Whether you’re an undergrad student or working towards your PhD, approaching your professors can be intimidating. Working to bridge that gap with his new bi-weekly podcast Lecture Me Not this fall is fourth-year Innis College student Ethan Kim.

As Kim sees it, professors stand at the top of the academic staircase, untouchable with their microphones and podiums, overlooking the masses of students. The experience and knowledge that professors share in lecture also tend to isolate them from the student body, leading to misconceptions and false expectations of who professors really are and what they expect from us as students.

This barrier is certainly something worth addressing, and Kim believes the first step is conversation. Staged “like a coffee chat more than an interview,” Lecture Me Not will delve deeper into each professor’s interests and perspectives on changing academic and industry landscapes to, ultimately, learn more about the professors themselves.

Describing the podcast as “a happy medium” for easy listening on your way to class, Kim hopes that students will start seeing professors in a different light.

While Kim dreams of eventually taking his podcast to the level of Joe Rogan’s, he hopes for now to add U of T admin and alumni from various industries to the cast of Lecture Me Not.

As classes begin, take a leaf out of Kim’s conversations and chat with your professors during office hours. You never know what you might learn.