Alumni in the News: November 10, 2025

On November 1, it was announced that Mrinalini Wadhwa ’24 is one of two recipients of the prestigious All Souls Examination Fellowship at Oxford. Wadhwa, a Rhodes scholar and MPhil candidate in intellectual history, will receive seven years of funding; her research examines how India came to be identified with mysticism and spirituality in the 18th–20th centuries.

I Need You Guys, a podcast hosted by Jenny Slate ’04, Gabe Liedman ’04 and Max Silvestri, launched on Oct. 21. The longtime friends and comedians catch up on each other’s lives and welcome guests into the chat; the lineup includes John Mulaney, Sean Hayes, Nick Kroll, Michelle Buteau, Kate Berlant, Kumail Nanjiani and Jason Mantzoukas.

Sam Bisbee ’90 is a producer for the Netflix documentary The Perfect Neighbor; the film debuted at #1 on the platform on Oct. 17. The film, which explores a neighborhood dispute that ended in murder, had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival in January, where it won the Directing Award for Geeta Gandbhir.

Julian Brave NoiseCat ’15 wrote the Oct. 14 New York Times Magazine essay, “Getting Stoned With My Dad Helped Us Heal.” NoiseCat, who was nominated for a 2025 Academy Award as a director of the documentary Sugarcane, is the author of a new book, We Survived the Night.

Filmmaker Elsa Hana Chung ’23 produced the documentary short Si la Isla Quiere (Island Willing), which premiered at The Hamptons International Film Festival on Oct. 11. The film went on to screenings in Oscar-qualifying competition at the Woodstock Film Festival and The Hawai’i International Film Festival, and will appear at DOC NYC on Nov. 16.

Bari Weiss ’07 was named the new editor in chief of CBS News on Oct. 6.The network’s owner, Paramount Skydance Corp., also announced the acquisition of Weiss’ news website, The Free Press. Weiss started The Free Press in 2021 with her wife, Nellie Bowles’10, and her sister, Suzy Weiss.

Columbia faculty are winning awards! On Sept. 16, The National Building Museum announced that Barry Bergdoll ’77, GSAS’86, the Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History and Archaeology, is the 27th recipient of the Vincent Scully Prize. Established in 1999, the award recognizes excellence in scholarship, criticism or practice in architecture, historic preservation and urban design. On the same day, Samuel H. Sternberg ’07, an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics, was named a finalist for the 2025 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists. The awards recognize scientific advances made by researchers in the United States.

Lion lawyers are also getting recognition: On Sept. 12, Littler attorney Angelique Paul Newcomb ’91 was one of seven distinguished Columbus, Ohio-based attorneys named to the 2025 Top Lawyers list by Columbus CEO. On August 21, Casner & Edwards attorney Gregory D. Peterson ’80 was recognized by Best Lawyers in America 2026 in the areas of environmental law and real estate law.

Alexandra Alter ’01 was the subject of the Sept. 12 New York Times Q&A, “A Reporter Who Looks for Books That Make You Tick.” Alter, who writes book features and covers publishing industry news, has been at the Times since 2014.

Also on Sept. 12, it was announced that journalist and author Ben Ratliff ’90’s latest, Run the Song: Writing About Running About Listening, was included on the long list for the 2025 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Run the Song is Ratliff’s fifth book; all 10 of this year’s longlisted authors were newcomers to the National Book Awards.

On Sept. 9, it was announced that Colby Xzavier King ’22 was one of five 2025 winners of the David Prize, which provides a $200,000 grant to visionary, community-focused New Yorkers. King is the founder of the Kiki Arts Collaborative, which equips LGBTQ+ youth of color with mentorship, resources and networking opportunities to translate their creativity into economic independence.