'83 Dutchmen

Randy Weiner gave very few hints during his time at The Collegiate School for Boys that he would go on to become an award-winning playwright and producer, much less the owner of an exclusive nightclub! His classmates just figured he would go to medical school and become a doctor. Because even he thought that's what he was going to do! Host Taylor Mali talks with Randy about his journey, the...

Chances are Ray Flores would have taken a different path in life if things had been different. But chances are that's true for everyone. I had a wonderful talk with the guy who should have won "Most Likely to End Up in HR." Collegiate School's official reunion is this Friday, May 3rd, 2024, which means our epic reunion was almost one year ago! To RSVP to the school's festivities, click here. I...

For this first episode of the second season of '83 Dutchmen, host Taylor Mali speaks to commercial photographer Jamie Watts about being the absolute youngest member of the class of 1983 and the affect that had on how actively he participated in his own life at school. Would it have been better for Jamie to have been the oldest member of the class of 1984? The jury is out. Taylor and Jamie talk...

August 6th of this year (2023) is the exact day that '83 Dutchmen host Taylor Mali will have outlived his mother by one day and his father by 30. He is on vacation right now, likely without reliable wifi, but he scheduled this podcast to post automatically. Mali says "This is a collection of audio postcards I recorded over the course of seven months and containing the artful observations and...

In this final episode of the series before the fiscal year of Collegiate ends on Friday, June 30th, Taylor talks with Thaddeus Bereday, who left after 7th grade but says we did a much better job of celebrating our 40th reunion then the school he actually graduated from (suck it, Groton Academy)! Thad speaks eloquently about his successes, struggles, failures, and the importance of mercy, second...

After the 40th reunion, which was spectacularly held on May 5th, class agent Taylor Mali asked everyone in the class—whether they made it to the reunion or not—to send him a voice memo about their experience of the reunion, their experience with the podcast series, or just . . . their experience of their life. This episode is all those voice memos stitched together, including some cameo...

I stayed for my friends and then hid from them.Karl Slovin recounts the stigma of being "held back" by Collegiate and asked to join the class of 1984. And how his parents—on the verge of divorcing themselves—gave him the choice of staying and repeating fourth grade or starting over at a new school (when he wishes that they'd just made the decision for him). In theory he stayed to be with his...

In this final episode of the series—at least before our 40th reunion, which is tomorrow, Friday, May 5th—Taylor speaks with Adam Mansky who has gone on to do great things despite a self-described lonely, unhappy, and underwhelming experience at Collegiate in high school. For reasons you will discover, we met online and recorded our interview twice, and even that was not enough.There will be one...

I've had a wonderful time over the last couple weeks trading memories of Michael Chalfin with his widow Sharon Jacobs. Mike was so quiet and so decent, and yet so fearless in goal for The Warriors, our gym hockey team (two-time winners of The Mink Cup)! Peter Allan was with him at Middlebury College, but they didn't run in the same circles. Sharon says Tim White was the only Collegiate classmate...

Taylor spoke with Mark's older sister Lynette Tompkins Engel (Brearley 1980) over Zoom last week, and if you have the chance you should watch this 40-minute video here. If audio is more convenient, proceed knowing that you’ll miss some slides, some clarifying captions, and about 90 seconds of amazing high school basketball highlights at the end. Mark, we will miss you when we gather for our 40th...