This Is How We Do It: Third Spaces On Campus feat. Lexie Pineda

What if campus events felt less like ceremonies and more like sanctuary? We sit down with Doctora Alexia Fernanda Pineda Soto to rethink how universities design gatherings for first-generation students—from the invitation to the furniture to the final song. Our conversation moves past turnout metrics and prestige speakers to something deeper: events as living archives that teach belonging, honor family, and affirm first-gen wisdom as academic power.

We trace the origin story of LMU’s First To Go program and the student-led practices that shaped it: cafés where stories lead, human libraries that replace lectures, and an annotated campus map that reframes familiar buildings through first-gen eyes. Lexi shares why “community must be primed for community,” offering practical ways to slow the pace, lower the guard, and cultivate vulnerability with care. Together, we unpack how to swap “fix-the-student” programming for design that centers agency—down to the flyer fonts, room textures, and the soundtrack that cues the heart as well as the mind.

Expect concrete takeaways for academic and student affairs teams: how to onboard student staff as culture keepers, design spaces that feel like home, and measure success by connection rather than headcount. We also talk event formats for book talks and fireside chats, with vibe-setting picks from BrassTracks to Billy Joel to Bad Bunny. If you build gatherings where students are seen as sanctuary, the learning deepens, the room softens, and the archive of belonging grows.<br><br>Subscribe, share this episode with a colleague who plans campus events, and leave a review with one change you’ll make to create more third spaces on your campus.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Penultimate Setup And Guest Intro
• 2:30 Origins Of First-Gen Programming At LMU
• 5:45 UNC Memories And Why Third Spaces Matter
• 9:50 Building Sanctuary Through Student-Led Events
• 15:20 From Fixing Students To Centering Students
• 20:10 Priming Community For Community
• 25:05 Mapping Campus Through First-Gen Eyes
• 29:00 Event Design That Feels Like Home
• 34:30 Soundtrack To Set The Vibe
• 41:00 Closing Reflections And Invitations

Transcript

Sam: 0:04

Welcome friends to the Smart Girl Podcast. Oh my goodness. In this podcast, we talk about so many things. Most of which relate to, of course, LTs. Yes. Tanya Ree Smiles. It's a weird It's a weird possessive. Uh memoir, Smart Girl, amazing. Um, and about first gen everything. Because the memoir is as it is subtitled a first gen origin story. Um and today in the what episode is it?

LT: 0:46

Oh my gosh, Sam, it's the penultimate episode.

Sam: 0:48

Oh my gosh! I can use it.

LT: 0:51

I get to use it in a sentence.

Sam: 0:52

I've always my daughter calls them big girl words. You're using a big girl word. I love it. I love it. Um, we are gonna talk to Alexia Pineto Soto, otherwise known as Lexi, from LMU. That's be about making events accessible to and for first gen students on campus. And this is so exciting because this is generational legacies at LMU. Um, this is about I think an aspect of first to go that we and first gen that we haven't talked about yet. And it's really the the cap off to this book tour that's been going on for the past year for Smart Girl and for LT. Uh, and I I just can't wait. LT, can you introduce us to the legend?

LT: 1:51

Oh my gosh. Yes, you mean Doctora Alexia Fernanda Pineto Soto, otherwise known as Lexi. So here's the thing, y'all. I have known you can't see me, but I've known Lexi since she was this big. So that was like an inch and a half. She was about an inch and a half tall when I met her as a new student at Loyola Marymount University. I was the director of the Academic Resource Center. And right uh Lexi, you'll have to remind me of the timeline, but I think First to Go was only like maybe two years old. Yeah, there we go. Two years old. And by the time Lexi and that cohort of students came in, I think we had really started to get our footing and really understand what the program was and what the program could be. And um Lexi was um admitted into what was known as a scholar, it was a very first cohort of scholars program, so new students that um were taking a class together, uh like formally officially called Scholars Program, and she worked in my office as an office assistant, just doing some just stuff talk talking to me about my Justin Bieber playlist. That's listen, it's important.

Sam: 3:14

Have you gotten her on Yukon?

Lexie: 3:18

Sorry, Lexi, you said I was like, it was questionable back then in my inch and a half status of the first year.

LT: 3:25

Yeah, but now you know better.

Lexie: 3:27

But now I knew better. I knew better, I grew.

LT: 3:30

You grew. That's that's the whole point.

