Hi, this is Erica. It's Sunday, morning-ish, and there's a snowstorm going on, and I'm just

sitting around waiting for the power to go out. So I'm going to try to get this out before that happens.

This is a follow-up conversation with Isaac McDonald. I interviewed Isaac for the class series

and it aired a couple weeks ago.

Isaac is going to Columbia University in the fall on a full scholarship and a lot of people

reached out after the show asking how they might be useful to him in one way or another.

And so I went back up there to have this conversation with him.

And it turned into a really interesting conversation about, kind of a secondary conversation about class and my own assumptions or my own blind spots in that initial conversation.

And also he went to New York for the first time. blind spots in that initial conversation.

And also he went to New York for the first time

with his aunt a couple weeks ago

and he talks about that too.

So here is that conversation with Isaac.

So your story aired and there was a kind of tsunami of reaction from people who were moved by it and wanted to be useful.

So I have responded to as many of these people as I can

who were interested in helping, you know,

contributing, in collaborating with your New York experience.

But I want to kind of get down to brass tacks about it.

I wanted to make sure that you were not going to feel overwhelmed by these overtures, but I also really think that people

love the prospect of being able to help you in that transition and also you know buy you a

freaking dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant or to a ticket for a Broadway show or

whatever so I think it's a great idea but I want it you to respond to it how how does it feel and are you okay with it?

...