02:43.304
He's an interesting guy Very interesting guy.
00:02:43.784 --> 00:02:45.850
The twin from rock and roll to Christian.
00:02:45.850 --> 00:02:48.024
But how do you choose your artist?
00:02:48.305 --> 00:02:49.768
I have to like the music first.
00:02:49.768 --> 00:02:55.668
Okay, if I like the music and I feel enough has not been written about them, I do that.
00:02:55.668 --> 00:02:59.967
With Ray Davies, I noticed that nobody was really examining his songwriting.
00:02:59.967 --> 00:03:05.266
So my books tend to be a little more academic than a standard biography on a performer.
00:03:05.266 --> 00:03:08.088
You know I really go into some close readings of the songs.
00:03:08.088 --> 00:03:11.163
So I felt that way about Ray John Fogarty.
00:03:11.163 --> 00:03:11.926
The same way.
00:03:12.199 --> 00:03:18.408
A guy who just has not been, I think, appreciated enough as a songwriter and Richie gets very little appreciation.
00:03:18.408 --> 00:03:29.628
He's one of the founders of the country rock scene and he's just a fascinating guy and we got to, I think, be friends until the book came out and then he hated you.
00:03:29.628 --> 00:03:35.474
That may be strong, maybe he didn't like as an evangelical.
00:03:35.474 --> 00:03:46.319
He became very supportive of Trump, very supportive on everything he said, and I kind of objected to the fact that he never called Trump out on any of his lies, right.
00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:55.308
And I put that in the book because Richie has a very active Facebook following in which he can be very political and I sort of went into that for only three pages.
00:03:55.308 --> 00:03:59.070
And then I also told a few stories that maybe he didn't appreciate.
00:03:59.070 --> 00:04:03.040
You know, a lot of these guys want you to write about them as if they're saints, right.
00:04:03.040 --> 00:04:08.026
And when you tell stories that maybe don't contribute to their sainthood, they don't like it.
00:04:08.266 --> 00:04:09.651
So do you interview the?
00:04:09.691 --> 00:04:10.252
musician.
00:04:10.252 --> 00:04:12.044
I try to.
00:04:12.044 --> 00:04:13.569
It's funny with all three of them.
00:04:13.569 --> 00:04:14.693
It's very different.
00:04:14.774 --> 00:04:22.382
Ray Davies you would think he was my friend if he were to walk in here now, and I tried to sit down with a formal interview for him, and he would never give me one.
00:04:22.382 --> 00:04:27.903
He kept saying next time I'm in New York he has a place in New York I will call you, we'll arrange an interview.
00:04:27.903 --> 00:04:31.005
Next time you're in London, call me, I'll arrange an interview.
00:04:31.005 --> 00:04:32.630
Never happened.
00:04:32.630 --> 00:04:34.764
We would talk backstage sometimes.
00:04:34.764 --> 00:04:38.303
He'd give me some quotations, but I never had the formal interview I want.
00:04:38.303 --> 00:04:40.524
He's an unusual guy, though.
00:04:40.524 --> 00:04:44.509
He also never signed off on giving me the rights to publish his lyrics.
00:04:44.889 --> 00:04:46.944
John Fogarty would not meet with me.
00:04:46.944 --> 00:04:50.235
He also stopped anybody around him from talking to me.
00:04:50.235 --> 00:04:51.762
What was he afraid of, do you know?
00:04:51.762 --> 00:04:52.524
I have no idea.
00:04:52.524 --> 00:04:57.165
Some of these guys are just peculiar, and I think they've been burnt by the press over the years.
00:04:57.165 --> 00:05:03.345
With Fogarty, though, I got really a lot of help from his former bandmates in Creedence Clearwater Revival.
00:05:03.345 --> 00:05:05.028
They were great, they were really good.
00:05:05.028 --> 00:05:07.392
And then with Fiore, we talked a lot.
00:05:07.392 --> 00:05:08.173
Just the opposite.
00:05:08.173 --> 00:05:10.588
Every month we talked for about an hour, an hour and a half.
00:05:10.588 --> 00:05:19.562
We both enjoyed the conversations and, as I said, we kind of became friends until the book came out and he didn't like some of the things I said.
00:05:19.562 --> 00:05:20.903
Interesting, yeah.
00:05:21.002 --> 00:05:21.463
Is Interesting.
00:05:21.463 --> 00:05:25.947
Is there any moment or any interview that is stuck with you more than others?
