Harvard College 2000 Podcast: Mary Ann Cockerill Walter

Harvard College 2000 Podcast: Mary Ann Cockerill Walter

Author: Harvard College Class of 2000 March 26, 2026 Duration: 24:31

Eileen talks to linguist Mary Ann (Cockerill) Walter about her love of languages, living and teaching in 10 different countries (she’s currently at the University of the Virgin Islands!) and discovering Arabic and linguistics at Harvard. She also gives us a linguist’s take on the recent Percival Everett novel, James, and offers some additional fiction recommendations. Mary Ann also shares her personal connection to the nonprofit ENOUGH! Plays to End Gun Violence, founded in response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary, the school she attended in her hometown of Uvalde, Texas. The organization teaches highschoolers all over the U.S. to write and stage their own plays about this urgent national issue. At Harvard, Mary Ann lived in Thayer and Eliot for one year before moving off campus. She concentrated in Linguistics and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

Links: ENOUGH! Plays to End Gun Violence https://www.enoughplays.com/

Mary Ann’s website, full of fun content about language: https://sites.google.com/view/maryannwalter/home

Mary Ann’s article about James by Percival Everett https://drive.google.com/file/d/15CwkOqlY0rvAzlxkX4PTr-goTN-TD5QS/view

The Mars House by Natasha Pulley https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/mars-house-9781639732333/

Author KJ Charles, writer of queer historical romance and fantasy https://kjcharleswriter.com


What happens after the cap and gown are put away? Harvard College Class of 2000: The Podcast explores that long, winding road. This isn't a formal reunion report but a series of conversations with classmates, catching up on more than two decades of life. You'll hear about careers that took unexpected turns, personal milestones, and the perspectives that only time and distance can provide. We also circle back to our shared origin point, swapping stories about those formative Cambridge years-the moments that stuck, the lessons that mattered, and the quirks of a particular time and place. Each episode is a different story, a unique path stemming from a common starting line. It's a chance to reconnect with voices from the past and discover where they've landed in the present. Tune in for a thoughtful, often surprising, and deeply human look at the journey from then to now, all through the specific lens of this class. This podcast is created by and for the Harvard College Class of 2000, offering a genuine audio chronicle of our group's evolving narrative.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Harvard College Class of 2000: The Podcast
Podcast Episodes
Harvard College 2000 Podcast: Yayoi Shionoiri [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:29
Dara talks to Yaoi Shionoiri, who is an art lawyer- a career we have not yet seen on the podcast! Yayoi has worked for a museum, art company, artists’ estates, and is now at Powerhouse Arts in Brooklyn (go visit her!). Y…
Harvard College 2000 Podcast: Anna Malsberger Laurent [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:27
Dara talks to Jonathan Dawid about his late fiancee Anna Laurent, known as Anna Malsberger in college. Anna worked in graphic design and documentary film after college and studying at Mass College of Art. Anna’s love of…
Harvard College 2000 Podcast: Andrea Volfova Filipi [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:55
Dara talks to Andrea about “life being extraordinary” and “mulling over grand plans for the future.” Andrea discusses moving to the United States to attend Harvard, soon after the end of the cold war. She has always been…
Harvard College 2000 Podcast: Melina McTigue Garland [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:49
Eileen talks to the thoughtful, hilarious Melina McTigue Garland about moving back to her hometown of Worcester, MA, her love of music and of words, and starting a flute ensemble, ringing the bells in Lowell Tower and ga…
Harvard College 2000 Podcast: Cori Racela [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:01
Cori talks about working at multiple jobs (including Putney Student Travel- which she hooked Dara up with a job in Alaska!) before going to law school and becoming a health lawyer in California. Cori is now the Executive…
Harvard College 2000 Podcast: Ming Hsu Chen [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:44
Ming Hsu Chen talks about her goal to become the first Asian American Thurgood Marshall, but pivoted to create a career with her main interests: ethnicity, religion and faith, law, civil rights, and immigration. Ming is…
Harvard College 2000 Podcast: Nathaniel Ekman [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:33
Today, Eileen interviews Nathaniel Ekman, one of The Paths We’ve Traveled speakers at reunion. Nathaniel opens up about his mental health struggles while at Harvard, being diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 21, and l…
Harvard College 2000 Podcast: Kyle Clayton [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:40
Kyle talks about pivoting from pre-med to technology, with an interesting role in technology at City Harvest, a food rescue organization in NYC (after a cool stint using ad tech for important issues). He’s a chess aficio…
Harvard College 2000 Podcast: Kim McManama O'Brien [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:48
Congrats to Kim on her new book, Mentality Wins, that came out this week! Kim has a couple of irons in the fire- in addition to being an author, she runs a group mental health practice, Unlimited Resilience, for athletes…
Harvard College 2000 Podcast: Judith Danovitch [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:57
Judith talks about how shopping period changed her career trajectory to stay in school forever and become a psychology professor at the University of Louisville. Judith’s research in child development and information sou…