Lexie: 3:32

I'm a should.

LT: 3:33

Yeah. There we go. There we go. Um, and so Lexi is now the queen bee at Loyola Marymount University with first gen initiatives. And the last thing I'll say is I had the distinct pleasure of being on Lexi's dissertation committee. So welcome to the Smart Girl Podcast, Lexi.

Lexie: 3:54

Thank you so much for having me, both you and Sam. Um, it's been, I feel, a long time coming to be able to join uh your band of nerds here and not only interviewing me, but listening. It's such an an honor and a privilege and a gift to be here um with y'all, sharing space. Thank you for having me.

Sam: 4:17

So thrilled. Um and um just so so great to see you again and now as a as a as a doctor.

Lexie: 4:29

Hopefully a little taller than an inch and a half, right?

Sam: 4:31

I mean, maybe some of us, some of us haven't grown as we talk about it, my family, uh, as as my children are just about bigger than me, both of them.

Lexie: 4:43

So I'm just as tall as my ancestors were, so I'll take that as a gift.

Sam: 4:47

That's right. Yeah. I'll just like so we will see. Um so to start, and I know this will be such an interesting conversation given your matriculation, if we're using big girl words, right? Um, at LMU. But can you both talk a little bit about your undergrad experience of campus events, especially intellectually centered events, like book talks, conferences, exhibitions, um, and how that influences your event design today.

LT: 5:29

So, first of all, so actually, I know you say you've been following the podcast. Sam asked these hard-ass questions, right? I was like, this is just like a um uh an exam I keep taking every other week, right? Had to put you at ease. Yeah. Fantastic question, though. Just it really made me think and reflect. Um I specifically, my I remember what stands out to me mo the most is my first year, which was at UNC Chapel Hill. I talk about it a little, I talk about these some of these events, um uh in in Smart Girl, but the the here's what's notable about them is that I had this um this uh scrapbook, and I actually have in my scrapbook like the flyers from these events or um like the ticket stubs, which signals that these things were important to me, right? Enough for me to actually curate them and and keep them. So uh I talk about being at Chapel Hill at the time I didn't know I was first gen, um, but I felt really displaced as a black student. So I kept looking for events where I knew other like where guests were black, like Spike Lee came to campus. I remember Julian Bond. I was really in my activist era, so I was going to those types of events. But the hard part for me was then the people left, right? And then I was still there. Um, so they were important because they reminded me of something bigger than the campus. It helped me at least they helped me feel at least temporarily connected. Um, and then because I didn't have any other kind of support, it it just kind of left me with this empty feeling after. And I think um it uh one of the reasons why I appreciate this question so much, Sam, because it is about origin. It is having me think about, damn, this is what I wish I had. And then, you know, went over to uh other schools to help create some of those. But Lexi, what was that like for you?

Lexie: 7:46

I think coming in to a space that was already a part of the campus community, but also intentionally already a third space, right? This it was already a third space straight from the brink, right? Being able to first and foremost uh see one folks who were one, excited to bring us in to to this fold, especially a type of excitement that I didn't typically feel the first moment that I stepped onto LMU's campus. It's it was already a foreign place, it was already a place that I could sense that this this emptiness could be the narrative, could be the reality. Um and from that point forward, I think that became the norm, the the norm. Like how do we create more third spaces for each other with each other? And I think it's in the formation of the events that we started either co-building alongside other peers or that we would attend that were hosted by first to go. There was something that always kind of uh strung all of those events together. And it was we will always do our best to ensure that home is something tangible, like it was a feeling, it's something that you can sense, something that you can experience, something you can see, smell. It it it became that became the standard. And I I remember s some of the first early events that I attended um as a first year and a and a as a second year that were hosted by First To Go. You're talking about like a first gen cafe where we were learning from people's stories, uh, a writer's workshop publication party.

LT: 9:38

I forgot about the cafe.