00:05:26.547 --> 00:05:28.189
Yeah, I'll give you two.
00:05:28.189 --> 00:05:32.651
Okay, maybe because they're the most recent one With the Richie Fure book.
00:05:32.651 --> 00:05:38.617
One of the best interviews I ever did, or maybe one I enjoyed the most, was with Timothy B Schmidt.
00:05:38.617 --> 00:05:48.495
He was in Poco, a band that Richie had started back in the early 70s 69, I think and he was a bass player in that band.
00:05:48.495 --> 00:05:53.850
But he went on to form the Eagles and he's been the bass player in the Eagles for whatever 40, 50 years now.
00:05:53.850 --> 00:06:02.019
He was just such a friendly, warm person and he talked about how Richie had influenced him, how he got him started.
00:06:02.019 --> 00:06:05.211
If it wasn't for Richie he would never ended up in the Eagles.
00:06:05.211 --> 00:06:08.428
Just a really wonderful guy.
00:06:08.720 --> 00:06:17.860
Another one I did, a published interview, not apart from the books was with a punk rocker named Justin Sane who's been in a lot of trouble over the last year.
00:06:17.860 --> 00:06:23.026
He's been kind of canceled sexual abuse and whatever but this is before any of that.
00:06:23.026 --> 00:06:25.896
Years ago I was interviewing him on his tour bus.
00:06:25.896 --> 00:06:31.468
He was in a band called Anti-Flag that I really liked and he said to me this is the first time I met him.
00:06:31.468 --> 00:06:33.384
We sort of became friends after that.
00:06:33.384 --> 00:06:36.492
We were careful of that right, but he said I only got a half hour Talking.
00:06:36.492 --> 00:06:36.992
A half hour.
00:06:36.992 --> 00:06:40.413
His manager walks at Newark.
00:06:40.413 --> 00:06:42.175
He says don't worry, this is going okay, we're fine.
00:06:42.175 --> 00:06:46.016
Talked another 20 minutes, came back on and told me we got that plane.
00:06:46.016 --> 00:06:47.576
No, it's okay, things are going all right.
00:06:47.576 --> 00:06:49.997
Came back 15 minutes later and we're still talking.
00:06:49.997 --> 00:06:51.139
We both have a really good time.
00:06:51.139 --> 00:06:52.944
We became sort of fast friends.
00:06:52.944 --> 00:06:55.028
And the guy came and he says no, stop, don't worry.
00:06:55.690 --> 00:07:07.065
And I said there's no plane in Newark is there, he said no, so you're in academia.
00:07:07.086 --> 00:07:07.708
Yes, and that's what you said.
00:07:07.728 --> 00:07:09.454
You love being a professor more than anything else.
00:07:09.454 --> 00:07:14.750
So one of your students in the review said oh no, great professor, oh, that's good.
00:07:14.750 --> 00:07:18.060
The class is reading heavy but very manageable.
00:07:18.060 --> 00:07:24.670
He sets high expectations early on, but if you put in real effort he grades fairly.
00:07:24.670 --> 00:07:29.103
All readings are provided as PDFs, so no textbook needed.
00:07:29.343 --> 00:07:37.889
It was a five-star review, that's pretty good and you know when I wrote that, no, I didn't see that.
00:07:37.889 --> 00:07:41.134
I'd always check the reviews, but that's really nice.
00:07:41.279 --> 00:07:42.504
So I do make them work.
00:07:42.504 --> 00:07:47.889
I really do, and you know I really dislike and I've been hearing this, by the way, for like 40 years.
00:07:47.889 --> 00:07:49.887
Oh, students today don't want to work.
00:07:49.887 --> 00:07:51.447
It seems like they've always said that forever.
00:07:51.447 --> 00:07:53.788
All you got to do is make them, make them read.
00:07:53.788 --> 00:07:58.509
I give them a stupid quiz at the beginning of class and because I give them this dumb quiz, they read.
00:07:58.509 --> 00:08:00.401
You teach English literature, I.
00:08:00.401 --> 00:08:01.502
I teach a couple of things.
00:08:01.502 --> 00:08:05.125
I teach English literature and I also teach popular culture courses.
00:08:05.125 --> 00:08:08.507
So that's what I've been really working in the last 30 years.
00:08:08.507 --> 00:08:11.569
I guess For 30 years you've been teaching, I guess.
00:08:11.569 --> 00:08:20.817
Actually, I got something in my mailbox at St John's this past summer and there was a certificate in there congratulating me on 45 years.
