Two more of Kevin’s classmates take the After Dark chairs, straight off a plane.

Cindy Okosun runs data and digital transformation programs for multinationals and came to the DBA to close the gap she kept seeing between practice and theory. James Jeansonne is a marketing and PR leader from Ohio who finished his master’s at Temple over Zoom, heard a professor ask “who’s going to keep going?”, and five years later put his hand up. His kids are 21; they call him Dr. J.

They get into why a DBA and not a PhD, the surprise nobody warns you about (the cohort itself), the alumnus who told them “my price went up,” a house full of scholars versus being the first in your family, and a long, honest stretch on AI: the eclipse you shouldn’t stare at, the tool that knows you versus the fresh account that doesn’t, and a Gen Alpha daughter who told her friend to use her brain. Kevin joins to ask about dissertation topics (top-management consensus in digital transformation; golden visas, Portugal and Ireland), the stack of unread books, and what it takes to fly in for a doctorate.

Chapters
0:00 Why a DBA? The gap between practice and theory
2:53 “Because it’s there”: James’s reason, and Dr. J
5:49 The interview with Dr. Lynne Andersson
6:17 The biggest surprise: the cohort
9:05 What happens after a DBA? “My price went up”
12:15 First-gen versus a house of scholars
14:15 AI: the eclipse you shouldn’t stare at
20:36 The AI that knows you, and the one that doesn’t
23:01 The class that surprised us: statistics
26:06 Residency weekends and the DBA pen
27:50 Kevin joins: dissertation topics
32:10 Golden visas, Portugal and Ireland
37:42 The books we’re not reading
40:55 Flying in for a doctorate
47:32 Wrap

No script. No prep. Just real conversation after class. Cohort After Dark is the unscripted round-table series inside Cohort in Progress, a podcast from Temple University’s Executive DBA cohort, recorded in person in Philadelphia. Hosts: Kevin Burgess and Ashwini Bhaskar.

Watch the video version on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiZzw51kS1I
Chapters, transcript and every episode: https://cohortinprogress.com/#ad-04
Be a guest, or start a cohort in your city: cohortinprogress@gmail.com

Two of Kevin’s Executive DBA classmates pull up to the table for the most introspective After Dark yet.

Nathan Luce grew up in Utah, ran an indoor soccer arena, played college soccer at 25, did cardiothoracic research at Penn and CHOP, got into med school and walked away, then worked his way up to practice manager, an MBA, and now a doctorate in IT strategy. Sade Thompson was born in Jamaica, raised in Harlem, interned at Atlantic Records at 19, spent five years as a celebrity stylist, went back for her bachelor’s during the pandemic, and hasn’t stopped since.

They talk about choosing a dissertation you love versus one you can finish, the week when everything was due at once, who you’re allowed to complain to when you’re the first in your family to get here, and the mirror after graduation. Around the 20-minute mark Nate’s daughters, Lulu and Faith, climb onto his lap at the mic. Then Kevin sits down and it gets spicy: is using AI in a doctoral program cheating, or is not using it the red flag?

Chapters
0:00 Harlem and Utah
2:47 Fatherhood, workload, staying true to yourself
5:10 The dissertation dilemma
6:52 The week everything was due
9:05 Who are you allowed to complain to?
15:02 Sade’s path: Atlantic Records to back-to-school
20:20 Lulu and Faith join the table
21:26 Nate’s path: soccer, med school, Penn and CHOP
26:07 If you’re not uncomfortable you’re not growing
28:32 The afterwards: becoming a researcher
31:55 Dad guilt and residency weekends
36:36 How do you want to finish?
45:00 Kevin joins: who should read your dissertation?
47:52 What do you want to be remembered for?
50:22 Glamour versus hustle
53:42 What does a doctor look like?
1:01:14 The AI debate
1:08:12 Wrap

No script. No prep. Just real conversation after class. Cohort After Dark is the unscripted round-table series inside Cohort in Progress, a podcast from Temple University’s Executive DBA cohort, recorded in person in Philadelphia. Hosts: Kevin Burgess and Ashwini Bhaskar.

Watch the video version on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCVnVsIZZa4
Chapters, transcript and every episode: https://cohortinprogress.com/#ad-03
Be a guest, or start a cohort in your city: cohortinprogress@gmail.com

Ashwini Bhaskar and Kevin Burgess talk about their experiences and what lead them to a doctorate program. The episode gets interesting as Ashwini talks about how a group of students got stuck in Dubai when the Iran war broke out. You can't miss this one!

Ajay Raju joins Cohort in Progress as we talk about the future, AI, and the leaders of Philadelphia. Ajay is a prominent leader in Philadelphia, with one of his key contributions being the Germination Project.We hope you enjoy!

Episode 1 of Cohort After Dark kicks off with an unscripted conversation between two leaders you would never expect to share the same classroom.Raheem Manning, Senior Director of the Nighttime Economy for the City of Philadelphia, and Vince Patram, Global Vice President of Marketing for Lubricant Additives at LANXESS, sit down for a raw conversation about leadership, Philadelphia, global industry, and what it means to return to school mid-career.No script. No prep. Just real conversation after class.Welcome to Cohort After Dark.

In this episode of Cohort in Progress, Dr. Lynne Anderson talks about her role as a professor at Temple University, what it's like being a member of EDBAC, her research on Incivility, and a lot more. We had a blast recording this one and we think you'll like it!

In our very first episode of Cohort in Progress, we sit down in person in Philadelphia at MNYK Studios with Dr. Sunil Wattal, Associate Dean of Research and Doctoral Programs at the Fox School of Business, Temple University. Sunil is also a Professor of Management Information Systems and a Harold Schaefer Senior Fellow.

We explore what a DBA program really is, how it differs from a PhD, and what success looks like for executive doctoral education today. From there, the conversation expands into Sunil’s research on attention, distraction, and consumer behavior, including how fake news spreads, how distraction strategies influence decision-making, and what AI means for the future of research.

Along the way, we connect academic insight to real-world examples, touching on everything from Red Lobster to Cheez Whiz.

This episode blends research, practice, and personality. Hope you enjoy!