Lexie: 9:40

Yeah, you're talking about cafes, talking about parties, talking about moments to connect. We had a first gen human library and it was kind of like a just you know, heading on over and just being and connecting with people, um, and seeing each other first and foremost as sanctuary. I think that that when I mean by third space, that's what I refer to, right? Is how can you create and replicate spaces that are sanctuaries? Um and so once I got a chance to know what that looks like, uh LT being LT, right? It's like, oh yeah, you're gonna curate and exhibit at the library and you're just gonna get a whole bunch of these things and you're gonna build this. And I she's like, I don't really have uh much guidance other than that. Gather these things, make it make sense. Um back then I didn't even know that what the word curating even meant or what it was like to even go about the process of building it. But um I think that idea of having things be student engineered, having students feel out a process, right? Was was crucial, right? You could have told me what it was like to curate certain things, how what it was like to create certain events that brought people together, but you allowed me to feel that out in a way that was much more um was much more honest to our community, was much more like I you know, we're trying to bring things forth. We may not know the shape of it, but we know the shape that it will, you know, be most loving and representative of our community, right? And so that kind of helped guide a lot of how I then, you know, approach event production today. How I first and foremost want to be able to have my student teams know we're gonna have a slew of plans right for our events, our you know, um, our bringing together of people. But first and foremost, we see each other as sanctuary and we are going to bring that in little pockets and wherever we can can be and can be invited to or wherever we go. And that came from just being, just being and figuring out.

LT: 11:59

Oh, you just brought up some good memory. I totally forgot about those things. Um so yeah, so so thank you for for sharing though.

Lexie: 12:08

Yeah, fond ones there.

Sam: 12:11

It was awesome. And again, like you know, obviously just loving to see the impact that having the third space become the norm as you're talking about, Lexi, what that means and how different that feels than for instance, even LT's experience at Howard, right? Where it's like Spike Lee comes, but not even at how that wasn't even how that was at UNC.

LT: 12:36

That's that was UFC. That's what's that was UNC. I don't even remember events at Howard, right? At the HBCU. Like I felt like my HBCU experience was about students doing things for one another, not really going to sponsor things. Yeah, that was my first year. Yeah, interesting.

Sam: 12:53

Yeah, so but going to events and then feeling like this is great, I feel connected. But what what else is there um in terms of continuity? Um so Lexi, you started talking about this, but um uh LT, you pioneered programming for first gen with first to go at LMU. Yes. Um, which Lexi now coordinates. Um, but you've been working to create spaces and events that speak to first gen students and meaningfully include them for a long time, including the first book program at UCLA, and you know, etc. Um, so even things that weren't branded, right? First gen. Lexi, you cite first to go as one of your key whys in pursuing your ed D, your, your, your dissertation. Um, and now you are in charge of that program so much more. At LMU. Um, can you both tell us more about what you've learned or what's changed since you started planning campus events uh focused on first gen students? Um, and I joke, right? But we love a story of learning from something that has changed that didn't go well, that you missed, as much as we also love all the success stories of here's a thing that I wanted and I made it, right? Uh, which is also awesome.

LT: 14:20

Yeah. So for me, I think what's been a hallmark of the types of programs, and Lexi already alluded to this, is really um centralizing the students and what they want um and being a part of that process. So I'm not a top-down hierarchical type of person. Um, so I even thinking about UCLA and the the first thing that actually was branded first gen was a workshop that I um was part of with two students. So Corey Matthews, um, and Alma Flores, um, both doctors, by the way. Uh but um, you know, we were sitting around in the office and kind of like starting with that sort of organic brainstorming idea. And then for me, it's really about leveraging um my position on the campus or my resources to help bring that thing to life. Or so Sam, if we could even think about the black student experience class, right, that was created at UCLA, which was really all about the students coming up with that curriculum. And then, you know, we went on to do something similar over at LMU, but I think that's pretty much a hallmark of like the student-centeredness. I remember when I first went over to LMU, sometime around 2010 or 2011, it was suggested that we have this etiquette dinner, right? I'm like, what the fuck? I don't want to do this idea, this this notion, I don't know how much has changed. I think it's changed some. I think that has changed some. But definitely back then, there was this idea that we had to have programs for students that fixed them, right? That corrected them. Um, and I don't etiquette dinners were pretty popular at LMU at the time. But I ended up so I I offered it, but had a fac I invited faculty who also identified as first gen. And I remember one of them, I'm forgetting his name, but he was in the math department, incredible. And he at the table was talking to students about all the ways in which they should be breaking the rules, and that is that's very that's so very LMU first to go. Like, how can we break some shit? Right, what can we get away with? But that set the tone. Um, so I definitely didn't want that type of programming. Um, and you know, basically telling people like how you eat at home is not correct, right? Um, so those are some of the things I'm thinking about down. I I think if we're looking into the future, before I pass this on to Lex, I'd just like to see more people, more institutions, more programs take advantage of um social media resources, um, of podcasting, and you know, other some other kind of like really accessible ways of having like storytelling, or like Lexi mentioned, having like these third or even fourth and fifth spaces.