00:08:20.817 --> 00:08:23.944
Oh, wow, I didn't know if I liked that to be honest with you.
00:08:24.005 --> 00:08:25.620
I'm not hanging it up anywhere.
00:08:25.620 --> 00:08:27.646
Where do you teach now.
00:08:27.646 --> 00:08:29.850
What's it called St John's University in Queens?
00:08:29.850 --> 00:08:35.833
We're large, we've got a beautiful campus and we have approximately 15,000 students on our Queens campus.
00:08:35.833 --> 00:08:37.363
Yeah, it's a big university.
00:08:37.764 --> 00:08:43.003
What kind of person goes to study English literature, I mean, and what can they do with it?
00:08:43.043 --> 00:08:48.754
The good thing about English being an English major is it's very applicable to many other industries.
00:08:48.754 --> 00:09:00.461
People like English majors because they could write, hopefully, they could think critically, and one thing I like to do that sometimes bores students is read passages very closely Like what does that word imply?
00:09:00.461 --> 00:09:02.120
Why does he use that word?
00:09:02.120 --> 00:09:03.500
What other word could he have used?
00:09:03.500 --> 00:09:05.020
So you get to analyze things.
00:09:05.020 --> 00:09:10.686
I do a lot of critical thinking in my classes so you can go into a lot of different places with it.
00:09:10.686 --> 00:09:15.086
My brother was a history major and ended up being a senior VP at the Bank of New York before he retired.
00:09:15.086 --> 00:09:20.501
So you can move into different areas if you have basic skills like that and you can communicate.
00:09:20.501 --> 00:09:28.245
You know, if you have those communication skills and you can think critically, you'll end up somewhere besides teaching, besides publishing, and you know what.
00:09:28.245 --> 00:09:30.546
Law schools like English majors Really.
00:09:30.546 --> 00:09:32.315
Yeah, they do Because of those reasons, Because of the writing.
00:09:32.315 --> 00:09:33.336
Those reasons, yeah.
00:09:33.557 --> 00:09:36.061
You also taught in India and in Germany.
00:09:36.061 --> 00:09:39.908
Yes, what did you teach there and what was?
00:09:39.967 --> 00:09:40.830
it like India.
00:09:40.830 --> 00:09:42.538
I think I was there in 2017.
00:09:42.538 --> 00:09:50.071
I was invited to teach there and I thought I was going to teach about popular culture and American literature, and I actually taught there twice.
00:09:50.071 --> 00:09:52.677
The first time, they asked me to teach Shakespeare.
00:09:52.677 --> 00:09:55.927
Oh, so why would you ask me to teach Shakespeare?
00:09:55.927 --> 00:09:57.116
I mean, I love Shakespeare.
00:09:57.116 --> 00:10:03.322
I have taught him before, so it was a great opportunity for me, but it was a little unusual for me to do that.
00:10:03.322 --> 00:10:04.184
What was it like?
00:10:04.294 --> 00:10:05.541
Students were very respectful.
00:10:05.541 --> 00:10:07.020
Here's an interesting story about that.
00:10:07.020 --> 00:10:13.476
First of all, you walk into a classroom and they stand up, wow, and they don't sit down until you tell them to, which I didn't know.
00:10:13.476 --> 00:10:17.039
So I said okay, I'm starting, I'm starting.
00:10:17.039 --> 00:10:18.860
Okay, I'm waiting for him to sit.
00:10:18.860 --> 00:10:22.823
And I think one of the students said you got to tell us oh, okay, sit down.
00:10:23.745 --> 00:10:30.330
But the funny thing I got over there a lot was other professors kept asking me how do you find our students?
00:10:30.330 --> 00:10:32.711
They're very nice, good, very respectful, aren't they?
00:10:32.711 --> 00:10:33.491
Yeah, very respectful.
00:10:33.491 --> 00:10:38.571
And finally, one day, one of the professors said to me they're not like American students, are they?
00:10:38.571 --> 00:10:39.054
I said what do you mean?
00:10:39.054 --> 00:10:40.399
Well, they're very respectful.
00:10:40.399 --> 00:10:41.921
I said so are my students?
00:10:41.921 --> 00:10:46.927
They actually had the image of Animal House, the John Belushi movie.
00:10:46.927 --> 00:10:50.765
They thought that was like a typical college classroom.
00:10:50.765 --> 00:10:52.100
I swear I couldn't believe it.
