Each week, the Record (using a script in R) randomly selects a student at the College for our One in Two Thousand feature, excluding current Record board members. This week, Shayna Julianne ’26 discussed her love for author Zadie Smith, her rotation of podcasts, and her love for comedy. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Izzy Polanco (IP): My first question is about a conversation that we had this year — you said that you would name your eldest daughter after the famed author Zadie Smith. Can you tell me why she means so much to you?
Shayna Julianne (SJ): Wait. Sure. I love Zadie Smith. In 11th grade, for one of my classes, we read White Teeth, which is her debut novel — she wrote it when she was so young. It’s one of my favorite books. It’s both so real and so absurd. And I think she’s amazing and brilliant. I read her most recent book, The Fraud, over Winter Study, which is historical fiction. Her essays are great. Her short stories are great. She’s the coolest. And I also think Zadie is a really beautiful name.
IP: You’re an artiste, as I understand — how is Drawing I going?
SJ: You know, it’s going. [Laughs.] I will say that I complain about it a lot because it stresses me out, but I’m really glad I’m taking it. Art is a great way to break out of the same kinds of work that I’m always doing. For all my other classes, I’m just reading and writing constantly, so to go and just draw for hours has been really nice. And I get to catch up on my podcasts — that’s my favorite. I made a rule for myself to make sure that I’m getting my drawing work done: I’ll only listen to certain podcasts while I’m drawing, which makes me want to go to the drawing studio.
IP: Wait, that’s awesome. I didn’t know you were so into podcasts.
SJ: Oh, yeah. It’s embarrassing — I don’t listen to serious podcasts. People really like The Daily or, like, This American Life, but my favorite podcast is Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, which is so good. Conan O’Brien interviews one celebrity and one fan every week. He’s just the most brilliant person ever. Besides that, my rotation is Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, where they sort of just talk about culture, and Handsome, with Tig Notaro, Fortune Feimster, and Mae Martin. Oh, I’ve been listening to Taskmaster the Podcast.
IP: What is that?
SJ: Well, I really like the British game show Taskmaster, and every week when a new episode comes out, a podcast episode also comes out where they interview someone who has been on the show.
IP: Do you believe that you could win Taskmaster?
SJ: I like to think that I could win Taskmaster. Realistically, I would probably get second place. But I think it’d be me and someone else who would be really close in the running the whole time. And then, like, at the very end, the other person would win. But I would finish in a respectable standing, even though I think I would definitely fail some of the tasks. That show is all about paying close attention and being careful about things, and I do think I could do that. I’m much more competitive than I want to think I am.
IP: Sources tell me that you know the “Just Dance” choreography to “Rasputin” by Boney M.
SJ: Well, I mean, I really do know all the words and the dance. When I was in 11th grade, one of my good friends saw this TikTok of a ten-minute workout challenge: “Do the dance twice in a row every day for a week, and you’ll lose, like, 10 pounds.” Obviously, they didn’t. But my friend and I were like, “Let’s do it.” We would do it after school ended every day. I mean, to be honest, it’s really good cardio if you commit to it.
IP: You’re involved in the comedy scene here as an editor of The Williams Haybale, the College’s satire magazine and our competitor publication. What is your favorite pitch for The Haybale you’ve authored?
SJ: My favorite article I’ve ever written was never published. I’m a little salty, but I wrote it freshman fall, so maybe it just wasn’t good. The pitch was “Student Slips On Banana Peel, Anvil Falls On Head.” It was an article where this guy has a cartoon character enemy who keeps dropping things on him and puts birds around his head and stuff. I came into the meeting, and I was like, “This is the article I’m the proudest of.” I’m still so proud of it. I showed up to the meeting, I read it, and people laughed. It never got published.
IP: How did you get involved with comedy?
SJ: As a kid, I watched a lot of Saturday Night Live. The only TV shows I watch for the most part are sitcoms, so I’ve always kind of been in that world. When I was in eighth grade, I watched John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City, and I was like, “Oh, this has changed my life. I’m a different person now.” I think that this is maybe the experience of several people, but it is [also] my experience — I’ll speak my truth. In high school, I joined our comedy club as a freshman, and [during] junior and senior year I was one of the co-heads. It was the main extracurricular I was super committed to outside of class.
IP: You’ve worked as a camp counselor. A game that people play at sleepaway camp is rose, bud, thorn. Can you give me a rose, bud, and thorn of sophomore year so far?
SJ: Honestly, I don’t think I’m going to have a good answer to this question. I could give you a rose, bud, and thorn of this interview — not to shift gears on you. I have three roses. I’m with my dear friend, Izzy Polanco [’25]. I’m sitting outside in the most beautiful weather ever, and it smells like spring, which is the best smell in the world. I woke up this morning and went outside and I was like, “Ah, it’s spring.” And I like answering questions that I’m not prepared to answer. My thorn is that this interview is coming to an end. My bud is reading this when it’s published.