Sam: 17:40

And I just want to say that I witnessed at UCLA once you were working with McNair, um right off the bat, right? You created an office where everybody hung out, where students could come in, that idea that you were carrying that forward, and also called BS on a lot of their programming around retention, uh, rather than thriving, right? Thinking about where what kinds of classes students should be encouraged to take, where they what they should enroll in, what tutoring look like, all of that stuff. So just to point out that you I think had been doing that right way, right? And you're in your first um academic admin job. Sorry, Lexi. Um now to you.

Lexie: 18:29

No, I mean I'm I'm filled with so much buzz in me because I feel like my thoughts are taking me three billion directions. But the one that's remains principle is this is this um notion that LT brought in that first question of like how do we consistently remind ourselves that we're bigger than the campus, right? We're bigger than than the one thing we're working on. Um and that has been, I think, a leading legacy that LT left behind in the way that First Ego approaches things. Um but one thing I've really learned through much spaghetti on the wall, a lot of trial and error, things that are been flat out like complete, like, oh, we gotta approach that in a different way, or we gotta, you know, go back to the drawing board. Um, and the one lesson I continue to learn time and time again is that community needs to be primed for what community requires.

LT: 19:29

Wait, wait, wait, say that again. I wasn't ready for that.

Lexie: 19:35

Uh I mean, if you're not ready for community, right? We may say we want community, but if we're not ready for what community actually means, what it requires from us in order for us to flourish, to be present, to be aware, to be aware of each other, to be able to stand with one another, to be able to be present for one another. Those are all skills, ancestral skills, mind you, but those are all skills that through a lot. Of our educational training, we've been told to forget or to sideline, to silence, to put aside. And then all of a sudden you come into a college campus and you're told do you, do you, do you, and community's like, no, no, don't, no, don't, yeah, do you, but don't always do you. And now we're gonna throw you into these cafes, into these parties, and and know that you're loved. Know that you we got this buzzing energy of just care around you. But when so many of our students have kind of learned to be like, oh, I'm I'm used to seeing you as an authority figure because that's what I was told to see you as. Or should I trust this group of people? I don't know if I should.

LT: 20:44

Spin bars right now.

Lexie: 20:45

It's it's if we cannot prime community for what community feels like, then community will not flourish. We can hold what however many cafes, however many parties, however many human libraries, however many community fests as possible. But then people are asking, why aren't people coming through? And the fact of the matter remains is that there is a huge cavern right now of kind of like, how do we re-engage student energy again? How how do we do that? Um, and really these babies are already coming in as tired souls. I mean, in in terms of what they're seeing in media, what they're what they're reading, what they're engaging with. And so there's this gap of like, I really want to be vulnerable, but I'm really kind of being asked to be loud. And I don't know if the two feel right for me right now, or or I I don't know if I'm finding spaces where I can truly be vulnerable, where I can truly just sit down and feel and process. And so I want to say if we can be the only ones and in and as a as a first to go entity, as a first gen initiatives entity, we love to break shit. Like we love to break rules. Of course, that's the legacy LT, Donnell, so many people who have come through these first to go halls have left for us to kind of run with. But we can't be the only ones to break shit all the time, right? So if the campus isn't ready, we can't be the only ones kicking and screaming, right? And ultimately now I think for anyone who's hearing and who's trying to f figure out, right, how I can create this this energy of events. So I I'm gonna go back to this time and time again. I'm gonna sound like a broken record machine by the time we end this conversation, but if you need to start small, start small. If you need to start with your your team of student workers and reassure them that they that they are it, they are the sanctuary, sanctuary, sanctuary, sanctuary. They are they are it. It will spread. I can't always say if you'll build an event, people will come, right? The infamous saying if you build it, they'll come. Sometimes they won't. Right. Right. But to know for a fact that anything that we offer hopefully brings this air of home and hopefully will train students to be like, let's maybe step back from the student you're being asked to consistently be and let me just see the the person behind the student. Like let me he let me hear what your mom's name is and what's what's your sibling doing? And what did your dad do for work, or what what's your favorite color? Like things like if we need to go back to the bare bones, we should, because in these times, I think it's an over-asking of of students and of community when really we just kind of want to be asked what what feels what feels close and what's on your mind. Can can I give you a penny for your thoughts, you know, type of thing. So I think what I'm what I ask for folks is again, if you're gonna if you want to require a lot from community, we have to be clear about right with what we want our community to to to bring or or how we want them to show up. And if folks are not prepared or equipped to do that at this present moment, doesn't mean that the community isn't strong. It just means that there's something that we need to attend to first. And can we go to the source, to the root first, and then we can start building big again.