00:10:52.100 --> 00:10:52.783
I said no.
00:10:52.783 --> 00:10:58.267
I said my students come in, say hello, they don't stand, I don't need them to, they sit down, they listen.
00:10:58.267 --> 00:11:01.691
I said maybe every couple of years you got to tell two of them to stop talking.
00:11:01.691 --> 00:11:05.041
And cell phones now you know I try to get them not to use those.
00:11:05.041 --> 00:11:06.847
But no, they're very respectful.
00:11:06.847 --> 00:11:09.221
But they didn't realize that they thought it was like Animal House.
00:11:09.615 --> 00:11:10.157
Interesting.
00:11:10.157 --> 00:11:13.457
That's the big, the bad marketing of Hollywood.
00:11:13.457 --> 00:11:14.198
There it is right.
00:11:14.259 --> 00:11:14.980
Unbelievable.
00:11:14.980 --> 00:11:16.802
Wow, yeah, I was surprised.
00:11:16.802 --> 00:11:18.024
And what was Germany?
00:11:18.024 --> 00:11:21.469
Like Germany, very respectful, I liked them a lot.
00:11:21.469 --> 00:11:23.700
I'm not sure they were graduate students.
00:11:23.700 --> 00:11:26.182
What year did you teach there, graduate school?
00:11:26.443 --> 00:11:28.135
No, germany.
00:11:28.135 --> 00:11:28.859
I was there last summer.
00:11:28.859 --> 00:11:29.841
I taught there twice too.
00:11:30.082 --> 00:11:32.240
Okay, I forget the first time, maybe 2020.
00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:40.236
I'm not even sure 2020.
00:11:40.236 --> 00:11:42.426
And then last last summer, and they were good students, very good, very talkative, cooperative.
00:11:42.426 --> 00:11:42.927
I talked about sound.
00:11:42.927 --> 00:11:43.691
I talked about music in New York City.
00:11:43.691 --> 00:11:46.860
I talked about hip-hop beginning in the Bronx and how that kind of now became a world music.
00:11:46.860 --> 00:11:47.984
But yeah, it was a lot of fun.
00:11:47.984 --> 00:11:55.176
What they do at the end of class is they bang on the table Like that's their way of clapping Wow With something else Again.
00:11:55.176 --> 00:11:56.198
The first time it happened.
00:11:56.198 --> 00:11:57.361
So what is that about?
00:11:57.361 --> 00:11:58.745
That's what we do at the end of class.
00:11:58.745 --> 00:11:59.527
It's like clapping.
00:12:01.256 --> 00:12:07.446
What is the one thing you wish you had known before you started your travels in academia?
00:12:08.336 --> 00:12:09.701
Gee, I found them all pretty fast.
00:12:09.701 --> 00:12:11.600
Can I tell you what I tell young professors?
00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:12.664
Yeah, maybe that'll help.
00:12:12.664 --> 00:12:20.620
First thing you have to do as a college professor besides, teach your classes, which is, to be honest, probably for me at least, the easiest part of the job.
00:12:20.620 --> 00:12:21.683
Okay, and I like the preparations and all that.
00:12:21.683 --> 00:12:22.888
You got to get publications.
00:12:22.888 --> 00:12:25.421
The old saying used to be publish or perish.
00:12:25.421 --> 00:12:27.028
You got to get publications.
00:12:27.028 --> 00:12:27.732
To get tenure.
00:12:27.732 --> 00:12:29.578
You got to do three things to get tenure you got to teach.
00:12:29.578 --> 00:12:31.222
That's relatively easy.
00:12:31.222 --> 00:12:35.605
You got to do service to the university relatively easy what do you mean by service?
00:12:35.846 --> 00:12:37.130
you get on a committee.
00:12:37.331 --> 00:12:45.544
Young professors will get on committees like oh, I don't, don't know, the library science committee, in which you interact with the library on different things.
00:12:45.544 --> 00:12:48.860
You meet maybe once or twice a year, not very difficult.
00:12:48.860 --> 00:12:58.764
Or you get a committee that you know, you overlook the budget for your college and you don't have much to say, really Just yes, okay, maybe try this, a recommendation.
00:12:58.764 --> 00:13:00.530
And and you don't have much to say, really Just yes, okay, maybe try this a recommendation.
00:13:00.530 --> 00:13:01.243
And there are tons of standing committees like that.
00:13:01.243 --> 00:13:02.782
That's easy for a young professor.
