Ep 3: Messy Heroines, Beloved Colleagues & Lost in Oaxaca (with Alicia Hayes)

Episode 3: Lost in Oaxaca (with Alicia Hayes)In Episode 3 of Doug Reads With Friends, Doug is joined by Alicia Hayes—one of the most admired (and most universally liked) people in the world of fellowships advising, and a longtime friend from their shared professional home: NAFA, the National Association of Fellowships Advisors.Alicia chose Lost in Oaxaca by Jessica Winters Mireles, a romance novel set in a place that feels vivid enough to become a character of its own. Doug and Alicia talk about how they both “fell into” scholarship advising, what keeps Alicia motivated after more than two decades at UC Berkeley, and what it means to be a serious reader (including the very casual detail that Alicia reads about 100 books a year). Then they dig into the book itself: what romance novels are, what this one does well, what didn’t land, and why setting, culture, and perspective matter more than we sometimes realize.As always: the book is the excuse, the friendship is the reason.Email Doug with comments or suggestions: [email protected] by Eiren Caffall — https://www.eirencaffall.com/ (and follow her on Spotify)Next time: Doug reads Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein with John Bowers.Chapters00:00 Intro: The Book Is the Excuse01:58 NAFA, scholarship advising, and Alicia Hayes04:08 Falling into the work (and staying for the students)08:20 Awards, Mentorship, and “Office of Two” at Berkeley16:30 Alicia Reads 100 Books a Year (No Big Deal)21:44 OK, Now the Book: What Even Is a Romance Novel?23:00 Oaxaca as a Character28:17 Unlikable Heroines, Coyotes, and the “Oaxaca Was Good to Me” Problem37:29 Next Time — Frankenstein (Not the Green Guy)