LT: 24:23

Sam, I think I think I got the title for my next book, which is a breaking shit.

Sam: 24:27

Um breaking shit.

LT: 24:31

And one of the reasons why that's significant is because you know, these white guys over in Silicon Valley are known for that, right? That's what they say. This is disruptors, right? This is Zuckerberg's thing, is like, you know, at Facebook you break shit. And I'm like, what does that mean? You disrupt with zero ethics, with zero ethics, and who's who's cleaning up your mess, right?

Sam: 24:51

Also, that's that's someone else's problem, yeah.

LT: 24:53

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Hey, hey, one more thing, Sam, though. Um, well, actually, for for you, Lexi, you reminded me, it's not an event, but when you were speaking, you reminded me of the research project that you and Jasmine Gomez did with the map, the mapping. Oh my gosh, Sam, I I probab I probably did tell you about this, but Lexi and and her uh her peer Jasmine created an like a version of the LMU map, but they identified spaces and places that they decided were important for the first gen community. So they mapped them. Uh Jasmine's background was in photography, so she took new photos of them and Lexi, both of them, I believe, wrote like the annotations for them. So it's in Google Maps right now. And so it's an ex so let's say the library, but why is the library meaningful? Not just, oh, it houses a place that houses books and journals and whatnot. What did it mean for first-gen students or the fact that the library is named after a first-gen college grad? Like those those were some examples, another example.

Sam: 26:01

Is it a place where you could go to learn skills that has this like enormous staff to do that? Right, even though it's presented as a like you are the church. Yes, yes, yes. Um, I love this, and um, Lexi, I just want to say your conversation about events. Like, I just I wish you were like, not for your sake, but for ours, that you were training every 100% academic and student affairs right now, um, to think about scale, right? To think about um things that are intentional and intentionally small, even, and to think about how and why you are serving, right? Uh at different critical moments, so that the thing that you did three years ago might not fit right now, right? Um, and so I that to me as an administrator, an academic administrator, just spoke to everything, right? That I learned by trial and error, but I really wish people would talk about um so much more. Uh love it, love it. Um, so now I do have a specific, this is like uh your the case study of the questions. LT, you've been putting together book talks, classroom presentations for the memoir. Um, Lexi, you hosted LT at LMU for a fireside chat on the book. Tell us what's going into the design of these events for you. The setting, the slides, the format, the vibe, the topic, because I know LT mixes it up depending on what the format is. Um, what are you considering as you plan? And then what's your top tip or tips for those planning a book event or a campus event for first gens or thinking of first gens?

Lexie: 28:06

I'll tell you, you want to take this first or nah, this for you.

LT: 28:11

I mean, I was there. I'll just say it was amazing. She remembers it all too well. I do remember it all too well, but um, because I haven't been designing well, I have kind of not really. I've I've mostly been like the the guest at these events, so we want to hear like what went into putting it together. It was beautiful.

Lexie: 28:36

It's gonna sound I mean she she just hates being the center of attention just consistently. She just bats just it just despises it, and so um but it's it's her, you know, it's it's her university. It's it's her. Um but when prepping students and I'll I'll I'll split this in two thoughts and they'll converge again. But of course when we are thinking about assembling an event in particularly for someone like LT, actually for LT, right? I we we come down to kind of the the the the person, right? This is we're we're honoring this person. And yes, it's within an academic setting, and that we have a lot to say about that too. But first and foremost, we're we're gonna honor this person who has honored the the rest of us. That's been this person's vocation is to live their life and service within four others. And we take that very seriously, right? To to be able to go back to our beginnings and to be like this this is uh was a brainchild of so many different people, but it didn't have to continue, right? It didn't have to keep going. Um but for any student that is on boarded to this team, um, it's actually it's a really awesome thing um that it's been propelled, especially by my now like human in crime, which is Siona right back there, who's gonna be a good thing. Hey girl, she's acting like she can't hear us. She can she can hear you, she can hear you. Um is when we bring students in, we give them a crash course of the history of this program, how how it was started, what we're hoping to build toward, what our culture is. We have a student who created a a people um specialist role, aka a little mini um HR section, if you will, and she she conducts all of this stuff.

