As an immigrant and first-generation in her family to attend college, Shanna Bennett is a self-described late bloomer when it comes to personal finance and navigating student debt. She spoke to Nikki about her educational…Read more

As an NYU Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, Andrew Ross sees firsthand the way student debt negatively impacts the lives of his students. His students and experience as an activist in the Occupy Wall…Read more

As a comedian, Drew Beekler can find comedy in most situations. His student loans are even part of his comedy set. But there’s nothing funny about the burden of student debt from two unaccredited art…Read more

This week’s guest, Alicia Davis, has spent over a decade living with the consequences of for-profit education. In 2008, after spending two years at a for-profit university that mishandled her financial aid, she found that…Read more

Hil Kaman came to his career as a lawyer through a circuitous route, working as a chef, scholar, and poet for many years before law school. After passing the bar, he took a job he…Read more

In this week’s mini-episode, returning guest Umme Hoque, Organizing Director of The Debt Collective, talks about the recent student debt cancellation week of action. Umme discusses how the movement to cancel student debt is building…Read more

Umme Hoque, Organizing Director of The Debt Collective, talks to Nikki about how, after taking on student debt, she became disillusioned with the American Dream. She now works for complete student debt cancelation as well…Read more

This week’s guest, Melissa Byrne, is back after her mini-episode to tell us more about her advocacy for debt cancellation and the latest news from Washington on the student debt crisis. With federal student loan…Read more

This week’s guest, Briana B. Franklin was the first member of her family to attend an Ivy League education. But after her first semester, she found herself struggling to find a career path and a…Read more

After attending art school to pursue her dreams of working in theater, Emma Klauber found herself for years making decisions to repair the financial damage of her student loans. Finally she found herself in her…Read more

In this week’s mini-episode, our guest is Melissa Bryne, a senior political and community organizer who is focused on canceling student debt and making education free for all. Melissa tells Nikki why the suggestion to…Read more

This week’s guest, Winter, an organizer for the Debt Collective talks about the emotional breakdown that led him eventually to a life devoted to student debt activism. After a bad experience with a negligent financial…Read more

This week’s guest, Eli Campbell, shares why he is an advocate for the Student Debt Strike movement and an active member of The Debt Collective, a group that organizes debtors for political action and is…Read more

Like many Americans who took out student loans for school, Ro Fainstein found that when she left college, her full-time job in public relations didn’t make her enough to pay more than the minimum payments…Read more

After life threw them a few curveballs, this week’s guest, who chooses to remain anonymous, paid for graduate school as well as their existing student loans from undergraduate, in cash by delivering weed on their…Read more

After graduating undergrad with no debt, Tameka Vasquez was surprised to learn the complexities of taking out student loans while getting her Master of Science at Columbia University in New York. Vasquez explains how, while…Read more

Artist Forrest Gerke grew up in a low-income household with two artist parents. He had dreams of going to art school to become a hand illustrator, but his parents were clear that he would have…Read more

In Episode 4, we talk to a government prosecutor who originally took her role as a way to pay down the more than $300,000 in student loans that she accrued while attending law school.  Now,…Read more

This episode we hear from artist and writer Sarah Thibault who accumulated six figures worth of debt after attending a private art school (that is now closing) and then graduate school where she received her…Read more

In this episode, we hear from Chef Ronny Miranda who has, more than most, been burned by the student loan system. When he left school he was given double-digit interest rates and discovered that he…Read more

In the first episode of A Matter of Life and Debt, host Nikki Nolan shares her personal journey with her student loans, which ended in her paying off a total of $157,885.12 over the course…Read more

Are you one of the 44+ million people in the United States with student loan debt? Then Matter of Life and Debt is for you. Each week I will talk to different people about student debt,…Read more