00:13:02.975 --> 00:13:04.163
The hard thing is getting published.
00:13:04.163 --> 00:13:05.129
How do you do it?
00:13:05.129 --> 00:13:09.779
You take from your dissertation and you got to try to get some chapters published, maybe publish this book.
00:13:09.779 --> 00:13:12.543
But you have to go to conferences, you have to network.
00:13:12.543 --> 00:13:13.975
I always tell them network.
00:13:13.975 --> 00:13:15.235
What kind of conferences?
00:13:15.235 --> 00:13:16.817
Well, what kind of conferences?
00:13:16.817 --> 00:13:20.659
Well, right now I go regularly to the Popular Culture Association's conference.
00:13:20.659 --> 00:13:34.830
It's international, it's held in April, and there you present the paper and then I tell them you've got to stick around and you've got to meet people, talk to them, find future collaborators, go to see people who are editors of journals, see if they'll be interested.
00:13:34.830 --> 00:13:36.471
You really have to network.
00:13:36.471 --> 00:13:38.113
And I always tell them the same thing.
00:13:38.113 --> 00:13:49.740
You have to go to the bar in the hotel at night and just sit there and look for people you saw and if they did a good paper, go up and introduce yourself and even just say I loved your paper or whatever, and just start talking.
00:13:50.134 --> 00:13:56.375
But if somebody gets into academia and doesn't publish and unable to get a deal, so they're not going to last too long, right?
00:13:56.395 --> 00:14:03.178
They unable to get a deal, so they're not going to last too long, right, they're not going to get tenure Typical of most universities you have about six, seven years before you're awarded tenure.
00:14:03.178 --> 00:14:06.921
I happen to be on the committee that awards tenure to professors.
00:14:06.921 --> 00:14:21.067
There's like 19 of us and every spring semester we meet and review the applications and we'll often, after two, three years, if someone hasn't published, we'll give them a bit of a warning and then after four years, maybe it'll be dismissed.
00:14:21.408 --> 00:14:24.188
So they have to publish in academia papers.
00:14:24.769 --> 00:14:31.192
Oh yes, it has to be in what's called a refereed journal, primarily, okay, peer-reviewed refereed journal.
00:14:31.192 --> 00:14:32.312
That's the hard part.
00:14:34.975 --> 00:14:35.938
And to be a professor you have to have a.
00:14:35.958 --> 00:14:36.782
PhD In most disciplines?
00:14:36.782 --> 00:14:42.666
Yes, Not necessarily, but I think we have like 89% of our faculty have PhDs.
00:14:43.015 --> 00:14:44.842
And what's the biggest challenge of teaching?
00:14:45.294 --> 00:14:48.424
I think it's always about getting to know the students.
00:14:48.424 --> 00:14:51.181
I always say this I hate the beginning of the semester.
00:14:51.181 --> 00:14:51.260
Why?
00:14:51.321 --> 00:14:57.461
Because, I don't know them, they don't know me, and it's like the first round of the boxing match almost.
00:14:57.461 --> 00:15:05.885
You're trying to figure out what everyone has and what they're doing and I like, when we get to after about three or four weeks, I know them, I know all their names.
00:15:05.885 --> 00:15:07.995
I always call them by first name by then.
00:15:07.995 --> 00:15:11.522
I've struck up several per-private conversations with them.
00:15:11.522 --> 00:15:17.879
I'll sometimes see a kid's baseball hat and say so, you're a Yankee fan and I'm a Mets fan, so we'll start a conversation by that.
00:15:17.879 --> 00:15:21.768
But once you get to know them, all of a sudden in class they start listening to you.
00:15:21.768 --> 00:15:24.042
Oh, it really is something.
00:15:24.042 --> 00:15:29.500
If you don't make an effort to reach them, you're just some guy up there talking, talking, blah, blah, blah.
00:15:29.500 --> 00:15:29.761
You know.
00:15:29.761 --> 00:15:32.924
But when you get to know them, it's amazing how they'll listen.
00:15:32.924 --> 00:15:36.503
They'll feel more at ease and you can even fool around a little in class.
00:15:36.842 --> 00:15:37.224
How many?
00:15:37.244 --> 00:15:38.847
students usually in the class.
00:15:38.847 --> 00:15:40.522
We are very good with our class size.
00:15:40.522 --> 00:15:46.921
In the humanities we don't have, generally not more than 35, and usually 20 to 25.
