A Professor and a Comedian Walk Into a Bar
In a world where academics and stand-up comics rarely share the stage, the new podcast A Professor and a Comedian Walk Into a Bar is doing something unique: mixing scholarly insights with humor.
Co-hosted by School of Education and Social Policy Professor Sepehr Vakil and Chicago comedian and producer Mike Knight, the podcast is a platform for open dialogue at a time when some comedians are avoiding college campuses and critics say cancel culture stifles open and vigorous debate on complicated topics.
“Comedy is often viewed as antithetical or even heretical in academia,” Vakil wrote in an essay for The Los Angeles Review. But the culture of comedy, Vakil argues, offers much-needed advice to supporters as well as detractors of higher education on how to listen and engage “across political and ideological differences.”
Produced by filmmaker and DePaul professor Raphael Nash, the podcast pairs professors with comedians for smart, funny and honest conversations on a wide range of topics. But the format is flexible.
Immediately after the 2024 presidential election, Vakil and Knight skipped guests in favor of a candid discussion about the election and the stark contrast in the way their fields engage with difficult subjects.
“Comedians name the elephant in the room,” Vakil said, contrasting this with the more reserved, formal nature of academic discourse. “And Mike Knight, with his background in stand-up, is the one who can pull out insights from our academic guests in ways that are revelatory and insightful.”
The second episode paired comedian Sonal Aggarwal, a self-described “world traveler, bridge builder and maker of mischief,” with Loyola University’s Professor Katherine Cho, an expert on student activism in higher education.
The group discussed the widespread campus protests in 2024, with historical context and informed optimism from the academics and plenty of comic relief from the stand-ups.
Several Northwestern undergraduates work behind the scenes, helping with filming, logistics and post-production, including Sandra Salib (Medill, Weinberg); Kaprice Daniels (School of Education and Social Policy, Medill); PJ Fahrenkrug (School of Communication); and Spencer Thomas (School of Communication).
“It’s been great to learn about the social justice impact comedy can have,” said Fahrenkrug, who studies radio, television and film.
Thomas said comedians and professors often start by emphasizing their differences but “end up discovering a lot of overlap.”
That’s one of the podcast’s goals; another is to make academia more accessible. “I don’t think the broader public really gets us,” Vakil said. He hopes the podcast will directly connect with audiences to help regain public trust in science and highlight the importance of higher education.
For Vakil, faculty director of Northwestern’s recently established Technology, Policy and Opportunity Center, the podcast is part of his broader commitment to connecting scholarship with broader audiences.
“A Professor and a Comedian Walk Into a Bar, at its core, is a new kind of learning environment premised on the idea that smart and funny can and should coexist,” he said. “Comedy has untapped pedagogical potential.”
Comedians can speak on nuanced social issues in a digestible way, without academic jargon, to the larger public. A show like Abbott Elementary, Vakil said, grapples with the politics of public education—everything from race relations to the future of AI in schools. “And it’s funny, entertaining and smart all at once.”
Using comedy to connect
Vakil, an associate professor of learning sciences at the School of Education and Social Policy, has long incorporated storytelling and qualitative research into his work.
Using comedy to connect is a newer approach, but when he heard comedian Roy Wood Jr. call comedy “a form of journalism, living anthropology in its highest form” during a recent interview on Fresh Air, he thought, “Exactly.”
For Vakil, comedy is a craft that goes beyond jokes. “I’ve just started to become astonished by it as an art form,” he said.
Vakil’s favorite comedians include Bill Burr and Trevor Noah, who he admires for their ability to tackle complex issues in real time. “If you can weigh in on divisive social issues through the lens of your own personal experience while making people laugh and think at the same time—now, that’s impressive,” he said.
His admiration for comedy prompted him to try out improv and a few open mics himself at The Red Room in Chicago’s Rogers Park. “It’s terrifying,” he admitted, but it’s also a way for him to experiment with a new mode of writing and speaking.
Mostly, he enjoys the opportunity to catch live shows when he can find the time. Northwestern’s proximity to Chicago’s legendary comedy scene—home of the Second City improvisational theater troupe—lends itself perfectly to this plan.
Embracing comedy in academia won’t be easy, Vakil acknowledged, and requires walking the tightrope of simultaneously respecting speech and people. “It will require recalibrating the concept of safe spaces,” Vakil wrote in The LA Review. “It means learning to be more comfortable with discomfort and renegotiating the academy’s relationship with the broader public.”
But the payoff, he said, is well worth the work.
“You don’t always have to agree with the premise or laugh at the punch line,” he said. “But good comedy will always make you think. And that’s precisely why it’s so needed in academia.”