LT: 31:00

No, she doesn't.

Lexie: 31:01

Yeah, yes, she does. She conducts all of these things, and that's incredible.

LT: 31:08

Yeah, yeah. So it's an onboarding.

Lexie: 31:10

It it is part of an onboarding process.

LT: 31:12

And so like so history of first to go?

Lexie: 31:15

History, where we're going, what the hopes are, what the vibe is, how we hope to continue to build off of each other. And when it comes to building things for other people, for example, an event for for LT and for the community, it we come down to the people first, right? Before we ever honor the where this setting is at, we honor the people first. We we try to build upon that energy. Um and so that's that's the prep work with with the student team. And once we have that, we ask ourselves, what's gonna make this not look like an institution? What what what's gonna make the space not look like LMU? What's gonna make the space not look clean cut? What's gonna make the space kind of uh a different version of academic life? How do we make this into academic love, right?

LT: 32:11

And why is that important? Why do you think that's important for the students?

Lexie: 32:16

It's well, and this is where my next my next line of thought is is going toward is the hope is, and again building off of legacy work, the hope is to be able to have students see the first-end pursuit, not just as a personal one, but as an academic one. And one that's yes, a little bit rogue, a little bit breaky of shit things. Because as we stand, as we are institutionally, even though we've been doing first-gen work for a very long time, this campus remains unready for the contributions, the thought processes, the the critical mindsets, the ancestral power, the the the moms, the dads, the families that come behind us. It's still not ready, right? And so how do I get to transform this academic space into one that we can craft, right? And our first genus is at the center of it. So if I can utilize this first gen identity as a springboard, right, to explore so much more, then you'll come to see it's not just a personal thing that you have to figure out, feel out, be proud of, but it's something that you can explore academically and it can have an academic identity and it can have an academic presence physically. And for us, that's through our events, right? And so if we create an archive event or a book talk, then you're gonna we're gonna make sure it looks like the parties of old that First Ago used to throw. That's our foundation, right? We're gonna make sure that there's there's a DJ in the corner, we're gonna make sure that there's rugs on the floor, we're gonna make sure that there's plants everywhere, we're gonna make sure that there's student artwork greeting you, we're gonna make sure that the people who are introducing you are the folks that too understand what grounded community love looks like. Um, and so in in the design and even the promo of things, students don't just necessarily be able to say, like, hey, come out to this because it's you know, it's just a celebration, right? Come out to this because this is how we started. Like, come out to this because this is what's grounding us. This is our connection. Come out to this because there's always new ways to talk about our our stories. There's always new ways to talk about old memories. There's always new ways to come to know each other again and again and again. And so I again I think it speaks to how can I create an event that feels like home because home is a huge gap, and needed sentimental, emotional, physical, spiritual gap right now that we're not fulfilling on college campuses. And to be able to just even introduce that for an hour, hour and a half to know what's possible for our students. That's crucial. So yeah, let me make sure that I design a flyer that doesn't look like the rest of the flyers on campus that don't use the institutional fonts or the institutional colors. Like, let me make sure that the music we play isn't the ones that we're expected to play. That you know, let me make sure that the library doesn't look like the library, right?

LT: 35:43

So amazing.

Sam: 35:46

Yeah. It's like again, just sort of like unspeakably wonderful. And I want you to come and talk, talk to people about why we do higher ed and what higher ed can be for, um, and what college can be like, um, as opposed to sort of what it is often. Um and just the ways again that through the legacy of first to go, um there's there are other ways to be, right? And other blueprints that both of you have created. Um for things like events, right? That again, I think it's so important to talk about what what the vibe is, uh as the kids used to say, uh continue to say. Um, so Lexi, at the end of the podcast, we like to ask a soundtrack question because LT has not one but two soundtracks for the book. Um, and because who doesn't love their soundtrack, right? Um, so this will be my question to you and LT in closing. What's your event vibe song for a book talk? Your book talk, I should even say. Um, what do you want playing as folks settle in?

LT: 37:20

She's actually looking on her phone right now.

Sam: 37:24

I feel you. I wouldn't be able to remember until and unless I was like, No, it's it's because there's different songs for each emotion I don't want to feel, right? That's right. That's right. So you can tell me.