00:15:47.503 --> 00:15:49.923
That's good, and how many times a week do you see them?
00:15:50.195 --> 00:15:52.764
Well, in the fall I'm always doing my classes on Wednesday.
00:15:52.764 --> 00:15:56.922
They're three-hour classes, which is tough for them more than me.
00:15:56.922 --> 00:15:59.486
I always say is there anybody really want to listen to for three hours?
00:15:59.486 --> 00:16:01.149
So I do a lot of different kind of works.
00:16:01.149 --> 00:16:03.275
I'll mix films in there and all that.
00:16:03.275 --> 00:16:11.081
But we generally each class three credit class meets three hours a week do you find your students uh using ai a lot that's a problem.
00:16:11.081 --> 00:16:16.019
It has become a problem tell me about it ah, we're trying to find a solution to it.
00:16:16.038 --> 00:16:19.587
Because you give an essay and all of a sudden you know these students are slick.
00:16:19.587 --> 00:16:23.041
They'll put in like AI and say give me a paper for a B student.
00:16:23.041 --> 00:16:28.143
So you know it's not perfect and so it's really hard to detect.
00:16:28.143 --> 00:16:31.341
We're getting better at it, but it's hard to detect that they use AI.
00:16:31.341 --> 00:16:38.625
I'm telling you, even with the journal I edit, we're getting submissions that have used AI, which is horrible, and we just reject them.
00:16:38.625 --> 00:16:40.758
If you use AI, use it for research.
00:16:40.758 --> 00:16:41.682
You've got to tell how you use it.
00:16:41.682 --> 00:16:46.157
But with students when a hand-in-papers written by AI, it's hard to detect.
00:16:46.157 --> 00:16:54.605
And I think a lot of us are thinking about doing more writing in class, which that detracts from all the stuff you've got to cover and you want to cover.
00:16:54.605 --> 00:16:59.039
I know one professor told me that's all I'm doing, just in-class writing, but it takes so much time.
00:16:59.039 --> 00:17:00.299
So it's a problem.
00:17:00.299 --> 00:17:02.403
It's a problem that we're trying to figure out a solution.
00:17:02.403 --> 00:17:05.718
I find it very disturbing and it's only going to get bigger.
00:17:05.718 --> 00:17:06.842
It's only going to get bigger.
00:17:06.842 --> 00:17:07.784
It really is.
00:17:08.246 --> 00:17:11.056
Wow, writing books doesn't really pay the rent.
00:17:11.396 --> 00:17:23.285
No, no, that's not why I teach, but it helps to be a professor when you get a very nice salary and you can do things you want to do With a merit increase that stick to your salary year after year.
00:17:23.285 --> 00:17:27.326
But you're right, books do not pay the rent, the kind of books I write.
00:17:27.326 --> 00:17:31.809
You're not going to make more than a low few thousands, you're just not.
00:17:31.809 --> 00:17:34.692
And it's going to take time Because it's an academia.
00:17:34.912 --> 00:17:35.772
Academic book.
00:17:35.772 --> 00:17:39.461
It doesn't tell, while there are stories in there and it's about their lives.
00:17:39.461 --> 00:17:52.806
I focus on their music and if people see things like published by Penn State University Press, uh-oh, stay away from that one, why they think it's too academic, uh-huh, and it's going to be dry, you know.
00:17:59.055 --> 00:17:59.998
So you can make in the low thousands.
00:18:00.018 --> 00:18:01.241
I would say so, which project made you the most money?
00:18:01.241 --> 00:18:03.589
I think uh ray davis king's book more than john fogarty.
00:18:03.589 --> 00:18:08.089
Yes, yeah, honestly, I was surprised I'd never do it for the money never, because it's not.
00:18:08.150 --> 00:18:13.385
it's not gonna be substantial, it's not gonna change my life for anybody, but I think the ray davis, yeah, I think it did.
00:18:13.385 --> 00:18:25.144
I was surprised because somebody I know who had written a book on Creedence Clearwater Revival told me that book made him the most money and I said, well, geez, maybe I'll get lucky here, but it hasn't really, who knows.
00:18:25.505 --> 00:18:28.037
But in teaching you have tenure.
00:18:28.356 --> 00:18:32.967
Yes, I have tenure Full professor salary's very good, very happy with it.
00:18:32.967 --> 00:18:36.068
So it allows me to do more or less what I want.