LT: 37:39

Okay, what did you play something before any uh I I did not, I mean, I can answer this question, but if what was played wasn't necessarily a song that I chose.

Sam: 37:50

That's what I thought.

LT: 37:51

Yeah.

Sam: 37:52

But I want you to answer the question too.

LT: 37:54

Yes. Lexi, you want me to go first, or you got it?

Lexie: 37:57

Um, well, I'll I'll kick off with an with an intro song, in between song, and I'll end with an ending song. Damn!

LT: 38:06

Bless us, bless us.

Lexie: 38:08

Always, always gonna kick off with um the Always Be My Baby rendition from Brass Tracks. And so it's loud trumpets. It's a trumpet cover of Mariah Carey's Always Be My Baby, and and and it's gonna kick off an event at all points. Love it. That's what that's gonna be kick off.

LT: 38:29

Okay. So now you're passing it to me?

Lexie: 38:31

Yeah, I'm passing it to you.

LT: 38:33

Okay, this is this is a true story. It would be Frank Sinatra. My course. No, not my way. I've got the world on a string sitting on a rainbow. I am convinced that that is my biological father. Um, I love so fun fact, I love Frank Sinatra, but there's just something about not all the the upbeat songs, not not the not the slower ones. It's just like puts me in that vibe, puts me in that mood. So I'm still waiting to have the the smart girl event that has the Frank Sinatra soundtrack playing in the background. So 2026, we're gonna make that happen.

Lexie: 39:19

I love this.

LT: 39:20

Uh like dad, isn't that that's how I felt when I went to this Sinatra exhibit in LA?

Lexie: 39:31

Um, what's the outro? Well, my middle middle say, I will say.

Sam: 39:36

We've got we've got a a whole story, beginning, middle end. Yeah.

Lexie: 39:41

Um, and it's it's mostly because of the of the babies you work with, right? Like, and every time I hear Vienna Billy Joel, or as my dad would say, Billy Joel. As my um as my papa would say, Billy Joel. Um, but it's mostly for the line, right? Slow down, you're doing fine. You can't be everything before your time. Like it's it's that is quintessential first gen freak out. I'm I I'm loop I'm losing track. Why does everyone feel like they got all their shit around them like lined up? And I'm like, uh no, slow down, slow down. Let's figure this out. So that's my middle song.

LT: 40:25

Shout out to Billy Joel.

Lexie: 40:29

Billy Joel, yeah.

LT: 40:30

Billy Joel.

Lexie: 40:31

Billy Joel. Yeah. Shout out to Billy. All right.

Sam: 40:33

What's the wait? We got intermission. You got your intermission, LT? What is playing? Oh no. This is all about you. No, you you're the one with the story. Yeah. Tell us what we're going out to.

Lexie: 40:48

Well, we're gonna go out to Bad Bunny something. It's gonna be Bad Bunny something. In my mind, it's gonna be either Nueva Yol or it's gonna be um Debito Marmas Fotos. Oh, I love it. So one of those two, right? Like I sh I should take more inventory of this time. That's the that's the theme of the song, right? Um I should have taken more inventory of the time that we were together because this these moments will be gone. And like I as I tell students, yeah, we're first gen forever for the rest of our lives, but for right now, we're first gen in college, and that's a very specific time in in our lives. And what we're able to lose, gain, build, create, understand, process, reflect on, that's gonna that's gonna be groundwork for the forever part of the first gen. Right. And so let's let's take inventory of how we tell each other's stories right now. Let's, you know, they've tomarced. I should take pictures of this moment, right? But like heart pictures, mind pictures of what of what these conversations look and feel like. Because one day they they won't feel the same, and we're gonna want them to come back.

Sam: 41:59

Yeah. I love that. That's the archive, man. That's the archive. The archive of first to go and other things, right? Of how we remember stuff. This was beautiful, y'all. Thank you. As we knew it would be, as we knew it would be, but it was more gorgeous and even more instructive for all academic administrators. Take notes.

LT: 42:23

We want y'all to take notes. Oh my god, and also reach out to Lexi for consulting.

Sam: 42:28

Yes, I was that's what I Lexi just needs to show up. That's all how to do things. Thank you so much. Tell us how to break shit. Um I love it, y'all. Thank you so much. We will see you again on Smart Girl. The podcast! The podcast.