00:18:36.068 --> 00:18:42.917
I guess the average professor spends about 12 hours a week on campus and that's where you disseminate knowledge, where you teach.
00:18:42.917 --> 00:18:48.720
I always say every professor must have a project and they've got to be working on something because you're only there 12 hours a week.
00:18:48.720 --> 00:18:56.644
And so I started doing these books and things and it's really been good for me, hopefully for my university, hopefully people will read them.
00:18:56.644 --> 00:18:57.887
So you get royalties.
00:18:58.008 --> 00:18:59.151
Yes, you get royalties.
00:18:59.151 --> 00:19:01.455
The percentage is generally at seven percent.
00:19:01.455 --> 00:19:04.163
I'm a terrible negotiator in everything I do.
00:19:04.163 --> 00:19:10.454
Michael Lyon he's on my mind because he just passed away the last couple of weeks and great obituaries in the Times and Rolling Stone on him.
00:19:10.454 --> 00:19:12.337
But he told me how to negotiate.
00:19:12.638 --> 00:19:13.299
What did he say?
00:19:13.480 --> 00:19:15.603
He says, first of all, never accept the first offer.
00:19:15.603 --> 00:19:16.284
Right, Of course.
00:19:16.284 --> 00:19:16.503
Right.
00:19:16.503 --> 00:19:20.549
He says then, work with them and get the advance as high as possible and take it.
00:19:20.549 --> 00:19:27.415
I was no good at either one of those things, but Michael made his living as a writer, you know, so it was a little different.
00:19:27.576 --> 00:19:30.963
What is the going salary for a PhD professor?
00:19:31.384 --> 00:19:32.026
It depends.
00:19:32.026 --> 00:19:33.496
It depends on your discipline.
00:19:33.496 --> 00:19:35.601
I'm going to guess, because I don't really know.
00:19:35.601 --> 00:19:41.805
If you get a PhD in, let's say, economics, you're going to be paid more than a PhD in English.
00:19:41.805 --> 00:19:47.261
I would say if we were hiring a new PhD in English, no experience just got out of the program.
00:19:47.261 --> 00:19:52.510
My guess is that person probably started about $90,000.
00:19:52.510 --> 00:19:57.249
In economics, my guess again about $120,000.
00:19:57.249 --> 00:19:59.935
It's a great disparity.
00:19:59.935 --> 00:20:00.778
And in computers, do you have any idea?
00:20:00.778 --> 00:20:03.646
You know, I don't know, computers are doing so well, no, I don't know.
00:20:03.646 --> 00:20:12.547
But uh, you know, with all ai and the job market wasn't good for new college graduates in computers, probably about 110, 120, maybe about the same.
00:20:12.788 --> 00:20:15.194
Humanities is always low, even in publishing.
00:20:15.194 --> 00:20:18.582
You don't start very well because we don't bring in grants, grant money.
00:20:18.582 --> 00:20:24.507
We bring in, we apply for a grant, we can jump through hoops and we'll get a $3,000 grant or 5,000 grant.
00:20:24.507 --> 00:20:33.148
Scientists come in with a million dollar grant over three years education doing research, get grants for $750,000 to study things.
00:20:33.148 --> 00:20:36.118
And then comes a guy in English I got a $3,000 grant things.
00:20:36.118 --> 00:20:38.042
And then comes a guy in English Well, I got a $3,000.
00:20:38.083 --> 00:20:42.349
Financial stability definitely is what the professorship gives me and what I really enjoy.
00:20:42.349 --> 00:20:45.431
You know, I can tell you I enjoy my colleagues, I enjoy going to work.
00:20:45.431 --> 00:20:49.553
I'm very lucky, especially I only have to go in a couple of days a week, so that's really kind of nice.
00:20:49.553 --> 00:20:53.097
What is the biggest reward in teaching, you know, I'll tell you.
00:20:53.097 --> 00:20:53.479
It's.
00:20:53.538 --> 00:21:00.425
Look at my cell phone over there, because I just got an email from a student of mine that I probably had five, six years ago now.
00:21:00.425 --> 00:21:17.064
This is a guy who came here from his family, came, I believe, from Ecuador, Okay, Okay, and his parents do not speak English they might by now but and he came to St John's and I had him in a class I teach called writing about music, and he wasn't interested in music, but someone had told him take my class so he could know how to write.
00:21:17.064 --> 00:21:20.009
He was a really good student and his writing really improved.
00:21:20.009 --> 00:21:30.169
He goes to law school and we meet for lunch one day and he's telling me you know, my professor made me the guy to tutor other students in the first year writing class in law school.
00:21:30.308 --> 00:21:31.276
Wow, this is really.
00:21:31.276 --> 00:21:33.142
And he said he actually said that's because of you.
00:21:33.142 --> 00:21:35.386
He said you made me write, you made me do things.
00:21:35.386 --> 00:21:39.332
He's now a successful lawyer and he texted me over the summer and says we've got to get together for lunch.
00:21:39.332 --> 00:21:41.803
So I mean, you get things like that all the time.
00:21:41.803 --> 00:21:43.460
It's just great to hear.
00:21:43.701 --> 00:21:44.022
Okay.
00:21:44.022 --> 00:21:47.244
So before we go, I want to know what's next for you.
00:21:47.244 --> 00:21:48.601
What are you working on now?
00:21:48.914 --> 00:21:53.522
I'm working on two essays now About what on Soundscapes.
00:21:53.522 --> 00:22:04.099
It's for a book called Soundscapes and it's going to be on New York City and the sounds of New York City, which does include music, and I get into a little bit about the music on the subway platforms, which is really good.
00:22:04.099 --> 00:22:05.337
It is very good, I know.
00:22:05.699 --> 00:22:07.203
Right, some great musicians.
00:22:07.203 --> 00:22:07.766
Oh my God.
00:22:07.766 --> 00:22:12.580
You know Joshua Bell once played in the subway and made like three dollars.
00:22:12.580 --> 00:22:15.105
People didn't know it was him, the best I know.
00:22:15.105 --> 00:22:16.326
Yeah, is that amazing?
00:22:17.087 --> 00:22:18.089
they're so good.
00:22:18.089 --> 00:22:18.998
And now the city.
00:22:18.998 --> 00:22:31.640
I guess now last 10 years I guess, they've had an organization where these guys actually audition, oh, and then they give them certain spots on the subway to perform wow music underground, something like that it's called.
00:22:31.640 --> 00:22:37.482
So the quality is better than ever wow, it's a great place for them to hone their skills and everything else.
00:22:37.743 --> 00:22:38.666
A place to rehearse.
00:22:38.666 --> 00:22:41.083
A place to rehearse work out different things.
00:22:41.194 --> 00:22:45.565
Yeah, it's been great, and some of them can make a living doing it a modest living to be clear.
00:22:45.565 --> 00:22:48.884
Maybe pay their rent in a shared apartment, that kind of thing.
00:22:48.884 --> 00:22:50.557
And the other thing I'm writing about is Bob Dylan.
00:22:50.858 --> 00:23:00.182
I just did a presentation at the Institute for Bob Dylan Studies in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I think it went pretty well, so I'm going to turn it into an article that hopefully will be out with next year or so.
00:23:00.182 --> 00:23:02.983
Writing is just flat-out hard work.
00:23:02.983 --> 00:23:10.942
I often would say and I'm quoting somebody, many people have said this I don't enjoy writing, but I enjoy having written.
00:23:10.942 --> 00:23:12.786
Yes, you know yes.
00:23:12.786 --> 00:23:14.509
Relate to that Right.
00:23:14.509 --> 00:23:16.181
You know what I mean, absolutely.
00:23:16.201 --> 00:23:20.602
So, that's the thing, and it's a great feeling when you see an article or a book published.
00:23:20.602 --> 00:23:21.223
It still is.
00:23:21.223 --> 00:23:23.142
Yeah, that's a big reward of writing.
00:23:23.142 --> 00:23:25.298
Exactly, but the writing part of it.
00:23:25.298 --> 00:23:27.522
It'd be nice to just go right to the end, you know.
00:23:29.247 --> 00:23:36.605
All right, well, thank you so much for sharing your time and your expertise.
00:23:36.705 --> 00:23:39.270
Thank you, I enjoyed it Excellent.
00:23:41.576 --> 00:23:43.323
Okay, that's a wrap for today.
00:23:43.323 --> 00:23:48.968
If you have a comment or question or would like us to cover a certain job, please let us know.
00:23:48.968 --> 00:23:52.104
Visit our website at howmuchcanimakeinfo.
00:23:52.104 --> 00:23:54.461
We would love to hear from you.
00:23:54.461 --> 00:24:01.163
And, on your way out, don't forget to subscribe and share this episode with anyone who is curious about their next job.
00:24:01.163 --> 00:24:02.307
See you next time.